The Bard

The fellow above is one William Shakespeare, born (they think) this day 1564, in Stratford upon Avon, England. Quite simply, he (whomever he may have been) was the best writer that the English language has seen, or will ever see. He produced most of his work between 1589, and 1613, and the list is too long to mention of the great plays, and poems he wrote. Of course, he wrote reams and reams of utter dross, but the quality he produced is without par. Today is generally regarded as his birthday, but no one is exactly certain of his date of birth. The major reason for this random date decision is because it day he died. I guess the scholars of the world wanted some sort of sense of ironic closure. There is still doubt about the authorship of his plays. Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, and others have been put forward as the actual author. I knew a pretty smart person that was (since she was an English major, and had read a LOT of Shakespeare) convinced that Shakespeare was a woman. The theory was that no man could write such brilliant roles and speeches for women, and who knows maybe Shakespeare was a woman, or maybe he was just a really sensitive man. Perhaps he was a little bit of both, two or three brilliant authors that wrote under the same name. I kind of am of the opinion that he was just one man, and was just one fucking GENIUS. I have read lines that he has wrote that made me want to cry. Lines he wrote have inspired me to greater things, lines he wrote that made me wish, with all my heart, that I had thought of them first. You can read all day and all night the details of Shakespeare's life, works, and death. This blog is not going to be the place to detail all of those. I do not have the time, skill, space, or talent to do him justice. He had all of those in spades, and I still love reading him today, and I am sure it is a love that will last my lifetime. So whoever, or whatever you were William Shakespeare (April 23rd 1564- April 23rd, 1616, at the age of 52), you are my (239nd) hero of the day.