Today is the generally-observed “birthday” of William Shakespeare. The actual date he entered the world is not known, but April 26, 1564 is the best we have: that was his baptismal date. As babies typically weren’t baptized right at birth, the assumption seems to be that he was actually born a few days prior, and since his death date is known to be April 26, 1616, we’ve just gone ahead and assigned that date to his birth as well.
Shakespeare is an eternal “thing I need to learn more about”, no matter how much I learn about him and no matter how much I read him. I suspect he’s that way for people who know a great deal about Shakespeare! I find discussing him with people who know him well a bit intimidating, I must admit. This makes him a subject I generally don’t try too hard to bring up when my sister, a professional Shakespeare scholar, is in town.
I won’t make a long quote from Shakespeare here, because it’s late in the day and there are things to do and there’s a lot of places to get your Bard on out there. I will, though, note my single favorite line from all of Shakespeare! (All of him that I’ve read, actually. We’re not talking “encyclopedic knowledge” here.) It comes from Much Ado About Nothing, when Benedick says this to Beatrice when she has been summoned to her uncle:
Bene. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes; and moreover I will go with thee to thy uncle’s.
I just love that. “My love for you includes all this…but also, the mundane.” The best part of love, after all, is the mundane, isn’t it?
Happy birthday, Will!
