Instead, we get strained attempts to make the canon seem cool — ''Romeo and Juliet would be excellent guests on any daytime talk show''; Titus Andronicus is ''the Texas Chainsaw Massacre of its day'' — and a smugly shallow précis of each play by noted scholar Michael Macrone (Naughty Shakespeare, Cader Books, 1997).

Well, sure, Shakespeare can be made relevant to this age of Irony Overload — but not by apologizing for the fact that he wrote, like, gazillions of years ago, or by turning his work into Cliffs Notes for CD players. Living offers lots of sound and fury; unfortunately, it ends up signifying a C-.

Originally posted Jul 30, 1999 Published in issue #496 Jul 30, 1999 Order article reprints
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