Corsetless

Catherine Eaton's Corsetless seems like a familiar idea -- a character who speaks only in lines from Shakespeare. I always take a passing interest in such projects, although they tend to suffer from a problem that the author of the review notes -- it's hard to make your mind stop saying "Ok, that was from Hamlet...that was from Romeo and Juliet...."

Hamlet, Psychoanalyzed

How about an up to date psychiatric reading of our favorite Dane?

Sure there's been Freudian analysis of Hamlet since...well, Freud. It's not new. He makes a good subject. I liked this one because it reads like Psych homework: "here's a brief summary of the patient, here's the emotions he's experiencing, here's how I characterize him and why, here's how I would treat him..." I think it's a bit more approachable than some of the traditional papers done on the subject.

Happy Anniversary?

Really? Is this true?

Should I really mark down November 28 as Shakespeare's wedding anniversary? Or is that just one of those "best guesses" that academics come up with, like that time I read that Romeo and Juliet's wedding would have been in...March, I think they said. Seems like we should be able to know Shakespeare's anniversary date (we have his baptism, after all), but it occurs to me that I just don't know it.