This is the second time I’ve stumbled over a review of 1599:A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare so I’m putting up a link. The reason I didn’t in the first place is that given my recent reading I’m not sure of the value of something that says “Let’s take a specific year and look at all the details of what happened.” For instance do we truly know for a fact that this was the year that he wrote Hamlet, As You Like It, Henry V and Julius Caesar? Or is that just the accepted timeline? If it’s the latter, that’s cool – but it’s pretty hard to then write the book like a calendar of events, since it’s really only by mutual agreement that this is the case, not any cold hard facts.

This coming Sunday, July 3 10,000 British school children in 400 schools will all perform Shakespeare simultaneously. Organizers hope to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for most Shakespeare performances in a single night. What an odd record :).

Apparently, “Pupils will perform their own interpretations of shortened versions of some of Shakespeare’s plays, directed and produced by their teachers.” Own interpretations of shortened versions? Exactly how much of the original has to remain in order for it to still be Shakespeare?

This day in Shakespeare history, the original Globe Theatre burned down during the first performance of Henry VIII.

Found here.

As a Shakespeare geek, I find it cool that Shakespeare’s hometown is going wireless in a big way. Not just setting up wifi hotspots around time (so bloggers like yours truly wouldn’t have to wait until we get home to braindump everything in sight!), but you can actually get your hands on a dedicated PDA that will provide an interactive map of the area, pointing out all the good spots.

Highly neat! One of these days I have to get out there.

Well here’s interesting news for a change. Author Hank Whittemore has issued a press release claiming to have the solution to the sonnets. By solution I assume that means “who they were written about.”

The solution of course comes in his new book, “The Monument : ‘Shake-Speare’s Sonnets’ by Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford” which weighs in at 900 pages. What I’m trying to grasp from the press release is how the Earl of Oxford fits into the picture – does the book just start with the premise that Oxford was Shakespeare (as does “Shakespeare by Another Name”, which I just wrote about yesterday)?

More information available at ShakespearesMonument.com.

P.S. Wait til you find out who the Dark Lady is!