Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 (possibly the same day of the month of April on which he was born 52 years ealier, although probably not exactly). The almanac department here at Korrektiv likes to alert you to such occasions a day or two after the fact, so you know what you missed.
About Wild Bill, his friend Ben Jonson wrote: “I loved the man, and do honour his memory (on this side idolatry) as much as any. He was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent fantasy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that sometime it was necessary he should be stopped….”
A couple of recent biographies, Will in the World and Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius, make a compelling case for his being a Catholic (at a time when it was dangerous to be a Catholic in England).
Sonnet 37
As a decrepit father takes delight
To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by fortune’s dearest spite,
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more,
Entitled in thy parts do crowned sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store:
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised,
Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give
That I in thy abundance am sufficed
And by a part of all thy glory live.
Look, what is best, that best I wish in thee:
This wish I have; then ten times happy me!
Hey Korrectiv, did you know Wild Bill Hickok descends from a family that was neigbors with Wild Bill Shakespeare?
Alonzo, Bill’s dad, (the later Wild Bill), and a Presbytyrian deacon, descended from the Hiccocks family of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, neighbors of William Shakespeare.
They came to the U.S of old A. in 1635.
Oh, and Wild Bill and Ben Jonson nearly share a birthday…4 days apart. Both Leos.
Maybe come September, you can report on their D.O.B.s?