Month: April 2014

Long-time contributor Alexi contributed to this story on Vox about Shakespeare Innuendoes You Should Have Been Embarrassed To Read in Class. I think it’s a funny article about what could easily be an immature topic.

Regular Shakespeare readers probably know most if not all of them already – C’s, U’s and T’s … Juliet falling on her back instead of her face, Hamlet and Ophelia’s groaning, etc…

There’s one in there that’s little more than Rosalind looking for 20 of Orlando’s “things” which I thought was a bit of a stretch.

And then there’s the usual bit about Juliet, dying, happy daggers and sheaths. I’m not sure if anybody noticed, but this week in the Shakespeare’s dictionary story? There was an example given where the original owner had marked “scabbard/sheath” and written “vagina” next to it, almost confirming exactly what Juliet really meant.  Honestly when I saw that I thought it fell into the “now I know it’s fake, that’s too obvious to be true” camp.

The bit about dying is interesting. There’s the connection between “little death” and orgasm.  Fine.  But the way I was taught, it was called that because it had to do with spilling one’s life seed.  Therefore it was something that only men had to worry about.  Therefore if you catch a woman in a Shakespeare play talking about dying, she is definitely not talking about orgasm.    Thoughts, one way or the other?

UPDATE : Joe S on Twitter called me out on this, citing multiple examples of “die” used to reference female orgasm, in Shakespeare and before.  But my googling continued to suggest that up to the Victorian Era it was the assumption (myth?) that there was no such thing, and that it was not “proven” until the 1950’s.

Enter Bardfilm and his academic access to the OED, where we found multiple examples of Shakespeare’s usage, such as this exchange from Much Ado About Nothing:

CLAUDIO

Nay, but I know who loves him.

DON PEDRO

That would I know too: I warrant, one that knows him not.

CLAUDIO

Yes, and his ill conditions; and, in despite of
all, dies for him.

DON PEDRO

She shall be buried with her face upwards.

Now if we assume that the “bury her face upwards” line is a sex joke – and it’s almost a carbon copy of the Nurse’s joke to Juliet, so I think we can – then that puts the whole exchange in a bawdy light. In that context it seems almost certainly a sexual / orgasm reference.

And that’s only one of many references. In fact, the OED cites that example first.  I still think it’s interesting that it only ever talks about orgasm and never differentiates male/female, even though the two are pretty different.

But, still.  Today I Learned!

Shakespeare saves lives. Find out how.

Another Shakespeare Day has just about come and gone (although I’m sure I’ll be tweeting for a few more hours yet!)

Here is the complete list of blog posts on the day.  Did I break the previous record of 28?

Counting this one it should be 29.  Record achieved.  🙂

This year it’s not about just quantity. I’ve always said that the mission of the site is to prove that Shakespeare makes life better, and this year we’re doing it with a couple of projects that are donating money to the American Cancer Society.

First is the Shakespeare Haiku Project. One of the most popular posts ever on Shakespeare Geek is Bardfilm’s epic Complete Works of Shakespeare in Haiku. Recently I put one of my favorites, onto a wall poster and suggested that we donate 100% of the proceeds to charity. The poster, depicting the famous “Great Wave off Kanagawa” woodcut that you’ve no doubt seen, is available in multiple sizes and price points from postcard up to framed wall hanging.  All proceeds from the the sale of this item will go directly to the American Cancer Society.  If there is interest in seeing a whole line of products based on Bardfilm’s haiku, all the proceeds from those products will be donated as well. You just have to let us know what you’d like to see.  A coffee mug? A pillow? If you’re willing to buy it for charity we’re willing to make it.

The second is the return of our annual, limited edition Shakespeare is Universal t-shirt.  Last year we met our goal of 100 shirts, and I had people banging on the door trying to get them after the deadline had passed.  This year we’re going for 150.  The image is an original graphic by my friend Peter Phelan  depicting Shakespeare cut out into little stars and making the heavens shine so very bright. Most importantly, we will be donating 30% of the proceeds to the American Cancer Society.

I hope I kept you entertained for another Shakespeare Day, here and on Twitter. I did not hit my 5000 followers yet, but it’ll happen soon I’m sure. If you’re not yet following, please think about it. Some of the most spontaneous (and therefore funniest) material only ever shows up there.

That’s about it for me. Please take a moment to visit our two charitable links, and consider a purchase/donation.  Then like and share them with your friends and family! Let’s prove that Shakespeare can make a lot of lives better this year.

Happy Birthday, and Thank You Shakespeare!

Here’s a list that’s right up my alley -Top 10 Shakespeare Books for Children. My first thought is, “I wonder how many of them I have?”  My second is, “I wonder how many are “filler” that shouldn’t on this list?”

Charles and Mary Lamb make an appearance, of course. I never liked these, and I’m probably in the minority. Not only is the writing really dated, but the stories are painfully abridged. Their version of The Tempest completely cuts out the entire Trinculo/Stephano subplot.  Go ahead, search for their names, they’re not in there.

Usborne’s Illustrated Shakespeare got the most play (ha!) in my house, mostly because it’s been around the longest and has pictures. My daughter picked it up on more than one occasion by herself to read the stories.

I want to like the Shakespeare Can Be Fun series, which retell the stories entirely in a series of rhyming couplets, illustrated by children’s drawings. But they are an insane chore to work through! You have no idea how hard it is to read rhyming couplets until you try to read an entire play that way. I take these to my kids’ classrooms to read and the kids get up and go see what else is available. True story.

Marcia Williams’ books are our most recent find, and are excellent on all levels. If anything they’re packed a little too densely, translating each page into a series of comic-book panels with commentary from the audience running down the margins.  You want to read it all but it’s hard to tell *how* to read it all.

Definitely some new ideas on the list, and some books I don’t have yet.

This year’s Shakespeare posting marathon is sponsored by “Shakespeare is Universal.” Help us prove that Shakespeare makes life better. Buy a t-shirt and support cancer research.

The other day my family took a little vacation to the Newport Mansions, a neighborhood of Gilded Age mansions owned by families like the Vanderbilts. Everything we saw was all mid-to-late 1800’s and basically looked like sets from Downton Abbey.

Of course I spent all my time looking for Shakespeare references.

At one point I did see a book open on a table that said something about the lamentable death of King Edward the something.  I leaned so far over the rope to read more that an alarm went off ;).  But I don’t believe I was looking at anything Shakespearean.

What I did see, in one of the libraries, was a set of volumes entitled “The Complete Works of Shakspere”.  Note the spelling. I even called the kids over to spot it.

I wonder if I was looking at this 1850 edition?

What frustrates me is I came back to the computer and started googling for references to either Vanderbilt Shakespeare, or gilded age Shakespeare.  What I found in the case of the former was little more than stories from Vanderbilt University’s Shakespeare program, and nothing about the families potential early interest in our favorite playwright.

When I googled the latter I discovered the novel of the same name by Mr. Mark Twain, and I think I learned that Shakespeare is actually where we get the term in the first place? That I did not know.  I knew about laughing at gilded butterflies and gilding the lilly but I guess I never made the connection that the entire expression to gild something all comes from Shakespeare.

What was the state of American Shakespeare in the late 1800’s, anybody know? We know about President Lincoln’s interest, and the Booth family.  I guess I just assumed that somewhere in one of those mansions in all the stories about all the parties they threw, somebody would have mention something Shakespearean, someplace.

This year’s Shakespeare posting marathon is sponsored by “Shakespeare is Universal.” Help us prove that Shakespeare makes life better. Buy a t-shirt and support cancer research.