happy 400th to the bard!

Have you ever noticed that no one ever asks who you mean when you say "the bard"? It doesn't even matter if the two words are capitalized or not.
The Bard is always understood to be William Shakespeare.
High praise for a man who died four centuries ago!
Make that four centuries and a month, actually.
(smile)
But give that no nevermind, will you?
The film, stage, dance, and concert event originally occurred on that memorial day in England, hosted by the Royal Shakespeare Company, right there on the Bard's home turf at Stratford-on-Avon.
The Regal Cinema has been gracious enough to screen the recorded festivities for us across-the-pond dwellers tonight.
Hooray!
I couldn't very well fly to England to participate in the great variety of plays and festivals on that day. The spring semester was in its last weeks, so my students would have felt bereft had I done so.
What fortunate timing for this celebration, in the form of "Shakespeare Live! From the RSC", to have been brought to me!
i thank You, God, for this birthday:58 gift!
You see, I was raised with the man's works in the house.
Sure, they were in tiny type and collected into two volumes with cream-coloured jackets, but they were there. Mama had been a fan of the sonnets and plays and passed her love of them - and her love of the written word - on to me.
What a gift!
Obviously, the participants in the RSC celebration had the love of the Bard deeply ingrained in their beings, too.
What a joy to be in their presence tonight!
My thanks to the Regal!