Be Thou Now Persuaded: Living in a Shakespearean World (1999)

About this title: It's more or less accepted that Shakespeare is the greatest writer in English, but this large box set shows he was a really a musician of language.. The speeches and scenes spread over the course of 6 CDs, carefully arranged to cover themes of love, wonder, humanity and death, play like brief symphonic passages. Indeed, in the hands of actors like Richard Burton, Brian Murray, Vanessa Redgrave and Orson Welles, the material truly sings. While some may find the editing a bit choppy, slicing passages to their best known parts, the goal is clearly to celebrate the wisdom and art of the Bard. ... read more

Tracks:

1. Good Day, Good Day/Good Morrow to This Fair Assembly/Good Morrow, Ajax [Shakespeare]
2. O for a Muse of Fire [Shakespeare]
3. O Brave New World [Shakespeare]
4. What a Piece of Work Is Man [Shakespeare]
5. All the World's a Stage [Shakespeare]
6. Life's But a Walking Shadow [Shakespeare]
7. They Kill Us for Their Sport [Shakespeare]
8. Man Proud Man [Shakespeare]
9. Some Vicious Mole of Nature [Shakespeare]
10. The Web of Our Life [Shakespeare]
11. The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strained [Shakespeare]
12. Our Remedies Oft in Ourselves Do Lie [Shakespeare]
13. Hath Not a Few Eyel? [Shakespeare]
14. I Will a Round Unvarnish'd Tale Deliver [Shakespeare]
15. I Am Not What I Am [Shakespeare]
16. I Edgar Nothing Am [Shakespeare]
17. Oh What a Rogue and Peasant Slave Am I [Shakespeare]
18. Herein Will I Imitate the Sun [Shakespeare]
19. Banish Plump Jack, And Banish All the World [Shakespeare]
20. I Haue of Late [Shakespeare]
21. It Is a Melancholy of Mine Own [Shakespeare]
22. There Was a Star Danced [Shakespeare]
23. He Is All Mirth [Shakespeare]
24. I Am That Merry Wanderer of the Night [Shakespeare]
25. Where the Bee Sucks, There Suck I [Shakespeare]
26. A Born Devil [Shakespeare]
27. A Man or a Fish? [Shakespeare]
28. For Her Own Person, It Beg Gar'd All Description [Shakespeare]
29. O, How That Name Befits My Composition [Shakespeare]
30. Thou, Nature, Art My Goddess [Shakespeare]
31. Can I Do This, And Cannot Get a Crown? [Shakespeare]
32. Come, You Spirits [Shakespeare]
33. One More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends [Shakespeare]
34. The Other Eden [Shakespeare]
35. Mine Honor Is My Life [Shakespeare]
36. Honor Is a Mere Scutcheon [Shakespeare]
37. I Would Give All My Fame for a Pot of Ale and Safety [Shakespeare]
38. I Am Not Only Witty in Myself [Shakespeare]
39. I Am a Great Eater of Beef [Shakespeare]
40. Here Come Romeo [Shakespeare]
41. Didst Thou Ever See Me Do Such a Trick? [Shakespeare]
42. I Can Compare Our Rich Miser [Shakespeare]
43. Wherefore, Sweetheart What's Your Metaphor? [Shakespeare]
44. In the Secret Parts of Fortune? [Shakespeare]
45. Motley's the Only Wear [Shakespeare]
46. Wast Ever in Court, Shepherd? [Shakespeare]
47. This Fellow Is Wise Enough to Play the Fool [Shakespeare]
48. Sirrah, You Were Best to Take My Coxcomb [Shakespeare]
49. It Hath Made Me Mad [Shakespeare]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.