Happy Birthday William Shakespeare

Today we celebrate William Shakespeare’s birthday.

It is 444 years since he was born. Imagine the cake and ALL those candles! I’m sure the fire brigade would have to be on standby. It could have been a very dramatic moment. (Just a thought: the candles would have to be rather large, because by the time you’d lit the last one, the first one would probably have burnt away. How long does it take to light 444 candles?)

I must admit that I haven’t read much written by Shakespeare over recent years, nor have I seen many of his plays for quite some time. I am the poorer for this lapse. A few weeks ago I did revisit Othello which was required reading for one of the units I’m studying at present. It was a very pleasing experience; I had forgotten what an evil, manipulating and thoroughly nasty character Iago was in that play. I also dipped into some of his sonnets as reading for the lecture on Shakespeare; they also need more visits in the coming months.