Brent Englar
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Sometime in early 2005, as I fretted over my impending (and, it turned out, short-lived) teaching career, I decided I should write an essay about each of Shakespeare's plays. A bit of context: I was an actor before I was a playwright, and in college I fell hard for Shakespeare, for the usual reasons: the poetry; the theatricality; the mysteries, great and small, beneath even the clearest-seeming lines. Most of all, the poetic, theatrical, bottomless characters. Whereas in high school I'd convinced myself I'd inevitably play Jean Valjean, Sweeney Todd, the Phantom, by the time I could legally drink to my ambitions, they'd morphed into Hamlet and Iago.

Well ... gradually and then suddenly, I abandoned acting, but my love of Shakespeare and his characters has endured. If I won't ever play them, I reasoned, at least I can write insightful things about them. And maybe someday I'll have my own website, and I can publish my insights, free to all! I even thought of a domain name: www.becritical.com. (Get it?)

As of this writing, August 2015, I am roughly midway through the project. Rather than wait another ten years, I'm taking the opportunity presented by this, my first website, to publish each essay as I complete it. Over the coming months, I plan to reread and polish what I have already written, and then post each essay below. I will then start on a new play, and—over the coming years—plow on through to the end.

So without further ado, I give you:
Insights on Shakespeare, or:
One playwright's quest to consider all of Shakespeare's characters before the Internet becomes obsolete 
  • The First Part of Henry VI (2005)
  • The Second Part of Henry VI (2005)
  • The Third Part of Henry VI (2005)
  • ​Richard III (2005)
  • The Comedy of Errors​ (2005)
  • The Two Gentleman of Verona (2005)
  • The Taming of the Shrew​ (2006)
  • Love's Labor's Lost​ (2006)
  • ​​Titus Andronicus​ (2006)
  • King John (2006)
  • Romeo and Juliet (2007)
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream (2007)
  • Richard II (2007)​
  • The First Part of Henry IV (2008)​
  • ​The Second Part of Henry IV (2009)
  • Henry V (2009)
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor (2010)
  • The Merchant of Venice (2011)
  • Much Ado About Nothing (2012)
  • As You Like It (2013)
  • Twelfth Night (2015)
  • Julius Caesar (2018)
  • Hamlet (2021)
1 Henry VI.pdf
File Size: 166 kb
File Type: pdf
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2 Henry VI.pdf
File Size: 167 kb
File Type: pdf
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3 Henry VI.pdf
File Size: 141 kb
File Type: pdf
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Richard III.pdf
File Size: 172 kb
File Type: pdf
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The Comedy of Errors.pdf
File Size: 117 kb
File Type: pdf
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The Two Gentlemen of Verona.pdf
File Size: 143 kb
File Type: pdf
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The Taming of the Shrew.pdf
File Size: 164 kb
File Type: pdf
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Love’s Labor’s Lost.pdf
File Size: 203 kb
File Type: pdf
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Titus Andronicus.pdf
File Size: 146 kb
File Type: pdf
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King John
File Size: 201 kb
File Type: pdf
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Romeo and Juliet.pdf
File Size: 252 kb
File Type: pdf
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream.pdf
File Size: 215 kb
File Type: pdf
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Richard II.pdf
File Size: 271 kb
File Type: pdf
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1 Henry IV.pdf
File Size: 342 kb
File Type: pdf
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2 Henry IV.pdf
File Size: 307 kb
File Type: pdf
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Henry V.pdf
File Size: 299 kb
File Type: pdf
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The Merry Wives of Windsor.pdf
File Size: 156 kb
File Type: pdf
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The Merchant of Venice.pdf
File Size: 268 kb
File Type: pdf
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Much Ado About Nothing.pdf
File Size: 221 kb
File Type: pdf
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As You Like It.pdf
File Size: 267 kb
File Type: pdf
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Twelfth Night.pdf
File Size: 220 kb
File Type: pdf
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Julius Caesar.pdf
File Size: 314 kb
File Type: pdf
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Hamlet.pdf
File Size: 720 kb
File Type: pdf
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  • ​Troilus and Cressida
  • All's Well That Ends Well
  • Measure for Measure
  • Othello
  • King Lear
  • Macbeth
  • Antony and Cleopatra
  • Coriolanus
  • Timon of Athens
  • Pericles
  • Cymbeline
  • The Winter's Tale
  • The Tempest
  • Henry VIII
  • The Two Noble Kinsmen
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