#Shakespeare's birthday

[vox-anglosphere]

Who better to be born on St George's Day than the Bard of Avon?

[youkespeare]

Shakespeare`s Day!

This year, the drawings have become sloppy.

sorry!

But this year too, I respect Shakespeare.

2024.4.23

[praetorianxxiv]

Happy Birthday Shakespeare 🎂

[thesaltofcarthage]

I was offline for the Swan of Avon’s birthday, so please accept this belated Henry V. :) 

[alliterative-endlessknot]

Happy #ShakespeareDay! Why not celebrate by making it Weird – with our video about the history of that word, and its connections to Fate, Shakespeare, and witches!

For Shakespeare's birthday, we’ve also got a podcast episode about Fate in the ancient and medieval worlds, trios of women, and Shakespeare!

[hopelesslyprosaic]

A Different Kind of Queen of Crime- five ways that Dorothy L Sayers changed the way we see Sherlock Holmes

For my first Holmesian post- a crossover with one of my more usual subjects on my other blog! For when one is talking about Sherlock Holmes, in particular Sherlock Holmes scholarship, there are nor many more pivotal names than Dorothy L Sayers. Sure, Christopher Morley may have had a greater impact on Sherlockian culture, and Richard Lancelyn Green on Holmesian scholarship, to name only a few- but Sayers's contributions to scholarship and "the game" were early and underratedly pivotal.

If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan who is unfamiliar with Sayers's influence, or a Sayers fan who had no idea she had any interest in Holmes, keep reading! (And if you're a Sherlock Holmes fan who wants to know what I think about Sayers, check out her tag on my main blog, @o-uncle-newt. Or, more to the point, just read her fantastic books.)

There's a great compilation of Sayers's writing and lecturing on the topic of Holmes called Sayers on Holmes (published by the Mythopoeic Press in 2001), though some of her essays are also available in her collection Unpopular Opinions, which is where I first encountered them. It's not THAT extensive, and it's from an era in which Sherlock Holmes scholarship, such as it was, was still very much nascent. While a lot may have happened since Sayers was writing and talking about Holmes, she got there early and she made an immediate impact- and here's how:

She helped create and define Sherlockian scholarship: Don't take this from me, take it from the legendary Richard Lancelyn Green! At a joint conference of the Sherlock Holmes Society and Dorothy L Sayers Society, he said that "Dorothy L. Sayers understood better than anyone before her the way of playing the game and her Sherlockian scholarship gave credibility and humor to this intellectual pursuit. Her standing as an authority on the art of detective fiction and as a major practitioner invigorated the scholarship, and her...Holmesian research is the benchmark by which other works are judged. It would be fair to say, as Watson said of Irene Adler, that for Sherlockians she is the woman and that …she 'eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.'" We'll go into a bit more detail on some specific examples below, but one important one is that, as Green notes, Sayers was not only a mystery writer but an acknowledged authority on mystery fiction, whose (magisterial) introduction to The Omnibus of Crime, a then-groundbreaking history of the genre of mystery fiction, included a highly regarded section on the influence of Holmes on mystery fiction. She was able to write not just literate detective stories but literate critiques of others' stories and the genre (as collected in the excellent volume Taking Detective Stories Seriously), and as such, the writing she did on Holmes was well received.

She cofounded the (original iteration of) the Sherlock Holmes Society of London: While the current iteration of the Society lists itself as having been founded in 1951, a previous iteration existed through the 1930s, founded as a response to the creation of the Baker Street Irregulars in New York and run by a similar concept- the meeting of Sherlock Holmes fans every so often for dinner at a restaurant. Sayers, who seems to have been much more clubbable than Mycroft Holmes, helped run the Detection Club on corresponding lines as well. (Fun fact, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was invited to be the first president of the Detection Club! However, he refused on grounds of poor health and, either right before or right after he died, the Detection Club met for the first time with GK Chesterton as president.) While the 1930s society didn't last, and Sayers didn't decide to join the newly reconstituted club in 1951, her presence from the beginning was key to the establishment of Holmesian scholarship.

She helped define The Game: Sayers didn't invent The Game, as the use of Higher Criticism in the study of Sherlock Holmes came to be called. (The Game now often refers to something a bit broader than that, but it's a pretty solid working definition to say that it is the study of Holmes stories as though they took place in, and can be reconciled with, our world.) Her friend Father Ronald Knox largely invented it almost by accident- as Sayers described it, he wrote that first essay "with the aim of showing that, by those methods [Higher Criticism], one could disintegrate a modern classic as speciously as a certain school of critics have endeavoured to disintegrate the Bible." This exercise backfired, as instead of finding this analysis of Holmes stories silly, people found it compelling and engaging- and this style of Sherlockian writing lives on to this day in multiple journals. Sayers, with her interest in religious scholarship as well as Holmes, was well equipped to both understand Knox's original motivations as well as to carry on in the spirit in which further Game players would take his work, as we'll see. She also wrote the line that would come to define the tone used in The Game- that it "must be played as solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord's; the slightest touch of extravagance or burlesque ruins the atmosphere." While comedic takes on The Game would never vanish, her establishment of tone has lingered, and pretty much any in-depth explanation of The Game will include her insightful comment.

Some of Sayers's ideas became definitional: Here's a question- what's John Watson's middle name? If you said "Hamish," guess what- you should be thanking Dorothy L Sayers. (When this middle name was used for Watson in the BBC Sherlock episode The Sign of Three, articles explaining its use generally didn't bother to credit her, instead saying that "some believe" or a variation on that.) She was the one who speculated that the reason why a) Watson's middle initial is H and b) Mary Morstan Watson calls Watson "James" instead of "John" in one story is because Watson's middle name is Hamish, a Scottish variant of James, with Mary's use of James being an intimate pet name based on this nickname. It's as credible as any other explanation for that question, but more than that it became by far the most popular middle name for Watson used in fan media. Others of Sayers's ideas include that Watson only ever married twice, with his comments about experience with women over four continents being just a lot of bluster and him really being a faithful romantic who married the first woman he really fell for (the aim of this essay being to demolish HW Bell's theory of a marriage to an unknown woman between Mary Morstan and the unnamed woman Watson married in 1903, mentioned by Holmes in The Blanched Soldier); that Holmes attended Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (she denied that he could have attended Oxford, having gone there herself- fascinatingly, Holmesians who went to Cambridge usually assert that he attended Oxford! Conan Doyle of course attended neither school); and reconciling dates in canon (making the case that one cannot base a claim for Watson's mixing up on dates on poor handwriting as demonstrated in canonical documents, as it is clear from the similarity of different handwriting samples from different people/stories that they were written, presumably transcribed for publication purposes, by a copyist).

She wrote one of the only good Holmes pastiches: Okay, fine, I'm unusually anti-pastiche, and genuinely do like very few of them, but this is one that I love- and even more than that, it's even a Wimsey crossover! On January 8 1954, to commemorate the occasion of Holmes's 100th birthday (because, of course, he was born on January 6 1854- Sayers was more in favor of an 1853 birthdate but thought 1854 was acceptable), the BBC commissioned a bunch of pieces for the radio, including one by Sayers. You can read it here (with thanks to @copperbadge for posting it, it's shockingly hard to find online), and I think you'll agree it's adorable. The idea of Holmes and Wimsey living in the same world is wonderful, the way she makes it work is impeccable, and it's clearly done with so much love. Also you get baby Peter, which is just incredibly sweet!

I got into Dorothy L Sayers, in the long run, because I loved Sherlock Holmes from childhood and that later launched me into early and golden age mysteries- but it was discovering Sayers that brought me back full force into the world of Holmes. Just an awesome lady.

[ken-branagh]

BEATRICE & BENEDICK MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1993), dir. Kenneth Branagh

[cyikemen]

🎂Happy Birthday Shakespeare!🎂

Would you rather spend the day with him in his world or the modern world? 🥂

Where would you take him to? 🏎️💨

[withasideofshakespeare]

Happy death/birth(?)day, William Shakespeare!

[sparkinthedarkuk]

[youkespeare]

Shakespeare`s Day!

I will praise the great playwright again this year.

2023.4.23

[elizabethan-memes]

Cecily: Bloody thou art, bloody shall be thy end. Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend

Richard: mother this is a dairy queen

[shakespearefreak]

🍰 Happy (Belated) Birthday, Virginia! 🍰

Since Virginia’s birthday is January 2nd, and I tend to keep my holiday decorations up until at least Epiphany on January 6th, it’s hard enough to celebrate properly on a normal year… but since this year my dolls didn’t even have “Christmas” until January 5th, and I didn’t finish taking down all the decorations until mid-January, poor Virginia had to wait almost until the end of the month for her party! 😅 Still, I like to think it was worth the wait.

After she opened her gift 🎁 (a book of Shakespeare quotes 📖), we had a tea party 🫖 with Butterfly Pea Flower tea 🦋💙☕ and watched Crimson Peak (2015) 🩸🎞️... though honestly, I’d forgotten just how violent and sexual some parts of that are, or I wouldn’t have shown it to her; even though Virginia’s basically an adult by Edwardian standards, she’s still only 15! Luckily, she didn’t seem overly bothered by most of it, though she didn’t like it when Edith’s father was murdered—he reminded her of her own deceased father—and I think I liked the love story aspect more than she did.

NOTE: I edited Virginia's tea in the photos to make it look like she also had the Pea Flower tea.

Virginia had more or less given up on a birthday celebration this year (“After all,” she said to herself, “I’m getting a bit old for birthday parties anyway”) when Marley began acting secretive and excited one day. As she was beginning to suspect they had something up their sleeve after all, Marley called her to the main room, where just like last year, a lovely table was set for tea! On the chair, she discovered a small package waiting for her, wrapped in paper printed with pretty blue flowers and a brilliant sapphire-blue bow.

“Another book! At this rate, I shall be able to set up my own private library,” Virginia observed with a laugh.

“Is that okay? You are kind of hard to buy for…” Marley began nervously, but Virginia stopped them with a smile.

“You can never go wrong giving me a book… especially one as beautifully bound as this one!” She regarded the shiny, embossed title on the marbled turquoise cover. “William Shakespeare’s Famous Last Words… hmmm…” She opened it to the first page and read aloud: “‘William Shakespeare was an unparalleled master of the English language who always knew how to give his characters the perfect send off. For a collection of his best exit lines*—whether for leaving a room or leaving “this mortal coil”—turn the page…’” and below that, the footnote: “‘*Bear not included.’ Oh, my!”

(A look at the book’s interior. A little trivia because I like this scene: the way this character dies is being drowned in a barrel of wine!)

When Marley poured the tea, Virginia gave a little gasp. “It’s green!”

“I actually expected it to be more of a true cobalt blue than a turquoise…” Marley complained, a bit nonplussed. “This is called Butterfly Pea Flower tea, and it’s famous for being naturally blue… among other things. I’m guessing it turned turquoise instead because this is actually a mix with some other herbs as well. Apparently it doesn’t taste that good on its own.” They shrugged. “Eh, anyways. Want to see what else it does?”

Marley added some lemon juice, and the tea turned a brilliant purple! Virginia clapped her hands, delighted. “It’s like a magic trick! Whyever does it do that?” she asked.

“It has something to do with…” Marley paused, looking it up again on their phone. “...the pH balance, which I guess means that the acidity of the lemon changes the chemical composition of the tea?”

“It reminds me of an enchanted elixir in a fairy story,” Virginia said dreamily. She inhaled deeply. “...and it smells heavenly!”

Marley took a sip. “It tastes incredible, too!”

Virginia settled onto the bed with her own teacup and a petit four, watching intently as the blank whiteness onscreen dissipated into fog that parted to reveal a young woman’s pale, wide-eyed face, framed by flaxen hair like Virginia’s own. Virginia's breath caught in anticipation at the opening words: “Ghosts are real. This much I know…”

As Edith’s dark and bloody story unfolded, Marley glanced over at Virginia several times, worried it might be too much for the young girl, but she sat rapt, watching in horrified fascination and unmistakable delight. Only once, early on, did she seem concerned:

“Will he—the father—die?” she asked, her pale brow creased lightly.

Marley hesitated, then nodded. “Sorry, yeah. I kind of forgot about that bit. You don’t have to watch that scene if you don’t want to. I can tell you when it’s coming up, and you can look away.”

But Virginia shook her head with a determined expression in her stormcloud eyes. “No, I want to see.” When the scene came, Marley reached out to take her small, cool hand; Virginia grasped their palm tightly, but did not look away from the screen.

At the end of the film, Virginia noticed Marley had slightly misty eyes. “You quite liked Thomas, didn’t you?”

Marley thought about it. “It’s complicated… but yes. I tend to fall for troubled characters with tragic backstories and questionable morals. It’s… kind of a problem.” They chuckled.

Virginia smiled too, but in a perplexed sort of way. (She had very little interest in men or romance, and privately thought Edith would have been better off keeping to her writing, but having been raised with the idea that marriage was the default, she wasn’t quite sure how to express that.) She yawned, a bit theatrically. “Well, thank you for the book, and the lovely party! I’m a little tired now, though… goodnight.”

“Sleep well,” Marley said. “Hopefully you don’t get visited by any ghosts!” they added with a grin.

But Virginia gave a bright smile. “Oh, I rather hope I am!”

The End

BONUS:

(My part of the tea party: Butterfly Pea Flower tea with lemon, cucumber finger sandwiches, lemon poppyseed scones, strawberry jelly and cream cheese finger sandwiches cut into star shapes, and frozen Greek yogurt topped with honey and blueberries. Yum! 😋)

[cto10121]

Behind every great writer is an even greater stay-at-home wife who runs her own ale business and hoards 800 bushels of malt during a harvest shortage 😌

[mostlyblues]

In honour of his birthday, I'm going to rant about some of my favourite roles of the global treasure (yes, I'm promoting him from the ‘national’ status), David Tennant. Feel free to add your own.💙

Fourteen Doctor: This might seem like an odd choice to start with when there are popular choices like the Tenth Doctor and Crowley, but this character holds a very special place in my heart. I've been a fan of DT for about 6 years now and it started with Doctor Who. I love Ten but Fourteen is just more dear to me. Mostly because he made me excited again for one of my favourite TV shows. As a character, he has all the trademark qualities of the Doctor - the genius level intellect, endless compassion, and love for new adventures. But he is somehow more mature and softer, and I loved this development. Also, that blue coat and that (1) button - you know what I'm talking about.

Phileas Fogg: Such an underrated TV show. The chemistry of the trio, the adventures, the title sequence music - there's so much to love about this. And Fogg is such a real character. So far from perfect, this man will often appear as aloof, vain, self-absorbed and even a coward. But I think Phileas is one of the best roles ever played by Tennant. Yes, he's flawed but he's also intelligent, so incredibly kind, and yes, even brave. If you haven't watched this show, I highly recommend it.

Alec Hardy: So different from most other charming roles of DT, Hardy is a sad wet cat. He's grumpy, not nice, and just really tired of the world (who can't relate though?). His reluctant friendship with Ellie is one of the best parts of the grim show. And the fanfic lover in me can't stop screaming about how whumpable he is.

Crowley: I was going for the top three kind of ranking but the thin dark duke slithered his way over. And how can you not love Anthony J. Crowley? From this pure delightful joy while creating stars and nebulae (I can't get over David's face and the happy noises he makes in this scene) to his reluctant and vast love for his Angel and the earth, Crowley is very easy to fall in love with (take notes, Aziraphale. I know you love him but please use your words. Crowley, at least, tried). 

I wanted to add more characters, especially the Shakespearean ones (I love Hamlet, but Benedick has my heart), but the list won't simply ever end then. So, I'm just going to say name all the ones I love and end it here - Simon Yates (There She Goes), Dave Tyler (Single Father), Campbell Bain (Takin' over the Asylum), Harry Watling aka The Sexy Vicar (Inside Man, this show was so freaking stressful but I loved David's character), every single Shakespearean character he ever played (even the ones I haven't or probably won't ever get the chance to see - cries in Macbeth), and, of course, Scrooge McDuck (DuckTales).

So, thank you DT for gifting the world with some of the best, most adorable, wholesome, gender-enviable characters to ever exist. (Except for the creeps, freaks, and ruthless murderers, which we kind of love as well). Happy Birthday! 💙