BS: Happy Birthday Will

Subject: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 04:34 AM

Throughout all the controversy of whether he did or did not write all 37 plays, 7 poems and 154 sonnets...I choose to believe there was a ONE AND ONLY William Shakespeare, and want to wish the memory of that man to stay alive and thriving for years and years to come.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Will!!!..xx..e

(PS-Mr S, you got me through many a tough moment. I am forever in your debt.)

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:17 AM

UNBELIEVABLE!!! I'm the only one going to post here? Jeez guys, I don't know what to make of this...should I have been more specific with my title? Or has St George's day made that much more of an impression on you?

In any case, I plan to refresh this sucker at least one more time before I have to sign off.

Fear not, Will, there are still many who love you, albeit seemingly not here at mudcat...xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: el ted
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:25 AM

Hmmmmmmmm... How can I put this? Maybe he's not considered to be that interesting?

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:30 AM

I wish I had more time, Will. I'd chat about my favorite play, which sonnet means the most to me, how I was first introduced to you via watching James Earl Jones in "Othello"and how it changed my life. I'd modestly mention the plays I've written for children about you, along with starting up a Theatre Company called "The Shakespearience". All in honour of you, dear Will.

But my time is limited so I'll simply say that you are the person I most admire, the one I would most have enjoyed meeting, and the one man who never ever EVER disappointed me..xx..e

(Come on guys, at least say something nasty about my need to gush here!)

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:31 AM

el ted, from you I expected no less.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:32 AM

..and certainly no more.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: el ted
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:38 AM

Happy to oblige EP.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:41 AM

el ted, if you end up being the only other poster on this thread, I might well turn in my mudcat membership. (yes, I know, you're happy to oblige).

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:42 AM

Shakespear is rubbish.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: el ted
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:44 AM

Give it 5minutes and the heavy mob will weigh in with their pearls of wisdom.I had enough of bloody Willy S at school.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:46 AM

well - I'm happy to wish Willie the Shake a happy b'day - tho' you do realize if he was alive today he would probably be writing for soap operas - or Harlaquin romances.

Not that he wasn't talanted - but he wrote for the masses (for the most part) very low-brow humour.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:48 AM

Actually that makes me sad, el ted. It all depends on how you're introduced to the man. Lots of schools have ruined people towards Shakespeare, and that's unforgivable. I saw a great actor in a brilliant production, and it really did change my life..

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Amos
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 11:54 AM

Jesus what a crowd of dunderheads. You two should be ashamed of yourselves. It is obvious you have no idea what you are talking about. Rubbish? John, the embarassment you should be feeling for letting that out of your dull-wit mouth is enough to bury a badger! And as for you el ted, I suppose you think you are being funny, but the simple truth is you are flaunting ignorance and dullwit as though they were virtues.

Well, they are not. They are, rather, low-life offenses against the very spirit of civilization, and they are a sort of cheap, easy, punk-brained grafitti on the very few towering accomplishments the Anglosaxon crowd have managed to raise up to offset their piteous blundering history of crimes and atrocities. Really, I don't think your people can afford to make less of Shakespeare. He has single-handedly saved the reputation of England a thousand times.

But against churlish stupidity, there may be no defense!! Isn't that a charming idea? Enough to make you vote for whippings in school to be reinstated. And I have a couple of prime candidates in mind.

Bite your tongues; or, and you prefer, bite my royal Yankee ass, both of you.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: el ted
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:01 PM

There you go EP. I told you it wouldn't take long.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:03 PM

Well I'm sorry Amos was so angry. Maybe he'll come back when he's calmed down and wish old Will a Happy B'day.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: el ted
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:09 PM

You'll get used to it EP. Some people have a sense of humour, some don't. Some people have an inflated sense of their own importance, some don't. Some people think waffling away on a folk music site is important, some don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Amos
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:16 PM

And some people think snide and sneering comments are communication, el ted; and others do not.

I share your wishes for Will's birthday, EP. Sorry about the thick fog being blown in by his own countrymen. I guess the standards have fallen summat in the last few hundred years.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: el ted
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:17 PM

I'm not English, I'm Spanish.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:20 PM

and I'm Welsh

John [Evans]

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Amos
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:20 PM

Oh. My apologies. I was wrong. I thought you were being stupid, but you're Spanish.




A

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Amos
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:24 PM

John:

You're Welsh? Really? Hopw intersting. No wonder you think Shakespeare is rubbish. Makes perfect sense.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:33 PM

Oh dear, and all I was hoping for were some nice words for Will...

If you can't play nice, please find another thread...

please..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Amos
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:46 PM

Oh, EP, I'm sorry -- John assures me he is not offended, and I have made peace with him and I hope with el ted for being snippity.

Happy Birthday to good Will, who always enjoyed a hot banter as much as any.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: JenEllen
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 01:04 PM

If only to bring back to course:

I can't say I'm as appreciative as you, are, EP, but I do think that part of Will's charm is that because of the sheer volume, there's a little something for everyone (but as with most things in life, one can take it too seriously).

There was something for me today in the death of Prince Arthur:

The wall is high, and yet I will leap down:
Good ground, be pitiful and hurt me not!.....
...I am afraid, and yet I'll venture it....
...As good to die and go, as die and stay....
O me! my uncle's spirit is in these stones:
Heave take my soul, and England keep my bones!

Happy birthday, Will.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: JenEllen
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 01:08 PM

...oh, fer crap's sake.... HEAVEN takes his soul. Heave must be the guy watching the gate that shift...(He's sure as hell not watching my typing today)

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 01:26 PM

Heave was one of the guards on the gate - the other one was Hoegh - people used to work in pairs to distract them and sneak by. Thus "giving him the Heave-Hoegh"

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 02:30 PM

Are there any other countries where it's a matter of national pride to pretend to be dunderheads?

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 02:38 AM

By Paul Majendie
LONDON (Reuters) - London's Globe Theater on Friday invited all the world on stage to celebrate William Shakespeare's birthday.

"I'm sure he is here in spirit"

Britons are often put off after being force-fed a diet of Shakespearean tragedies at school and Rylance said: "We are very keen here to try and help teachers and young people see Shakespeare on the stage rather than on the page.

"Unfortunately most kids meet Shakespeare around the exam period of the year so they are already tense and it leaves them with a memory of him as a fierce exam question."

The new Globe, on the banks of the River Thames, was the brainchild of the late U.S. actor-director Sam Wanamaker and has proved a roaring success over the last nine years, playing near to capacity every season from May to September, despite not receiving any state subsidy.

"It is very nice to know we live honestly off our box office," Rylance said. "We have the cheapest prices of any theater in England, if not Europe with 600 people only paying five pounds. Our top price is 29 pounds."

Rylance has always encouraged audience participation, especially from the "groundlings" who stand out in the open around the stage and have no hesitation in saying what they think of the production.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: Amergin
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 03:54 AM

One of the best Shakespearean experieinces one can have is to go to Ashland, Oregon...they have a troupe of world class actors performing Shakespeare, with humour and with ferocity, but never with self importance....I saw them do Henry V and Twelfth Night a few years ago and it just blew my mind.

The main problem with Shakespeare is that people tend to over act his play, Richard Burton comes to mind...but the troupe in Ashland get him just right and it's funny how after a couple of minutes your ear gets accustomed to the language and you can understand what they're saying and what's going on.

Also Ashland is kind of neat, because an actor with a major role in one play will have a minor role in a few other plays, so no one person stays in the spotlight. The stages are also done traditionally, with different levels.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Will
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 04:02 PM

Only the US, McGrath. I think el ted should move here and run for political office. He should do quite well, I think. Unless that's really his six year old kid who's using the real el ted's computer when he's not looking.