{"id":8865,"date":"2014-05-27T09:23:04","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T13:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=8865"},"modified":"2016-02-17T13:18:05","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T18:18:05","slug":"bears-beds-and-bardolatry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=8865","title":{"rendered":"Bears, beds and Bardolatry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rickp.shakespeare.color.4.24\"<\/h1>\n

To mark the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare\u2019s birth, we looked at the lighter side of his life and works with a little help from our pal, Professor Emeritus John F. Erath.<\/em><\/h1>\n

They say it\u2019s his birthday\u2026<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s unknown if William Shakespeare was actually born on April 23, 1564, but records show he was baptized April 26 at Stratford-upon-Avon, and it was customary at the time for baptisms to occur three days after birth. \u201cIt\u2019s as good a day as any to celebrate him, because that\u2019s also the Feast of St. George, the patron saint of England,\u201d says Erath, who taught Shakespeare classes at TCNJ for more than 30 years. Coincidentally, the Bard also shuffled \u201coff this mortal coil\u201d on April 23 at the age of 52.<\/p>\n

Timeless themes<\/h2>\n

Despite his country-bumpkin origins, people are still reading, acting, watching and studying Shakespeare\u2019s works four centuries later. Why? \u201cBecause he understood human nature and dealt with universal themes,\u201d says Erath. \u201cYou see people you know in the plays: your Uncle Harry, your Aunt Myrtle, the guy who lives across the street. From a theatrical point of view, many of his works remain eminently playable on the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alternative authors, you say? Fie upon thee!<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe Anti-Stratfordians continue to say this upstart from the sticks couldn\u2019t possibly have written such deep, thoughtful plays, or know as much as he did about language, custom and behavior. But their evidence is shaky. It\u2019s gimmickry pretending to be scholarship,\u201d says Erath. Should you encounter one of these folly-fallen clotpoles in conversation, lob this gem at them (courtesy of our pal, Will): \u201cWere I like thee, I\u2019d throw away myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Exit, pursued by a bear.\u2019<\/h2>\n

Even Shakespeare\u2019s stage directions are memorable \u2014 none more so than the one above from The Winter\u2019s Tale<\/em>, with which the Bard dispatched a character who was abandoning a newborn baby in the desert. So did The King\u2019s Men use a live bear? \u201cSome say they did, but I suspect that\u2019s an apocryphal story,\u201d says Erath. What does he plan to do next year, when his company, Shakespeare 70, stages the play? \u201cGuy in a bear suit? Maybe. But my wife cringes every time I mention it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That must have been some bed\u2026<\/h2>\n

Though he retired a wealthy man, Shakespeare bequeathed only his second-best bed to his wife, Anne Hathaway. Was it a sign of their unhappy marriage, or some strange sentimental act of affection? We\u2019ll likely never know, since few details of Shakespeare\u2019s personal life are known.<\/p>\n

To see, or not to see<\/h2>\n

With more than 50 screen adaptations of Shakespeare\u2019s tragic masterpiece, Hamlet<\/em>, available for viewing, which to choose \u2014 that is the question. A good place to start is Kenneth Branagh\u2019s 1996 adaption, says Erath. Beware, though: this unabridged version clocks in at over four hours. \u201cI call it the \u2018steel drawers\u2019 Hamlet, because you\u2019ve got to have your steel underwear on to make it through in one sitting,\u201d says Erath. And whatever you do, be sure to avoid Mel Gibson\u2019s 1990 turn as the Danish prince. \u201cMy standard line for students was, \u2018Mel Gibson played Hamlet, and Hamlet lost.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To mark the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare\u2019s birth, we look at the lighter side of his life and works with a little help from our pal, Professor Emeritus John F. Erath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2014","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}