Memorising Shakespeare's sonnets
NADWORNY: What made you want to memorize so much Shakespeare?
SUTTON: To prove to the other actors that I could memorize Shakespeare, I guess.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
SUTTON: When I first had the idea, oh, yeah, I’m going to learn them all. I (vocalizing). I did not realize how much work it actually was.
NADWORNY: Do you think memorizing Shakespeare helps you memorize other things?
SUTTON: Yeah. I do. I also believe that just memorizing Shakespeare is just good for your soul.
From this interview at NPR. He memorised all 154 of the sonnets.
I think Peter O’Toole had them all by heart (I haven’t got them all… yet). All the more impressive given, erm, how much he, erm, enjoyed a lemonade or two.
I took a Shakespeare class in college where part of the tests was to memorize and recite a certain number of lines from a play (I think it was 50?). I enjoyed it, and now I'll have Hamlet's soliloquies forever rattling around in my head.