Blogging about blogging.
New York Times Select is no more!
Content on the online version of the newspaper of record is now free.
You still have to log in, but that’s free too.
I’ve been hesitant to link to Times content, since not everyone would be able to follow. I may start doing it now. For example, Krugman has a good column today on race and politics.
Enjoy!
I subscribe to a service called “SiteMeter” which allows me to see a limited amount of information about my visitors. One thing that I can see is if someone finds my site via a Google search. Recently, I’ve had a number of hits from people looking to find out about living descendants of King Henry VIII. My site isn’t really about that, but I thought I’d provide an answer anyway, as a public service.
There are no living descendants of King Henry VIII.
Henry’s father, King Henry VII, had four offspring who lived past childhood: Arthur, Margaret, Henry, and Mary. Arthur was always expected to be the next king, but he died in 1502. When Henry VII died in 1509, the kingdom was passed to his younger son, crowned Henry VIII.
Henry VIII had four known living offspring from four different women. His first wife, Catherine of Arragon, gave him a daughter, Mary (born 1516). He had an illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy (born 1519), with his mistress Elizabeth Blount. His second wife, Ann Boleyn, had a daughter Elizabeth (born 1533). His third wife, Jane Seymour, had a son, Edward (born 1537). Henry VIII would have three more wives, but no more children to carry on his line. And as we shall see, none of his four branches would bear fruit.
Henry FitzRoy died in 1536, while his father was still alive.
When Henry VIII died in 1547, young Edward became King Edward VI, but died in 1553 with no heir. He was 15 years old. That was the end of Henry’s Y chromosome. But what about the daughters?
There was a brief reign by Lady Jane Grey (not a descendant of Henry VIII, but a granddaughter of his sister Mary) and then Henry VIII’s daughter Mary took the throne as Queen Mary I of England. You may know her as Bloody Mary.
(Don’t confuse either Mary with Mary Queen of Scots, who was yet a third Mary. She is a descendant of Henry VIII’s sister Margaret. We’ll come back to her in a bit.)
Mary I of England died in 1558 with no offspring, leaving the country in the capable hands of her sister Elizabeth. During the 45-year-long reign of Queen Elizabeth I, we saw a new Golden Age which included the rise of Shakespeare and Sir Francis Bacon. But alas, we saw no heir. Elizabeth died in 1603, ending her father’s biological legacy forever.
The crown then passed to the son of Mary Queen of Scots, who was James VI of Scotland at the time. He became King James I of England. And Shakespeare quickly began work on Macbeth. Note that the British monarchy even today can be traced back to King Henry VII, the father of King Henry VIII.
But King Henry VIII himself has no known living descendants.
I hope this was helpful for at least some of you. For the rest of you, expect a new Conundrum tomorrow.
UPDATE: An anagram version of the answer!
Yesterday, I hosted a reading of King Lear. It happened to be my birthday, so I wanted to get a cake. But since it was a King Lear reading and not a birthday party, I wanted to get a cake that would be King Lear appropriate. Here’s what I came up with:
Fortunately, my friends have a more traditional sense of birthday practice, and surprised me with a proper birthday cake:
Chocolate cake, vanilla cake, friends, and a King Lear reading: who could ask for a better birthday?
Well, I’m off on vacation, and so I’ll be away from the blog for a few days.
I’ve posted some extra “content” this morning, and of course, here’s another Shakespeare Teacher Special Feature!
The rules are almost identical to the last Shakespeare Teacher Special Feature. Here’s how it breaks down:
Use the comments section below to register any and all answers, discussion, and comments. I won’t be around for the next couple of days to moderate this, so please work together. If someone posts an answer you think is right, go ahead and say so and offer some words of encouragement. Also, feel free to pass this along to anyone you think may be interested. Here is the direct link.
The Riddles:
1. In stone primitive natural dwellings we lurk;
We think GEICO’s campaign was designed by a jerk;
But we’ve picked up a sitcom – a programming quirk;
And stay plural we must for this puzzle to work.
Who are we? (7 letters)
2. I’m a bag where potatoes are kept by the pound;
When your boss decides he doesn’t want you around;
If you hit me at night, you’ll be soon sleeping sound;
And I’ll bring any quarterback straight to the ground.
Who am I? (4 letters)
3. I’m the first in the spectrum that split light creates;
In the ledger, my presence a loss indicates;
I’m far left in the East, but I’m right in the States;
And the Hanrahan prefix in stories by Yeats.
Who am I? (3 letters)
4. I’m the boyfriend to Barbie who’s dapper and neat;
I’m the junior in baseball who’s primed to compete;
I’m the Cuckoo’s Nest novelist, sort of a beat;
And the Jeopardy champ who accomplished a feat.
Who am I? (3 letters)
So the solutions to this feature are four riddle answers, one magic word, three play titles, and up to 26 Conundrum words.
Good luck!
UPDATE: Riddles 1-4, Circles A, B, C, and the magic word all solved by Annalisa. Conundrum answers provided by Annalisa (22) and, in my own special way, me (4). See comments for all answers.
I haven’t had much time for the blog this week, since I’ve been working at the Teaching Shakespeare Institute, a week-long intensive study course for teachers of Shakespeare. Shakespeare teachers, if you will.
I’m really exhausted, so I’ll just say for now that my fellow instructors are all extremely talented and professional, and the teachers taking the course are passionate and dedicated. It’s been such an incredible pleasure to work with them all this week.
And I see that Shakespeare Teacher Special Feature II has been almost entirely completed in my absence. Most excellent. The STSF was supposed to replace the weekly features, but now that it’s solved, I may decide to post a new riddle tomorrow morning anyway.
But for now, I’m going to bed.
Well, I’m off to the Shakespeare Teacher institute. I’m very excited about being a part of this, but it means that I may have to step away from the blog for a few days. I’ll post when I can, but I’ll probably be more interested in blogging about the institute than in keeping up with my regular features.
But what if I could once again leave behind just one post that combines my most popular regular features for the week? Why, we’d just have to call that Shakespeare Teacher Special Feature II: The Magic Word! Here’s how it breaks down:
(Actually, the letters that form the magic word can form several words, but only one of the combinations will make sense to fill in the blank below.)
Use the comments section below to register any and all answers, discussion, and comments. I won’t be around much the next couple of days to moderate this, so please work together. If someone posts an answer you think is right, go ahead and say so and offer some words of encouragement. Also, feel free to pass this along to anyone you think may be interested. Here is the direct link.
The Riddles:
1. I’m a town or a bar where they might serve a sling;
The condition of clothing you might need to wring;
I’m a nurse that gives milk to another’s offspring;
And I’m slippery roads as Bon Jovi might sing.
Who am I? (3 letters)
2. Elementary I, eighty-eight on the table;
In the dorm or the lab, I’m a student who’s able;
I’m the god of the sun in Egyptians’ old fable;
And you say me three times when you hope your team’s stable.
Who am I? (2 letters)
3. I am found in Gerardo’s distinct greatest hit;
In a fifty-first state we may someday admit;
I am laws for when businessmen aren’t legit;
And a player in Just Cause who’s violent a bit.
Who am I? (4 letters)
4. I’m a poet Romantic and Mary’s fond spouse;
I am Ratcliffe’s own dog in a film by the Mouse;
I’m where Arafat’s death watch caused many to grouse;
And I’m surname to Hotspur – Northumberland’s house.
Who am I? (5 letters)
So the solutions to this feature are four riddle answers, one magic word, three play titles, and up to 26 Conundrum words.
Good luck!
UPDATE: Riddles 1-4, Circles A, B, C, and the magic word all solved by Annalisa. Conundrum answers provided by Annalisa (15) and me (5). See comments for answers. 6 letters still open.
Today is the six-month anniversary of ShakespeareTeacher.com!
In that time, the site has recieved over 3,500 hits. At that rate, we should hit 7,000 by the end of the year! The site’s Technorati ranking is 619,016, and its authority is a perfect 10!
During the last six months, the site has featured 4 Shakespeare lists, 6 Shakespeare anagrams, 15 rounds of the Headline Game, 16 games of Six Degrees of Sir Francis Bacon, 22 Condundrums, 25 Questions of the Week, and 32 Thursday Morning Riddles.
I’ve also tackled President Bush, Genghis Khan, and Fox News. I’ve shared clips from the Animaniacs and introduced many of you to Charlie the Unicorn. I have blogged about technology and information literacy. And, of course, there has been quite a bit about Shakespeare.
By the way, as always, you can view my top ten favorite posts here. You can also track open games and challenges here.
Once again, I want to thank everyone who has visited. I want to thank everyone who has left a comment, took a crack at a puzzle, or played one of the games. I want to thank everyone who has linked here, or has helped to spread the word. The concept of this blog only works with your support, and I never would have made it six months without you.
The Shakespeare Geek points us towards a blog called The Master of Verona and a post he has about Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow” speech. He suggests that Macbeth may be reading a suicide note written by Lady Macbeth, possibly written while she was asleep. I love the idea, and he gives strong textual support to make his case. I would look at this more as a bold directoral choice, rather than an argument that this is the way the text demands it must be, but that seems to be largely where he’s coming from as well.
If you look at that scene from the Folio (via the wonderful Furness Collection at the University of Pennyslvania), you may notice that Seyton doesn’t have an exit. Editors generally have provided him with one. But in the original, there is a cry of women, Macbeth has a speech, he asks Seyton “Wherefore was that cry?”, and Seyton responds “The Queen, my lord, is dead.” How does he know? I’ve heard the argument that Seyton is a dark, supernatural being (with a deliberate play on his name), but he’s always struck me as too minor of a character to carry this much import. This reading would add another interpretation. Someone has brought Seyton the suicide note while Macbeth is talking. Then, he hands Macbeth the note as he says his line.
Fun stuff. And I’ve been looking through this guy’s archives. His last post is some Shakespeare limericks. Earlier on, he gets snippy with Slings & Arrows because he takes issue with the character’s interpretations of the Shakespeare. And even earlier he casts the kids in South Park in King Lear and all-Muppet productions of both Lear and Much Ado.
Oh, I so have a new blog to read.
Just a few items I’ve been meaning to link to for a while now, but never could find the right context:
Below is a graph of the hits to Shakespeare Teacher for each day of the past month. This reflects the number of unique visitors, not how many pages they viewed.
Visually savvy readers may notice a bit of a spike in yesterday’s readership. Was it the new design? Was it the Conundrum, asking for words that end in -ly? Is the world finally starting to take an interest in Shakespeare lists, Venn Diagram puzzles, and Animaniacs cartoons? Or was it the link from Showtime?
We could sit around all day debating the different theories. The point is that I just got my 2,000th hit while writing this, and over six percent of those hits came in yesterday. Now I think I’ll post a video clip from Sesame Street.