A Midsummer Day's Musings:
Keeping Busy During the Dotcom's Dark Ages

by Ian Benjafield

The last time I was unemployed this long was six years ago after grad school. So I try to keep busy by reading a lot, writing a little. Recently, I brought myself up to date one of my favorites crime fiction series by reading a dozen or so of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels.

Back in 1995, I went on similar binge and read all 37 Shakespeare plays (except for a few I had already covered in school). It was an enriching experience and I also managed to develop what could be called a mnemonic system which allows me to boast that I can name all of Shakespeare's plays in under a minute.

I think it's an impressive thing to be able to do, even if it has absolutely no everyday relevance or practical purpose.

I'm not one to keep such magic secret. I'll divulge my system shortly so you too can partake in the parlour trick. I can also teach you to reel off the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World if you're interested. I'll be here all week.

Of course, it's all in the way the plays are sorted. According to my cursory survey of the literature, there seem to be several ways to categorize the plays. I use the one employed in my version of the Folio which breaks it down into four types:

• Comedies
  
• Tragedies
  
• Histories
  
• Romances

Often, you'll see only three categories, with the so-called Romance plays being parsed out into the Comedies. But, I like the fourth category, even if it is the smallest. I think the label is proper given that the four plays named as Romances are not 'true' comedies because they lack the classic tragi-comic plot elements needed. Tragedies and comedies share the same type plot structure, character types and emotional devices (lots of violent fifth acts, star-crossed lovers and mistaken identities) but are separated simply by how they end; comedies ending happily, obviously, and tragedies not so.

Romances, like The Tempest, are more ambiguous throughout and don't contain the classic happy or sad endings which would otherwise neatly fit them into one of those two other sections. Plus, it's easier to remember all the plays the more categories and sub-categories there are. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, here's my system:

12 Comedies

5 Starting with 'M'

• Midsummer Night's Dream
• Merchant of Venice
  
• Measure for Measure
  
• Merry Wives of Windsor
  
• Much Ado About Nothing
  

3 Starting with 'T' (note two start with numbers)

• Twelfth Night
  
• Taming of the Shrew
  
• Two Gentleman of Verona
  

3 Starting with 'A'

• A Comedy of Errors
• As You Like It
• All's Well that Ends Well
  

1 Starting with 'L'

• Love's Labours Lost

11 Tragedies

2 'Roman' Plays

• Julius Caesar
• Antony and Cleopatra

5 'Most Famous' Plays

• Hamlet
• King Lear
• Othello Macbeth
• Romeo and Juliet

4 'Obscure' Plays (note three start with 'T')

• Troilus and Cressida
• Timon of Athens
• Titus Andronicus
• Coriolanus

10 Histories -- 7 Henrys, 2 Richards and a John (chronologically)

• King John
• King Richard II
• King Henry IV Part I
• King Henry IV Part II
• King Henry V
• King Henry VI Part I
• King Henry VI Part II
• King Henry VI Part III
• King Richard III
• King Henry VIII

4 Romances

• Pericles
• The Tempest
• A Winter's Tale
• Cymbeline

There is also some argument as to whether there should be a couple more plays added to the canon since Shakespeare is supposedly co-author of one or two more, but as far as I can tell most 'authoratative' sources I found list only the 37 aforementioned plays.

It should be noted also that it's generally accepted that Shakespeare had contributions from co-authors for Pericles and Henry VIII. I also don't buy into any of the stuff about Francis Bacon or the Earl of Oxford being the real Shakespeare. Other than the glaring fact that the Earl died several years before The Tempest was published, I'm quite satisfied that literary genius can arise in a humble country schoolteacher.

So, the basic point of my piece here is basically to let any of my former dotcom colleagues who might be reading this know that just because you don't currently have a steady gig, you shouldn't let your brain go to mush. It doesn't really matter what you read, but my advice is to read something. Shakespeare isn't for everyone -- it's sometimes quite boring and almost incomprehensible, and keep in mind these are poetic stage plays written 400 years ago in a completely different society for a very different audience.

But, it was a labour of love for me at the time and it's something I keep fresh in my mind with my little memory system. Intellectual pursuits like this keep the mind sharp during the occasional dark age.