That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for March 29, 2023

Soon as the painter left, Christopher Marlowe came in and started to work on “Shakespeare’s” play.

/// That month Shakespeare consumed so much mutton,

Richard Burbage proclaimed him a glutton.

His doublet’s so tight

that, try as he might,

the Bard can’t fasten closed every button.

Even Shakespeare couldn’t think of a new plot for The Simpsons.

Go away I don’t have a car, why would I want a warranty?

Elizabethan England must have been full of foul smells. Elizabeth herself, it is said, claimed to bathe once a month whether she needed it or not. What with unwashed human bodies, with livestock running in the streets, and horse droppings everywhere, flies must have swarmed in clouds. Filth and waste flowed openly in the street gutters, adding to the stench.

No doubt, William Shakespeare at his writing desk was bothered by flies, as well: Pesky flies buzzing around as he worked, landing on his joint of mutton, swimming in his beer, walking through the wet ink on his pages. How did he bear it?

This painting originally a group of three, might exemplify Shakespeare’s frustration with buzzing flies, as he looked about in irritation. He alluded to flies in Act 3, Scene 3, Lines 34-42 of “Romeo and Juliet,” for instance. And again in “Titus Andronicus.”

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shakespeare_composing_while_looking_outward_(Hall,_1894).jpg#mw-jump-to-license

And who can say with certainty two bothersome bees did not inspire Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy in “Hamlet”? We have to thank insects troublesome as they are for their occasional role in Human literature and art!

Can I have another quill pen ? This one’s frazzled.

About the only way to make sure that something is real these days is to be physically present. I wouldn’t be surprised if this resulted in teachers requiring students to give more oral reports or take oral tests.

Larry Fine was a distinguished Shakespearean actor before teaming up with Moe and Curly to do comedy.

Red Buttons tried to be a comedy writer but ended up being a comedian instead.

“What do you mean, “you’re cheating on the exam”? Just because my doublet’s open doesn’t make me a cheat!"

“I’ve got it! We’ll do a play within a play!!”

Good idea, Bill! That way readers 500 years later won’t need to hire an English teacher to translate your iambic pentameter gobbledegook into something intelligible to the masses!

For some good humor, search on YouTube for Shakespeare 3 little pigs

Charles Emerson Winchester the First.

Wait a minute, you mean I can’t write the f-bomb under this early version of GoComics?

Rob Reiner started writing comedy a lot earlier than most people realize.

“So you’ll paint me with a full head of hair like I asked, right?”

“So porn sells more than plays? What a wonderful idea!”

“And then you made them into pies? Let me make a note of that…”

An Ideal Portrait of William Shakespeare (1564-1616): 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:George Henry Hall" site=commons.wikimedia.org 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Yandex search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found and once there find the text string Ideal, and click its link for info and links that point to more info about this painting.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3105 (March 29, 2023) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger, if you trim what’s after .png from the URL). I have added a comment there (awaiting Mr. Melcher’s approval) pointing to info about this artist I used to point to here. First work by this artist used here.

Darn it…my ink well is dry again.

I hate grading these students English composition papers. What grades should I give? 2 Bs or not 2 Bs – that is the question. Wait! That give me an idea. My writer’s block is broken.

Time for Shakespeare to buy a new jacket. Those buttons are about to pop.

((“I wonder if I can get away with writing that?”))

Billi is pretending that the sex change operation was done by letting his/her jacket unbuttoned to make room for his new breasts

I said “Don’t Move!”. I’m used to painting still life. Don’t move your right arm … I should be done in 3, maybe 4 hours.

I’m astounded how many comments “Shakespeare” got today!