Soothsayer: “Beware the Ides of March.”
Caesar: “The Ides of March are come.”
Soothsayer: “ay, Caesar; but not gone.”
The above is a passage from Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. Caesar is bantering with a soothsayer, saying that the Ides of March have come, but nothing has happened. The soothsayer reminds Caesar that the day is not over. Soon, Caesar later is stabbed 23 times in the Senate. The Ides of March is today, March 15th. Shakespeare was at his best when he wrote Julius Caesar. When I read the orations of first Brutus, and then of Anthony, I marvel at the extraordinary writing skills of Shakespeare. This book – one of my favorites, is a lone surviving volume from a set of the works of Shakespear, published by Sands, Murray, and Cochran – 1753. One of the oldest (second oldest) books in my library.
When I read Shakespeare, I usually use this boxed set, from 1978. I bought it while in college. I took two classes of Shakespeare, one on tragedies, and one on comedies. Several of the most enjoyable classes I took.
Recently, I made a trip to Rome, and saw where Caesar died. The consensus now is that he was stabbed at the Curia di Pompeo, an area of Roman excavations recently opened up.
Coincidentally, not only Caesar expired on March 15. The author H.P. Lovecraft died on March 15, 1937. I read his spooky stories in high school, and they were some of the first books I actively collected. I have a shelf of his writings, mentioned on January 2. Here I am showing his biography, and a bibliography of his writings. “Lovecraft” by L. Sprague De Camp, 1975, and “The revised H.P. Lovecraft bibliography by Mark Owings, 1973.
In 2015 March 15, Clarissa Dickson Wright died. She was one of the “Two Fat Ladies” of British cooking fame. It was a show I watched often. They were unashamedly not skinny, and had a joyful irreverence in their banter as they cooked wonderfully rich foods. Butter was a must-have staple. Welcome a recent book to my library, “Two Fat Ladies, Gastronomic Adventures” 1996.
They would use the motorcycle and sidecar every show, as they would drive to events or homes, and cook on-site. This is a very usable cookbook featuring recipes from their first season. The initial recipes I will try are “Potted Shrimp” a cold appetizer, and for dessert, “Aquitanian Walnut Torte” with black walnuts, and coffee bean frosting. As the title states, these are “excellent recipes.”
While the above people have each left this world on their individual ‘Ides of March’ day, they all have given us some legacy of their lives. To paraphrase Anthony “I hope to not just bury, but to praise them as well.” We too, should hopefully live to be remembered and praised. At least to be active, to be honest, and to be yourself. And perhaps… to be reading.
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Librarytomes 