John Faed, British
“I’m Considering Updating a Few of My Plays For Modern Audiences. Do You Guys Think I Should Start With ‘The Online Merchant of Venice’ or ‘The Real Merry Housewives of Windsor?,'” 1851
Oil on canvas
Follow That Is Priceless on Social Media and GoComics (the Link button):
Click to Follow This Blog or Share This Masterpiece:
Artist info is pointed to in my comment at a prior blog entry.
/// Shakespeare came to the Friday Street Club,
which would meet at the Mermaid (a pub).
In the tavern’s large room,
despite dampness and gloom,
Will composed the line: “Ay, there’s the rub!”
/// His son, Hamnet died three years ago.
And yet Shakespeare still mourned, even so.
Wearing black, toe to head,
was to honor the dead,
but it’s also quite slimming, you know.
/// In his mind he now pictured a Dane,
also grieving, but nearly insane.
At the play’s tragic end,
the dead hero’s good friend
would hope all this loss wasn’t in vain.
/// For the groundlings he’d throw in a ghost,
and a gravedigger (two, at the most).
Will had hopes this new play
would be famous one day,
but he modestly hated to boast.
/// The tall man in the bright crimson hose
leaned back in a provocative pose.
His stuffed doublet he thrust
at his target of lust,
but the playwright was not into beaux.
/// Shakespeare’d really come here to conspire
with his friends to, the Globe, set afire.
But he had no endurance
when paying insurance.
It had lapsed and would later expire.