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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Boston area, OK, Newton, right by Heartbreak Hill

    Happy Shakespeare's Birthday

    Today is Shakespeare's 444th Birthday, celebrate accordingly.

    What's your favorite Shakespeare play?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    There's the obvious Hamlet, but I love Othello too, simply because Iago is one of literature's finest characters. I've also always loved A Midsummer Night's Dream.

    Incidentally, today is also Walter's (above, left) birthday.

  3. #3
    Hamlet wins for the antic disposition. Also, I can recite the 'to be, or not to be' soliloquy, so I'm always hoping a discussion of Hamlet will give me an opportunity to show off.

  4. #4
    Not really a fan of the bard, but I was in the room he was born in when I visited Stratford upon Avon a few years back.

    I think my favorite of his plays is "Taming of the Shrew" though can't share a quote to save my life.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Boston area, OK, Newton, right by Heartbreak Hill

    Nerd Alert

    From Othello:

    'The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief.'

    From Midsummer's: Oh so many, how about

    'And this same progeny of evils
    Comes from our debate, from our discension.
    We are their parents and originals.'

    Or

    'How happy some o'er other some can be,
    Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
    But what of that, Demetrius thinks not so.'

    From Hamlet:

    'My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
    Words without thoughts never to heaven go.'

    And from 'Taming of the Shrew':

    'Why does all the world say that Kate doth limp?'

    bb - feel free to show off

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Bostondevil View Post
    bb - feel free to show off
    What I love most about the soliloquy is how many pretentious artistes have used snippets to name their book, band, movie, etc. 'This Mortal Coil,' 'What Dreams May Come,' 'Perchance to Dream' to name just a few. And I'm guessing there's a movie called 'Therein Lies the Rub,' but it may not be safe to look for it while at work.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Boston area, OK, Newton, right by Heartbreak Hill
    Just for fun (for nerds only perhaps):

    Be not afraid of greatness
    Some are born great, some achieve greatness,
    and some have greatness thrust upon them.

    OK, name the play.

    Name the character who actually says the line.

    Extra credit: Name the character who composed the line.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Waterloo, Ontario (unfortunately, no longer in London England).
    Quote Originally Posted by Bostondevil View Post
    Just for fun (for nerds only perhaps):

    Be not afraid of greatness
    Some are born great, some achieve greatness,
    and some have greatness thrust upon them.

    OK, name the play.
    Twelfth Night

    Name the character who actually says the line.
    Malvolio

    Extra credit: Name the character who composed the line.
    No clue - except that it wasn't Olivia.

  9. #9
    In high school, I spent 2 years as a major theater geek and had the opportunity to act in a couple Shakespeare plays and perform in the National Shakespeare Competition. I was Feste the Clown in Twelfth Night and I was King Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Feste was more fun to play, but Oberon was a stud and I got to kiss a girl on stage

    In the Shakespeare competition, I performed a monologue from Taming of the Shrew and finished 2nd in Southwest Virginia.

    I enjoy all of those plays, but Hamlet is my favorite. I've seen multiple versions of it (some good, some awful), but the superb writing is timeless.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Lexington, KY

    Talking Monty Python's Shakespeare in anagrams

    This reminds me of Monty Python's famous sketch about the man who speaks in anagrams. He acted in "The Mating of the Wersh," "Two Netlemeng of Verona", and "Twelfth Thing".

    His two best lines were:
    'Be ot or bot ne ot, tath is the nestquoi.'
    'A shroe! A shroe! My dingkom for a shroe!'

    Wow ... now that's something completely different.

    Happy birthday, Bill!
    Reehcs,
    Lavabe

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Lexington, KY

    Smile I love youtube

    Oh MAN... the anagram sketch is on youtube. If you get a chance, youtube "Monty Python anagram".

    Wow... I hadn't seen that sketch in ages.

    Warning: One little choice phrase at the end. Don't want to chance that phrase before the moderators here.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    St. Louis, MO

    Happy birthday, Bill!

    I may be a science nerd, but I took a Shakespeare class in college. That course gave root to a great fondness for the Bard that carries forth to this day. As a result of the fill in the blank quote tests, I can still recite certain passages. One of my favorites: (Which play?)

    The quality of mercy is not strained,
    It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
    upon the place below. It is twice blessed:
    It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.
    'Tis mightiest in the mightiest,
    It becomes the throned monarch better than his crown.
    (That's from memory, so please excuse mistakes. That's about as far as I can get after 20 years!)

    Does anyone else remember the TV show "Moonlighting"? They did an adaptation of "The Taming of the Shrew" was fairly accurate and quite hysterical.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Boston area, OK, Newton, right by Heartbreak Hill
    Quote Originally Posted by ArkieDukie View Post
    I may be a science nerd, but I took a Shakespeare class in college. That course gave root to a great fondness for the Bard that carries forth to this day. As a result of the fill in the blank quote tests, I can still recite certain passages. One of my favorites: (Which play?)

    The quality of mercy is not strained,
    It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
    upon the place below. It is twice blessed:
    It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.
    'Tis mightiest in the mightiest,
    It becomes the throned monarch better than his crown.
    (That's from memory, so please excuse mistakes. That's about as far as I can get after 20 years!)

    Does anyone else remember the TV show "Moonlighting"? They did an adaptation of "The Taming of the Shrew" was fairly accurate and quite hysterical.
    That's Portia in the courtroom from The Merchant of Venice. More trivia, who is the merchant of Venice?

    colchar, you're correct with the Twelfth Night trivia. Maria writes the letter because she can immitate her ladies' hand.

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