Birthday of the Bard

William Shakespeare was born this date--April 23--four hundred and fifty years ago. He departed this world on the same date--April 23--fifty-two years later. Shakespeare understood theatre and knew when to make an exit.

Sonnet 30:

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past.
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I now pay as if not paid before.
    But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
    All losses are restored and sorrows end."