THE ST JAMES’ SHAKESPEARIENCE We would fain tell thee all of our Shakespeare celebration day on Friday 22 April here in school. Forsooth, ‘twill be 400 years on 23 April 2016 since the ‘tragick’ death of the Bard.

Shakespeare’s Facts Shakespeare wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets He is the second most quoted writer in the English language Shakespeare wrote a 10th of the most quoted lines ever spoken or written in English Four hundred years after Shakespeare’s death there have been 157 million pages referring to him on Google. There are 132 million for God, and 2.7 for Elvis Presley.

Shakespeare’s Facts He coined 1,700 words His plays are made up of at least 17,677 words “Shakespeare was so facile in employing words that he was able to use over 7,000 of them only once and never again.” Professor Loius Marder

Shakespeare’s Facts Shakespeare’s plays have been translated into many languages and are so popular that people estimate that every minute of every day, someone in the world is watching a play by Shakespeare! We still use his words and sayings today.....

Shakespeare’s Phrases A laughing stock – The Merry Wives of Windsor In stitches – Twelfth Night Dead as a doornail – King Henry VI Vanish into thin air – Othello A sorry sight – Macbeth   In a pickle – The Tempest Set your teeth on edge – King Henry IV, Part I There's method in my madness – Hamlet Fair play – The Tempest, Mum's the word – King Henry VI, Part II Send him packing – King Henry IV, Part I.

Shakespeare’s Insults ‘Thou art like a toad; ugly and venemous’ - As You Like It ‘A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality’ - All’s Well That Ends Well ‘You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe!’ - King Henry IV, Part II ‘There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune’ - King Henry V ‘Thou cream-faced loon’ - Macbeth.

The average teenager has over 40,000 words in their vocabulary?

On average, they only actively use about 8,000 words

Read voraciously Read everything! Learn at least three new words a week Use a thesauraus and dictionary Try word games and puzzles Experiment in your writing and speaking Use your vocabulary books

As You Like It (Act 2, Scene VII): All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.

Matthew 6:1-4 “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theatre, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. “When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

Prayer Dear God, Thank you for plays and stories, for poems and all the ways we can use our imagination to think about the world we live in. Thank you especially for William Shakespeare. Amen.