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The A – Z Challenge; U: Happy Birthday Billy S.

The A – Z Challenge; U: Happy Birthday Billy S.

(Instead of doing a differently named subject based on the letter for the day, I’m using the letters of the alphabet as hierarchical headings only.)

Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 23818 – 1257

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends, Foes, Longtime Followers and Other Assorted, Diverse and Sundry Readers,

Here’s the haps:

I’ve done a number of posts for Shakespeare’s birthday, but I really like him and will probably do more. Time is crunched right now but here is a cut-and-paste from a post I wrote a few years ago explaining how I met the bard and some thoughts. I also have included memes at the end, so all’s well that ends well.

Word of the day · Today
bardolatry
[bärˈdälətrē]
NOUN
humorous
excessive admiration of Shakespeare.

Forsooth! Canst one tell the day? The time? Of a truth, today is “Talk Like Shakespeare Day” and if thou wouldst indulge me in a small bit of bardolatry I will shortly relate, if it be not long, how I came to know the bard.

Verily, many people who know me and/or have visited here before, know that I am something of a fan of William Shakespeare. I am not the biggest fan or the most scholarly, but I know what I like and I like Billy S. I became intrigued by the bard when I was a very young teenager and saw or read or heard someone say that the line in Romeo & Juliet, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo,” was not an inquiry as to his whereabouts but was about his name. This surprised me and I went to the library and checked it out. I was kind of shocked. My teenage mind understood quite well the opening scene’s bawdy puns and double-entendres and reeled at the idea that this was classic literature. Who had been hiding this stuff?

I checked out The Complete Works of William Shakespeare from the library that day and no, I didn’t understand every word, but the story drew me in. I was understanding the story well enough to get through it. At the end, I found myself wanting to shout at the book the way people at horror movies shout at the person about to go down into the dark basement, “No, you fools! Don’t…” I learned, firsthand, what the word “Tragedy” meant. But in the book were also plays called histories and comedies as well. I don’t recall, but I think that “The Merchant of Venice” was next, then “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” I discovered some very serious and dark things as well.

At the same time I had an English Teacher, Sonja Maas, who saw that I had an interest and began teaching about Iambic Pentameter and The Sonnets. I had always loved reading and now I was thinking about writing as well. I loved learning about the sonnets and how they were constructed and the patterns that were in them and began to try a few of my own.

During this time I also discovered a poet named Don Marquis. I mention him in passing, but he was, to my idea, a pretty great poet from the 1920s. The work I discovered was a collection of his poems called, The Best of Archy and Mehitabel. Archy was a cockroach who lived in Marquis’ office who claimed to have been a “Vers Libre” poet in his past life. At night, if Don left a piece of paper in the typewriter, archy would climb up on top of the machine and leap down onto each letter and write a poem. It was too much work to include any sort of capitalization or punctuation but it was easy enough to understand. I mention it because about halfway through the book, I discovered this poem:

archy confesses
by Don Marquis

coarse
jocosity
catches the crowd
shakespeare
and I
are often
low browed

the fish wife
curse
and the laugh
of the horse
shakespeare
and I
are frequently
coarse

aesthetic
excuses
in bill s behalf
are adduced
to refine
big bill s
coarse laugh

but bill
he would chuckle
to hear such guff
he pulled
rough stuff
and he liked
rough stuff

hoping you
are the same
archy

And yes, I had to agree, at least in part. To be fair to Billy Will, however, I have to point out the roughness of the times he lived in. We’ve all seen cartoons and comics about someone making an awful performance on stage and people throwing rotten tomatoes and things at them. That stuff and worse happened in Elizabethan theaters. The theater was a place for the highbrows and lowbrows and every brow between. And if you were an actor on the stage and did poorly, you could have your brow beaten. So, old Will had to write stuff that caught everybody’s attention immediately. The witches in Macbeth, the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, and even the rich prologues were full of puns, some of which are lost on us today because we say words differently.











O but could my muse be a muse of fire?
Could my tribute unto the Bard aspire
To do justice unto his genius
Whilst being of my own inspiration?
For me there is a line that’s like a prayer
Unto Heaven, “O For a muse of fire
That would ascend the brightest heaven of
Invention” in the form that I do love,
Suff’ring the slings and arrows of critics
Who without talent are hypocritic’
For they would not try what I have just done
And compose a sonnet whilst on the run

Do their criticisms weigh or matter?
Can they write iambic pentameter?

Herb Thiel

Comments

9 responses to “The A – Z Challenge; U: Happy Birthday Billy S.”

  1. J P Avatar

    A volume of Shakespeare’s selected plays looms near on my shelf of formerly neglected classics. I think I read either one or two of his plays in high school, and found them a slog. Maybe adult me will like them better.

    And a big salute for your closing lines!

    1. Herb Avatar

      Thank you very much for the kind words. I saw Hamlet performed on stage one time and that made a big difference in how I read it the next time. It’s not for everybody, but I like it.

  2. boromax Avatar

    Thou dost wax poetic with rapier-like wit and beauteous candor; yet methinks – forsooth! Is he a Don or a Marquis? ‘Tis a shrewd bedazzlement! The scurrilous roach doth test the sturdy bounds of mine faith.

    Yours truly is a staunch lover and supporter of Shakespeare, thanks in no small part to my high school drama coach. I had the delightful privilege to play Oberon in our production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, when I was barely sixteen. ~Ed.

    1. Herb Avatar

      What a cool privilege. Seeing Shakespeare performed really made a difference for me.
      Thanks for the kind words, as well.

  3. Mr. Ohh's Sideways View Avatar

    I’ve never been a fan of Ol’ Bill. I just can’t get past the language. That being said I’ve used him in many a comedy routine. So prithy tell, though I, not a fan such as thou, am still entranced by the bard in my bradolatry. Amst I a fanatic or not? 🤣😎🙃

    1. Herb Avatar

      Forsooth, maybe not a full-blown fanatic as much as a fanboy, lol. Seeing it performed made a difference to me as well.

      1. Mr. Ohh's Sideways View Avatar

        Again I’m a neophyte. The performance made no sense to me either. I have so many friends who adore the bard, but I remain in the minority. 🤣😎🙃

  4. Geoff Stamper Avatar

    Interesting compilation of words and phrases we owe to Shakespeare, I think the Merchant of Venice was the first play I was assigned to read in school, maybe in 9th or 10th grade.

    1. Herb Avatar

      I really enjoyed that one.

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