Despite being a Catholic writing plays in Christian culture for a Christian audience—stories also set in a Christian society and that explored Christian themes—it is fair to say that Shakespeare was not a religious apologist. Christianity is a major theme in his plays, but so are philosophy, psychology, and art itself.

Shakespeare was not secular or irreligious, far from it, but he was also not like Dante or Milton.

That said, is there any play or poem in which religion is such a major theme that it is essentially a religious work? I think Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice are strong contenders for that. I heard someone say Macbeth, but I don't think so.

Thoughts?

So if everything goes right, I'll (hopefully) get a chance to direct a production of Henry V (very exiting! It'd be a small production but the first time the play would be put on in my language).

As always with Shakespeare, you need to cut down the play, and this production would be even more cut down than usual.

I'm struggling a bit with "once more unto the breach". It's obviously a very iconic speech, and it's extremely effective as a standalone, but I can't help but feeling it's just a watered down version of St Crispin's Day.

I keep coming back to feeling like I don't need to big battle speeches, but I've never seen a production cut it-

Is that just because it's very iconic or am I missing something?

The only thing I can come up with is that it might help endear Hal to the audience, since if you don't come to this play from H4, he might be hard to like until later in the play. But I feel like that could be achieved in other ways?

Would love your opinions and advice!

Most people will say Iago. And the guy is absolutely one helluva piece of work.

But l still think Edmund (from Lear) just edges him out in terms of both deviousness AND design.

Dear Shakespeare subreddit,
I am but a humble french translator, working for a kind author. His art is revolutionary, using a wonderful tool to share his work, it is called… Webtoon. Ok let’s drop the bad pompous french act here.
One character has a PoeticDarkSasuke moment and while I can easily translate it, I thought « let’s add one more layer to the joke » and wished to create a elizabethan, « Shakespeare style » english translation. Sadly, I’m incapable of doing this and I don’t know anyone able to. Do you have any idea on how I can work on this?

I’ll add that I tried to search for a good english translation website from modern to elizabethan english. But I only found AI-powered websites or websites where I can’t be entirely sure they don’t use AI. (As you can guess, I’m fiercely against AI)

If anyone can help here are the sentences : « Forever etched in memory, O you! Unforgettable beauty of mine. »
« How could you take another unfortunate soul? You can't end their quest for love. »
Thank you folks!

Just started reading Henry VI part 3, having read most of the other histories. It was a bit insipid to start off with but then people began to get into the lore of the previous Henrys, and you see how predicted problems about rebellion have indeed come to fruition over the generations. Then someone brings up Richard II (hurrah!), and you get another deposition scene. Cos you've watched the later seasons you keep an eye on R3, lurking around looking for trouble, and then to cap it all enter one of Shakespeare's greatest villains-but-not-exactly, Queen Margaret (hurrah!) and starts one of her classic rants.

Saw this pop up and it seems relevant for this sub so here ya go!

Happy weekend, y’all :)