I confess I've been wary of taking Henry Louis Gates at his word ever since, almost two decades back, the literary scholar compared the lyrics of the rap group 2 Live Crew to those of the Bard of Avon. "It's like Shakespeare's 'My love is like a red, red rose,'" he declared, authoritatively, to a court in Fort Lauderdale.
As it happens, "My luv's like a red, red rose" was written by Robbie Burns, a couple of centuries after Shakespeare. Oh, well. 16th century English playwright, 18th century Scottish poet: What's the diff?
On the one hand, we have:
“Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”
On the other:
“Ahh! Me so horny. Me love you long time”
Or maybe that’s not fair, since 2 Live Crew the above quote was not written by any member of 2 Live Crew. But trust me, that’s about as good as it gets.
LOL. That’s funny - thanks for the laugh. And this is a Harvard Professor? Although I think Mr. Burns would probably object to being called “Robbie”.:)
He got “confused” the Shakespeare phrase is as follows and is from Romeo and Juliet. Any high school kid would know this.
“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;”
They were both whitey, weren't they? So no difference.
“Oh, well. 16th century English playwright, 18th century Scottish poet: What’s the diff?” There is no difference to gates, to him it’s just two old dead white guys; so he can use the material.
An Englishman is being shown around a Scottish hospital. At the end of the tour he is shown into a ward with a number of patients who show no signs of injury.
He goes to examine the first man he sees, and the man proclaims
"Fair fa' yer honest sonsie face
Great chieftain o' the puddin' race!"
The Englishman, somewhat taken aback, goes to the next patient, who immediately launches into:
"Some hae meat, and canna eat, and some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat, and sae the Lord be thankit."
The next patient sits up and declaims:
"Wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beastie,
O what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty, wi' bickering bl'attle.
I wad be laith to run and chase thee, wi' murdering prattle."
"Well" says the Englishman to his Scottish colleague "I see you saved the psychiatric ward for the last".
"No, no" the Scottish doctor corrects him "This is the Serious Burns Unit!"
Did Gates even graduate from COLLEGE???