Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare

It’s not definitively known when he was born, but today is the day that is celebrated. Here’s history.com on it. Here’s the L.A. Times. He also died on April 23, at the age of 52.

Here’s Shakespeare plumbing the depths of desire, and doing so at a ravenous pace to make you feel what he means. Dirty and high-minded, equipped with an incredible vocabulary, but unable to resist puns. Amazing.

Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and, till action, lust
Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe,
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows, yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
—Sonnet 129

(Image from New York Review of Books)