I've been listening to Henry VI (i,ii,iii) and delighting in the odd mad scene or touching moment (Henry sitting on the hillside, watching as young men discover with horror that they have killed their fathers, or fathers that they have killed their sons, or how about Margaret viciously waving the blood soaked kerchief of York's son in his face and laughing!) They have been erratically enjoyable, my confusion over the jumbled plot giving way to honest admiration over these isolation human scenes--usually between fathers & sons.

And suddenly, now, there is Richard III, and I feel like it is a leap ahead in style. Maybe it is focus on the twisted complexity of the character? It seems like Shakespeare suddenly woke up and started writing.