Give him/her a high-five?

tbqh Shakespeare is sort of overrated.

Offer them a high five. Then casually withdraw your hand before they reach it.

Then punch them in the face.

People are entitled to their opinion.

Not everyone likes Shakespear, in fact, I'd be incredibly surprised if everyone thought he was amazingly awesome. IMO, he's a bit overrated, but doesn't change my opinion on him being great with what he did. I wouldn't say like... godly or anything.

[testing] Shakespeare sucks. [/testing]

~EW~

Remind them that 'Shakespeare' was probably actually a group of people writing at different times under the same name.

And then make sure Smeag reads what I just wrote.

Call Smeag and tell him they just said that.

Then run far, far awaaaay~

[testing] Shakespeare sucks. [/testing]

 

~EW~

You're dead.

"I agree."

Honestly, my opinion of Shakespeare is VERY negative.

-TD

"Shakespeare sucks"

"You suck."

No, no, no, that's not what you do, people. First, to prepare for someone saying that, go home and do a search on 'Shakespeare Insults', attempt to absoarb as much of those lines as possible, THEN when someone tells you 'Shakespeare sucks', you pump 'em full of good ol'-fashioned trash talk. Since they don't read Shakespere, they will have no idea what you're talking about, so you get the last laugh.

If anyone doesn't like the idea, let me know. BUT, if anyone tries it, let me know.

People are entitled to their opinion.

 

Not everyone likes Shakespear, in fact, I'd be incredibly surprised if everyone thought he was amazingly awesome. IMO, he's a bit overrated, but doesn't change my opinion on him being great with what he did. I wouldn't say like... godly or anything.

This pretty much sums up of what I believe of Shakespeare.

No, no, no, that's not what you do, people. First, to prepare for someone saying that, go home and do a search on 'Shakespeare Insults', attempt to absoarb as much of those lines as possible, THEN when someone tells you 'Shakespeare sucks', you pump 'em full of good ol'-fashioned trash talk. Since they don't read Shakespere, they will have no idea what you're talking about, so you get the last laugh.

 

If anyone doesn't like the idea, let me know. BUT, if anyone tries it, let me know.

This man has the right idea.

Just laugh - because you know better. I'll say this, as someone who's studied Shakespeare extensively for many years and has encountered and conversed with countless people with a wide variety of opinions regarding his body of work: people who dislike Shakespeare's work invariably don't understand it. And that's okay - I understand not everyone is an expert on Renaissance lingo or used to reading verse, and thus not everyone knows what Shakespeare really meant by a lot of the words and phrases he used. I am of the the opinion that they should adopt Walt Whitman's view, however: "Be curious, not judgmental." But if they want to live their lives spouting ignorance, I'm okay with that. Live and let live.

Except for you, Pat. I'm going to violently rend your body into little pieces and feed them to cats, you lousy Anti-Stratfordian. <3

Francis Bacon? What? Who said that?

Francis Bacon? What? Who said that?

Mary Sidney would like a word with you.

@Cags/Spink: Overrated, probably (no offense, Smeag!). Saying he sucks may be pushing it though -- unless I've misinterpreted the meaning of the word. I always thought it meant "bad", as opposed to "not good".

@Smeagol4: Ironically, some of the people who I've heard this from do understand Shakespeare, but believes his work is terrible because of the few inappropriate jokes in some of his plays. Long story short though, I totally agree with you.

No biggie though. People can like and dislike what they want. Though, I don't believe I've heard the phrase "Shakespeare Sucks" before recently.

@Smeagol4: Ironically, some of the people who I've heard this from do understand Shakespeare, but believes his work is terrible because of the few inappropriate jokes in some of his plays. Long story short though, I totally agree with you.

"Few"? Ask me sometime, off-BZ, what the word "eye" really means 90% of the time it is used in Renaissance drama.

Renaissance England had a very different culture than we do today - ribaldry was a fact of life back then. We in the Western world reside in the aftershocks of Puritanism and Victorian society (respectively); for all our talk of being post-sexual-revolution, we are remarkable prudes. And I'm totally cool with that! But judging a completely different culture based on our modern sensibilities is foolhardy, and ignores the utter beauty of the art within. Shakespeare's characters are stunningly human, his dialogue is markedly witty, and the phrasing of his verse is downright impeccable. He wrote his poetry with a goal that none had really attempted before: to prove the English language could be beautiful. I feel he succeeded admirably.

I do not mean to sound like I love only Renaissance drama and nothing else, of course. The greatest piece of literature, in my opinion, was published April 10, 1925. There is majesty and travesty alike among the literary arts in every era. If anything, my biggest era love goes to nineteenth-century American literature.

(PS: If your friends don't like Shakespeare's double entendres, make sure they avoid Restoration comedy. But if you don't mind, I highly recommend "The Country Wife")