General
24 Apr 14
24 Apr 14
Sure, it's Shakespeare's 450th birthday — but why do we celebrate the Bard so, you ask?American Mensa
If you ever break the ice with one fell swoop, if you never stand on ceremonies, if you play it fast and loose until the crack of doom, if you paint the lily, if you hope for a plague on both houses, if you are more sinned against than sinning because you have been eaten out of house and home by your own flesh and blood (the most unkindest cut of all), if you haven't slept a wink and are breathing your last because you're in a pickle, if you carry within you the milk of human kindness and a heart of gold (even though you know that all that glisters is not gold), if you laugh yourself into stitches at too much of a good thing, if you make a virtue of necessity, if you know that the course of true love never did run smooth, and if you won't budge an inch — why, if the truth be told and the truth will out, what the dickens, in a word, right on!, be that as it may, the game is up — you are, as luck would have it, standing on that tower of strength of phrasemakers, William Shakespeare.
That's why.
Originally posted by ChessPraxisNice touch, CP. Here's additional information from the Writers Almanac Calendar: Wednesday Apr. 23, 2014Sure, it's Shakespeare's 450th birthday — but why do we celebrate the Bard so, you ask?American Mensa
If you ever break the ice with one fell swoop, if you never stand on ceremonies, if you play it fast and loose until the crack of doom, if you paint the lily, if you hope for a plague on both houses, if you are more sinned against than sinning because you have be ...[text shortened]... on that tower of strength of phrasemakers, William Shakespeare.
That's why.
"It's the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare (books by this author), who is traditionally believed to have been born on this date in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. He left behind no personal papers, so our knowledge of his life comes to us from public and court documents. His father, John, was a glove-maker and alderman, and his mother, Mary Arden, was a landed heiress. The baptismal register of the Church of the Holy Trinity in the Shakespeares' parish shows an entry on Wednesday, April 26, that reads, "Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakespeare." Babies were traditionally baptized on the first Sunday or holy feast day after their birth. The Feast of St. Mark was on April 25, and although normally that would have been Shakespeare's baptismal day, it was also considered an unlucky day, and that may be why the child was baptized the following day instead.
Shakespeare studied at the well-respected local grammar school, and married the older — and pregnant — Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 26. She gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, six months later. Twins Hamnet and Judith followed two years after that. Shakespeare was no doubt deeply affected by the death of son Hamnet at age 11; he began to write his tragedy Hamlet soon afterward.
He moved to London around 1588 and began a career as an actor and a playwright. By 1594, he was also managing partner of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a popular London theater troupe. The 1590s saw the production of his plays Richard III, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and The Merchant of Venice, to name but a few. His greatest tragedies — like Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear — were all written after 1600. He wrote his last few plays back in Stratford, where he retired after an outbreak of the bubonic plague caused the London theaters to be closed for long stretches. He was popular during his lifetime, but it wasn't until after his death that his collected works were published in print form. That volume has come to be known as the First Folio, and it was published in 1623.
In 1611, he made out his will, leaving most of his estate to his daughter Susanna, and bequeathing to his wife, Anne, his "second-best bed." He died on or around his birthday in 1616 and was buried in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford, leaving a last verse behind as his epitaph: "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare / to dig the dust encloséd here. / Blessed be the man who spares these stones, / and cursed by he who moves my bones."
Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and a couple of epic narrative poems. He created some of the most unforgettable characters ever written for the stage, and was a master of the language of various social classes. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, he coined 3,000 new words, and he has contributed more phrases and sayings to the English language than any other individual. Shakespeare gave us such commonly used phrases as "a fool's paradise," "dead as a doornail," "Greek to me," "come what may," "eaten out of house and home," "forever and a day," "heart's content," "love is blind," "night owl," "wild goose chase," and "into thin air." http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2014/04/23
24 Apr 14
1 edit
Some think his plays may have been written by a consortium of aristocratic writers who did not want their names associated with such a downmarket profession and that they were happy for all this prolific output to go under the name ~ or "brand name" ~ of "Shakespeare".
24 Apr 14
2 edits
I have read a very interesting book by the Swedish writers Gösta Friberg and Helena Brodin Friberg that suggests, for many good reasons, that Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford is the author and originator of all of Shakespeare's works.
It is a very comprehensive book, in Swedish 'Täcknamn Shakespeare - Edward de Vere's hemliga liv'. *
I can't find the English book title but I assume it has been translated - it was written 2006.
* hemliga liv - secret life
- Joined
- 26 Feb 14
- Moves
- 1339
24 Apr 14
Originally posted by ChessPraxistrue but his plays were rubbishSure, it's Shakespeare's 450th birthday — but why do we celebrate the Bard so, you ask?American Mensa
If you ever break the ice with one fell swoop, if you never stand on ceremonies, if you play it fast and loose until the crack of doom, if you paint the lily, if you hope for a plague on both houses, if you are more sinned against than sinning because you have ...[text shortened]... that tower of strength of phrasemakers, William Shakespeare.
That's why.
24 Apr 14
1 edit
Originally posted by Great Big SteesThe maidens words stabbed at rebarons heart.
"They have knives?"
But lo, what light through yonder window breaks, a baseball those pesky little leaguer buggers keep hitting into my house! Ohhhhh, taking arms against a sea of little leaguer buggers and by opposing end them wouldst not be the end of this, for I should Shirely suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune seeking barristers...
Ohhhhhh, the suffering never ends!
