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To be or not to be. That is normally the question. But in this case the letter 'a' appears to have caused all the problems. Clothing giant Topshop failed to spot that William Shakespeare's name was spelt incorrectly on a £20 T-shirt it was marketing. The women's fashion item went on sale online and at stores across the UK printed with the misspelling 'Shakespere'. Shoppers were quick to spot the blunder, and slammed Topshop and design company Tee and Cake, which produced the item, for the mistake. Shoppers were quick to spot the blunder, and slammed Topshop and design company...

So what is new to justify Sally Bedell Smith's massive "Elizabeth the Queen"? What is left to uncover, and what should be left uncovered and unknown in the life of this exemplary lady whose predetermined existence of regal obligation is yawningly unenviable, however bejeweled the box it comes in? (Snip) ... an American acquaintance says the queen collects pepper grinders. And sometimes it's about the queen's own words on her ancient calling in the 21st century. With characteristic briskness, she told her cousin Margaret Rhodes that her sanctified role means no retirement until death, "unless I get Alzheimer's or have...

Shakespeare Theatre’s ‘Much Ado’ Raises Question of Latino Stereotypes By Peter Marks December 19 Reversing a decision that had enraged Latino playwrights, directors and others, the Shakespeare Theatre Company has taken the unusual step of restoring in mid-run the original names of two characters that had been changed for its Cuban-set production of “Much Ado About Nothing.” As a result, the programs for the show will be altered as of Thursday to include the names Shakespeare had given to the two minor characters, Hugh Oatcake and George Seacoal. For the first few weeks of the run, which began Nov. 25,...

The Rev. John Becker, S.J., sat at the front of the classroom, paperback in hand, glasses pushed to the end of his nose. As he spoke, he looked intently from one student to another. “This semester, I am going to teach you how to read 'King Lear,'” he said. “It may be Shakespeare’s most difficult play. But it has a powerful message to tell.” When we were done reading “Lear,” the priest promised, we would not only understand it, but we would have learned the secret of understanding any thing written in English -- anything, that is, with a meaning...

Body-conscious Shakespeare: Sensory disturbances in troubled charactersShakespeare was a master at portraying profound emotional upset in the physical symptoms of his characters, and many modern day doctors would do well to study the Bard to better understand the mind-body connection, concludes an analysis of his works, published in Medical Humanities. Kenneth Heaton, a medical doctor and extensively published author on William Shakespeare's oeuvre, systematically analysed 42 of the author's major works and 46 of those of his contemporaries, looking for evidence of psychosomatic symptoms. He focused on sensory symptoms other than those relating to sight, taste, the heart, and the...

The NCPA's Western classic drama series will present Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid by French theater Comedie-Francaise, and an international co-production of Shakespeare's Richard III. Mu Qian reports. Oscar-winning artists, classic plays and some of the world's most established theater groups will be featured in the Western classic drama series of the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA). The first two works of the series, French state theater Comedie-Francaise's performance of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid, and an international co-production of Shakespeare's Richard III, starring Kevin Spacey, will be staged at the center from Oct 27 to Nov 13. "This will...

As a self-proclaimed loser word nerd, my absolute favorite class in college was Shakespeare. Regardless if the dude even existed or not, I feel intimidated writing about him using my own pathetically limited vocabulary, as I am that enthralled and marveled by his English language skillz (sorry, Will). That's why I was so stoked to see the newest Tumblr hit sweeping the Internet world: "Things We Say Today Which We Owe to Shakespeare." There are so many things! I remember reading through his plays late at night for class, coming across phrases and sayings and having the light bulb in...

A South African anthropologist has asked permission to open the graves of William Shakespeare and his family to determine, among other things, what killed the Bard and whether his poems and plays may have been composed under the influence of marijuana. But while Shakespeare's skeleton could reveal clues about his health and death, the question of the man's drug use depends on the presence of hair, fingernails or toenails in the grave, said Francis Thackeray, the director of the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who floated the proposal to the Church of England. Thackeray...

William Shakespeare was probably a Catholic, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who discussed spirituality and secularism in the Bard’s plays with the actor Simon Russell Beale.Little is known of Shakespeare’s life and there is no direct evidence of his religious affiliation, but Dr Rowan Williams said he believed him to be a Catholic. “I don’t think it tells us a great deal, to settle whether he was a Catholic or a Protestant, but for what it’s worth I think he probably had a Catholic background and a lot of Catholic friends and associates. “How much he believed in it,...

Reading lists for middle school and high school students routinely include Shakespearean plays, but most teens find themselves struggling to translate the plays into language they can understand. However, from day one back in October, Mrs. Mary Raithel assured the St. Alphonsus Liguori middle school students that they would not have to read Macbeth. They would be learning by performing Macbeth. And so they did, as the entire St. Alphonsus Middle School staged their outstanding performances of Scenes from Macbeth on Wednesday, January 26, for an audience of nearly 150 proud parents, family members and guests. Eight scenes from this...

LOS ANGELES — A notorious criminal case that waited 400 years to go before a jury resulted in no definite answer to the question of whether the defendant — Hamlet Prince of Denmark — was sane when he committed murder.

Sir Derek Jacobi is wrong to think that Shakespeare could not have written his own plays; the greatest poet and dramatist of all times was an Englishman and a CatholicThe actor Sir Derek Jacobi is currently acting the part of King Lear to great critical acclaim at the Donmar Warehouse. I must get to see it before the production closes just to see if he gets my personal imprimatur or not. But there is one matter on which I cannot agree with Sir Derek: the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. Apparently the knighted thespian takes a benighted view on this one:...

Enter the KING WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here But one ten thousand of those men in England That do no work to-day! KING. What's he that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin; If we are mark'd to die, we are enow To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honour. God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not if men my garments wear; Such...

Our former NR colleague, Joe Sobran, passed away today after a long battle with a variety of ailments. He was relatively young, just 64, and while physically beaten at the end, he also departed spiritually triumphant.   Surely, in short order, there will be ample reflection — much of it critical — on the hyper-talented, hyper-controversial writer. There will be a recounting of his history at NR, the break, the following years, and Joe’s soured relationship with WFB (happily, they rekindled their friendship before Bill passed away). Good, let’s discuss all that, and more. But later. Right now, let us,...

Following a London West End run in December 2007, a sold-out limited engagement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March 2008, and a subsequent eight-week run on Broadway, director Rupert Goold’s gripping stage production of Macbeth was filmed for television at the end of 2009. The co-production between WNET.ORG and Illuminations Television, in association with the BBC, stars Sir Patrick Stewart in his triumphant, Tony-nominated performance as the ambitious general, and Tony-nominated Kate Fleetwood as his coldly scheming wife. The production, though retaining the Goold’s exciting concept of relocating the bloody action to a nameless 20th-century militaristic society, has...

ARLINGTON, Va.- In the United States, where many people can't speak English properly, a Washington acting troupe says it will perform Shakespeare in Klingon. During its annual benefit Sept. 25, the Washington Shakespeare Company in Arlington, Va., will perform selections from "Hamlet" and "Much Ado About Nothing" in both English and the language invented for Klingon characters of the Star Trek films, The Washington Post reported Sunday. The effort was inspired by a line spoken by English actor David Warner in "Star Trek VI," in which his Klingon character declares, "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him...

I am thoroughly taken with Sarah Palin’s neologism. People often incorrectly use the word “refute” to mean something like “deny” or “reject”, only stronger. We could do with a new word to fill this gap and, since both “refute” and “repudiate” are already occupied with their actual meanings, neither can be pressed into service. “Refudiate” occupies the space perfectly, and deserves to become part of every politician’s vocabulary. The handsome Alaskan politician is quite right to say that Shakespeare came up with countless new-fangled words – including “countless” and “new-fangled”. Among his coinages, as far as we can tell, are...

MARK COLVIN: William Shakespeare is one of the most significant figures in history about whose actual life we know the least. Very little survives in his handwriting and the records of him are scanty but mostly concerned with money and lawsuits. This absence has proved the breeding ground for all sorts of conspiracy theories, mostly suggesting that someone much more aristocratic wrote the works of the man we call Shakespeare. Some have said it was Francis Bacon, others the Earl of Oxford. There's even a school that believes Christopher Marlowe wrote Shakespeare even though he was stabbed to death years...

How long would it take a monkey typing randomly to reproduce the completes works of William (great name, incidentally) Shakespeare? Once we know that, we can answer how long it would take a barrelful. If that is, we knew how many monkeys would fit in a standard barrel. In experiments conducted by your author, I can tell you the answer is eleven, but you have to press hard. A typewritten work is composed, of course, of words, and in between those words are spaces and the occasional punctuation. Separating the words are headings, themselves comprised of words and numbers. According...

William Shakespeare was born APRIL 23, 1564. His 37 plays impacted world literature. He married Ann Hathaway, had three children, moved to London, and became shareholding director of Globe Theater, writing such classics as Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In King Henry VIII, 1613, act III, scene ii, line 456, Shakespeare wrote: "Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, he would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies." In Othello, 1604, act I, scene i, line 108, Shakespeare wrote: "You are one of those that will...