Does anyone really like Shakespeare? And if so, which is your favourite?

Titus Andronicus, because it's so gory and grotesque, and the language is so weirdly artificial. The one I can't stand is Merchant of Venice because all of the characters are so slap-worthy.

Interestingly, Tamburlaine is the play that may not actually be by Marlowe. It wasn't attributed to him until the 19th century (by someone with a bit of a history of making dodgy attributions and falsifying documents in order to support his points). It could still be by him, of course, but it's hard to be certain either way. Authorship attribution's quite a fascinating subject, but even with the use of computers - and they've been put to this sort of use since the 1960s! - we're still a way off being able to determine actual stylistic 'fingerprints' for individual authors.

[Sorry about the boring digression; I just happen to have done a bit of reading on that subject]

I'm trying really hard to convince myself it's not sexist, and I do see what you mean about Bianca, I never liked her, she's clearly a very manipulative little character and I always figured that Katherina's anger at the beginning of the play was because nobody realises that her sister isn't as sweet and innocent as everyone supposes, and she's annoyed that everyone falls for her act.

Not boring at all - very interesting, in fact. Who are suggested authors?

John Webster has definitely been suggested, but other than that I don't remember. The articles I read weren't really concerned with identifying the author of the play, though.
Plus of course Tamburlaine need not even be the work of a single author. Lots of early modern plays were written collaboratively. As a matter of fact (to get back to the original topic of this thread), there are a number of plays we're used to thinking of as Shakespeare's that actually have more than one author.

Henry IV Part 1 and Henry V are my absolute favourites, with Macbeth following. I love the humour in the Henry plays, and the transformation Hal goes through in becoming king. They are just beautifully written plays.

And there are a fair few sonnets which I adore too

Yes! I love the whole disappointed father/son thing going on, even though they're royal, they're really just so ordinary.

Henry IV Part 1 and Henry V are my absolute favourites, with Macbeth following. I love the humour in the Henry plays, and the transformation Hal goes through in becoming king. They are just beautifully written plays.

And there are a fair few sonnets which I adore too

I agree, but it's a shame about IV Part 2, that's definitely one of his weakest in my opinion.

It's been a while since I read it, but as far as I remember I quite liked that one, actually. It's quite clever how the play manages to legitimise young Henry as a 'real prince' and future ruler and pretty much makes you forget that as a usurper's son his claim to the throne is really every bit as shaky as his father's.
I also found Falstaff an incredibly tedious character, so maybe that's another reason why I preferred Part 2.

I think more people would enjoy Shakespeare if they saw a play first, rather than reading the text in an English class. We did Romeo and Juliet when I was at school, and I still can't stand that play!

If anyone is interested in going to see some Shakespeare, the RSC do £5 tickets for 16 to 25 year olds. It is well worth it as the productions are usually very well done.

They have a new thing called 'RSC Key':

http://www.rsc.org.uk/support-us/key/

Not sure if that enables advanced bookings for the 16-25 deal? I guess it depends somewhat on the production as well.