King Lear by William Shakespeare (1606)

Chancellor Gorkon: I offer a toast. The undiscovered country--the future.

Everyone: The undiscovered country.

Spock: Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1.

Gorkon: You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.

Chang: taH pagh taHbe' [Klingons laugh] "To be or not to be?" That is the question which preoccupies our people, Captain Kirk. We need breathing room.

 I first read King Lear close to fifty years ago.   I guess I saw it as just a class room assignment.  (For younger book bloggers I hope so much society and circumstances will allow them to one day have fifty year old book blogs.)   I recalled the pedagogue presenting the drama as centering on a very old man spiraling into dementia with three daughters, two evil and selfish and one good.  In Lear's confusion he cannot see which of his daughters truly loves him and which are just waiting for him to die to divide his kingdom.  

Now as I read it I thought of my own three daughters, 16, 18, and 21, all well into adulthood and marriageable in 1606.  I thought what can I say on my blog about this play.  It is in contention  for the title of world's greatest drama along with Hamlet and a few Ancient Greek works.  The part of Lear has to be an actor's dream role.  It is a still very timely study in power politics and speaks deeply to the human aging process.  As you read it, as in much of Shakespeare, you will recognize lines as now common parts of the English language.  

I think my next Shakespeare will be The Merchant of Venice, which will be new to me.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (first preformed 1603)

 "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon."  Klingon Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscoverd Country

It is pushing 45  years since I last read Hamlet.  I am not sure what prompted me to reread it now.  

Shakespeare has a very good claim to be called the best writer who ever lived.  I think I might have been prompted to reread it now through my recent readings of classic French  writers like Proust, Balzac and Zola to try to climb as high as one can in the reading life, to experience possibly the very best.  I see Hamlet epitomized Italo Calvino's definition of a classic work of literature as one that is inexhaustible, that can be read over and over always knowing you will discover more about the work and yourself with each reading.   

I found I recalled parts of the plot and parts I had totally forgotten.  I remembered many of the lines that  have passed into the culture.  Reading it again was not like rereading an old friend like Oliver Twist but seeing without fear it was not beyond reading as enjoyment and for the sublime pleasure only rereading the very best works of literature can bring.  

If you have old memories of pedantic pedagogical professors doing their best to make you hate Shakspeare then purge these.  In fact in a shameful  moment this morning on the American TV Fox Network the hostess suggested only the pompous and prentitious pretended to read Shakespeare.  I fear for a culture where those who read great literature are mocked. 

I hope to reread Hamlet at least once in 2015.  I will next reread King Lear.  

If you first read Shakespeare in college and then reread it years later just because you felt like it, please share your experiences with us.

Mel u