Excerpt from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Questioning the “Greatness” of William Shakespeare Dilbert Terrell Shakespeare’s e
arly plays were marked by a crude—almost vulgar—style that is so far from what we think of as “Shakespeare” that most people have never even heard of the plays, much less seen them performed. His early tragedy Titus Andronicus is as bloody (and stupid) as any gory horror movie now seen at the Cineplex. Shortly after his blockbuster success with the early history/tragedy Richard III, Shakespeare wrote his greatest plays, the ones everyone knows, at least by title: Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. But great as these plays are, they too often have weak spots. Hamlet, as any director will tell you, is far too long—the longest play Shakespeare wrote and is full of digressions and long topical speeches that are incomprehensible to anyone but a person of Shakespeare’s day and age. According to the article, which of these Shakespearean plays was written FIRST? A) Hamlet B) Macbeth C) Cymbeline D) Titus Andronicus
Section III focuses on Shakespeare’s earliest plays including Titus Andronicus. The other plays mentioned in the answer choices occur at the peak or end of Shakespeare’s career (and thus later than Titus was written).
