Happy 400th Shakespeare Day!

Is it that time again?  Why didn't anybody tell me?

:)

I was sorely tempted this year to practice restraint and just let Shakespeare Day come and go, and let the rest of the world climb on the bandwagon for the day. Then I could wait them all to get off tomorrow and I could get back on and enjoy the elbow room.

But I can't do that, who am I kidding? Shakespeare Day is on a weekend this year, and I always hate that because I like having that live connection to you all, playing hashtag games and retweeting each other and basically throwing one big Shakespeare party.  Up until a couple of days ago I really didn't know what I was going to do.

Then inspiration hit me, as it often does.  I started writing.  I started looking for ideas, and I found them, everywhere. Each night this week after my kids have gone to bed I stay up for another hour or two (or more) knocking out post after post until I'd queued up dozens of them.  Sure, some of them are going for quantity more than quality, I won't deny that.  But I think there's some gems coming up.  I hope you all like the final product.

With that, I'm going to go ahead and cut and paste something from past years because I think I said it the right way once and I don't want to pretend to keep plagiarizing myself:

I like tradition. It's a quote that comes from Ben Jonson, to the memory of his (and our) beloved. I've been looking forward to posting it here for days. It's a simple line from a larger work, but I don't know, to me it feels like more. It's more of an incantation, a plea for the Master to return to us if just for a single day. I say it over and over again in my mind, and I imagine myself as Prospero on his island, opening one particular grave, waking one particular sleeper and letting him forth, by my most humble art. Thank you, Shakespeare, and Happy Birthday.

Here we go, and I'll see you on the other side. I therefore will begin.

Soul of the age!

The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!

My Shakespeare, RISE!