Often when people learn I'm a Shakespeare professor they ask me what my favorite play is. To this the answer varies according to what I'm teaching students at the moment. I do have favorites, but when we're in the middle of discussing, reading (silently and aloud), and watching scenes from a particular Shakespeare play, that play tends to self-maximize in my esteem. Sometimes it's
King Lear, sometimes it's
The Merchant of Venice or
Macbeth. Most often it's
Hamlet, probably because I teach
Hamlet most often. I had a colleague at the University of New Orleans who taught a
three-credit class in
Hamlet which lasted a full semester; it probably wasn't enough time. At the same time -- though probably not literally at the same time -- another professor I know of taught a class exclusively
