Reading Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale

My friend Donna, who has bravely gone back to school after a lifetime spent taking care of other people, just finished up this semester's classes and told me how sad she felt about no longer having anything difficult to concentrate on. For the first time ever, she had read a Shakespeare play; and while it was challenging, it was also exhilarating. I knew what she meant: something about saying, "I'm reading Shakespeare," never ceases to make me feel like I'm doing real work in this world.

So I told Donna, "Why don't we read a play together?" We don't live in the same town anymore, but I knew we could work out a way to talk to each other. She chose A Winter's Tale, just because she had never heard of it before. And then I, because I was overexcited about the idea, chattered on my Facebook page about what she and I were planning to do. More than a dozen people immediately said they wanted to read it too.

I was amazed: these friends run the gamut from experienced English teachers to a crime novelist to a pair of enthusiastic 12-year-olds. It brings tears to my eyes--it really does--to think of a world teeming with people who need, at least now and then, to touch the hem of Shakespeare's garment.

So anyway, this is what I'm thinking. After the new year, I will mention this project again. At that point anyone who is interested will, I hope, have dug out a Complete Shakespeare from under the birdcage or borrowed it from the library. We'll go slowly--scene by scene--maybe just a scene a week. Enthusiastic 12-year-olds may have a great deal of hubris about their abilities, yet Shakespeare's language is exhausting. And all of us have other demands.

At the end of each reading period, I'll open up this blog for comments. People who prefer to email me privately can do so and, with their permission, I'll share their comments anonymously. But commenting is important: it's the only way we have to discuss and gripe and ask questions about weird speeches we don't understand. Having a community of readers is exhilarating. Words are conversation, and Shakespeare is the emperor of words. It is a lovely thing to know that someone out there is listening for those words in your mouth, and your hands, and your head.