BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day

Subject: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: CapriUni
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 06:20 PM

April 23rd is the Bard's Birth-Death-Day Well, observed (at least) for the birth end of that spectrum. And it's still the 23rd on this side of the pond.

So I'm feeling in a bit of a party mood. Every birthday party needs at least one game. So I made a wordsearch puzzle, based on his 130th Sonnet.

It's online

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 06:23 PM

Alas, poor Shakespeare, I knew him well...

Is there a link to your game?

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: CapriUni
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 06:28 PM

Yes. Sorry; I must have missed a typo in the blickie when I first posted.

Trying again: A bit of a party game

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 06:32 PM

Thank you! :0)

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 09:45 PM

Sent me today by a friend:

My maternal grandmother gave me a NYT clipping in 1978, and it is still on my wall. It is
appropriate for today:

"Arthur Weyne's sister used to take the Avenue A bus from
10th Street to Houston almost every work-day morning. "At
Fifth Street," he recalls her telling him, "almost every
morning, a short, frowzy, chunky shlump of a woman would
be waiting for the bus and board it with groans, glowers,
protests, and have exertions. She carried bundles --
always. They were of a clumsy dimension, varying sizes
and divers degrees of vulnerability; there were never
fewer than four."

"She always paid her fare grudgingly, then flopped into a
seat at the front, sometimes commandeering one with an
authority no one ever disputed, and sat there frowning,
creaking and giving off emanations of menace. Since she
had started her cascade of complaints on the step of the
bus, and went on from her seat, haranguing the driver: he
stopped too far from the curb; the step was much too
high; the fare was unreasonable; he drove like a wild
Indian. She went on beyond Houston, so my sister never
knew whether she ever stopped caterwauling.


"One day in April, as my sister's bus was approaching
Fifth Street, she was relieved to see that Complaining
Cora -- as of course she known: her name was Cora -- was
not at the curb. But a woman was waiting for the bus, and
the driver stopped to take her on. Lo and behold! -- my
sister insisted this was the only way to express it --
the woman was Cora: bundleless, dressed in a lovely
frock, a flowered hat and long white gloves. More
startling than her costume was her face. She was beaming
-- pleasant, jovial, gay.

"Cora didn't merely board -- she made an entrance. She
paid her fare, even the coins tinkled gaily. Then the
startled passengers began to call out, 'Is that you, Cora
-- really you?' The driver pulled the bus to the curb,
stopped and faced her, 'What's "hoppen", Cora?'

"'Nothing is "hoppen"', she said, as though proclaiming
an amnesty. "'Today is Shakespeare's birthday.'"

Note: Shakespeare was baptized on 26 April 1564. Baptism in the 16th C took place 3 days after birth as a general rule.

    If he was Jewish, and equivalent calculation might expect that he was born 18 April, but let's nip that in the bud...

    Therefore the traditional date for Shakepeare's birthday is 23 April 1564. Interesting, he died on that date (Julian Calendar) in 1616, that date on the Gregorian calendar would be represented as 3 May 1616.

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: EBarnacle
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:36 PM

Today was also Talk Like the Bard Day in Chicago. There was a story about it on All Things Considered. Mayhap ye event shalt be heralded throughout ye lande at ye nexte turninge of ye Sun!

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 11:27 PM

Tis a saude, saude, staite of afaire ... when THE BARD is bauried below the line by unthinking or ingorant foules - jaques I saye!!! What better question than a tyrd by a byrd in the eye ... than ... what was the source of the minstrals spry pyae?

Carpi -

Dude - my most thankful of THANX

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Are you aware that the MUDCAT and the DT foundations were BUILT upon the ilk that you have posted? - I wish we had a score more of your temperment....bring in your family and kin and return us to the traditional roots nestled comfortably between Beowolf and Woodsworth.

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: CapriUni
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 11:29 PM

Desert Dancer: Lovely story. Thank you. I know, that for my own part I made a conscious decision to be cheerful, today, on Will's behalf.

Ebarnacle: I think you're mixing in some Chaucerian English, there, which is 200 years, give or take, prior to Shakespeare's time. Shakespeare's English is archaic, to our ears, but thoroughly modern, all the same. 'Ye' had turned completely to "the," and the English dropped that bothersome final 'e.'

Your reminder that this is Talk Like the Bard day came too late for me, this year. But you nonetheless inspired me to prepare for next year.

So I did a bit of Googling, and found this page: Proper Elizabethan Accents.

The pronunciation page has some enlightening sound samples. And there's also a link, at the bottom of the page, to period songs.

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 11:33 PM

CLONES -

PLEASE

Move this above the line?

---

Aw, Garg, I can't do it. No music in the thread. No folklore, either. Let's let it class up the BS section, which has been looking pretty shoddy lately.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: CapriUni
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 11:41 PM

I thank you for the compliment, Gargoyle. But, I think, If Will ever walked among us today, as a ghost, he'd blush (if ghosts can blush) to see how we've near deified him.

So I went the conservative route.

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: CapriUni
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 02:29 AM

In the interest of preparing for the second annual "Talk Like Shakespeare Day," next year, here's the homepage for the effort that Ebarnacle alluded to, above:

WWW.TalkLikeShakespeare.org

(And Thanks, Joe. There's no reason, that I can see, why BS should ever be shoddy. If you're going to BS, then do it well, and do it proudly!)

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 02:52 PM

A joyous celebration of thy birth
and of thy works upon this Earth
We wish to you, Playwright Immortal,
Gazing down from Heaven's portal!

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 03:11 PM

Here's an interesting fact! Shakespeare - the greatest English writer of his time, died on the same day as Cervantes, the greatest Spanish writer of his time.

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: CapriUni
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 04:18 PM

I got this as a birthday card, one year.

Outside message:

"And who is wishing birthday joys to thee?"

Inside message:

"I amb, I amb, I amb, I amb, I amb!"

(Tunesmith: I wonder if they've done any collaborating since...)

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 09:36 PM

Which plays might be abbreviated as follows: Dry, Wet, 3", 6", 9"?

Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew.

Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
From: CapriUni
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 11:21 PM

Joe F:

Ha. ha. Not having a testosterone-driven brain, myself, that took a moment for me to figure out. But then: ha. .... ha.

Now, here's an old web-comic episode as my reply.

(As Montaigne once wrote: "I quote others to better express myself.")