The headline when I spotted it read, Book dealer who defaced copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio… and I clicked on it, thinking “Please be ‘savagely beaten in prison’ please be ‘savagely beaten in prison.'”
Nope.
“Working in prison library.”
Oh, sure, that makes sense. After all, he’s an authority on great literature. :-/

I won’t begin to summarize Paul Edmondson’s blog post entitled “Extinguishing Shakespeare’s Sonnets”, you really need to go read it for yourself. In it he reviews Don Paterson’s Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets: A New Commentary. And, well….. he didn’t like it. And I can see why.
A few snippets to get your dander up before you go read the original. And remember, these are Paterson’s words, not Edmondson’s:
‘This isn’t a great poem’ (Sonnet 2);
‘Another dull one’ (Sonnet 10);
‘Not much to see here, folks’ (Sonnet 41);
‘I’d cheerfully send this one into the unanthologised dark‘ (Sonnet 68);
… and so on. That’s only a brief snip of the examples given in the post, which in itself is only a summary of the larger work. I think Paul actually shows a great deal of restraint in his view – he sounds more sad than angry, that a new collection like this could’ve been cause for celebration, and instead it is just a bitter disappointment.
(Somebody hold catkins back! The man’s a doctor, he’s got access to sharp instruments.)

Here’s an interesting story – an old Shakespeare text from 1977 has been found with scribbled notes in the margins that have been authenticated as those of Princess Diana The play? The Tempest. There’s also apparently some math notes, and she weren’t so good at da math.
I’m not sure what’s more sad, though – her handwriting, her grasp of math, or the article’s sad emphasis on pocket change: ‘Being a Yorkshireman, my father always checked what people had thrown out in case it was worth a few bob.” And then later, “‘I’m shocked and delighted it’s worth so much. I’m going to sell it at the right auction and at the right time.’” Absolutely – you’ve found a piece of history. Sell it as fast as you can.
Also interesting is that it’s only worth about 1500 British pounds, which is somewhere around $2000US. At that price I think I’d keep it. What am I going to do when I sell it, buy a television? That’d make fun dinner conversation. “Oh, like the new high def? Yeah, I sold a piece of British history for it.”

Regular readers know that I’ll often sing “Shakespeare songs” to my kids as lullabies. I know two — Sonnet 18, which I originally heard put to music by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd (and used to use as my cellphone ringtone), and “What A Piece of Work Is Man” from the HAIR soundtrack.
So last night I crawl into bed with the 4yr old. “Daddy sing you a song?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“What song should I sing?”
“Shakespeare,” he said
“Which one?” I asked
“William,” he answered.
…
You know that thing that fish do when you take them out of the water, how the little mouth just sort of opens and closes and nothing really comes out? I had one of those moments. It took me a good number of seconds to shake it off and regain myself. “Which Shakespeare song,” I asked more clearly.
“The one about the guy? With the skeleton? And he talks to it?”
“Hamlet?”
“Yeah, Hamlet.”
Ah, back to reality. 🙂

Thanks to Bardfilm for pointing out this list of the 30 Best Shakespeare Blogs. Best, of course, is in the eye of the beholder — look at instead as a survey across the wonderful world of Shakespeare Blogging. How much it’s grown in 5 years!
Many of our friends made the list. Congratulations to Mad Shakespeare, Shakespeare Place (JM’s site), Shakespeare Teacher, American Shakespeare Center, Bardfilm, Folger, Shakespeare Standard … great work, everybody!