Happy Birthday William Shakespeare!

Today, I along with my friends at the Woman’s Shakespeare Club celebrated the birthday of William Shakespeare, who taught us never to despair in our resolve to seek the truth and confront the lie, "to unmask falsehood and bring truth to light".

No one knows Shakespeare’s actually birthday so we celebrate it on the day he was baptized which was, April 24, 1564.

Our club has had a very interesting and educational year.  We studied Henry V and throughout the year we not only watched both versions of this play, Kenneth Branagh and Lawrence Olivier but we also had many delightful speakers come.  Some of my favorites were ‘The Philosophy of War in Henry V’, ‘Attitudes of Religious Figures in Shakespeare’s Plays’ and ‘Dining with Shakespeare, an Understanding of 14^th Century Kitchens and Cuisine’.

But my absolute favorite thing we did all year was have a tea in honor of William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Aden.  We dressed up in our finery complete with our best hats.

We ate cucumber sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and sipped our tea as we listened to high school Shakespeare contest contestants show off their skills reciting various scenes from different plays.  We were also entertained by a piano quartet or more correctly stated, 8 hands and 2 pianos.

It was a wonderful day.

There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. ~Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady