Sometimes I wonder what the Zen-like concept the word Shakespeare conjures in my 4yr old’s brain.  She knows that he’s a person, but yet she also uses his name like an adjective (remember the story of the “Shakespeare flower”?)  She seems to associate it with this abstract notion of, “good thing that makes Daddy happy.” Tonight, the kids put on a dance recital.  This is where the 4yr old dresses up in random accessories and dictates who does what, my 6yr old (who has more dance training) tries to demonstrate her skills, and the 2yr old boy spins around in circles until he falls down.  Perhaps the most surreal part was when the 4yr old, who is a girl for my new readers, proclaimed “I’m Joseph!” “Joseph who?” I asked. “Joseph, Jesus’ Daddy?” Oh, of course.  This apparently had something to do with the fact that she was wearing a veil backwards on her head, so it draped down the back of her hair. I think she saw a connection to the depictions of what Joseph wears in the nativity scene. But anyway, that’s not the point of my story :).  After the recital when everybody was taking a break, the director explained to me:  “Daddy, tomorrow is a different show.  Tonight was the recital, tomorrow is gonna be the shouting show.” “A shouting show?” I said, “I don’t think I like the sound of that very much.” “No!” she said, “You will.  It’s got Shakespeare in it.” “Oh, a shouting Shakespeare show?” “And lots of BOOM noises!” “Like Henry VIII?”(*) It’s at this point that the 4 and 6 yr olds are different, because the 6yr old is actually listening to me and would assume I was making a joke she didn’t get. The 4yr old is so busy planning the show in her head that she has no idea I’m talking.   (*) That’s the one where the cannons ended up burning down the Globe, you see.

It just so happens that my daughter, who is in first grade, is in the “1B” class.  You can almost see it coming, can’t you? While cleaning the counter I happened to flip over a “pinch pot(*)” she had made in school.  Carved in the bottom were her initials, and what turned out to be 1B.  “1B?” I asked. “1B,” she said.  “That’s my class number.” “1B.” “Yes, 1B.’” “2B?” “No, 1B.” “Not 2B?” “1B, Daddy!” “2B or not 2B, that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.  To sleep perchance to dream aye there’s the rub for in that sleep what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil…”(**) “….let me guess, that was Shakespeare, wasn’t it.” I’m getting predictable.   (*) I think in the old days we would have called it an ashtray. (**) I realize that’s not an accurate quote, I was bluffing.  She’s not at the point yet where she’s going to correct my delivery.  Although maybe one day :).

Sorry I’m so late, but I did want to think everybody for playing my Christmas Carol Contest.  The question was, can you spot the fairly obvious Shakespeare reference “right smack in the middle” of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? Apologies to those who I misled with “middle”, I did not expect you take me literally.  The reference I was looking for is only about 4 paragraphs in: The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot — say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance — literally to astonish his son’s weak mind. As I mentioned previously, this paragraph is almost always snipped from productions, so don’t feel bad if it’s completely foreign to you.  It is, however, on page 1 of the text :).  Bonus points to reader Deb for finding a Measure for Measure reference (“a vain man in his little brief authority”), and Carl for digging up a Twelfth Night connection when Scrooge goes visiting with the ghost of Christmas present.   Winners have been notified, and copies of Manga Macbeth and Manga Julius Caesar will be going out in the mail this week! Thanks again for playing, and hopefully 2009 will bring lots of new PR reps who like to send me free books that I can give away.

Had to share this email I just got from regular contributor Carl Atkins (with his permission): I have been noodling around with some research on Twelfth Night and came across this remark by H. H. Furness (in the preface to his New Variorum edition from 1901), which I just loved. I thought you might get a kick out of it: "If the use of the adverb ‘probably,’ in connection with all statements regarding Shakespeare, were legally forbidden on pain of death without the benefit of clergy, I think the world would be the happier, certainly the wiser." I like that little bit about "without the benefit of clergy." From the days when a fate worse than death was dying without the benefit of clergy! He then throws in this kicker at the end, which made me laugh out loud:  Note that the passage of this law would have reduced Stephen Greenblatt’s "Will in the World" to about 2 pages. :)  Thanks Carl!

Where is everybody?  The response for my Christmas Carol Contest has been less than overwhelming. To recap : In celebration of Charles Dickens’ timely ghost story A Christmas Carol, I’m giving away two of Shakespeare’s own ghost stories – Manga Macbeth and Manga Julius Caesar.  To get in on the action, just email me and tell me the Shakespeare reference in Dickens’ original that from what I can tell most of the movie/tv/audio versions seem to snip out for some reason. Contest ends at end of day on Christmas Eve.  For hopefully obvious reasons y’all will understand if I don’t get around to announcing the winners until after the holiday, however.