When I started my store a good number of years ago, I made both MONTAGUE and CAPULET designs. I thought it would be fun to count how many of each sold and make it a battle. Maybe it would be a fun gift idea for couples.
Well, Amazon wasn’t in on that plan, and they almost immediately de-listed the CAPULET design for lack of sales. I’m not sure why MONTAGUE didn’t go as well. In those early days, I didn’t have many sales of anything. But it did, and it has grown to be one of my best sellers.
So, for Shakespeare Day 2024, I’m bringing it back! Now, we can truly have the head-to-head battle I wanted! Both designs are available in a variety of colors on t-shirts, hoodies, tanks, and V-necks.
I love audiobooks. I don’t know if it’s because they allow me to listen while I do other things, or because I’m old and my eyes don’t focus like I used to. People say that listening to a book doesn’t count as reading it, but why would you want to talk to those people? They sound really fun at parties.
A few months ago, Sir Patrick Stewart’s book came out, read by the author, and it’s one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever experienced. Sometimes the author’s voice is just as important as what they have to say.
So when Dame Judi Dench’s book was announced shortly after this I quickly pre-ordered, frustrated to realize that it was released months ago in the UK but would wait for April 23 for a US release. Well, today is that day!
I was immediately disappointed to see that Dame Judi doesn’t narrate the book. That’s it, I want my money back. When she recited Sonnet 29 on the Graham Norton show, time damn near stopped. I must have played that clip two dozen times.
But wait, let’s not be hasty. I listen to the author’s introduction and quickly learn how this is going to go. This isn’t really an autobiography, like Sir Patrick’s book. It is more of a collection of interviews. Okay, that’s fine. He goes on to say that the voice will occasionally switch to Dame Judi herself (minus the too many F-bombs he had to edit :), so maybe it’ll be okay.
The first chapter, Macbeth, is literally nothing but Dench walking through the play, scene by scene, discussing in minute detail how to portray Lady Macbeth. I think I’m going to love this.
Not long after I started Shakespeare Geek, I wrote my daughter a sonnet for her first birthday. Almost twenty years later, now in college, she asked me, “Can I get a copy of Macbeth?”
“Of course,” I told her. “Which edition did you have in mind?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I just want my own personal copy. Something I can take notes in. I have a lot of thoughts.”
Ask and ye shall receive, my lovely. For years, I’ve wanted to contribute to the Great Shakespeare Bookshelf in some way, and this was a golden opportunity to do so. The idea flashed to me fully formed at that moment, and I knew I had my answer.
Introducing The My Own Personal Shakespeare Series
I don’t think my daughter’s alone in the universe. She wants a copy of her favorite Shakespeare play. She didn’t say she needed one for a certain class. She didn’t ask for Riverside or Folger or Arden, where she could read hundreds of pages of experts telling her what’s what. My daughter is very opinionated, she’ll be the first to tell you. They made her opinion editor of the school newspaper as a freshman, she’ll tell you that, too. Why should Shakespeare be any different? She’s going to have opinions, and what better place to keep them than right next to source material?
My Own Personal Shakespeare: Macbeth Edition is a stripped-down, unannotated version of the play intended to be a blank slate where you can revisit your relationship with Shakespeare’s work. It’s deliberately laid out with copious whitespace, leaving ample room for underlining, commenting, and even doodling in the margins, At the end of each act are a few blank pages for brain dumping on a larger scale.
Envisioning this project, I was reminded of our visit to the Folger Vault where we saw Folio #72, decorated with children’s drawings throughout the pages. I don’t want Shakespeare to be a read-only reference tome, sitting high on a shelf collecting dust. My children were exposed to Shakespeare in various forms before they were five years old. I wanted a Shakespeare edition that’s welcoming, almost interactive. Open it up and look at the pictures. Maybe you can read it, maybe you understand it. Or maybe you come back in a few years.
There are no footnotes here. No glossary. It is a deliberate opportunity to say, “I’m not going to tell you how to approach this play, or what you’re supposed to get out of it.” There are enough reference books out there; we didn’t need to make another one. There aren’t too many editions designed to be a personal reflection, though.
The beginning reader is not left adrift, however. We’ve added some informational content – descriptions of characters and places, as well as plot summaries for all the scenes. We like to think of these as save points in a video game. If the reader is lost in Act 2 Scene 2, it’s only going to get worse in Scene 3. So each scene starts with, “Here’s what happens in this scene.” I’ve said many times over the years that one of the keys to understanding Shakespeare is to have some grasp of character and plot before you see or read the play. That’s precisely what we’ve made here.
I hope our little project finds its audience. I imagine every copy becoming a unique treasure, representing the owner’s personal insight into what Shakespeare means to them. Share it with your friends, hand it down to your children. Turn into something rich and strange.
No Shakespeare Day would be complete without the guest of honor. Sure, the legacy of William Shakespeare and his works lingers everywhere we look. It’s the reason we’re all here on any other day of the year, not just today.
But we started a tradition some years ago, with the help of Shakespeare’s good friend Ben Jonson. We like to invite the guest of honor to the party. He conjured ghosts, so can we. Today of all days we like to imagine he’s listening to what we’re offering, and that he appreciates it.
It’s that time of year again, my friends and followers. April 23. The day Shakespeare was born, or the day he died? Here we call it Shakespeare Day, and here we celebrate the man, the myth, the literal legend.
I’ve run this site for almost twenty years now, and every year is a little different. Sometimes I’ve got the time to live tweet all day. Sometimes it falls on a weekend and I’ve got nothing. There’ve been times I’ve gone on marathons, posting over a dozen times in a single day. I’ve had giveaways.
What will this year bring? We’ll just have to see, won’t we? I may have a surprise or two still up my sleeve, even after all that time.
