Merchant of Venice - 8.5 out of 10. Had forgotten (never known?) how good this play really is. Shylock is not, in fact, a sympathetic character - he is not simply personally unsympathetic, the play is by no means relativist and allows that certain aspects of his culture and religion may be objectively bad - but yet Shylock is viewed sympathetically; the capricious, smug and prejudiced outlook of the Christians is nicely skewered; Portia is both a perfect Shakespearean heroine and a witchy, bitchy, princess; and for good luck you have a second over-privileged-daughter subplot with Jessica, Shylock's daughter, who is too busy being superior to her self-made father to recognize either monetary or sentimental values. Pretty Cool.

Hamlet - 9 out of 10. Excellent.