Shakespeare’s poetical loves

In 1609, toward the end of Shakespeare’s theatre career, but while he was still alive, a publisher released the 154-strong collection of his (never before seen) sonnets, apparently without his permission. Two-thirds of Shakespeare’s sonnets appear to be dedicated to a man; golden-haired, young, aristocratic and fickle. Of the rest, all but two are dedicated to […]

Why Shakespeare is responsible for Tinkerbell…

Shakespeare, like many of his contemporaries, presented Faery as tiny, ephemeral, winged creatures that could sleep inside a curled flower. In purveying this notion to a global audience through centuries, Shakespeare contributed enormously to the (now) common literary tradition of teeny-tiny faeries a la Walt Disney. This notion that faeries are ‘playful children’ angered author […]

Shakespeare, the meter master

Shakespeare felt that the regular predictability of Iambic pentameter reflected the human pulse, whereas his verse-whether in poetry, song or dialogue, was intentionally lyrical. He believed verse to be more engaging and better for ‘recruiting’ his audience. Its very meter, he felt, was seductive. Taken from The Great Courses’ Shakespeare: The Word and the Action

Shakespeare and verse vs. prose.

Supposedly Shakespeare used verse for upperclass ch’s and prose for lower-class ch’s. He does but not exclusively, he switches btwn them for effect. Hamlet speaks verse until he goes mad when he switches to prose, Prince Hal speaks verse with his father but prose with his tavern-mates, Lady Macbeth speaks verse until she sleepwalks during […]

Shakespeare: 1 Bible: nil

There were 7000 individual words in the collected works of the King James Bible.  There were 27,000 individual words in Shakespeare’s first legitimate published folio. His plays were written to be performed, though his poetry was to be read aloud. He was the master of language in both forms. He used many more words than […]

Ready to get your Bard on (briefly)?

Finally we move away from the very long (but excellent value) Forensics course and I’ll be starting on Social Deviance next. But for the next week or so it’s a catch-up period with a couple of Learn Something New Every Day (s) taken from The Great Course’s Shakespeare: The Word and the Action that I did […]

If you want to commit Identity Theft, move to Ohio.

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 33: Crimes – Nobody’s Supposed to Get Hurt)  Identity theft of deceased persons is much bigger business than living. US authorities run a program called Operation Death Match which is the […]

How to work out your blood alcohol content

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 33: Crimes – Nobody’s Supposed to Get Hurt) Blood alcohol content (BAC) can be determined using the Widmark Formulat, thusly:  (oz x %) x 5.14 lbs x .73 That is, multiply […]