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A tide in the affairs of men
The Ides of March had me looking up Julius Caesar, recalling my favourite lines from Shakespeare’s play. There is a tide in the affairs of menWhich, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries.On such a full sea are we now afloat;And we…
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Shakespeare’s birthday and St George’s Day
Google.co.uk is running this image’s day. It’s St George’s Day — and traditionally celebrated as Shakespeare’s birthday, too. The Writer’s Almanac reminds us why it’s celebrated as Shakespeare’s birthday: Today we celebrate the birthday of William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England (1564 -1616). We don’t know his birthday for sure, but he was baptized on…
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I can hear music
I love the Beach Boys’ song, I Can Hear Music. The ardour of young love and the sweet harmony capture all that is beautiful in life. Yes, it’s just a teenage love song, but listen to the jangling guitars, insistent beat and plaintive voices. Isn’t that what life is all about: wishing and hoping and,…
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Martin Amis on life and Kingsley Amis
Martin Amis describes seeing his father, Kingsley Amis in a dream in his autobiography, Experience. Published in 2000, five years after his father’s death, it’s one of the most intimate accounts of a father-and-son relationship that I have ever read. He writes: Why should I tell the story of my life? I do it because…
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Shakespeare’s bawdy
William Shakespeare was baptized on this day in 1564 and what a life he led before he died at the age of 52 on April 23, 1616. He explored love and sex in his plays with a detailed vividness that leaves Masters and Johnson looking pretty skimpy, writes Simon Callow in the Guardian. The Elizabethans…
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Shakespeare: Much ado about love
It’s that day of the year when we remember William Shakespeare. Here’s a link to the most famous scene from my wife’s favourite play —– Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth in the sleepwalking scene. But give me the romantic comedies any day. Boy meets, boy gets girl, and they live happily ever after. Just watch…
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On Julia’s Clothes and 99 other most popular poems
This must be one of the shortest, heavily anthologized poems in the English language. On Julia’s Clothes, by Robert Herrick, runs to only six lines. But, witty and playful, this 17th century poem is one of the 100 most anthologized poems in the English language, according to the Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry. Here are…
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day today
Dost thou think, because there’s something rotten inthe state of the economy, there shall be no more cakes and ale? Fie, dismiss thy fears.We shall revel today in wholesome mirth and laughter in fulsome praise of thegenius of Master Shakespeare. Sweet Bard of Avon, begetter of the finest verseand plays, who was born today and…
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Shakespeare in love: The youth and the Dark Lady of the Sonnets
Shakespeare’s sonnets are the greatest love poems in English literature, says The Times. And they are mostly homoerotic, says Bill Bryson in his book, Shakespeare. That makes them all the more remarkable. For, let’s not forget, as late as 1960 Penguin Books was tried for obscenity when it published Lady Chatterley’s Lover in Britain. Shakespeare’s…
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Shakespeare On The Double! The Bard in plain English
Shakespeare On The Double! Twelfth Night translated by Mary Ellen Snodgrass The greatest English playwright in plain English at long last! Now I can understand every word written by the Bard as long as I have a copy of Shakespeare On The Double! in my hand. Shakespeare On The Double! The unusual format of this…
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