The other day over lunch, a coworker brought up the “first let’s kill all the lawyers” quote in some context I’ve forgotten.  I then took the position that this is one of the more often misquoted, or at least quoted in incorrect context, bits of Shakespeare – rattling off the argument that the line is spoken by one of the bad guys, and is more along the lines of “The world would be a better place for the bad guys if we could get rid of all those silly lawyers who keep putting us in jail.” This morning, serendipity at work, I find this link in my feeds:  http://www.spectacle.org/797/finkel.html This old paper (1997) takes the position that it’s really just a big lawyer joke, and thus probably goes more toward the first argument (nobody who quotes the line actually thinks of killing lawyers, right?  It’s just a joke, like wouldn’t it be great if we killed all the lawyers?)  So I turn to my audience, who is far more knowledgeable than I on such subjects.  In what context is the line delivered, and how does that carry through to proper use of the cliche today?

http://wardsix.blogspot.com/2008/05/titus-andronicus.html Titus Andronicus never seems to get the links.  I couldn’t resist this one, if only for the comparison to presidential candidate John McCain :).

http://chasedesign.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/things-you-can-learn-about-marketing-from-theatre/ Something light.  The author gets to play some Shakespeare (Antonio, The Tempest) and notes the connections between acting and marketing.

My 3yr old has no patience for holidays.  Once one is upon her, she’s already thinking ahead to the next one.  In this case, Mother’s Day means she’s all about Father’s Day.  “Next week when it’s Father’s Day,” she tells me (she has no meaningful sense of time :)), “We got you a surprise!  It’s a Shakespeare thing!” Now, normally, this means nothing, as she uses “Shakespeare” like an adjective.  I’ll come home from work, she’ll hand me a sparkling gold pipe cleaner that she has twisted into a loop and tell me, “Here Daddy, I made you this for your birthday.  It’s a Shakespeare flower.”   (Birthdays, by the way, are also in her somewhat ambiguous concept of time – any day can be anybody’s birthday.)  She once told me a story that turned out to be about a princess Shakespeare snowflake. This time, however, she got a stern look from my wife and a freakout from her older sister who yelled “Elizabeth!  Don’t tell him!” So who knows, maybe the Shakespeare Geek is indeed getting a Shakespeare surprise for Father’s Day :).  I’ll let you know.