A summary of a Shakespeare sonnet Sonnet 19 has a hard act to follow in the sequence of 154 poems that comprise Shakespeare’s Sonnets, as it is usually organised. What follows is a brief summary and analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 19 in terms of the poem’s language, meaning, and themes. […]
Fun facts about a classic play 1. The first recorded performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was on Candlemas, 1602. Candlemas is 2 February – better-known in the United States as Groundhog Day – and was the date on which Christmas decorations were often traditionally taken down in Shakespeare’s time (unlike these […]
A summary of a classic Shakespeare poem by Dr Oliver Tearle ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ is one of the most famous opening lines in all of literature. In this post, we’re going to look beyond that opening line, and the poem’s reputation, and attempt a short […]
Curious trivia about Shakespeare’s classic play 1. The first known piece of criticism of the play was an entry in the diary of Samuel Pepys. Pepys, who saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed in 1662, recorded in his famous diary that the play was ‘the most insipid ridiculous play that […]
The interesting history of ‘unfriend’ The word ‘unfriend’ is, like the word ‘muggle’, one that has a curious history: ‘unfriend’ had a life before Facebook. Its principal meaning now is to delete somebody as a friend on a social media side, especially Facebook, but it has been used variously as […]