If anybody ever corners me and asks for a Shakespeare trivia question, I will say, “Who is Corambis?”
The answer is that this is the name Polonius is called by in the Bad Quarto of Hamlet.

The origin of the name Corambis has been the subject of scholarly speculation. Some have noted that William Cecil (Lord Burghley), Queen Elizabeth I’s chief counselor, had the Latin motto Cor unum, via una (“One heart, one way”), and that Corambis can be interpreted as Latin for “double-hearted” (cor meaning “heart” and bis or ambis meaning “twice” or “double”), implying deceitfulness or two-facedness, which satirically points to Burghley’s motto. This suggests it might originally have been a satirical reference to Burghley, and that the name Polonius was substituted in later versions, possibly to avoid offense or censorship.

However, not all scholars agree; some argue that the name change could reflect an early version of the play, or that Corambis and Montano might have been derived from other sources, such as Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, where a character named Corambus appears.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a new set of Shakespeare stamps is being produced that showcases iconic images from their performances.

First up is David Tennant’s Hamlet, which will surely get all the love – but personally I’d like to see the 1976 Ian McKellen stamp from Romeo & Juliet, which they seem to have banished to airmail.

Anybody know if a list has been published that shows all of them? Ideally, with pictures? The linked article contains only a picture of the Tennant stamp.

UPDATED: I originally thought that this was a set of 50 stamps, that is apparently not correct. More details to follow.

UPDATED AGAIN : Look what I got! Thanks to Andrew Boyers from RoyalMailStamps for the goods!  Which is your favorite? I think I love them all.  I love the Lear quote, it goes great with the pose. And look at the hair on Sir Ian!

Want them for yourself?

Click for full size

I have no idea what I just watched. Sir Ian McKellen, reciting Sonnet 20, on a tv show called “Andy Warhol’s 15 Minutes” from MTV circa 1987 while a band called The Fleshtones jams out in the background.

How about a book on the subject of suicide in Shakespeare? On that subject alone, how many suicides can you name? I saw it and figured Brutus, Cassius, Othello, Romeo and Juliet…then had to think about it. Ophelia, maybe?

The book focuses on patterns of suicide present in six Shakespearean tragedies: “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “King Lear,” “Timon of Athens,” “Othello” and “Julius Caesar.”

No mention of R&J. Interesting. What about Lear? Is he going to talk about what happens strictly in the last scene? I can’t honestly remember whether Regan poisons Goneril and then kills herself, or it’s the other way around. And are we to take Kent’s “My master calls me, I must not say no” as his impending suicide? That’s how I’ve always assumed it.
The inclusion of Hamlet makes me assume that he’s speaking of Ophelia, although I think her state of mind would make any conclusions about suicide somewhat questionable.
What of Macbeth? Does it ever clearly say that Lady M kills herself? I’m looking at the MIT version of the text right now and it goes straight from “The queen my lord is dead” right into to-morrow and to-morrow, with no real explanation in between.

As I walk around the building at lunch (8 laps, 2 miles) I notice bumper stickers. I see one that says, “Eventers do it 3 ways in 3 days.” I think, given the context of other stickers, that this is some sort of horse / show-jumping thing. But it makes me realize that there’s an audience that will get that, no matter how esoteric.

So I’m surprised to google “Shakespeareans do it…” and get no good bumper sticker answers.

No, the point of this post is not to collect ideas and then run off to start a bumper sticker business ;). Though if any good ones come up and there’s interest I could always change my mind!

Feel free to substitute in Hamlet, Macbeth, or other nouns besides “Shakespeareans” to keep it interesting.

When Shakespeareans do it, everybody dies at the end.

Shakespeareans do it with boys dressed as girls dressed as boys.

Hamlet does it with a skull.

Richard III does it for a horse.

Macbeth will do it tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow.

Shakespeareans do it with their tongues in your tail.