The Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare Project Lecture) (Patreon)

'Oh, you heavenly charmers, what things you make of us! For what we lack we laugh, for what we have are sorry, still are children in some kind. Let us be thankful for that which is, and with you leave dispute that are above our question. Let's go off and bear us like the time.'

Our journey through the works of William Shakespeare reaches its climax with the bard's final collaborative work: The Two Noble Kinsmen.

We’re discussing the death of Shakespeare, the world-changing First Folio, how the bard is for all time, the last words he penned, returning full circle, how to keep this great writer in your life, and we are celebrating the grand achievement of reading the complete works of Shakespeare.

Timestamps:

0:00 the death of William Shakespeare

3:00 Shakespeare’s last will & testament

7:00 leaving Anne his ‘second best bed’

9:00 Burbage, Heminges, & Condell

11:00 the importance of the First Folio

12:00 burial & epitaph of Shakespeare

14:00 ‘not for an age, but for all time’

15:00 the First Folio changed the world

17:00 plays left out of the First Folio

18:00 Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies

20:00 appreciating the Droeshout engraving

21:00 Ben Jonson’s poem ‘To the Reader

22:00 how the First Folio is ordered

23:00 taking a trip down memory lane

25:00 returning full circle in his career

26:00 The Two Noble Kinsmen discussion

27:00 influence of Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale

29:00 what is the story of this final play?

31:00 making a heaven out of our hell

33:00 Palamon, Arcite, & Emilia

35:00 when banishment is no freedom

36:00 fighting for her hand in marriage

38:00 fickle nature of Fortune’s Wheel

40:00 the last lines Shakespeare wrote

42:00 Shakespeare’s wise ethos of life

44:00 Harold Bloom’s appreciation

46:00 bearing ourselves with equanimity

47:00 the finish of the Shakespeare Project

48:00 reading through the works again

49:00 why the journey is never finished

50:00 writing a book about Shakespeare

52:00 treasure your copies of these books

53:00 ranking & grading the entire works

54:00 what were your favourite plays?

55:00 what I have learnt from Shakespeare

57:00 thinking of his inexhaustible characters

58:00 adaptability & ubiquity of the bard

59:00 the healing power of Shakespeare

1:02:00 Shakespeare as constant companion

1:05:00 how to keep reading Shakespeare

1:07:00 how to celebrate your achievement

1:08:00 be proud of your accomplishment

1:10:00 congratulations on reading Shakespeare

Recommended Resources:

• Arden Edition: The Arden edition of this play is excellent. The critical introduction and annotations are incredibly insightful and are written by one of my favourite Shakespeare scholars, Lois Potter.

• Audio Play: I highly recommend the wonderful Arkangel production as the cast (Simon Russell Beale, Jonathan Firth, Nigel Cooke, Helen Schlesinger) do a splendid job of bringing the play to life.

• Reread: If you have read through the complete works of Shakespeare and want to enjoy the journey all over again, you might want to enjoy a new ordering. Instead of chronological, you could read in the order of the First Folio (Comedies, Histories, Tragedies) and see what experiencing the works afresh in their generic groupings does for your appreciation. You might like to treat yourself to some new editions for your next read-through. After the Arden series, I personally really love the Folger Editions.

• First Folio: Here is a facsimile edition of the First Folio. And this is the four-volume set from Collins that I am personally using to read through the complete works in First Folio order again. I love the prefacing essays for all of the plays by the wonderful Peter Alexander. If you're interested in the story of how the First Folio came to life, then Shakespeare's Book by Chris Laoutaris is very good. To see a beautiful First Folio, check out this video.

• Special Author Project: If you have now read through the complete works of Shakespeare, you have achieved something incredible. You should be convinced that you can do anything and read anything. You may find the idea of taking on a deep and sustained reading of another literary titan to be alluring. Who else would you wish to read all of chronologically? We have a podcast on such long-term readings here that might stir some ideas for you: How to Approach a Special Author Project.

• The Bard's Contemporaries: As discussed at the end of this lecture, you might find that a good next step for deepening and widening your appreciation is to read some of the great writers contemporaries. Arden have made that very easy to do as they have published lots of great plays from the likes of Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker, Christopher Marlowe, John Webster, and Thomas Middleton. They have published both Renaissance and Medieval era plays. You can check out their Early Modern Drama catalogue here.

• Stratford-Upon-Avon: You can take a pilgrimage to Shakespeare's birthplace thanks to the wonders of the internet. Here and here you can see the church in which he was baptised and buried. And here you can see inside his family homes, both the room above his father's glove-making shop in which he was born, and the site of what was once New Place, where he died.

• Our Journey: If you are new to Shakespeare and want to read the bard's works, or if you want to jump into any specific play, or revisit our discussions, you can check out the works we've enjoyed here.

• Your Ranking: As mentioned in the discussion, I am now putting together my personal ranking, grading, and reviews for the complete works of Shakespeare. I am incredibly excited to put this big video together, and I would love to hear all about your personal favourites. I want to pull your experiences into this discussion and get a sense of the top-rated plays, the worst-rated plays, your particular favourites, characters and ideas that stood out, favourite one-passages, and how you found the journey. What will you remember most from your journey? What were the greatest rewards and challenges? Did you notice any growth or personal change? How did running Shakespeare over the long-term complement your life?

• Congratulations: If you are reading this at the end of your journey, know this: you have achieved an astonishing and impressive feat. You should feel intensely proud of your accomplishment. You have done something that not even one-percent of readers will ever do. Your dedication and commitment has shown you to value the complex and beautiful, which is becoming ever rarer by the day. And, if you can do this, think of what else you can accomplish, big and small, in all the domains of your life. We could be bounded in a nutshell, and yet count ourselves as kings and queens of infinite space. I also want to express my deep gratitude for you taking this journey with me. This read-through of Shakespeare has been not only the most rewarding reading adventure, but one of the most rewarding things, period, that I've personally undertaken. I have you to thank for making it such a special, joyful, profound, and insightful experience.

Questions for You:

1) How do you feel about this being the last thing Shakespeare wrote?

2) What line, passage, idea, or character most resonated with you? And what is your personal grading for The Two Noble Kinsmen?

3) What is your personal ranking for the works you have read? What were the best plays?

4) How did you find your experience reading Shakespeare? And what advice would you give to encourage others to spend some time with this great writer?

Congratulations on your deep reading of Shakespeare, Bardolators!