THE DAY!

Today is Shakespeare's birthday; well, the day it's celebrated anyway. No one really knows exactly when he was born. They know only that he was baptized on April 26, 1564, and figured that he must have come into the world just a few days prior. (In those days of lingering Catholicism and high infant mortality rates, people were quick to baptize their kids so they'd go to heaven if they died right away.) There's also the matter of discrepancy between the Julian and Gregorian calendar, which complicates the birthday matter further.

But, for all practical purposes, today is the big day for Shakespeare dorks. Bonus: April 23 is also the day he died, in 1616.

In celebration, I bought myself a present: "Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary & Language Companion," a hefty book that I've been petting and ogling for several weeks now. It's delightful. Not only is it a great source for every word in his work, but it also has fantastic sections on, for example, every plant mentioned in Shakespeare, every weapon and type of clothing, every archaism, every curse and insult ("Thou lump of foul deformity!" "Thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane," "You starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish!"); explanations of usage, such as when "thou" is used instead of "you." Plus it has a chronology of the plays, complete with a synopsis of each one and a graphic representation of character interactions. Sweet!