Today I heard my 5 yr old singing at the lunch table. Soon, her 3 yr old sister joined her. This is a common occurence. What they were singing, however, caught my attention. They were singing “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”. I said, “Katherine, what did you just say?” so fast that she thought she was in trouble. “It wasn’t bad, sweetie, it was a good thing. I wanted to hear you say it again.” “I was singing Shall I compare thee,” she said like she didn’t fully understand the significance. Because, well she doesn’t. 🙂 They know that line because it is the ringtone on my phone. My 3yr old calls it “The song your phone sings”. My 5yr old knows it as Shakespeare. I am anxiously awaiting the day that they can recite even more of it. I realize the words mean nothing to them, but the memorization is a powerful tool. After all, they can both do the Catholic Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary, even though most of the words are gibberish to them. If one of them manages a full stanza, I’ll make sure to record and post it for posterity :). Anybody needs me, I’ll be over here beside myself.
I’ve been reading your blog for several weeks, and I just love the stories about your children and their growing interest in Shakespeare. I was searching for something else today, and stumbled across this! Just had to share it with you.
It is wonderful. My own son is only seventeen months, so we’re not there yet. But someday. Besides, we’re Shakespeare actors – don’t want to make the kid a stereo-type. It was bad enough, all the expectation that we’d name him after a Shakespeare character. My father-in-law kept suggesting Iago. Thankfully, we’re not that cruel.
Now, if you’ll just read to them from THE MASTER OF VERONA…
My daughter’s name is Katherine Delia, so if she ever gets around to asking I’ll tell her that she’s named after a Shrew, and the “bad” daughter in King Lear who didn’t love her daddy enough :). (Actually she is named after family, lest anyone not get my joke.)
My second is Elizabeth, so that Shakespearean reference is obvious. I even tend to call her “Elizabethan” because I think it sounds cool :).
My son is Brendan. He’s out of luck. Shakespeare didn’t give me much to work with for male names. I was not going to get across a Fleance or Banquo or something. I made a case for “Christopher”, just so that I could say it was a Marlowe reference, but I did not win that vote.
Mine is a far cry from Shakespeare: Dashiell. After Dashiell Hammett. Which means we get to call him Dash, and his cousins think he’s named after the kid in The Incredibles. Both of which, I hope, will be a source of cool in later life.