Happy Birthday, Will Shakespeare

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

450 years old and still going strong.

 

While this story concentrates on the science of Elizabethan times leaking into the works of the Bard, it is well to remember just how long ago he lived.  People still attend his plays and the high-school curriculum would be hard pressed without him.

[jmsepe 2,039]

William Shakespeare, an epitome of awesome literature better than the romantic novels we have some today. I had just one problem though, reading old English is a pain! 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You can either get an annotated copy of the works, take a course in Elizabethan English, history and politics, or buy a translation.  All the texts I had in high-school were: 1. unexpurgated; and 2. had both side and footnotes.  Later on my sisters texts were Bowdlerized.

 

The university text my wife had at UND was straight Elizabethan English.  Students there were supposed to be able to read it or find out how on their own.  She made her own annotations on the very wide margins of the book.  Someone swiped it and she had to spring for a new one.

[AkemiAzula 280]

I found his plays to be meh.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I found his plays to be meh.

Try Coriolanus or Titus Andronicus.  The latter is sufficiently blood drenched to satisfy even an British football fan.