I freely admit that I'm a goofball. I come by it naturally. I live with goofballs. That's right, we're goofballs, we're happy and we know it.One of my goofy traits is my love for Shakespeare. It's not really a scholarly love. Okay, it's more like a crush. I love the Bard's ribald sense of humor. I'm in awe of the man that wrote so much prose in iambic pentameter. I love the fact that after 400 plus years his plays can be performed in a contemporary setting and still make perfect sense.
Then of course, there's the conspiracy theory that Sir Francis Bacon was not only the love child of Queen Elizabeth I but also the true author of all of Shakespeare's works.
In addition to the book of Shakespearean insults that I bought the boys, I keep a slim volume of the Sonnets on my bedside table so I can read a few before I turn in for the night.
I also held on to my college text book of the Complete Works. In high school we covered a lot of Shakespeare sampling a little bit of everything. Compared with other friends, my high school was unusual in that respect. Unfortunately, my college prof was really hung up on the Histories and we about beat the Henry plays to death. But I'll never forget the St. Crispin's Day speech!
We have one extremely awkward room in our house. It's sort of an over-sized foyer that our front door opens into. The Danish furniture ended up in this room and it looks lovely. Our bookcases full of our gazillions of books are located in this room.G-Man wanted to know what to call this odd room. So we started calling it the "Danish Room." Which then quickly evolved into the "Hamlet Room." Finally we decided to call it the "Bard Room" and started moving things into it that would symbolize the plays of Shakespeare. The framed calendar page for March 15th is for Julius Caesar.
The ceramic horse is for Richard III. "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"
The young lady with the rose is for Romeo & Juliet. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
The butterflies are the closest I could get to fairies in a male dominated house to represent A Midsummer Night's Dream.
And the monkey... well, his name is Will.
9 comments:
That's great! My parents have a room in their house that I joke about because everything is untouchable--crystal, all breakable stuff, etc. I call it the John Ringling room! It gets their dander up.
I love classic literature, but for some reason have never liked Shakespeare. It probably had something to do with how it was first presented to me by my biotch of an English teacher at the time, Mrs. Blair. She was hateful.
See, we are related; I love the Bard as well! I have a stuffed Shakespeare doll I got at Drew University in NJ. We used to do the Shakespeare Festival each summer there. I've yet to find a place that does his plays as well as they did there! And I love the sonnets, so beautiful...
The Bard room is very cool indeed!
love me some shakespeare...
"Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind, and therefore wing'd Cupid painted blind, nor hath love's mind any judgement taste, wings and no eyes figure unheeded haste, therefore love is said to be a child, because in choice, he is so oft beguiled."
I played Portia in "When Shakespeare's Ladies Meet", a collaborative of all his heroines.
Did I mention that I love Shakespeare?
J's reading Romeo and Juliet in English. They have been reading it for like a month. He told me over the weekend that the edition they have has the original on the left and a translation on the right. Umm, its english. Why do they need a translation.
This is too funny! I'm a former Math teacher and I make just as big a deal of yesterday, March 14 - Pi Day. I go way overboard serving everyone pie for every meal, contests to see who can memorize the most decimals of pi, etc. For some reason, I've never thought to make a big deal of March 15th as well (I also taught English) - guess I'm too wiped out from Pi Day to celebrate another holiday the very next day. Thanks for the inspiration for next year, however - what a fun idea!
Although it is a bit embarrassing to admit to being an English major and non-practicing secondary English teacher that really doesn't like Shakespeare all that much, I fear this is the case--but that doesn't mean that I don't love this--because I do (particularly Will!). Minus the Shakespeare, I can relate to so much of this: the room full of books, the love for literature and interpreting it in creative ways--so cool!!
Fantastic room. We should all have at least one "awkward" room in our homes! And I love Will the monkey :)
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