For OLD Time's Sake: Happy Birthday, Shakespeare!

Throughout my lifetime, a large and growing cache of birth dates has lodged itself in my head, often even the special days of people I hardly know. 

No explanation for this. 

It's just one of my many odd quirks.

I can explain, however, why I remember William Shakespeare's birthday, which has been historically noted as April 23, 1564. 

From the time I did my student teaching for Ragnar Benson's 12th-grade English class at Sandpoint High School until  my last year of teaching, I taught some Shakespeare, mainly The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.

I also taught Macbeth as a student teacher.  

Of course, the lead-up to these plays involved preparing the classes with substantial information about Shakespeare, the great playwright and poet aka bard of England. 

I still have vivid memories of a darkened room with a projector, displaying a scratchy black-and-white filmstrip on the screen at the front of the room, and, of course, always complemented with a few student-induced rabbit ears. 

Pictures and information to accompany each image helped me and the students grasp an brief overview of the life of Shakespeare. 

Next, would come the play----to be read aloud, sometimes masterfully and sometimes not always so good by class members.  With each stanza:  questions about what we just read, often silence, followed by feeble teacher explanations.

Often, students would get a break from reading so we could listen to vinyl records displaying how Shakespeare really oughta sound by professional actors.   

At least that's how it was for me as a teacher. 

I did my best, but to aspire as a Shakespearean scholar----not!

Still, I found ways to create some excitement in my students, relative to Shakespeare and his plays.  

Most prominent:  memorization of the first section of Mark Antony's speech. 

Students could memorize and recite the speech as it stood, or they could add a creative twist.  

Some preferred the former, while most figured creativity could maybe cover up lack of perfect memorization. 

Even others preferred not to spend much time on either approach. 

In fact, I had one class where every single student (about 30) had finished their presentation within 15 minutes. 

I guess they figured the brevity of reciting "Friends, Romans, Countryman, lend me your ears," might keep me and the rest of the class from getting too bored. 

Anywho, over the years, some of the creative approaches to Antony's speech were downright amazing and beyond entertaining. 

So, I guess a portion of the mission to expose kids and myself to Shakespeare's work in a positive way turned out relatively successful. 

Therefore, in Shakespeare's honor--on his birthday---I am posting a portion of Antony's speech, followed by prophetic words of Cassius, Shakespeare's head conspirator in the murder of Julius Caesar.   

CASSIUS

Shall this our lofty scene be acted over. In states unborn and accents yet unknown! How many years from ... How many times will Caesar bleed again in show, though he now lies at the base of Pompey's statue, as worthless as dust!

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ANTONY

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones:

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault;

And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,—

For Brutus is an honourable man;

So are they all, all honorable men,—

Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me:

But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once,—not without cause:

What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him?—

O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason!—Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

Oh, how this spring of love resembleth

The uncertain glory of an April day

Which now shows all the beauty of the Sun

And by and by a cloud takes all away. 

                                                         --William Shakespeare

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare.  Your words still remain pretty relevant 450 years after your birth.