Had Elizabethan class today and wouldn’t you know it, it would have been his 450th birthday.
My first experience with Shakespeare was 8th grade back in Hanoi. I knew what Romeo and Juliet was about but Macbeth was the first Shakespearean play I was truly exposed to. The play was discussed and taught by our ever so dynamic drama teacher.
Here’s one thing: I’ve always thought that Shakespeare is such an eloquent insulter haha (is that even possible) with “What, you egg? Young fry of treachery!” being the best insult like, ever. My school then performed that play to which I was just an extra but as I observed the play being acted out, I thought to myself, this is pretty dang cool.
If you take the time to read a Shakespearean play, you will realize how bloody terrific he was, mostly about how he just understands and able to express the many dimensions of human nature so profoundly.
I have never read any of his comedies so As You Like It will be the first. So excited!
So, to end this ramble, here’s a quote from Hamlet, Act I-Scene III:
“This above all: to thine own self be true”.