Ok, here’s a very cool crossover. I had some fun once upon an April Fool’s Day with the “Ireland Forgeries”, a collection of counterfeit Shakespeare papers circa 1790s that included letters to Anne Hathaway, new plays, and other extraordinary things that were, of course, all fake.
Sure, we know that *now*. But how did other people of the time feel about it? Haven’t you ever wondered what the American founding fathers thought about the discovery?
Well, now you can ;). Check out some of John Quincy Adams’ writing on the topic:

Went with them and Mr. Vaughan to see Mr. Ireland [presumably William Henry’s father Samuel], and saw several of his manuscripts which he assures have been lately discovered, and are original from the hand of Shakespear. They are deeds, billets, a love-letter to Anne Hatherrwaye with a lock of hair, designs done with a pen, a fair copy of Lear, three or four sheets of a Hamlet, and a Tragedy hitherto unknown of Vortigern and Rowena. The last we did not see, as unfortunately some company came, to which Mr. Ireland was obliged to attend, and we accordingly took our leave. The marks of authenticity born by the manuscripts are very considerable, but this matter will like to occasion as great a literary controversy as the supposed poems of Rowley, and those of Ossian have done.

(emphasis mine) This was found in Adams’ diary dated November 19, 1795. So even then the reception among learned men seems to have been “They look authentic, but…”
There’s much, much more, but I don’t want to steal the original author’s thunder. Go read the whole thing! How neat.

With summer upon us I’m in the mood for a new Shakespeare t-shirt. I’ve got my “Mercutio Drew First!” as well as a blue one that’s just a big picture of Shakespeare rolling his eyes (a variant of Droeshout), but I can’t be the guy who shows up to events always in one of those two shirts. 🙂 Looking for ideas.
What sort of Shakespeare stuff have you got? I know I said “wearing”, but subject lines are everything :). I’ll open it up to hats, beach bags… anything that’s got something Shakespeare in it, that you might be flaunting at the beach or on vacation. Books don’t count :).

I asked this question quickly on Twitter, but it’s really hard to explain it in short terms.
What I’m looking for is what would best be described as the most recognizable Shakespeare speeches. The kind of thing where, if you showed it to a regular person (not necessarily a Shakespeare Geek) they’d say “Oh, ok, yeah, I’ve heard that. That’s Shakespeare, right?”
I figure “To be or not to be” is up there. As is Henry’s “Band of Brothers” speech. When I asked on Twitter, a number of people went immediately to Marc Anthony’s funeral speech (“Friends, Romans, Countrymen…”) as well as the opening of Richard III (the winter of our discontent).
What else ya got? I’m not talking about one-liner quote/cliches that everybody knows, I’m talking a good chunk of lines that somebody might recite in various contexts. A speech that lasts long enough that, if someone started it, you’d have time to stop what you were doing and listen until it was done.
Doing research for one of my many side projects that may or may not ever see the light of day. 🙂

I’ve avoided this week’s “Shakespeare may have smoked pot” story because, frankly, it doesn’t interest me all that much. Not only is it not very new (link to a story from Nov 2000 – about the same guy, even), but it’s being reported horribly. Once you wade through all the ridiculous articles ranging from “Dude, Shakespeare smoked bowls??” to “Of course Shakespeare smoked pot, haven’t you ever seen Midsummer Night’s Dream?” it seems that everybody’s reporting the story as “Dig him up to see if he smoked pot.”
The problem is, they’re not digging him up.

If given the go-ahead, Prof Thackeray will use scanning equipment to create a 3D image of the bard.

Prof Thackeray said: ‘We are confident that we could complete our work without moving a single bone.’

I suppose the only interesting question to me is, what if they did conclusively find evidence that Shakespeare was smoking something while he wrote? Would that change your opinion of him at all? Just as importantly, how do you think it would change the world’s opinion? Do you think there’s any possible way that people would suddenly begin to dismiss him because of that? Or, from the opposite angle, would that be the single greatest vote in favor of marijuana legalization in the history of the drug?
I guess there are interesting questions after all. 🙂