by Grania
Good morning!
Today, as many of you have no doubt seen on Google, is the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright and subject of many a Francis Bacon dunnit conspiracy theory. I’ve loved Shakespeare ever since I was a young child and my father put a copy of Macbeth into my hands, possibly as a joke – I was looking for a book with witches in it. When he returned I had already memorised Act 1. As a ‘Witch Book’, Macbeth sucks; but I found I didn’t care – I’d found a new love.
In Shakespeare’s honor, The Telegraph has put together a list of Shakespearean insults. “Villain, I have done thy mother” needs no explanation, while others such as “I bite my thumb at you” don’t even make the list as an insult, as it loses its sting if it requires footnotes to be understood.
[JAC addendum: The New York Times has published an obituary for the bard, as if he had just died. It’s very nice and also interactive, so you can click on the words—or phrases from his plays—and learn more. There’s also a Google Doodle; click on it to show where it goes:]
Hili is verging on the blasphemous today, or as those of us in the reality biz like to say: reasonably accurate.
GOD IS ONLY A THEORY
Hili: What are we posting today?
A: Jerry’s article about a philosopher who says that God is the question.
Hili: So God is just a theory and one based on a very wobbly hypothesis?
In Polish:
BÓG JEST TYLKO TEORIĄ
Hili: Co dziś dajemy?
Ja: Artykuł Jerrego, o filozofie, który mówi, że Bóg jest pytaniem.
Hili: Czyli Bóg to tylko teoria i to oparta na hipotezie o wysokiej tolerancji rozpoznania?
Polish for God is Bog? Brilliant! 🙂
A dirty, sticky mess that can suck the life out of you if you’re not careful. Best avoided.
I was Macduff in “Macbeth” in high school. To my delight, I got to perform a sword fight.
Can you say “Horror! Horror! Horror!”, loudly without breaking your jaw?
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
The problem with Shakespeare is that he’s full of cliches and his spelling is terrible. 🙄
One of my Shakespeare favorites:
Sigh No More
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more
Men were deceivers ever
One foot in sea and one on shore
To one thing constant never
Then sigh not so
But let them go
And be you blithe and bonny
Converting all your sounds of woe into
‘Hey, nonny, nonny’
Sing no more ditties, sing no more,
Or dumps so dull and heavy
The fraud of men was ever so
Since summer first was leavy
Then sigh not so
But let them go
And be you blithe and bonny
Converting all your sounds of woe into
‘Hey, nonny, nonny’
Shakespeare (Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing)
Parody of Nunnery scene from Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet”
To believe or not to believe,
that is the question ?
Fact or fiction ?
Whether these stories really happened
Or were they just made up,
figments of ghost writers’ imaginations ?
Accurate accounts of historical reality or distortions, exaggerations ?
Mere retelling of ancient lore ?
Alas poor Jesus. Did anyone know him well ?
If we held his skull it would show that someone by that name lived, but was he only a puppet or ventriloquist’s dummy?
Entombed like a Pharaoh mummy ?
Luke 18v19, why do you call me good ?
when so much of what I say is dumb & rude
Would it be as foolish as the Egyptian belief to think that he sailed a barque across the heavens?
A popish pilot steering St. Peter’s Barque, Jings crivvens ?
Help ma boab
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels from an evolutionary perspective!
Shakespeare dead? I didn’t even know he was ill! Another celebrity gone and it’s only April!