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Carpal Tunnel
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I wasn't kidding. And actually, it is accepted documentarily that Shakespeare did, indeed, die on April 23rd. But there is no solid evidence to support April 23rd as his birth date: > The Early Life Story
of William ShakespeareStratford, England, 1564-1569 (Page 2: Shakespeare's Birthday) An excerpt from "William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius" by Anthony Holden Beyond the tedious, class-ridden distraction that its subject never existed, or could not have been the man who wrote the plays and poems attributed to him, or was even (in a tired academic joke) a different man of the same name, Shakespeare biography must chart a wary course through the encrusted myths of more than four centuries — the first being the popular delusion that there is scant documentary evidence about the life of the most remarkable poet the world has been privileged to know. Shakespeare's life is in fact documented in more detail than that of any writer of his age, except to some degree Ben Jonson, as we shall see from these (and many other) contemporary references to his work. So another myth must be dispelled at the outset. There is no evidence, alas, to support the popular belief that William Shakespeare was born — as fifty-two years later he was to die — on 23 April, the date celebrated in England since 1222 as the feast day of dragon-slaying St George. As the poet's posthumous fame grew, securing a unique niche for his country in the cultural history of the world, it was a natural enough temptation for posterity to unite the birthday of England's national poet with that of its patron saint. But the tradition is based on a false assumption, that Elizabethan baptisms invariably took place three days after the birth. The instruction given to parents in the 1559 Prayer Book, published five years before Shakespeare's birth, was to have the christening performed before the first Sunday or holy day following the birth 'unless upon a great and reasonable cause declared to the curate and by him approved'. In 1564 the 23rd day of April happened to fall on a Sunday, four days after the feast day of St Alphege and two before that of St Mark — traditionally an unlucky day, so the curate's permission to avoid it may well have been forthcoming. But the contemporary inscription on Shakespeare's tomb in Holy Trinity — that same church where he was christened on 26 April by the vicar of the parish, John Bretchgirdle — reads that he died in his fifty-third year ( 'obiit anno . . . aetatis 53'). We know that he died on St George's Day, 23 April, so this would seem to imply that he was born before it, however marginally. There are few more satisfactory resolutions of this problem than that of the poet Thomas de Quincey, who suggested that Shakespeare's granddaughter Elizabeth Hall married on 22 April 1626 'in honour of her famous relation' — choosing the sixty-second anniversary of his birth, in other words, rather than the tenth of his death. © 1999 by Anthony Holden. All rights reserved. Posted with permission of http://www.twbookmark.com. Click here for ordering information for "William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius" at Amazon.com. < http://makeashorterlink.com/?U29123254
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Carpal Tunnel
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So, when was Bacon's birthday?
Bingley
Bingley
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old hand
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old hand
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>So, when was Bacon's birthday?
Silly, it was on Hogmanay of course.
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Which fell on a Tuesday that year.
Bingley
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Carpal Tunnel
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No, I checked. It doesn't say when Bacon's birthday was. I just thought that whenever it is a special anniversary hogwash might be in order.
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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It was funnier this time only because it brought back memories of last time.
And it wasn't all that funny this time
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Carpal Tunnel
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So, when was Bacon's birthday?
Uhhh...at the inception of the first true pig on Earth?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561. Ben Jonson wrote "Lord Bacon's Birthday" to celebrate his sixtieth birthday:
Hail, happy genius of this ancient pile!
How comes it all things so about thee smile ?
The fire, the wine, the men! And in the midst,
Thou stand'st as if some mystery thou didst!
Pardon, I read it in thy face, the day
For whose returns, and many, all these pray:
And so do I. This is the sixieth year
Since Bacon, and thy lord was born, and here;
Soon to the grave wise Keeper of the Seal,
Fame, and foundation of the English weal.
What then his father was, that since is he,
Now with a title more to the degree;
England's high Chancellor: the destined heir
In his soft cradle to his father's chair,
Whose even thread the Fates spin round and full,
Out of their choicest, and their whitest wool.
'Tis a brave cause of joy, let it be known,
For 'twere a narrow gladness, kept thine own.
Give me a deep-crowned bowl, that I may sing
In raising him the wisdom of my king.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks for the reminder and look back, dxb! That was an intriguing thread! (and he didn't even use the Y-word!...a true gentleman!  )
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