This Saturday, April 23rd, marks an important anniversary: four hundred years since the death of William Shakespeare. Or, at least, four centuries on from the traditional date of Shakespeare's death, dated backwards from his funeral on April 25th, 1616. Similarly, Shakespeare's birthday is not . . . . Continue Reading »
Our May 2016 issue of First Things is hot of the press and available on our website. As a special piece of bonus content, I am here to share with you, loyal readers, some of our also-ran titles: headings for pieces that were suggested at our titles meeting but nixed for being too punny, too punchy, . . . . Continue Reading »
Have you had a chance to look at the April 2016 edition of First Things on our website yet? Like last month, I am offering up some behind-the-scenes bonus content here in the form of also-ran titles: headings for pieces that were suggested at our titles meeting but nixed for being too punny, too . . . . Continue Reading »
This Holy Week, I am feeling the need to participate in some Catholic extremism.Now of course, we live in a time when religious extremism is a major threat to the world. That’s why I find it all the more distressing that so may Americans have a warped view of what constitutes extremism. The Barna . . . . Continue Reading »
Near the beginning of The Jeweler's Shop, by Karol Wotjyla (the future John Paul II), one of the characters, a young woman, recalls a hiking trip she took with friends. At night, in the mountains, a mysterious cry sounded, and everyone became quiet to listen for the call to sound again. Was it a . . . . Continue Reading »
Today we released the March 2016 edition of First Things on our website. For the amusement of readers (and the delight of anyone who likes to get a glimpse behind the curtain), I have compiled some of the also-ran titles: headings for pieces that were suggested at our titles meeting but nixed for . . . . Continue Reading »
Staring down the barrel of Valentine’s Day, many young men and women have few and scanty models of what a romantic relationship looks like—especially (though not exclusively!) young people of faith interested in chastity and marriage. The Love and Fidelity Network has set out to #BringDatingBack . . . . Continue Reading »
Did you hear the one where . . . ?
Paul Menzer has heard it. He’s heard the one with the drunk Richard III, the one with the fat Ghost of Hamlet’s Father stuck in the trapdoor, the one with the father–daughter pair playing Romeo and Juliet, the one where Othello’s makeup rubs off on Desdemona’s face to give her a beard. In fact, he’s probably heard several variations on any given Shakespearean anecdote, a handful verifiable, but most patently recycled, exaggerated, or apocryphal—yet in a different sense, in Menzer’s paradoxical view, no less true. Continue Reading »
Anecdotal Shakespeare: A New Performance Historyby paul menzerbloomsbury, 253 pages, $29.95Did you hear the one where . . . ? Paul Menzer has heard it. He’s heard the one with the drunk Richard III, the one with the fat Ghost of Hamlet’s Father stuck in the trapdoor, the one with the . . . . Continue Reading »
His face boasts a geological set of wrinkles, which fold seismically with each witticism or bold-faced lie he speaks. His body is impossible, too fat for any man to still be alive, yet there he is. Somehow both old as the hills and joyful as the sun, his greatest lie is the one he seems (almost) to . . . . Continue Reading »
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