I have been busy in the last few weeks and unable to post, but it would be terribly remiss for me to let slip by William Shakespeare's 450th birthday.
Little William presented for baptism at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. Tradition has it that children are baptized on the third day of life, and therefore his birthday has always been assumed to be three days earlier, on April 23. But like so many things about this shadowy genius, this birthday is only an assumption based on scant facts. The truth is, no one knows the precise date. But it is enough to know that about 450 years ago, Shakespeare was born. I can drink to that.
As someone with more than a passing interest in writing and literature, I have often been thankful that English is my native tongue. One can easily argue that English, the language of the internet, is the most important language in the world today, and maybe the most important language that has ever been.
And it has been writers like William Shakespeare that have made it so great. Sometimes I have thought how nice it would be to learn Latin to read Virgil, or Spanish to read Cervantes, or German to know Goethe. Yes, but I know English, and I know Shakespeare, and I wouldn't trade a native understanding of any other language for knowing Shakespeare as a native English speaker. To know the 37 plays, the 154 sonnets in translation would be an irreplaceable loss.
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
(The Merchant of Venice, 5.1.63-66)