It used to be thought that the “bear’ was a man in costume.  But scholars have now focused on the fact that two polar bear cubs were brought back from the waters off Greenland in 1609, that they were turned over to Philip Henslowe’s bear collection (hard by the Globe theater), and that polar bears show up in three productions of the 1610-1611 theatrical season….Polar bears become fierce at pubescence and were relegated to bear baiting, but the cubs were apparently still trainable in their  young state.”

Read more in the post In Praise of Footnotes. You might even start reading the fine print in your books! Link -via Improbable Research

(Image credit: Flickr user Rainer Hungershausen)

Shakespearan Love Mug

“Doubt that the stars are fire,
doubt that the sun doth move,
doubt truth to be a liar,
but never doubt I love.”

William Shakespeare had a lot to say about love, and many of those things are right here on the Shakespearan Love Mug from the NeatoShop. What a great gift to express your feelings for Valentine’s Day! Or anytime at all, if you want to be really classy. The Shakespeare Mug is just one of many message mugs for all occasions at the NeatoShop. Order yours today!

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Skull of Yorick – $12.95

Have you been dieing to reenact your favorite scene from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet? You need the Skull of Yorick from the NeatoShop.  This resin skull will save you the trouble and legal ramifications of having a gravedigger exhume some other deceased court jester for you.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Shakespeare or Halloween items.

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If today’s latest meme craze is indeed the pop culture mashup, then what too someone so long to come up with Shakespere and Dr. Seuss? One wonders. English majors, avert thine eyes, or preparest thyself for Green Eggs and Hamlet posted on Popped Culture by Jeremy Barker. Scroll down for Scooby-Doo and The Prince of Denmark and William Shakespeare’s Pulp Fiction.

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Previously: Green Eggs and Hamlet performed onstage.

You could probably guess that Shakespeare had some sort of creative influence on Jane Austen, but this handy infographic from Longshot magazine carries it a bit further, linking Tolstoy to Jim Morrison and Lord Byron to JJ Abrams. I find the Tolstoy to Muhammad Ali connections especially interesting.

Link via Flavorwire via Lapham’s Quarterly

William Shakespeare has writer’s block! In this story, his little stick figure friends, Romeo and Juliet, try to help out, but inspiration only comes when they give up. Shakesperean Tragedy (a comedy) was the final student project by Anna Cohen at Emuna College in Jerusalem. Link

Shakespearean Insult Gum – $2.45

Do you have trouble coming up with witty insults?  The NeatoShop is here to help.  With Shakespearean Insult gum you will never have to think of a good insult again. Just calmly pop open a box and let Shakespeare do the insulting for you. You there -

Thy wit’s as thick as a Tewkesbury mustard!

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Shakespearean merriment.

The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned the Brothers MacLeod to produce six short animations about William Shakespeare and his pet pig Francis searching for inspiration. The project is part of the celebration of the reopening of the Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres after a three-and-a-half year renovation project. Three videos of the series titled “Billy”, are available at YouTube. Link -Thanks, Myles!

Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet. – @AdviceToWriters

Ain’t that the truth! And it’s a occupational hazard when your job is to offer internet distractions to everyone. This Twaggie was inspired by @AdviceToWriters. Like all Twaggies, it is available in print or t-shirt form. Link

Though Shakespeare’s influence tends to be thought of in the context of academics and books, he’s also had a steady influence on geekdom. After the jump, five geeky ways you can bring in the Bard’s birthday:

1. Watch Star Trek.

If you watch closely, Shakespeare has an enormous influence over Star Trek: Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha has a very comprehensive list of influences over the years. Lots of Trek titles are Shakespeare references, Captain Picard loved to recite The Bard, and oh — William Shatner is a classically trained Shakespearean actor.

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“Food remains and seeds indicate that the preferred snacks were oysters, crabs, mussels, periwinkles and cockles. Walnuts, hazelnuts, plums, cherries, peaches, dried raisins and figs were also popular…”

The distribution of food remains over the site suggested that there was a class divide in the consumption of snacks. [Museum of London archaeologist Julian] Bowsher explained that remains found underneath the gallery seating suggested that the wealthier classes munched on crabs and sturgeon, as well as imported treats like peaches and dried figs. Meanwhile, oyster shells were found scattered all over the yard area, where commoners stood.

“At that time, oysters were indeed the staple diet of the poor,” Bowsher said.

Link.  Image credit: Museum of London Archaeology

What if Shakespearean costumes were designed by an artist who drew superheroes? That would never happen, right?

In 1969, Sheldon Feldner contacted Marvel Comics, asking if one of Marvel’s artists would be interested in designing costumes for a production of William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar by the University Theatre Company at Santa Cruz at the newly-built Cowell College of the University of California at Santa Cruz.

As luck would have it, the Kirby family had recently moved to California, and Stan Lee recommended that Feldner contact Jack Kirby.

Jack Kirby {wiki} was the creator of such characters as Captain America, The Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. But he went to work designing not only the costumes but also a poster for the student production. His sketches, and some pictures of the actual costumes, are posted at the Kirby Museum. Link -via Metafilter

This video shows an actor performing the “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, restoring the language to the original Klingon. The play became available in the United Federation of Planets in 2000, thanks to the efforts of the Klingon Language Institute.

via Wandering Goblin | Amazon.com Link

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

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

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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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