Nothing but Roaring

This blog will track a simple, but long-neglected personal goal – To memorize and perform a single monologue from each of Shakespeare’s plays.  

My reading order will be loosely chronological, with a few exceptions.

• Exception the first! I will start with Macbeth because I’ve never read it and it’s my blog so there. • Exception the second! I will read the histories in timeline order. • Exception the third! I’ll mix those histories in with the comedies and tragedies, because who the heck can remember all those battles if you read them together? • Exception the fourth! I’m cherrypicking which plays I’m considering canonical, but am sticking to a pretty tame interpretation thereof.

So, with that settled, our order is thus:

1. Macbeth (1606) 2. The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1589–1591) 3. The Taming of the Shrew (1590–1591) 4. Titus Andronicus (1591–1592) 5. The Comedy of Errors (1594) 5. King John (1596) 7. Richard II (1595) 8. Love's Labour's Lost (1594–1595) 9. Romeo and Juliet (1595) 10. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595) 11. The Merchant of Venice (1596–1597) 12. The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597) 13. Henry IV, Part 1  (1596–1597) 14. Henry IV, Part 2 (1597–1598) 15. Much Ado About Nothing (1598–1599) 16. Julius Caesar (1599) 17. As You Like It (1599–1600) 18. Hamlet (1599–1601) 19. Henry V (1599) 20. Twelfth Night (1601) 21. Troilus and Cressida (1600–1602) 22. Measure for Measure (1603–1604) 23. Othello (1603–1604) 24. Henry VI, Part 1 (1591–1592) 25. Henry VI, Part 2 (1591) 26. Henry VI, Part 3 (1591) 27. All's Well That Ends Well (1604–1605) 28. King Lear (1605–1606) 29. Timon of Athens (1605–1606) 30. Antony and Cleopatra (1606) 31. Richard III (1592–1593) 32. Henry VIII (1612–1613) 33. Coriolanus (1608) 34. The Winter's Tale (1609–1611) 35. Cymbeline (1610) 36. The Tempest (1610–1611)