Book Titles from Shakespeare

Book Titles from Shakespeare Book Titles from Shakespeare Book Titles from Shakespeare By Maeve Maddox When I was receiving my secondary education in a small Arkansas high school many years ago, every student was expected to study four Shakespeare plays before graduating: Grade 9: Julius Caesar Grade 10: As You Like It Grade 11: Romeo and Juliet Grade 12: Macbeth Our study included the memorization of at least one soliloquy and numerous shorter passages from each play. Most high school students had at least some of these quotations embedded in their brains and uttered them even when teachers werent around. Two favorites were Out, out damned spot, and Wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied? Not surprisingly, writers who grew up when Shakespeare was still an important part of the English curriculum made use of some of these phrases when it came to naming their novels. I wonder what store of title material tomorrows novelists will draw on. Memorization of passages from the plays has been in decline for some time. Ive seen episodes of C.S.I. in which Grissom quotes familiar lines from Macbeth or Julius Caesar and his thirty-something colleagues express amazement at what to them is arcane learning. According to a 2007 survey of 70 universities by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, only 15 require their English majors to take a course in Shakespeare. Require? I find it difficult to imagine an English major who wouldnt insist on being offered a course in Shakespeare. And Chaucer. And Beowulf. And Latin. But Im a geezer. Heres a criticism I came across on the web. I think its probably a common view these days. †¦Shakespeare is no longer English. It is written in a redundant tongue that nobody uses anymore, and takes quite a bit of concentration to understand. Why are we teaching children in English classes to read something that they will have no use for? These stories are several hundred years old and are no longer relevant linguistically and contextually. It is a new millennium. Shakespeare has enjoyed a 450-year popularity. Maybe it is time to remove his work from the general curriculum. Twelve years of public education do not necessarily equate to what used to be an adult level of literacy. Ive encountered college freshman who thought the writing of George Orwell was couched in a redundant tongue that took quite a bit of concentration to understand. Students who have trouble with Orwell are certainly going to be flummoxed by Shakespeare. Still, writers of the past knew their Shakespeare. Here are some titles drawn from the plays. Can you spot the play that the title comes from? 1. The Moon Is Down, John Steinbeck 2. Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers 3. Under the Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy 4 And Be a Villain, Rex Stout 5 Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury 6 Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov 7 Band of Brothers, Stephen Ambrose 8 The Dogs of War, Frederick Forsyth 9 There is a Tide, Agatha Christie 10 By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Agatha Chrstie 11 Not in Our Stars, M. M. Marshall 12 Chimes at Midnight, Terence White 13 The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie 14 Twice-Told Tales, Nathaniel Hawthorne 15 A Muse of Fire, A.D. Harvey 16 Strange Snow, Steve Metcalfe 17 Walk the Night, Robert C. Reinhart 18 A Plague on Both Your Houses, Robert. W. Whitaker 19 The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner 20 Dagger of the Mind, Star Trek episode Look for the answers tomorrow. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Punctuating â€Å"So† at the Beginning of a SentenceThe Letter "Z" Will Be Removed from the English AlphabetThe Uses of â€Å"The†