{"id":1786,"date":"2013-04-23T10:04:16","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T14:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/?p=1786"},"modified":"2013-04-23T12:35:38","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T16:35:38","slug":"happy-william-shakespeares-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/?p=1786","title":{"rendered":"Happy William Shakespeare’s Birthday!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If he hadn’t gone and died on us, William Shakespeare would be 449 years old today, April 23, 2013. A few years ago, in the course of an informal talk Harold Bloom gave at the Classic Stage Company in Manhattan, he made an observation that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. \u00a0“I don’t believe in God,” he said, then added, “Shakespeare is the only god who makes sense.” \u00a0That’s exactly how I feel. \u00a0So I’d just like to say, “Happy 449th birthday, God!”<\/p>\n

Here’s a clip of the great Roger Allam doing one of Falstaff’s best speeches. \u00a0How I wish I could have seen him do this live! \u00a0At the Globe Theatre, where this performance took place, the majority of the audience stands — only those in the boxes have benches. \u00a0This particular speech comes late in the play — Act IV, Scene 3 — by this time, most of the audience has been standing for three hours or even longer. \u00a0Yet listen to the complete silence whenever Allam takes a pause . . . As Moms Mabley used to say, “You could hear a rat piss on cotton.” To command an audience’s complete attention after they’ve been on their feet for three hours is an almost miraculous feat. \u00a0It takes a talent like Roger Allam and a genius like William Shakespeare to pull it off.<\/p>\n