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Talk Like Shakespeare Day

Miss Cellania — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:21:15 +0000

Today is the 445th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare. In honor of this occasion, today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Here are some ways to do it:

1. Instead of you, say thou. Instead of y’all, say thee.
2. Rhymed couplets are all the rage.
3. Men are Sirrah, ladies are Mistress, and your friends are all called Cousin.
4. Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous bunch-back’d toads.
5. Don’t waste time saying “it,” just use the letter “t” (’tis, t’will, I’ll do’t).
6. Verse for lovers, prose for ruffians, songs for clowns.
7. When in doubt, add the letters “eth” to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth).
8. To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth or wherefore.
9. When wooing ladies: try comparing her to a summer’s day. If that fails, say “Get thee to a nunnery!”
10. When wooing lads: try dressing up like a man. If that fails, throw him in the Tower, banish his friends and claim the throne.

Forsooth, ’tis a pity methinks, if no one deigns to understandeth me. Link -via the Presurfer

Is This What Shakespeare Looked Like?

Miss Cellania — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:13:00 +0000

A recently identified portrait of William Shakespeare, if genuine, would be the only true likeness we have of The Bard. The popular face of Shakespeare that we know was taken from a woodcut by Martin Droeshout that was published after the playwright’s death. The newly-identified portrait was painted around 1610, when Shakespeare was 46 years old. The painting has been in the hands of the Cobbe family for centuries. Current owner Alec Cobbe saw another portrait that supposedly depicted Shakespeare and saw a resemblance. He then asked Stanley Wells of Birmingham University to help authenticate it.

The two men arranged to have the Cobbe painting subjected to a battery of scientific tests — tree-ring-dating to determine the age of the wood panel, X-ray examination at the Hamilton-Kerr Institute at Cambridge University and infrared reflectography. The tests produced convincing evidence that the panel dated from around 1610 and was the source for the Folger painting, among others. Wells is now sure of it. “I don’t think anyone who sees [the Cobbe painting] would doubt this is the original,” he says. “It’s a much livelier painting, a much more alert face, a more intelligent and sympathetic face.”

Link -via Metafilter

Watermelon-Flavored Freud Lollipops

Stacy — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:12:27 +0000

Archie McPhee is known for its weird stuff, but this is really weird. I’m sure Freud himself would have something to say about it. But hey, if fruity Austrian psychoanalysts on a stick aren’t for you, there’s always cherry-flavored Marie Antoinette severed heads, orange-flavored Abe Lincoln heads, blueberry-flavored Will Shakespeares and cola-flavored Vladimir Lenins. I love Archie McPhee.

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5 Things About Shakespeare You Didn't Know

Alex — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:43:18 +0000

AskMen has a pretty nifty post about the 5 things you didn’t know about Shakespeare. Take, for instance, the word "torture" – yep, good ol’ Will invented it (well, technically he made the noun "torture" which existed at the time into the verb form):

3- Shakespeare invented "torture"

Shakespeare didn’t just invent "torture," but also "excitement," "addiction" and "savagery." Another of the five things you might not have known about Shakespeare is just how much he’s influenced the English language. Our man Will invented about 1,700 words in the English language. A remarkable number of the phrases and words we use every day first appeared in Shakespeare’s work. Shakespeare converted verbs into adjectives or nouns into verbs whenever it suited him. Amazingly, his linguistic inventions stuck, and we still use them today.

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