Shakespeare fan

Antony P

New Member
Occasional user of online forums, regular user of books, in a chair, with a good reading light (or sunlight when possible.) From an unfeasibly young age I've been engaged with the life, times and works of Mr William Shakespeare. (Which is how I found this forum.)
 
Have you seen the signature under my forum name? “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – William Shakespeare
The quotation is from: "All's Well That Ends Well." Act 1 Scene 1.
Many times you might hear: "Shakespeare is so boring," but when the English that it's written in, what we term as "Old English," is explained, then boring it is not. Certainly Hollywood doesn't thinks so: Taming of the Shrew--10 Things I Hate About You. Hamlet--The Lion King. Twelth Night--She's The Man. Romeo & Juliet--Warm Bodies.
There's many more but those examples give you the gist. Welcome to Senior Forums and whilst Shakespeare might not use the term: "Old Fart," he certainly knew how to send up geriatrics:

The Seven Ages of Man: In As You Like It, Jaques famously describes the sixth age as a "lean and slipper'd pantaloon" and the final, seventh stage as "second childishness and mere oblivion, / Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything".
 
Sonnet 123:

No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:
Thy pyramids built up with newer might
To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;
They are but dressings of a former sight.

Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
What thou dost foist upon us that is old,
And rather make them born to our desire
Than think that we before have heard them told.

Thy registers and thee I both defy,
Not wondering at the present nor the past;
For thy records and what we see doth lie,
Made more or less by that continual haste.

This I do vow, and this shall ever be:
I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.
 
Sonnet 123:

No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:
Thy pyramids built up with newer might
To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;
They are but dressings of a former sight.

Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
What thou dost foist upon us that is old,
And rather make them born to our desire
Than think that we before have heard them told.

Thy registers and thee I both defy,
Not wondering at the present nor the past;
For thy records and what we see doth lie,
Made more or less by that continual haste.

This I do vow, and this shall ever be:
I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.

No doubt this and others would have rhymed better in their original 400 year old pronunciation.
 
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