Read More Shakespeare (or For All Time)

 

              I first met this chap in high school English class.  Clever, witty, glib of tongue but thoughtful, his existence barely registered with me.  I found him a naughty varlet, an ass.  Then, I met this fellow again in my first semester of graduate school.  This time, I flamed amazement.  I fell immediately and completely love, to the point of obsession.  I did love nothing in the world so well as him.  When he spoke, the voice of all the gods made heaven drowsy with their harmony.  So was he to my thoughts as food to my life.  I did not wish any companion in the world but him.  He I loved and with him led my life.  His name--William.  William Shakespeare.

              On weekends, I would check out VCR tapes and inundate my daughter with various Shakespeare plays.  As we walked places together, I would recite Shakespearean soliloquies.  I named most of my pets after Shakespearean characters.  Later, my daughter told me she was thankful that I came to my love of Shakespeare after she was born, as she feared the name I might have given her.

              I adopted the motto, “Read More Shakespeare.”  Surreptitiously, I inscribed it in the dust on cars, on public message boards, on any surface that offered a suitable canvas.  When I would visit my daughter at college, she would take me on a tour of her classrooms.  Inevitably, I would write, “Read More Shakespeare” in the corners of the chalkboards.  Laura got a giggle if my message remained for her next class.

     

I used to drive a red 2011 Subaru Forester with a manual transmission.  My husband and I began to worry about its mechanical stamina when time came for us to migrate between South Carolina and Upstate New York.  I had local mechanics check her the last few times we made that trek, as I had no desire to break down on I-95 with a cat in the car.  While my husband and I raised the unavoidable prospect of getting a new car, for several reasons, we hung on to that Forester.

              Then, at the end of February, 2023, an almost new Subaru Crosstrek pushed its nose under my tent.  It had almost everything I wanted in a new car—manageable electronics, heated seats, but most importantly a manual transmission.  The rub—it was white.  The color did not dampen my ardor too much, and I drove the car home in early March.  When I told a friend I had bought a white Crosstrek, she pointed out that many people drive white Crosstreks, so how would I find my car in a parking lot.  When presented with this dilemma, a different friend suggested pinstriping.  Forehead slap!  Major duh!  How could I, the Queen of Bumper Stickers, not think of gussying up my car?!?  Now my white Crosstrek sports red, orange, and yellow racing stripes, with “Read More Shakespeare” in black cursive letters across the back bumper.  I have no trouble at all spotting my car anywhere.  

            While I have noticed curious glances in my rearview mirror, or in parking lots as I approach my car, I have had some fun personal interactions, as well.  One day I got into my car at our condo parking lot.  A fellow had been washing something at a spigot near the building.  The next thing I knew, he appeared by my open door, held out his hand, and began, “Is this a dagger that I see before me?”  He proceeded to recite most of that soliloquy and then ran back to the spigot, leaving me laughing.  Clearly, he had played Macbeth previously.

              Rich and I walked into our dentist’s office a few weeks ago.  The dentist and his technician greeted us, with the dentist commenting, “We watched you drive up and don’t think we have ever seen a car with racing stripes and ‘Read More Shakespeare’ on the back.”

              During our recent trip north, we stopped in New Jersey for gas.  While the gas pumped, Rich went into the mart.  Then, I heard behind me an excited chant, “Read More Shakespeare!  Read More Shakespeare!”  A very delighted young guy appeared at the passenger side window.  He said he just clocked out, but he finished up the gas transaction, as the guy who set us up was busy.  He talked about how much he enjoyed reading.  I asked if he was going to go home and read.  He lives next to a library, so he said he just might.

              Our apartment in Glens Falls shares a building with a surgical office.  One day, people were leaving the office as I was unloading groceries.  A middle-aged man commented in passing, “I like your bumper message.  The ‘Read More’ part, not necessarily the ‘Shakespeare’ part.  People need to read more.”  I took no offense.

              Rich and I needed more storage space in our bedroom, so we went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore, where we found a beautiful dresser.  Two guys carted it to the car for us.  When they saw the bumper message, one told me that in high school, they had to learn the balcony speech from Romeo and Juliet and then he started reciting it.  The other fellow managed to muster an “Ettu Brute.”

              I did not expect these interactions when I had “Read More Shakespeare” written on my bumper, but I have enjoyed them.  They have brightened my days, which more frequently than not need brightening.  They come from a cross-section of people, which indicates that even 407 years after Shakespeare’s death, he still holds up.  As Ben Jonson writes in the forward to the First Folio, “He was not for an age, but for all time.”