Month: April 2010

UPDATED!  This has become such a popular topic that we’ve spun off a completely new site.  Please visit Not By Shakespeare for the most up to date research into who actually said what.

I was very upset yesterday to discover that in my Shakespeare Day blur I’d retweeted a quote as if it were by Shakespeare, only to later realize it is not.  (Yes, that kind of thing bothers me.  I would much rather answer “I don’t know” to a question, or remain silent, than to be wrong.)  What’s annoying is that if you google these quotes, the vast majority of “sources” on the net will in fact claim them to be Shakespeare, but with no citation.  If you can’t find it in the works (and don’t forget to check Venus and Adonis!), it’s probably not in there.

So I thought now would be a good time to collect some of the more popular ones in one place, and give proper attribution.  At least, disclaimer, I’m giving what I *think* is proper attribution!  Correct me if I’m wrong, and feel free to add what I miss.

“I love thee, I love but thee With a love that shall not die Till the sun grows cold And the stars grow old.”

This is the one I goofed on.  It is Bayard Taylor, from the Bedouin Song.

“When I saw you I fell in love. And you smiled because you knew.”

Arrigo Boito.  (Who, by the way, was apparently famous for his work on the operas Otello and Falstaff!)

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

William Congreve in The Mourning Bride (1697).  Shakespeare did say “Come not between the dragon and his wrath,” and “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child” (both King Lear, I believe?), which both seem to be to be of a similar spirit.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”

Walter Scott, Marmion.

“If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet at least teach it to dance.”

Speak of the devil, I saw this one for the first time on the same day I posted this article. How can anyone think that’s Shakespeare? It’s George Bernard Shaw.
It’s worth noting that there’s already at least one other site covering this topic, but two of the ones I list above, that I see on a daily basis passed around Twitter, are not even on that page.  And that one has a whole bunch of stuff that I’ve never seen attributed to Shakespeare.  The list above, so far, are quotes I’ve personally seen attributed incorrectly to our boy in Stratford.

So, the next time you catch somebody forwarding along that “til the sun grows cold” line as if it were Shakespeare, then you smack that person right back down and take away their Complete Works. 😉  And don’t forget to link.  Geek needs the google juice. :)!

UPDATED!  This has become such a popular topic that we’ve spun off a completely new site.  Please visit Not By Shakespeare for the most up to date research into who actually said what.

So just now I see a story about Kate Mulgrew taking on Cleopatra.  Not a Trek Geek? She was Captain Janeway, from Star Trek Voyager.

Naturally that got me thinking. 

Captain Picard, Patrick Stewart? Well, we know all about Patrick Stewart.  I can’t even find a single story to link, there’s too many obvious choices.

How about William Shatner, Captain James T. Kirk?  No problem.  Hamlet, no less.

Now, now we start to get tricky.  What about Avery Brooks, also known as Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine?  He’s Othello.

Aha, but what about Enterprise, and Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer? Alas I can’t find video, but might I point you to this synopsis of Quantum Leap Episode 411?

The Play’s the Thing	January 8, 1992	September 9, 1969	New York City, New York	411
Sam leaps into a man named Joe Thurlow who’s dating a much, much older woman and must convince her not to move back to Cleveland with her straight-as-an-arrow son and his wife. And somehow he also has to get through a nude version of Hamlet.

The Boston Herald’s got a review up of David Tennant’s Hamlet (called “Prepare to be bard to tears…”) so I had to go check it out for that negative headline, if nothing else.  They didn’t like it, though I don’t think the negative aspects of the review live up to the headline, which makes it sound awful.  The author gives is a C+.

What gets me, though, is that crazy picture that I’ve seen used in several articles now.  If we didn’t know what was happening at the time, wouldn’t that look like something straight out of a bad B horror movie?  Why the frick does Hamlet have a crown on his head, has he been playing Henry V? Is Claudius that engrossed in what he’s doing that he’s let a potential assassin get that close to him? He of all people should know you don’t live long as king of Denmark without watching your back!

Saw a production of Hamlet once where they all carried guns instead of swords.  During this crucial scene, Hamlet is at one side of the stage with the gun leveled at Claudius’ back.  I thought that was an interesting way to merge the ideas of “I’m this close to doing it” with “well, if I had a sword I’d kinda sorta have to be within arm’s reach of him…”  Not to mention all the implications that come with the “good guy” shooting someone in the back, even if it is Claudius.

I almost forgot about this, but once again PBS is presenting some modern classic Shakespeare as part of their Great Performances series.  Last year it was Sir Ian McKellan’s King Lear, this year it is David Tennant’s Hamlet (also starring that other guy, what’s his name…. Sir Patrick Frickin Stewart(*)).

I’d seen Lear before PBS broadcast it, but I’ve not yet seen Tennant’s Hamlet.  I’ve actually been eyeing (? that doesn’t look right) it this week, but as my birthday approaches I figured I’d give the family a chance to score it for me first.  But since I never actually mentioned it to anybody it’d have to be a heck of a coincidence.  We shall see!

P.S #1 : I expect my subtle subject line humor to go over the heads of the folks who don’t recognize that David Tennant also played a character called Dr. Wherewhen.

P.S. #2 : I am from Boston, where when we feel strongly about somebody we give them a new middle name.  Another owner of this proud distinction, but for completely different reasons, is Bucky Effing Dent.

P.S. #3 : UPDATED, The date is tomorrow April 28, not Thursday April 29.  The latter is the date of Open Mic Shakespeare, which was on my brain because I’d posted it earlier in the day.