As You Like It

Shakespeare in fifth gear!  Yeah baby!  We’re flooring it on this one!

As we muzzily bit into our bacon this morning, we sipped and sipped at our coffee, trying to wake our brains up, asking, “What was that thing we said the other day about Shakespeare?  That brilliant hilarious thing that kept us in stiches all day?  And it was so witty and intelligent?”  Ssslllurrp sip coffee.

Now CoCo’s legs will not stop jumping and our brains are going a gazillion miles an hour.  Now we have too many things to say about the bard of our dreams! 

We don’t want to bore you all with literary psychoprattle  or collegiate confab (we’re GRE takers, don’t worry about it).  There’s nothing we hate more than a group of snobs having their elitist discussion with 20 dollar words, making you feel like a dumb fuck illiterate. That shit makes you claw your own skin from your face.  We just want to share that general appreciation that everyone has (whether they know it or not) of Billiam the Bard!

Where my players at?

As librarians/English and Art History Majors, it’s basically a crucial obligation to love Shakespeare.  Yet, how can we not?  He covers everything: from Biblical to Greco Roman mythology, side-splitting humor to bloody bloody tragedy, from shrewish ladies to the original emo kid (that’s right, Hamlet. We’re calling you out).  He expertly articulates our deepest emotions to a tee.  We’re like, “yes! That’s exactly how I feel.  It’s as if Will just saw into my brain!”  Really, he just perfectly captured human nature.  It’s hard to believe you can follow the chain of logic that leads a jealous character to kill his adversary… and sympathize even!

ANYWAY…. We are celebrating Shakespeare this month because it is his birthday/deathday.  He died on his fifty-second birthday.  So we have cake!  And a party.  We wear geeky tee shirts with things like “the original English major” and “you think you have drama?”  We display his works in all forms: play, graphic novel, manga, picture book (the illustrated Macbeth, we have!) And we put our favorite production up on the big screen – The Complete works of Shakespeare performed in forty five minutes by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. 

Then we sing, (to the melody of Let’s Hear it for the Boy) “Let’s hear it for the bard! Let’s give the bard a haaa-ya-ya-aha-aand!  Maybe he’s no Romeo, but he created Romeo! Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoah!  Let’s hear it for the Bard!”

So raise a glass of wine to William!  And say something like, “Here’s to saucy ladies and gentlemen!”  Because he invented the phrase which includes saucy as an adjective to describe fiery, smart-alecky people, see?  Here is a whole list of words and phrases Shakespeare invented just for you!

Words:

Dauntless-Macbeth

Puking-As You Like It

Hobnob- Twelfth Night

Swagger- Henry IV

Honey-tongued- Love’s Labour’s Lost

Fanged- Hamlet

Ensnare- Othello

Phrases:

The world’s my oyster- Henry IV

Witching time of night-Hamlet 

What the Dickens-Merry Wives of Windsor

Violent delights have violent ends- Romeo and Juliet

Sweets to the Sweet- Hamlet

Playing fast and loose- King John

One fell swoop- Macbeth

Kill with kindness-Taming of the Shrew

Knock knock! Who’s there?- Macbeth

For goodness’ sake- Henry VIII

All that glitters is not gold- Merchant of Venice