If you love and get hurt, love more. If you love more and hurt more, love even more. If you love even more and get hurt even more, love some more until it hurts no more…

“If you love and get hurt, love more.
If you love more and hurt more, love even more.
If you love even more and get hurt even more, love some more until it hurts no more…”

No. Just no. Even if you love Shakespeare, you can’t just say he said things he didn’t say.

If you love Shakespeare, remember to attribute him correctly Don't put his names on things he didn't say.
If you love Shakespeare, quote him correctly.

I saw this on a page attributed to Shakespeare, on top of a picture of Christopher Marlowe, no less.

As always, it’s in several databases attributed to WS but never with an actual play, sonnet, or poem. So, no. It’s not Shakespeare. Shakespeare never used the expression “get hurt”, and rarely did he directly speak in the second person like that, as if he, the author, is talking to someone.

If anybody can actually show me some variation of this quote that makes it into Shakespeare, I’ll happily update this post. But I don’t think you’re going to find anything close.

Sorry not to be of better service. I know many people come here knowing it’s not Shakespeare and looking for the original source. So far, I don’t have anything for this one.

If You Love Actual Shakespeare Quotes

I have a whole category of Not By Shakespeare posts like this if you’re interested in more similar content. Sometimes, we do find an actual original source to attribute. But far too often, it sounds like something that came out of a Hallmark card or a Tumblr post that has no real original author other than “somebody on the Internet.”

My 2013 Shakespeare Life

2013 was a very big year for Shakespeare in my personal life. I spoke, I wrote, I created, I had an existential crisis, I taught, I saw.   Who knows what 2014 will bring?  Let’s get started…

Party on, Shakespeare.
As loyal readers know, there are always Shakespeare facts, trivia and references flying around my house. Just search “geeklet” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.  Well, in February of this year I learned first hand that everything their geeky dad is telling them doesn’t just go in one ear and out the other in Geeklet 1, Geek 0.
Then in March I got to scribble “speak publicly, in person, on the subject of Shakespeare” off ye olde bucket list when Bardfilm asked me to participate in My First Videoconference with his Modern Shakespearean Fiction class.  Thanks KJ!
Then came the bombing of the Boston Marathon.  I live about 20 minutes outside of Boston, and knew many people there (thankfully, none of my friends or relatives were injured).  Even then were we able to take comfort in what Shakespeare offered us.
But April is not a time for sadness, it is a time for great joy because another Shakespeare Day was upon us! Every year I celebrate with my own personal Shakespeare marathon, trying to post more stories in a single day than ever before.  This year?  28.  That’s more than a story an hour (assuming I didn’t sleep!)  And I’ll have you know I don’t cheat and schedule those ahead of time, I monitor and post throughout the day.  That’s part of the exhilaration that comes along with it!
Shakespeare is Universal
This year I also tried something different, something of a “putting other people’s money where my mouth is” campaign, when I launched Shakespeare is Universal. The idea was simple – if you make a real world product, can you get 100 people to buy it?  After doing this for eight years I really and truly hoped so.  I didn’t let it all ride on some “Prose before Hoes” gimmick, either.  I put my faith in a message that I’ve been preaching all this time, and deeply and truly believe.
Which led first to a funny story about Mel Brooks running away that I can’t begin to do recap, so you’re going to want to go check that out 🙂
 …and quickly after that to my own personal existential crisis as my deadline approached, I did not hit my goal, and I began to question the whole to blog or not to blog thing in All Good Things… (which I admittedly stole from the Star Trek : The Next Generation finale).  But!  I’m still here, because we did hit our goal, because there are that many people in the world who think that Shakespeare is Universal, and for that I’m eternally grateful.  I’m also almost certainly going to make a followup shirt this year, so be prepared 😉
Ok, now back to the good part!  As the school year came to a close in June, my perennial attempt to teach Shakespeare to my kids’ elementary school classes paid off double this year.  Every year I offer, to every teacher, to bend a Shakespeare lesson into however they think it will fit their curriculum.
For my 10yr old daughter (fifth grade, US) I came in for Shakespeare Geek Teaches The Sonnets. I thought this would be a fairly dry topic for this age group, but I ended up staying nearly two hours. Brace yourself, that’s a very long post that might well take you as long to read as I did to experience it in the first place.
For my 8 yr old daughter (third grade) I fulfilled a lifelong dream by actually getting the kids out of the seats and reciting the text in My Directorial Debut!  If you thought the last story was long, this story is divided into three parts (#1, #2, #3)  This one was particularly special, because after all these years this marked the first time that one of my kids got to “perform” the text, on stage and in front of people:

And now comes the next big highlight of my day, as my daughter wakes from her slumber and begins, “What angel wakes me from my flowery bed? I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again. Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note; So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; I swear, I love thee!” 

This marks the first time that one of my children has performed Shakespeare. In public, on a stage, reading original text. I damn near wept. I am thankful that it turned out to be a small part because I think that the longer it went, I might well have exploded. And you know what? She was good. She woke up on cue, and actually got up while reading her lines, which she did not stumble over. Definitely one of my better performers, duly noted for future reference.

Loyal readers may want to go make themselves a snack, maybe do some quick stretches, because we’re only in June here people.
Ok, with July comes Shakespeare on Boston Common!  I’ve gone every year for 9 years, the memory of the year I missed Hamlet still haunts me, and 2013 would mark my 10 year anniversary. Even though they were doing Two Gentlemen of Verona (truly one of Shakespeare’s “meh” plays), neither rain not sleet nor snow nor dark of night was about to stop me.
Or was it?  Read the rest of the story in What Wouldn’t I Do For Shakespeare Part 1 and My Review of Two Gents  to go along with it.
My son’s favorite Hamlet.
Fast forward now October, and a quick story involving my 7yr old son and Richard Burton in Why I Love My Shakespeare Life.
You know what else fall brings?  Parent Teacher Time once again, and another opportunity to do my volunteer thingie.  This time I got two very enthusiastic responses (my oldest daughter has graduated to middle school so her story will come later).  I have yet to get into the classroom, but it’s a start!
You know what else else fall brings?  Why, a Red Sox / Cardinals World Series, of course!  I’m sure you know that your Shakespeare Geek is a Red Sox fan, but did you know that his arch-nemesis Bardfilm is a Cardinals fan?  And that the Red Sox / Cardinals have a World Series history?  A wager! There must be a wager of Shakespearean proportion!
Shakespeare is a David Ortiz fan.
For the conclusion to *that* story, we take a quick side trip over to Bardfilm’s blog for the stunning results.  Don’t miss the part at the end where we’re featured on television!
As the year draws to a close we move on to November and my own “National Novel Writing Month” challenge.  The local high school did Hamlet this year, and I decided there’d be no better time to put words to paper and instead of just explaining the play to my kids before they saw it, I’d write it down. Even better, I’d write it down and then hand it over to my daughter’s middle school teacher, where she’d have her entire class of 11yr olds read it!  Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 (and my review of the Hamlet, for the curious). 
Well, that about wraps it up for the year! Happy Holidays Everyone!

Best Original Posts of 2013

As another year comes to a close I thought it would be fun to go back and pick the biggest posts of 2013.  I’m happy to discover that the top 5 are, in fact, original content produced by Bardfilm and myself.

I’m presenting these in chronological order, because the older a post is the more chance it’s had to get traffic (so it’s not really fair to compare a January piece to a November one).

January 24, 2013  
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare — in Haiku
This piece is amazing because when he said Complete, he meant it.  KJ does a haiku rendition of 39 Shakespeare plays.  We should print and bind this.

February 14, 2013
Shakespearean Pickup Lines for Valentine’s Day
We all know that Shakespeare wrote the best wedding quotes, but you can’t just jump to the end of the story!  What about the pickup line that gets you started?  Shakespeare’s still your wing man.


February 22, 2013
Shakespearean Hip-Hop Lyrics
The trickiest part of this mashup is deciding on a genre of hip-hop!  It has been around for a little while, and changed quite a bit over the decades.


May 8, 2013
Most Popular Shakespeare Tattoos
I’d always wanted to do a gallery post, and this was my chance. 

July 30, 2013
Game of Thrones? That’s cute.
When I saw that someone had do a meme where all the Star Wars characters say patronizing things to Game of Thrones characters (well, and vice versa) I knew I had to mash it up with Shakespeare. I think my job was far more difficult, though – it’s not like Viola from Twelfth Night is instantly recognizable like, oh, Darth Vader.

Now Gods, Stand Up For Shakespeare’s Brother

Edmund Shakespeare
(1580-1607)

Today I Learned that Shakespeare’s little brother Edmund (born 1580) followed him to London to become an actor.

Who wants to speculate on connections between little brother, and Shakespeare’s most famous bastard from King Lear?  Edmund had a bastard child of his own, though the child was born four months before Edmund’s death in 1607, making the event too late to have any connection to King Lear, which was written prior to 1606.

How cool would it be if Edmund went to London and actually stayed with his brother during that time, maybe even acting in one of the plays?  No records exist, but does that mean it didn’t happen?

The Sanders Portrait Has A New Home

Which portrait is your favorite?  It seems like Droeshout and Chandos always get the love, but there are quite a few more contenders : Cobbe, Flowers, Sanders?

Well, the Sanders portrait is changing ownership.

The portrait – an oil on two joined oak panels named after its likely creator, John Sanders (1559-1643), Mr. Sullivan’s great grandfather 13 generations removed and a Shakespeare associate in London – was first brought to international attention by The Globe and Mail’s Stephanie Nolen in a front-page story in May, 2001. 

Mr. Sullivan, who inherited the portrait in the early 1970s from his dying mother in Montreal, began to try to confirm its authenticity in the early 1990s and to date has spent more than $1-million in the effort.

Anybody on the “Sanders is the only portrait painted from life” side?  Other than the guy with the direct family connection, who is not shy about talking up how important it is for Canada to have a Shakespeare portrait, what’s the “mounting evidence” they mention in the article?