So there’s a story going around about Reverend Shakespeare, who claims to be the closest living relative to you know who. I was under the impression that there were no descendants of Shakespeare, and we discussed this back in 2007. So, what gives?
He claims to be descended from Shakespeare’s first cousin, John Let’s talk about that, first. To be Shakespeare’s cousin means that this John would have to have been the child of one of Shakespeare’s brothers or sisters, right? Technically if he’s telling us that the Shakespeare family name has continued all the way back, that would even rule out Shakespeare’s sister (Joan), who would have had her name changed.
I actually just found this genealogy page that goes into the details of how the ancestry lays out. I’m not yet sure I believe it.
What do you think? And, is this interesting? I’m torn. It’s not like you can lay any claim to his poetic genius – I don’t recall brother Gilbert or Edmond banging out any masterpieces in their day. But, still, if proven it’s be kind of cool to be a walking connection to history like that.

This is a little bit different, but the author wrote me a nice letter offering his piece Nights In the Past, about staying in places where Shakespeare stayed.
“What what what?” you say, “That’s ridiculous, there’s certainly no definitive record of such things.”
Well, true. And that’s why I think the article merits a little credit, because that’s exactly what it’s about. The opening line of the article, in fact, sets exactly that tone:

It is always important to place emphasis on the adjective “reputed” when referring to events where no written documentation remains – if, indeed, any documentation was ever made in the first place.

(Is anybody else seeing really bad extended-character-set mapping? I’ve got little question marks all over the screen on my Mac.)
Anyway, yes it’s an ad, no I’m not reimbursed one way or the other nor is it a sponsor or anything. I just thought that there is actual information in it, couched in the appropriate amount of context. He could easily have said “Shakespeare came up with the idea for Midsummer Night’s Dream here,” but he doesn’t, and for that respect for our favorite topic, I give the author credit.

Courtesy @PhilRickaby on Twitter we get Two Panel Shakespeare, where comic artist Eric Kim does “all 36 of Shakespeare’s productions” (not really sure what that’s all about) in two panel comic form. A very neat idea indeed. The project is a book to be purchased, not an online effort, so I’m not really sure how 72 doodles (2 each, ya see?) constitutes a book. The linked article includes an example from King Lear.
(For those in grumpy moods, you may want to pass on this one — the moral of Romeo and Juliet in Kim’s world is apparently “couples should communicate.” WTF?)

Oooo, this looks interesting. First I’m hearing about this science fiction Shakespeare project:

The company’s website reveals that the project will be directed by Michael Anderson, an experienced DoP-turned-director who’s worked on commercials for Ridley Scott Associates, with a script from Anderson, Andrew Hislop and Steve Wilkinson that will allegedly incorporate aspects of “Henry V” and both parts of “Henry IV.” Wilkinson’s also producing, alongside another Ridley Scott alum Nigel Wooll, a co-producer on “G.I. Jane,” and Stephen Evans, who was Kenneth Branagh‘s producing partner on the seminal 1989 film version of the same play.

What do we think?

In the past we’ve spoken of the ideal Shakespeare collection to carry around with you, particularly on a digital device. Well, Oxford University has just provided us a new and exciting offering by providing free EPUB versions of the 36 original First Folio texts:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=400639473

I’ve literally just started pulling these down in the last few minutes so I haven’t had a chance to really let it sink in. Unfortunately due to the nature of the medium, they’ve basically translated the original to a usable font and what you end up left with looks like a badly spelled version of what you read in high school.

What I’m still hoping for one of these days is for someone to properly combine scans of the images, with the ability to treat them as text – copy and paste, highlight, search, all that good stuff. But I think that when we lose the original images, where we can no longer see the line breaks and such and fully appreciate the flow of the whole, it’s just not the same.

Still, though! A step in the right direction!