Forsooth, today is Talk like Shakespeare Day and also believed to be Shakespeare's birthday. A lot of controversy around whether ol' Will actually wrote what is attributed to him swirls around the literary world. Some scholars, those jackanapes
and canker-blossoms. have maintained that Shakespeare did not write the Shakespeare plays, with at least fifty writers having been suggested as the “real” author. They question how a provincial who never went to college or wandered very far from Stratford and London, could know so much about international affairs and history, as well as royal courts. Methinks it matters not, after 400 or so years, the combined works are amazing. It is known that he did collaborate with other playwrights and there are a number of lost manuscripts that could have been attributed to him gone forever
Some interesting facts from www.nosweatshakespeare.com and other resources are:
During his life, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets! This means an average 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589. His last play The Two Noble Kinsmen is reckoned to have been written in 1613 when he was 49 years old. While he was writing the plays at such a pace he was also conducting a family life, a social life and a full business life, running an acting company and a theatre. Mayhaps,tis one argument against him,
Shakespeare curst potential grave robbers in his Epitaph at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on Avon.
Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here:Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.
T'was customary to diggeth up the bones from previous graves to make room for others, Shakespeare’s remaineth undisturbed 400 years later.
All these years since Shakespeare’s death, there are 157 million pages referring to him on Google. There are 132 million for God, 2.7 million for Elvis Presley, and coming up on Shakespeare’s heels, "That trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey Iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years?" George W Bush with 14.7 million.
Sooth, one of the most interesting fact about Mr. Shakespeare is that of all the languages he has be translated to over the centuries, the most obscure is Klingon. Hamlet and Much Ado about Nothing have both been translated as part of the Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project by the Klingon Language Institute.
Interesting post about the Bard of Avon forsooth.
ReplyDeleteTis indeed a tragedy if these other authors really writ as they doth claim. For he hath been taking credit for centuries!
ReplyDeleteAs a resident of Shakespeare country I loved this post. Unfortunately there are always folk who want to disprove things. I recently went on a tour of the new Shakespeare Theatre, it was well worth the visit.
ReplyDeleteI always struggled SOOOO much with the language and understanding what he had to say. Once I understood it, I enjoyed it and found it very poignant.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly would have had to work hard to get all those plays written. They say he appeared at Leicester's Guildhall which still stands today.
ReplyDeleteAww Shakespeare. His writing reminds me of the King James Version of the Bible -- poetic.
ReplyDeleteI believe he wrote his work. Is that wrong to be so believing?
Bah! Shakespeare was well-read, just like most of the men in his social stratum, so that argument does not hold water. Can't we just enjoy his work, even if it is in Klingon?
ReplyDeleteLove the Sesame Street sketch!
ReplyDeleteFun to read as always. And I learn something too.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of Shakespeare back in school. Thanks for sharing all these other details.
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