Mr Shakespeare: Playwright, Poet, Philosopher

Well, I might as well come clean. You see, I have a major, major crush. A bone-shatteringly, mind-blowingly stunning crush. I feel so much emotion for this lucky guy that it sometimes feels like my body is exploding.

Now there are two options as to what you're thinking right now, and they look a little something like this:

I'm going to assume that you're all in the Pathway B camp, and go right on ahead and tell you.

His name is William Shakespeare.

Okay, okay, I don't actually have a crush on the man himself (too old, too bald and too dead) but I would happily marry myself to his works. I adore them, so much it actually causes me physical pain sometimes. I know that sounds like some 'passion for language' rubbish, but it does. They can make me so full of conflicting and strange emotions that it feels as though I'm bursting (although that may have something to do with my other linked-to-Shakespeare crush. I know, I know. Two crushes at once. I'm a harlot.)

Anyway, the point is that Bill Shakespeare is wonderful... and he's not even alive. I hear what you're saying- "But Philosopher! It's too HARD to understand all that old language!"

Well say hello to NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE which is a fantabuloso way to actually understand what Mr S writes. It's pretty much a 'translation' of Ye Olde Englishy into Ye Modern Englishy.

But if that's not your style, there are HUNDREDS of Shakespeare movies out there. There's 'The Tempest' with Helen Mirren, 'Much Ado about Nothing' with Emma Thompson and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' with Michelle Pfeiffer. But oh, oh oh, there is no Shakespeare film more breathtaking than Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. It is a wonderful film in itself but Romeo is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo-nar-do Di-freaking-Caprio. AKA an angel in male form. Narcissus without the narcissism. The wise, glorious and illustrious one.

Ahem. Well, there was something else I was planning to write, but *cough* I've lost my train of thought....

I think I'll leave you with that angelic image.... mmmmmmm.