[Mikey_1962]

Hmmm ... so reading The Bard induced you to drag out a dictionary and learn something....

I HAD to read it: listening to it was a waste of time. It was written in the language of the time for the people of the time.

And I did learn some words like: bodkin, petard, russet, periwig-pated, all of which to this day, unlike other things I learned simultaneously, differential equations or thermodynamics for example, I have never used again.

Will I demand my children read it? Absolutely.

[ArrogantBustard]

And I did learn some words like: bodkin, petard, russet, periwig-pated, all of which to this day ... I have never used again.

Sad. You've never had cause to lie low, make haste, or screw you courage to the sticking point when you were in a pickle? As good luck would have it, I read much of Shakespeare ... some many times. Noone could turn a phrase quite like him ... I'm glad to know that your children will read him. Perhaps they will learn to love the Queen's English.

Oh, yes ... I, too, studied Differential Equations, and Thermodynamics, and Quantum Mechanics, and much else. Even though I work as an engineer, I think perhaps I 'use' the Shakespeare more often.

[El Gato]

I HAD to read it: listening to it was a waste of time. It was written in the language of the time for the people of the time.

I felt the opposite, reading it was a waste of time, but watching it performed was another thing entirely, and was actually enjoyable even for anti "Literature" and "Arts" me. Even if that performance was recorded on celluloid (This was way before VHS and DVDs).

Will I demand my children read it? Absolutely.

Better that they watch it first, with written copy available for examination afterwords. The Barb did after all write it to be performed, to a contemporary audience, who would pay to see it. He had to eat, and there was no National Endowment for the Arts, although one could sometimes get some Royal to pony up a little up front money.