Shakespeare, The Entrepreneur

http://lateralaction.com/articles/shakespeare-entrepreneurship/ I like it.  Not just a biography of the business aspects of life, but an actual “Top 7” of lessons to be learned from Mr. Shakespeare, including such items as:

4. Own Your Domain

The Lord Chamberlain’s men owned the Globe Theatre in which they performed for most of their career. Unfortunately, they didn’t own the land in Shoreditch where it originally stood – they leased it from the owner, Giles Allen. When the lease expired, the landlord claimed ownership of the building, forcing the actors to desperate measures: on 28th December 1598, while the landlord was still celebrating Christmas, they armed themselves, and ‘liberated’ the theatre building, dismantling it and hiding it in a warehouse. They later shipped it across the Thames to a new site in Southwark. And because the new site was outside the official limits of the city, it meant they were beyond the jurisdiction of the city fathers, who were often keen to close down the theatres. Takeaway: Establish your business on your own domain – don’t become someone else’s user generated content. Otherwise your enterprise will be ‘Like a fair house built on another man’s ground’ (The Merry Wives of Windsor).

My Mistress’ Eyes …

http://www.mahalo.com/answers/education/explain-a-sonnet I’ve mentioned Mahalo before, the “human powered search engine” that hands out tip money for good answers.  In looking for some topic ideas I started a conversation on the sonnets, and already I’ve learned something.  I don’t know who this Gonzo Joe fellow is (he quite literally just joined, his answer to my question is his first answer on the system).  But check this out regarding Sonnet 130: What I think is most interesting about this sonnet that no one has mentioned yet is the direct irony of the tone compared to sonnet 18. The "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day" is probably the most well known of Shakespeare’s sonnets among the general population because of its Hallmarkian cheesiness.
It’s important to recognize that the irony is only of tone and not of theme, however. In fact, I would venture to say that 18 and 130 could be viewed as the same poem, written by the same man about the same women, the only difference being one is written in youth and the other is written at a much older age. This is, of course, not literally the case most likely, but thinking of them so does provide a nice framework for their explication. If he’s not already hanging out here with us at Shakespeare Geek, methinks he should be :).

Speaking Shakespeare To The Dog

An new visitor and Anonymous commenter writes, “I’m looking for a word to use when training my new doggie. I need a ‘release’ word to let him know he’s done a good job and may move about freely, or get out of his sit position. Some words other people use include “okay”, "release", "bingo", "that’ll do", or "free". I want a kool Shakespeare-like word. Does the Shakespeare Geek have any suggestions??” Sounds like a fun topic.  There are of course the great exclamations like Forsooth! or Zounds!  but those are just funny words, they don’t really have any context.  What’s a good Shakespearean way to say what the commenter asks for?

Best To Worst

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2008/11/24/shakespeare_my_best_to_worst I seem to have missed this when it was posted back in November, but the man’s got me in his Blog Roll, so it seems only fair that I give it a little credit.  Despite claiming that his “hits fall by 80% whenever he blogs about [Shakespeare]”, the article is a laundry list of best/worst elements you might find at some sort of funky modern awards show, like “Handsomest Line” (The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!) versus “Ugliest Line” (leaky as an unstanched wench), or “Line most likely to provoke moronic laughter” (“Put out the light, and then put out the light”). Fascinated by his Best Hamlet, someone I’d never heard of.