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Shakespeare Week - Shakespeare 400th Death Anniversary

Hi, everybody! It's been a long long while. (Sorry.)

Busy as I am nowadays, I would feel more than guilty if I miss Shakespeare's 400th Death Anniversary. (Do we celebrate the deaths of people now?)

Day of death is a perfect time to reflect on life. Not for the dead person, of course, but for us the living. We get to think about our lives this far, about what we have achieved and what impression we would leave on people.

As for Shakespeare, we know what he had achieved, and what impression he left on people. Nothing can sum it up better than his own prophetic (or, depends on the interpretation that you prefer, narcissistic) sonnets. Take Sonnet 55, for example.

Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.

That is what we call self-description. However, this week, whenever I remember Shakespeare, the words that appear in my mind are the last two lines of Sonnet 18.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

So this year, to mark the death of Shakespeare, I will revisit his works, and thus let him live again. Depends on this week's schedule, I'd like to share how Shakespeare can still be used in our days, how his expressions of emotion can help us to let ours out. But I will not let this week become a series of serious lectures on Shakespeare. Instead, I want to have fun.

So here's the Shakespeare-related things I'm going to do this week:

  • Re-read/re-watch Much Ado About Nothing
  • Re-read/re-watch Hamlet/Coriolanus, it depends on my mood
  • Have some sonnets with me/any of his poems for that matter
  • Bad Translation post (hopefully)


So, how do you guys spend your Shakespeare Week?
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