twitmericks

There was an old fellow named Will/
Who wrote with rare humour and skill/
His sonnets and plays/
Left many a phrase/
In popular idiom still.///

This one was adapted from a chapter in the book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/There-Was-Geezer-Called-Caesar/dp/1907554866?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

The chapter also includes a brief biog written in his own coinages, which I also copy here:

I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER

There was an old fellow named Will

Who wrote with rare humour and skill.

In sonnets and plays

He coined many a phrase,

But the sad fact is Will couldn’t spill.

The Queen’s English is filled with household words coined by, or popularised by, William Shakespeare. His works were responsible for a sea change in our language and literature that was to reach all corners of the world.

He wrote tragedies to make your hair stand on end and comedies to have you in stitches, and his sonnets were such stuff as dreams are made on. He knew that brevity is the soul of wit, though this was at times honoured more in the breach than the observance – the Bard could lay it on with a trowel.

Shakespeare coined all these phrases, and about 1,700 words. But his spelling would be given short shrift today. And the title of this chapter is an anagram of his name. But what’s in a name?