A Personal Anthology of Shakespeare

A Personal Anthology of Shakespeare Compiled and Read by Martin Clifton

This personal anthology is my choice of speeches from Shakespeare that I enjoy reading (that I would like to have had by heart years ago!) and that seem to me to illustrate his unsurpassed use of language.

Shakespeare was a man who seemed to know everything about human nature and as Orson Welles said ‘he speaks to everyone and we all claim him’.

I know that it has been said that ‘it is impossible to be a great Shakespearian actor without an idiosyncratic and extraordinary voice’ and this may be so, but that does not preclude ordinary mortals from reading, hearing and enjoying Shakespeare.

The collection includes:

As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7) : All the World’s a Stage
Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 3) : To Thine Own Self Be True
Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2) : What a Piece of Work Is Man
Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1) : To Be or Not To Be
Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 2) : Speak the Speech
Julius Caesar (Act 1, Scene 2) : Bestrides the Narrow World
Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 2) : If You Have Tears Prepare To Shed Them Now
Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 2) : Friends, Romans, Countrymen
Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 2) : Let Me Not Stir You Up
Julius Caesar (Act 5, Scene 5) : This Was the Noblest Roman of Them All
King Henry V (Act 3, Scene 1) : Once More Unto the Breach
King Henry V (Act 4, Scene 3) : This Day is Called the Feast of Crispian
King Richard III (Act 1, Scene 1) : Now is the Winter of Our Discontent
Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 7) : If It Were Done
Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 1) : Is This a Dagger
The Merchant of Venice (Act 1, Scene 3) : Many a Time and Oft
The Merchant of Venice (Act 3, Scene 1) : If You Prick Us Do We Not Bleed
The Merchant of Venice (Act 4, Scene 1) : The Quality of Mercy
Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2) : What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks
Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2) : Romeo, Romeo

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist.

He is often called Englands national poet and the "Bard of Avon".

His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century.

In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance.

His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

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