So, the plan to meet with colleagues once a month to discuss a Shakespeare play over an Americano or a London Fog disintegrated. Actually, it first became something of a free-for-all, then a foot-race to the finish. Nevertheless, as I turn the final page on the summer holiday, I have turned the final page on the Bard’s Complete Works.

Over the past year, my colleagues and I managed to meet infrequently — more often in a swimming pool than at the Cafe — and had a lot of fun debating the merits and meanings of Shakespeare’s words. I would happily repeat this exercise of a Shakespeare book club with my colleagues in the future, especially if we would agree to skip King Henry VIII which surely is not the work of William Shakespeare. (Forgetting that there was considerable debate over the authorship of that particular play, I kept pausing from the reading of it to complain to my wife, “This just doesn’t feel like a Shakespeare play.”)

Shakespeare taught me something about the way I learn: my understanding of the text increased ten-fold if I created and maintained a visual map of the play as I read. Based on characters’ relationships and settings, I would chart an outline of each play to keep everything straight. I’ve always done this on the chalkboard for students to assist them with characters’ names, but I think I should give them the opportunity to create their own ‘chart’; many visual and spatial learners would perhaps organize it much differently.

I saved Cymbeline for last, remembering that Tennyson had a copy open on his lap when he died. This bit of trivia really struck me when I approached Act V, Scene IV and read of Posthumus’ readiness for death, “I am merrier to die than thou art to live.”

Perhaps our English department will repeat this exercise soon? Another Bard Book Club on the horizon?