Memorizing Lear

I’ve got a strange winter project I’m thinking of. I think I might try to memorize a Shakespearean tragedy. It sounds like a fun mental challenge. I’ve memorized hours of dialogue before but think memorizing directly from the original First Folio facsimile would be a great little puzzle.

I was going to start with Lear since it’s my favorite. But I might start with Julius Caesar since it’s the shortest and has fewer sub-plots.

I have no idea if I’ll do this or not. I just think that having the entire text on call by memory would really help me understand the play better. And it sounds like a good mental marathon.

Filed under Arts

Posted by Andy on Oct 14 2004 at 05:29pm. Permanent link to this post.

Comments

  1. daniel
    Posted Oct 14 2004 at 11:59pm | Permalink

    Total mental marathon. I have never tried to do anything like that! Makes me wonder if I even could….

  2. bw
    Posted Oct 15 2004 at 06:06am | Permalink

    Reminds me of the guy who was in the news recently for reading the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica.

  3. JC
    Posted Oct 15 2004 at 07:00am | Permalink

    That does sound like a good mental marathon and think about how you could whip out the dialogue in various social situations. It would be like telling people to their faces, “Shakespeare really is that good and timeless.”

  4. Jef
    Posted Oct 15 2004 at 10:23am | Permalink

    You could go on tour and play coffee houses all over the world! Think about it: your expenses are so small and the profit potential is HUGE.

  5. philtre
    Posted Oct 15 2004 at 03:20pm | Permalink

    Try typing it up in the blog. How’s that for a challenge?