Happy Birthday First Folio

[LDAHL]

Shakespeare’s first folio is 400 years old this year. The beauty of having a canonical edition in the public domain is that the sensitivity readers will never be able to permanently vandalize his words. The bowdlerized plays that gave “King Lear” a happy ending are in the forgotten past, leaving the original treasure created by the genius of a dead white man untarnished.

[Tradd]

I love Shakespeare. Had a teacher my senior year of high school that loved him, too. I do mostly thr sonnets these days.

[catherine]

I love Shakespeare--I used to give tours at the American Festival Shakespeare Theatre which was near my home at the time. Also studied it in London. Thanks for bringing up the anniversary of the folio, and frankly, I don't care what they do to Will's works as long as they continue reading him. A while ago I awoke in a panic with the horrible thought that he would probably disappear from the culture completely due to lack of interest. So I'd rather have people keep him alive in whatever way is relevant to them rather than relegate him to some dusty archive.

For the record my favorite Shakespeare play is Richard II. It is SO poetic--but then again, I saw it performed by Ian Richardson at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Ian Richardson simply had an amazingly musical voice.

[bae]

It’s better in the original Klingon.

[Simone]

Read this minutes before opening the thread: Today marks the anniversary of his death at 52, on 4/23/1616.
I've been interested for a long time in the controversy surrounding the bard's identity, but agree that access to the original work is invaluable.

[Tradd]

Read this minutes before opening the thread: Today marks the anniversary of his death at 52, on 4/23/1616.
I've been interested for a long time in the controversy surrounding the bard's identity, but agree that access to the original work is invaluable.

Today is St George’s Day, the patron saint of England, too! Appropriate day for Shakespeare to die on.