And so it is, no fooling …
Coincidentally, WordPress informs me that it’s my 50th post at the Tavern, too. Double cause for celebration then!
Continue reading “This is my birth-day; as this very day Was Cassius born”
Category: Everyday Shakespeare
It wasn’t me!
Slowly but surely the Bookshelf grows to a half-decent forty. Although actually, the opposite is happening …
Backstabbers of the World Unite
… for the Ides of March.
Is there any date more portentous than March 15th after a tense – if truncated – month of waiting and worrying since the frolics of The Lupercalia?
Though his actions were not visible …
Though his actions were not visible, yet
Report should render him hourly to your ear
As truly as he moves (Pisanio, Cymbeline)
When next you hear about – or indeed deride, yourself – the fabulous, wholly unjustified level of holidays enjoyed by teachers, spare a thought in particular for this poor English teacher …
The needs of the many …
Happy Lupercalia, everyone.
A cheeky way of muscling in some commentary on one of my favourite plays, way ahead of SCHEDULE? Perhaps. I shouldn’t be discussing Julius Caesar (let alone Star Trek) until September 2018 …
‘Art any more than a steward?’
subtitled thus:
Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? (Twelfth Night)
Allow me to introduce the non-Redditors amongst you to the Democratic People’s Republic of R/Literature. When you get there, it sounds great, doesn’t it?
Welcome to /r/literature, a community for deeper discussions of plays, poetry, short stories, and novels. Discussions of literary criticism, literary history, literary theory, and critical theory are also welcome–strongly encouraged, even.
and yet, all this fancy aspirational stuff doesn’t really mean a thing. Read the following from the bottom up.
This is, in many ways, one of the reasons why I started blogging …
Like Hyperion to a satyr …
Back in November I compared the next President of the USA to Richard III. A little reluctantly, given I have some sympathy, and a degree of fondness, for Richard.
Exit, pursued by Redditors
I find it interesting that many students are aghast when I tell them that whilst I don’t do Facebook, I DO spend some time on Reddit.
Usually, it’s the more sensible ones who register the most shock. It’s not the horror of having someone as old as their dad (increasingly I seem to be older, actually), trying to be ‘down with the kids’ – they seem more worried that I’m entering the big cat enclosure in the zoo wearing one of those outfits that seem to be made entirely of slices of bacon …
Bohemian Rhapsody, by William Shakespeare, esq.
I brave the wind from whichever quarter:
North, South, East, West? I care not! ‘Tis all one
To me. To me.
It’s a little-known fact that Shakespeare composed several of our best-known modern pop songs in iambic pentameter. Perhaps this is the most recognisable? I thought it apt to publish this on Christmas Eve, given the Queen ‘cover version’ was a Christmas Number One …
Can we call our meagre existence ‘real’?
Or but a crazéd artesanal dream,
Buried ‘neath a veritable av’lanche
With little chance to ‘scape our earthly lot?
Dear friend, go shed the scales that cloud thy sight,
Raise thy eyes from ground to God’s azure light,
Anon, see …
Continue reading “Bohemian Rhapsody, by William Shakespeare, esq.”
Ever felt that someone wasn’t paying attention?
Farewell, kinsman. I’ll talk to youWhen you are better tempered to attend.
Shakespeare – as ever – is able to pin that frustration down more adeptly than anyone! One of the best things about studying – or teaching – literature is that great writers can express your feelings better than you can. Simple as. And it is comforting to feel that other people have been in the same position as you have, it really is …
I finished off the day with a brief, but heated, conversation with someone who I felt was not giving me an opportunity to defend or explain myself. It was all very accusatory. They asked me a few peremptory questions, barked a little, a lot actually – quite like a dog who wanted to feel they’d made their presence felt when the postman arrives – and I retreated from the situation, as it seemed pointless to hang around. Like that postman, I was irritated, but a tiresome yappy dog isn’t going to spoil the rest of my day …
Continue reading “Ever felt that someone wasn’t paying attention?”
The Boar's Head, Eastcheap 