Happy Hour with Will Shakespeare. Ask us anything.

[Aristus]

[MrMickeysMom]

1. To be or not to be?

That wasn't even my question… but I like happy hour!

[Aristus]

3. Will says: "To be. Assuredly.

Self-murder is against The Book, and the Holy English Church, and all reason as well. God's Wounds! Hamlet would ne'er have seen Claudius to the nether regions if he had done himself in, yes?"

[MrMickeysMom]

4. Wow!

That really made me not want to KILL myself!

[Aristus]

6. Will says: "Why then, rejoice therefor!

No world but this, sweetest, loveliest Mother of Michael as ye be"

Uh-oh. Now you've got him going...

[In_The_Wind]

2. Will March enter as a lion or a lamb?

[Aristus]

5. Will says: "We shall see, shan't we, love?

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more temperate, and more fair..."

You'll have to forgive Wiil. He's well on his way already...

[pinboy3niner]

7. Will's in his cups already?

Well, that ought to make for some interesting verse.

[Aristus]

10. "O! Thou could'st teach the stars to shine!"

Will! Will! Cool it, will you, bro?

[In_The_Wind]

9. That he is ...

Methinks, Will has a bit of a crush on ITW.

[Aristus]

20. "Dearest love! Sweetest sunshine!

Angel that treads the muddy Earth in defile of man's mortality!

A kiss! Your holiest kiss I beg!"

Whew! He's gone around he bend!...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Alas, my dear Aristus and my dear Will...

I can't think of any questions.

I'm just glad to see you both tonight!

It's always more interesting when you're here...

[Aristus]

12. " Pegeen, lass! Oceans of love, Angel mine!

A drink for Mistress Margaret! I'th name o' the Great Equivocator! (God burn his bum...)"

[struggle4progress]

11. What does Will recommend drinking tonight?

[Aristus]

14. Dry sack and sugar, sweet lad!

Well met! And good time of day to you!"

[pinboy3niner]

16. I heard that's what killed Yorick

[Aristus]

18. "Moderation, lad. Moderation.

Yorick were the sweetest love of Hamlet's youth, he were. Drank himself into an untimely grave, he did. Go to!"

That's a laugh. Even as we speak, Will is drinking like it's going out of style...

[madinmaryland]

13. It is not for me, a simple peasant, to ask...

[Aristus]

15. "If thou wilt deny us thy company at table, lad,

Why then the poorer are we indeed! Ask! Ask!"

[Paulie]

17. Did the groundhog thaw out yet?

Or is he still a Popsicle?

[Aristus]

19. Will just nudged me and whispered:

"S'wounds, mate! Know you his meaning?"

Okay. YOU try explaining Groundhog Day to him...

Go on...

[rocktivity]

21. What is thy crest? A cock's comb?

rocktivity

[Aristus]

24. "Indeed!

Nature hath pricked me out for woman's pleasure!"

Oh God! The boasting begins!...

[Lionel Mandrake]

22. Hast thou an explanation?

We read Shakespeare with just a footnote here and there to compensate for how English has changed over a span of four centuries. Why is Chaucer's language, a mere two centuries older, so much harder that we need a translation?

[Aristus]

23. Chaucer is classified as Middle English by linguists.

When he was writing, Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, had been influenced by Norman French for only a couple of centuries.

By Shakespeare's time, Anglo-Saxon had been almost completely subsumed by Norman-influenced Modern English.

[Lionel Mandrake]

25. I'm sure you're right,

but there's still an enigma.

We call Chaucer's language Middle English and Shakespeare's Early Modern English, because the changes over the last four centuries are minor compared to the changes over the preceding two centuries. But why?

Is it possible that Shakespeare, King James's translation team, and Gutenberg all had something to do with this phenomenon?

[Aristus]

26. It may have more to do with the move Henry VIII made

instituting a policy that court doings would be recorded in English, rather than Latin, allowing Engish vernacular to be put down on paper for posterity for the first time.

[Lionel Mandrake]

36. The move from Latin to the vernacular, especially in print, must have played a role.

The same thing was happening in other countries and probably influenced the history of other modern European languages. Luther, for example, translated the Bible into German. A bit later, Galileo wrote the book that got him into trouble in the vernacular, whereas he had previously written in Latin.

Ironically enough, Henry VIII, who had been called the "defender of the faith", broke with Rome; this led to development of liturgy in English and created a market for English translations of the Bible. But without Gutenberg's invention of printing with movable type, these books in English would not have affected the language as much as they did.

History sure is complicated!

[Incitatus]

27. Is the groundhog going to see his shadow next year? nt

[Aristus]

28. Not a clue.

Neither of us is clairvoyant.

[Crewleader]

29. Happy Valentine's Day Aristus

[Aristus]

30. And to you, Crewleader!

[Rowdyboy]

31. But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

[Aristus]

32. Juliet. To which Romeo compares the dawn, and the rising sun.

And also the moon, because why not? He's horny, and he wants to get under her dress. Overwrought love-talk will do...

[Rowdyboy]

34. I memorized most of the scene for extra credit in high school....Used to quote it when I had

too much to drink. Thankfully for all concerned, I quit drinking.....

[orleans]

33. 2 questions

1. how do you feel about elliott sweet whose epitaph reads:
"Founder And Guiding Spirit, Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable, An Organization Dedicated To Unbiased Inquiry Into The True Identity Of The Author Of The Plays And Poems Generally Attributed To The Actor William Shakespeare.

2. and why, if such a great writer, did your own epitaph--written by you-- suck so bad?
"Good Friend, For Jesus’ Sake Forbear, To Dig The Dust Enclosed Here, Blest Be The Man That Spares These Stones, And Curst Be He That Moves My Bones"

[Aristus]

35. 1.

Only fools and idiots debate the 'authorship question'. The plays of William Shakespeare were written by William Shakespeare. Those who cite the scarcity of evidence that he wrote them tend to overlook the fact that there is no evidence to support their own preferred candidate, whoever it might be.

2. There's also no evidence that Will wrote his own epitaph, although it is assumed that he did, since his epitaph is in verse, and it rhymes. And if you think Shakespeare never had a bad day with the pen, then I suggest you read the poem "Shall I Die?", thought by most scholars to be an early poem by the Bard. It's pretty bad; amateurish, even.

[orleans]

37. maybe he wrote his epitaph around the same time as "shall i die?" then

i never heard of this elliott sweet's group (or anyone questioning shakespeare's writings) until lately when i came across sweet's epitaph just by chance. thought it was rather interesting tho. not that i had any doubts (until i came across shakespeare's epitaph! lol)