Ode To Will...

While in the library yesterday, I noticed posters on the wall and an entire shelf dedicated to the birth of William Shakespeare. Not really being a fan of the bard, I realized that (a) I know very little about the man and (b) I've never enjoyed his works. Masterpieces though they may be, I never delighted in the Elizabethan language of how William wanted his works to be read and understood. Perhaps it's the fact that my grade 9 English teacher (my she rest in peace -- I just read of her passing in yesterday's newspaper..she was 88 and all along I thought she must have been near that age when she taught us -- it's amazing how we "see" things when we are children) read "The Merchant of Venice" to us ... amid the (I'm ashamed to say) snores of 25 delightful students.

I have been to the Stratford Festival here in Ontario and forced myself to stay in my seat to watch Shakespeare in the round (class trip) and I proudly watched my son (now a University English & History double major) perform the role of Friar Laurence in "Romeo and Juliet" in a modernized high school production a few years ago. He knows I didn't understand a word he was saying -- I could hear him perfectly. He lost me at "hello" (which of course sounded nothing like "hello").

I realize though, that much as I may not be a scholar of Mr. Shakespeare, I know many of the quotes he immortalized and made famous, the most important of which to me is "to thine own self be true".

Here's a modern tribute to you Mr. Shakespeare...born in late April and baptized April 23, 1564. This one I understand perfectly!