Today, April 23rd is World Reading Day. What better day to read a little Shakespeare. Not only is he considered the best of English writers, it is his birthday. April 23rd is when they celebrate both the birth and the death of William Shakespeare (born 1564 died 1616). Scholars are not sure of his birth other than he was baptised on April 26, and believe he was born three days prior.
I’ll start with a three volume set of books designed to help understand Shakespeare. “How to Study Shakespeare” by William H. Fleming, published 1898, 1900, 1903. As the author states “Shakespeare did not invent the subjects which he dramatized. He selected them from histories, stories, ballads, old plays, poems, of both ancient and modern literature. It is necessary that the student should be familiar with those histories, stories, ballads, old plays, poems which constitute the source of his plots.” The first chapter of each play is thus explained. The second chapter of each play, “is composed of Explanatory Notes. I have made them sufficiently full and complete, and yet not exhaustive or highly critical.”
The next book on Shakespeare is “Shakespeare and his Contemporaries””Together with the Plots of his Plays, Theatres and Actors” by William Tegg, 1879. It too, is a good book for the understanding of Shakespeare, and the age he lived in. There is a short biography, and then the plots of his plays, in chronological order. then a brief study of the times, and of other writers of that age. I have several other books by William Tegg-all are immensely collectable and well written.
Lastly, I have “Filthy Shakespeare: Shakespeare’s Most Outrageous Sexual Puns” by Pauline Kiernan, 2006. The book goes into some of the wordplay that Shakespeare used for his audiences. Shakespeare was very popular during his life time, partly because of his double entendres. He played to the crowd! This book helps understand the meanings of some writings and phrases.
“Within this limit is relieve enough
Sweet bottom-grass, and high delightful plain,
Round rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough,
To shelter thee from tempest and from rain…” Venus from Venus and Adonis.
And if I could paraphrase a little of the Bard:
“All the world’s a library, and all the men and women merely readers. They all have their beginnings and ends; And one man in his time posts many books, many stories.”
I thank thee for reading.
Librarytomes 