Happy Birthday to the Bard of Avon!
Book adjacent… a classic edition “Little Thinker” from the Unemployed Philosophers Guild, a gift to our Head Alien on the occasion of his completing his Master of Arts in English.
It’s been a busy few weeks here at the Butterflies & Aliens Library and, yeah, we haven’t managed to post as much as we would have liked, but what’s done is done. Though we’ve seen better days, we definitely couldn’t let this day go by without at least a tip of the virtual quill to the Sweet Swan of Avon, the National Poet of England, the Immortal Bard… William Shakespeare!
So April 23 may not actually be his birthday… finding evidence of his proper date of birth has proven to be a wild goose chase… but we know he was baptised on April 26, 1564, and breathed his last on April 23, 1616. Perhaps in keeping with vibe of Shakespeare’s life, early biographers liked the poetry of his birth coming full circle and being on the same date as his death, so April 23 has been traditionally recognised as Shakespeare’s birthday ever since.
Whether his writing sets your teeth on edge or lives in your heart of hearts as the be all end all of literature… and whatever your stand on who he really was… there’s no denying the impact that “Shakespeare” has had on the English language, theatre, and even pop culture over the past 457 years.
The best advice we ever received about Shakespeare’s writing was that it was meant to be performed and heard, not just read silently from the printed page. With that in mind, we’d like to conclude this tribute with a link to Sir Patrick Stewart reading Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 1. And if you enjoy that… and how could you not?… be sure to follow sirpatstew on Instagram where you can hear him read all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Happy listening!
– Winston and Stacey
Our Butterfly-in-Chief’s copy of The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare.
A Head Alien Shakespeare shelfie!
Cover of Doctor Who’s The Shakespeare Notebooks.
Cover of Shakespeare’s Insults: Educating Your Wit, by Wayne F. Hall and Cynthia J. Öttchen.