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Nairaland Forum / Entertainment / Literature / Things You Never Knew About Williams Shakespeare (939 Views)
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Things You Never Knew About Williams Shakespeare by Nobody: 10:16pm On Jun 09, 2013 |
-Shakespeare's Grave Is Cursed It may be Shakespeare's final poem, an ominous couple of lines etched on his tomb in Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon; "Blessed be the man that spares these stones / And cursed be he who moves my bones," that alludes to this grave's curse. It's an invocation to future generations to leave the bard in peace. Shakespeare's curse has been taken seriously enough that his bones have remained in place for four centuries. Even recently, as the church undergoes some much needed renovations, nervous historians and clergymen are organizing their efforts around the bard's bones, to ensure they don't disturb the dead playwright. -Shakespeare's Sonnets Were Written For Men Published in 1609, Shakespeare's sonnet sequence is 154 poems long. The sequence contains some of the most beautiful and enduring love poetry in the English language: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate: / Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, / And summer's lease hath all too short a date." Pretty smooth, right? Well, one of the five things you didn't know about Shakespeare is that that poem is about two dudes. In fact, 126 of Shakespeare's sonnets are about a deep love between two male friends. Now, it was impossible to imagine someone as a "homosexual" in the Renaissance, which is not to say that men didn't have sex with each other. It just means that people weren't considered "gay" or "straight" in early modern England. Instead, homoeroticism was understood to be a normal extension of male friendship, and that desire is on full display in Shakespeare's sonnets. Shakespeare Invented The Word "torture" Shakespeare didn't just invent "torture," but also "excitement," "addiction" and "savagery." Another of the five things you might not have known about Shakespeare is just how much he's influenced the English language. Our man Will invented about 1,700 words in the English language. A remarkable number of the phrases and words we use every day first appeared in Shakespeare's work. Shakespeare converted verbs into adjectives or nouns into verbs whenever it suited him. Amazingly, his linguistic inventions stuck, and we still use them today. -We probably don’t spell Shakespeare’s name correctly Sources from William Shakespeare’s lifetime spell his last name in more than 80 different ways, ranging from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd.” In the handful of signatures that have survived, the Bard never spelled his own name “William Shakespeare,” using variations or abbreviations such as “Willm Shakp,” “Willm Shakspere” and “William Shakspeare” instead. However it’s spelled, Shakespeare is thought to derive from the Old English words “schakken” (“to brandish”) and “speer” (“spear”), and probably referred to a confrontational or argumentative person. -Kings James Bible In the King James Bible the 46th word of Psalm 46 is ‘shake’ and the 46th word from the end of the same Psalm is ‘spear’. Some think this was a hidden birthday message to the Bard, as the King James Bible was published in 1611 – the year of Shakespeare’s 46th birthday. 1 Like |
Re: Things You Never Knew About Williams Shakespeare by Caracta(f): 1:42am On Jun 10, 2013 |
Wow! Nice one martha. Thanks for sharing. The inscription on his grave stone or tomb is a "wow". I like his formation of words. "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May", "Shall i compare thee to a summer's day?" Beautiful! 1 Like |
Re: Things You Never Knew About Williams Shakespeare by Mynd44: 2:16am On Jun 10, 2013 |
Hmmmm 1 Like |
Re: Things You Never Knew About Williams Shakespeare by Nobody: 9:39am On Jun 10, 2013 |
Caracta: Wow! Nice one martha. Thanks for sharing. The inscription on his grave stone or tomb is a "wow".buh m nt a fan of his... His dictions are too hard |
Re: Things You Never Knew About Williams Shakespeare by Caracta(f): 9:48am On Jun 10, 2013 |
Nawtipet: lol...reminds me of the King James Bible. There are some things that cannot be fully expressed by our "modern" English language. |
Re: Things You Never Knew About Williams Shakespeare by Mynd44: 9:50am On Jun 10, 2013 |
Nawtipet:Sorry about that. I grew up reading him cos I have his complete works at home including plays and poems and I love his style of writing |
Re: Things You Never Knew About Williams Shakespeare by Nobody: 9:51am On Jun 10, 2013 |
Caracta:the only book of his dat i'v read was "Romeo and Juliet"... I wuldnt av read it buh Jamb syllabus included it... I was lyk "WOW!"... It was amazing... Bt datz whr it ends o... I no go read im books again... Unless sum1 will rewrite it in simple english.. |
Re: Things You Never Knew About Williams Shakespeare by Nobody: 9:54am On Jun 10, 2013 |
Mynd_44:oya na... Baado!... I only deal wif african literature... Itz nw kindda empty since my papa died "Chinua Achebe"... I write buks too buh so far, i av relented... Dnt knw y... I started writing frm primary scul... |
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