False Compare and True Beauty

This week’s episode (here) of The Bard and the Bible Podcast pairs Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 (“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”) with Isaiah 53:1-5 in the King James Version of the Bible.

The Bard’s Top 6 Mistakespeares

William Shakespeare is considered by many to have been the greatest writer in the English language. But even Shakespeare made mistakes. Lots of them, in fact. While we can overlook the variety of ways he spelled many words (including his own name) because he lived and wrote in an era when English spelling was not yet standardized, we can still identify six of the most glaring mistakes he made:

1. In the first scene of Two Gentlemen of Verona (perhaps Shakespeare’s earliest play), Valentine heads off to sail from Verona to Milan, though neither city is a port (in fact, they are only 100 miles apart by land). Not only that, but other characters seem (in uncorrected scripts) confused about where they are, referring to their location as Padua or Verona instead of Milan.

Revenge and Wrath

In this week’s episode (here) of The Bard and the Bible Podcast Shylock’s soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1, of The Merchant of Venice is followed by verses from Paul’s letter to the Romans (Romans 12:19-21) in the King James Version of the Bible.

10 Facts About Shakespeare That May Surprise You

1. Though Shakespeare often wrote about far-flung places in his plays, he never ventured out of England.

Music, Time, and Wisdom

In this week’s episode (here) of The Bard and the Bible Podcast, we conclude Richard II’s soliloquy from Act 5, Scene 5 of Richard II and pair it with Ephesians 5:15-21 in the King James Version of the Bible.

And Did Those Feet

I have been there. I can say I have been there. My feet have walked upon Shakespeare’s Stratford lanes (apologies to William Blake). 

In 1995, the lovely Robin and I traveled with our children, Aubrey and Aaron, to that “green and pleasant land” that gave birth to Shakespeare.

Eased With Being Nothing

In this week’s episode (here) of The Bard and the Bible Podcast, the first part of a sad solioquy by Richard II (“I have been studying”) is paired with with Philippians 4:9-12 in the King James Version of the Bible.

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How The Bard and the Bible began

I get mixed reactions when I tell people about my book, The Bard and the Bible (A Shakespeare Devotional).

The Right Mind

This week’s episode (here) of The Bard and the Bible Podcast pairs the boasts of the mysterious Glendower in 1 Henry IV with the Apostle Paul’s admonitions to humility in the pattern of Jesus Christ from Philippians 2:5-11 in the King James Version of the Bible.

My 10 Favorite Shakespearean Clowns

One of William Shakespeare’s many literary gifts was the ability to create and develop memorable characters: kings and queens, villains and heroes, lovers and losers, and more. Some of his greatest creations, to my mind, where his fools and clowns (and, yes, I know that scholars draw distinctions between “fools” and “clowns” in Shakespeare’s works. I grant that, but I’ll lump them together).

Here is a short list of my favorites, the first and foremost being, of course:

1. Falstaff (1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV)
2. Dogberry (Much Ado About Nothing)
3. The gravediggers (Hamlet)
4. Nick Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
5. Puck (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
6. Costard (Love’s Labours Lost)
7. Feste (Twelfth Night)
8. Touchstone (As You Like It)
9. Dromio of Ephesus (The Comedy of Errors)
10. Dromio of Syracuse (The Comedy of Errors)

Who are your favorites? And in what order?

(photo from the Arizona Opera’s production of Verdi’s Falstaff, based on Shakespeare’s character)