Having a couple of drinks with Will Shakespeare. Ask us anything.

[Aristus]

[Incitatus]

1. What are you drinking?

[Aristus]

3. Me: Spire Pear Cider.

Will: Dry sack and sherry, of course.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear Aristus!

Is he as cool as I think he is?

Wow, I wish I were there, having a drink with you two very good-looking gentlemen........

[Aristus]

5. He's only fun when he's drunk or writing plays.

Otherwise, (and don't tell him I said this), his conversation can be kind of dry, boring, and legalistic. He likes to sue people, even if for very small sums of money they're in debt to him for. He's always talking about his real estate investments. Yawn...

But get him talking about plays or poetry, and he is lightning in a bottle!

I told him he should write a part for you, CalPeg. He snickered and said: "I did! Innogen in
Much Ado About Nothing'!"

[struggle4progress]

4. 2B or not 2B?

I can never remember her apartment number

[Aristus]

6. About that soliloquy:

Will originally wrote:

To be or not to be, that is the point.
To die, to sleep, is that all? Aye, all.
No, to die, to dream, I marry there it goes.

He showed it to Philip Henslow, who pronounced it rubbish.

"Rubbish?" Will replied.

"To be or not to be? Is that a question?" Henslow said.

Will paused for a moment, then grabbed the paper back and began scribbling furiously, revising the text, and produced the masterpiece we know today.

[Aristus]

7. Kick.

Because Will and I got hammered last night...

By the time we went our separate ways, he was slurring: "You know, I really should have taken over that Thomas Cromwell play and just finished the damn thing! I don't like playwright-by-committee..."

[Lady Freedom Returns]

8. Can he hold his liquor?

I have heard he can't.

[Aristus]

9. Don't get me wrong; the guy can drink.

He can really sock away the booze. But sometimes, if he is in the right frame of mind, or the wrong one, I suppose, he'll get really hammered and unleash a long string of silly 'knock-knock' jokes. Gets old after a while...

[LeftofObama]

10. Doth he think you protest too much? n/t

[Aristus]

11. No.

When we're drinking, he does most of the protesting, in the Elizabethan sense of 'proclaiming' (i.e. "I protest my innocence!&quot . I don't even try to keep up. The man has a stunning way with words...

[Enrique]

12. to pee or not to pee?

[Aristus]

20. After a few drinks, definitely to pee!

[TheManInTheMac]

13. What's it like being married to Anne Hathaway?

[Aristus]

14. Well, it's a poorly-kept secret that Will and Anne aren't

the happiest of married couples. Anne is older than Will. It's easy to imagine she took a liking to a young, handsome lad with the dazzling intellect. Probably just looking for a roll in the hay. Well, a roll or two later, Anne turns up pregnant. Her parents weren't too happy with that. Will's dad, once a mover and shaker in Stratford society, is already on the outs with the town fathers. So to avoid a scandal, Will and Anne get married.


The rest, as they say, is history.

They're both devoted to Susannah and the twins, but things have cooled between the two of them. He doesn't get out to Stratford much...

[Wounded Bear]

15. Et tu, Aristus?

[Aristus]

16. Yeah, I talked to Will about that line.

I reminded him that most of the ancient sources state that Caesar said nothing at all after being stabbed. And one of the remaining sources stated that Caesar said: "And you, Brutus, my child?"

But Will likes a good death scene, so it stayed. Followed by a rather hokey "Then fall Caesar!"

[Taverner]

17. Why were you such a Tudor Apologist?

[Aristus]

19. Are you talking about the hatchet job on Richard III?

And the whitewashing of Henry Tudor, AKA Henry VII?

Don't forget, Will wrote his history plays during the reign of Henry VII's granddaughter. Richard III was a brave warrior, a capable administrator, and not deformed at all. But to make him the hero of the play would be tantamount to treason.

(You should have heard Will sigh just now. He muttered: " If I had a shilling for every time I had to explain this...&quot

[LynneSin]

18. To Be or Not To Be?

Isn't that the question?

[Aristus]

21. See above.

You're late to the party, LynneSin.

But hell, we're just glad you decided to show up at all...

[LynneSin]

24. That thead was about where you 2 were located

If you we're in room 2B or elsewhere

mine was about the existance of man

[cliffordu]

22. To Ireland, I.

Our separated fortune
Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are,
There’s daggers in men’s smiles. The near in blood,
The nearer bloody.

[Aristus]

23. All right, Donalbain, you know the rule about quoting from the Scottish Tragedy.

Anyway, Will wants me to point out that there is no question there...

[cliffordu]

27. AH!!!

The the old boy that I said howdy!

[Lady Freedom Returns]

25. Shakespeare like dogs or cats?

[Aristus]

26. Dogs.

For proof of that, watch "The Two Gentlemen Of Verona". Crab, the dog belonging to the character of Launce the clown, is often called the greatest non-speaking role in Shakespeare.

Oh. Will wanted me to point out that you can train a dog to perform a role on stage. Cats, not so much...

[Aristus]

28. Kick. Another night of revelry with The Bard.

This time, we're hashing out tomorrow's edition of William Shakespeare's Thought For The Day.

This is fun. Usually he texts me an image and a quote, with a terse message: "Post this."

Will likes revising his own quotes to suit his current frame of mind. Just now, the dirty-minded guy changed his line from King Lear: "What? Fifty of my followers at a clap within a fortnight?" into "What? Fifty of my followers with the clap within a fortnight?"

I think the bartender is going to cut him off soon...

[luv_mykatz]

29. Unfortunately, I can't quote Shakespeare...

but, I hope your head will be in good condition for Saturday. I love your posts.

[Aristus]

30. The weekend edition of WSTFTD is up!

Hope you enjoy it, luv_mykatz!

I'm glad you're a fan...

[Springslips]

31. You are you right?

What do you think of crazy conspiracy theories saying that you didn't write the plays but that Bacon, or Oxford did? Isn't an example of class warfare to say that you couldn't have penned the plays since you are not a member of the 1 percent?

[Aristus]

32. Will wants me to pass this along to you: "It's all bullshit, man.

The 'University lads', of whom Kit Marlowe was the leader, thought that they were all the shit and stuff. Nobody could write plays like them, because they had a sheepskin from Oxford or Cambridge or some shit.

"What a crock. Kit Marlowe had some talent, no doubt, but he played to the theatrical traditions of his day. He was too conservative to try and push the envelope. Just check out his "The Jew Of Malta" and my "The Merchant Of Venice" for comparison. His play was the smash hit of Southwark in his day, but nobody performs it anymore. And his characters were all kind of cardboard and flat. That bit about Marlowe's death? I'll just bet he was stabbed in the eye by some angry Jewish fellow over what is a fairly bigoted portrayal in his play. My Shylock has his supporters and detractors, but nobody has stabbed me in the eye, that's for sure.

Plus Al Pacino took on the role of Shylock a couple of times. Pacino rocks! Eat that, Christopher!"

That's it from Will. He's calling for another bottle of the Portuguese stuff.