Posted: 07/23/2014 8:07 am EDT Updated: 07/23/2014 5:59 pm EDT
Having thought about Shakespeare for most of my life, I have concluded that the best way to learn about his plays, his language, his themes and his stories with any real depth and integrity is to memorize a few passages from his plays so that you have them at your fingertips. Comedies, tragedies, histories, romances, it doesn’t matter what kind of play you choose. From Much Ado About Nothing to King Lear, the result is the same. If you memorize some Shakespeare, it will change your life; and if you teach your children how to memorize Shakespeare, you will have given them the greatest gift a parent can bestow, the gift of learning.
Try it. Right now. Drop whatever you’re doing and take just THREE MINUTES and memorize the following quip spoken by Sir John Falstaff in the play Henry the Fourth, Part 2.
I am not only witty in myself,
but the cause that wit is in other men.
Come on. How hard can it be to learn one sentence made up of sixteen words? Try it right now. The way to memorize it is to break it down into a few phrases and learn the phrases one after another, then join them up.