Shakespeare was "boring"??!!?? Good thing you are standing by your own spears, Michael! You just might need them. Actually, I expected to find you already buried under a hail of slings and arrows from outraged posters this morning. :-)
A "cult following" in "academe", eh? Well, seems to me Shakespeare has quite a following among the general public, too. Just think of all the movies that have been made over the years -- Hamlet,(at least two versions), Midsummer Night's Dream (ditto), Henry V(ditto), Richard III (ditto), Macbeth, etc. (And they've done well at the box office, too, even if not as well as such towering classics as Something About Mary. <g>) And, if I recall correctly, a movie about Shakespeare has been immensely popular, winning an Academy Award last year.
And our language is saturated with Shakespeare, Michael. I'll bet you've used at least one of the following expressions (beginning with "slings and arrows," of course) without necessarily even being aware they came from Shakespeare:
this too, too solid flesh
the beast with two backs
double, double, toil and trouble
Alas, poor Yorick
Et tu, Brute
My salad days
poor but honest
a motley fool
all the world's a stage
I have not slept one wink
not a mouse stirring
Frailty, thy name is Woman!
in my mind's eye
neither a borrower nor a lender be
more honoured in the breach than in the observance
leave her to heaven
the time is out of joint
a towering passion
sweets to the sweet
it did me yeoman's service
The lady doth protest too much
Good-night, sweet prince
I know a trick worth two of that
He hath eaten me out of house and home
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown
A man can die but once
the turning of the tide
we few, we happy few
let's kill all the lawyers
Beware the ides of March
it was Greek to me
lend me your ears
the unkindest cut of all
sharper than a serpent's tooth
more sinned against than sinning
every inch a king
even-handed justice
out, damned spot
a tale told by an idiot
the devil can cite Scripture
It is a wise father that knows his own child
the world's mine oyster
as good luck would have it
what fools these mortals be
men were deceivers ever
a foregone conclusion
neither here nor there
his better angel
my kingdom for a horse
What's in a name?
A plague on both your houses!
to kill with kindness
strange bedfellows
brave new world
We have seen better days
etc., etc., etc.
|
