“Why is the play called Julius Caesar if he dies half way through? Isn’t it really about Brutus?”
That’s a common enough question for a high school English exam. Future students who are going to go googling for an answer to that one will hopefully stumbled across David (“Master of Verona”) Blixt’s post on the subject in which he combines his not inconsiderable Shakespeare experience with his recent research in Roman history to answer this and many more questions. It’s certainly true now that most people have trouble separating what really happened to Caesar, and who he was as a person, from what Shakespeare had to say about him.
In fact, David’s post is an announcement of the play he’s just written, which takes place between Caesar and Brutus the night before the Ides of March. “The great flaw, to me,” writes Blixt, “has always been the lack of interaction betwen Caesar and Brutus. For men with such a tangled personal and political history, the play is remarkably slient regarding their past.”
Sounds like a great idea to me, and I wish him much success with the project!

I love it when my kids play Shakespeare puzzles. So much so that, as a programmer, I’m often on the hunt for puzzle generator programs so that I can fill in my own subject matter.

Well, I found a word search generator recently, and while I get it to the point where I need it for my kids, I thought I’d share it with you all. Of course, you get the hard version. Ready?

O V R U K U E A F D C D N O L V D A T T
R R O D E C C L E O P A T R A U E I X L
T O D U N C A N R R R H T C A S S I O V
L G E R T R U D E M E T R I U S D E H K
C R R M T A E C O L T O I Y F T E A M E
O E I V O L I C L E S S P N D O M C A T
C X G L I R U O U A E P I H B L O T C R
V M O A T L E A L O C U E U E R N L D O
L A N A U I R I C R U C B T N L A O U I
E C E L C I N E I L O K A R E U I S F Y
H B R O R D X D D A L D N K D O T A F I
S E I I E T S G R N G L Q I I O S F T I
C T L V M R H A U D A O U L C I A I L C
D H U E A O E R N O A S O J K T B A A Y
A N T O N Y R U Y S I V Y U S A E I B S
N M A I O A M F I S N F Z L U R S V Y U
B B S O R D I L L E A R A I T O F I T A
T R U R E G A N B H T F I E U H R L I T
O S S L B I C A S S I U S T R A A O R L
S E R S O A D D R T T O L I B C D R F U

So, here’s the catch – I’m not telling you the words I’ve hidden in it. What I will tell you is this:

• It’s all character names.
• There’s 50 of them. All one word each, I haven’t gotten tricky with stuff like “Richard III” or things like that. Kings and other titled people, if I’ve included any (hint hint), would be represented by their single identifiable name. So for instance “Duke of Cornwall” would show up as Cornwall. If he’s in there. Which he’s not.
• Not all the plays are represented, and the plays that are represented are not all represented evenly – some have half a dozen or more entries, some have just one or two.
• Since I made the list off the top of my head, long time readers get a bonus in knowing which plays I’m most familiar with and more likely to go to for content 🙂

This is not a contest, there is no prize. What I will do, however, is announce the name of the winner in a future blog post, if people want to play it like that. So you can proudly declare yourself a geek on a number of levels, and show all your friends. Whoever sends me back the list of 50 names first will be declared the winner. I’m not going to require you send me a scanned copy of the puzzle where you found all the names, I’ll assume that if you get the list right you must have found them all.

Have fun!

[ First appeared December, 2005 ]
I had never before seen this parody entitled Shakespeare and Christmas, by Max Beerbohm. The premise chosen is that since Shakespeare only ever mentioned Christmas once in his entire body of work – and even then, in not very flattering light — therefore he must have utterly loathed the holiday.I think it’s funny.

[ I may, if I can find the time, put together a Buyer’s Guide for Shakespeare Gifts. This is not that post. ]
I don’t have any special Shakespeare things on my Christmas list this year. In the past i’ve gotten DVDs, books, action figures, pillows, a watch. My 6yr old in particular likes to think of Shakespeare as an adjective meaning “stuff Daddy likes” and for years has told me, on holidays, “We’re getting you 16 Shakespeare things!” because she knows it will make me happy ;).
Don’t tell my wife, but last night while watching Miracle on 34th Street my wife non-chalantly picked up her Netbook and logged on. “No fair!” I claim, having been busted for this behavior in the past, “Family time. Computers off.”
“I just have to check the status of something,” she says.
The 6yr old is sitting next to her, and reads over her shoulder. With a gasp she says “Hamlet!” and my wife immediately shushes her and tells her to watch the movie. I don’t know if she knows that I heard that.
So, see, now I’m intrigued. I’d gather that means that I’m getting a Hamlet something for Christmas. But I have no idea what it could be. The only logical thing I can think of is Kenneth Brannagh’s Hamlet on DVD, but that new release is Bluray, and we don’t have Bluray (she knows this, at least I hope she knows this). Although I don’t have that movie in my collection either way, so if she’s getting me the older version that’ll be nice, too. 🙂
By the way, this is not my request for people to tell me what other Hamlet products it could be, that’d take away the fun. She’s not mentioned it to me at all, or even asked for ideas, so whatever it is she’s thought of it entirely on her own, which is exactly how i like my Christmas presents. Some people do that whole “Pick out your own thing and I’ll just wrap it up for you” nonsense, but I don’t see it.
What Shakespeare stuff is on your list?

Don’t forget, there’s always Shakespeare Geek Merchandise! And I just lowered the price on my book, too!

One of the missions of this site was originally to spot and document Shakespeare references in the wild, no matter how trivial (as long as they were at least interesting and not cliche, that is). Here’s one that may take the cake. In this week’s podcast episode of This American Life, entitled “Poultry Slam” and focusing on the theme of, well, poultry, comes the story of Chicken Little … The Opera.
That is correct. Someone’s taken the “sky is falling” story and transformed it into an opera. In Italian, even. Oh, but did I mention that it is acted out by finger puppets? The opera actually tells the life story of Chicken Little, who at one point pulls a Sarah Bernhardt and games fame and notoriety for her Shakespeare. “Juliet? Cleopatra? Ophelia?” asks host Ira Glass.
No. Richard III.
“You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a 4 inch high finger puppet of a duck calling for a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse,” says Ira. “In Italian.” (Unfortunately this is radio, so we don’t see it – and the snippets that we get do not apparently include the Richard III sequence.)
Fair Warning #1 : To get to this story, which I believe was Act 3 (in the middle), you have to sit through what is assuredly the most annoying story they’ve ever done about two college girls who talk to each other in this annoying duck voice. It was just awful. You know how families have “had to be there” jokes that everybody gets, even though the root of the joke goes back 20 years? Yeah, imagine some genius getting the idea to broadcast that joke to a national audience, and having to listen to it told by two girls who still think it’s funny.
Fair Warning #2 : This may be the only time in your life that you’ll hear Ira Glass say the words, “She waves it at the flaccid cock, but the cock does not rise.” Remember, this is a show about chickens. 😉