William Shakespeare retired to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1613 and died 3 years later, leaving a will that bequeathed wife Anne his much-discussed “second-best bed,” an epitaph written in verse that has been described as “truly awful,” and a much-dissected legacy of poetry and drama, the likes of which the world has not seen since (no disrespect to Goethe).
In 1997, when the World Wide Web was only 8 years old and popularly characterized as “a library with all its books on the floor,” Terry Gray, Academic Technology Supervisor at Palomar College, launched “Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet.”
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Masthead for Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
Dr. Gray picked the books up off the floor and organized them. He spent hours researching, coding (back then we did it in Notepad), uploading, and responding to email. The site rapidly became respected as a mother lode of well-organized background information, texts of the plays, and links to related resources. Teachers and students consulted it on a regular basis. Even Google recognized how extensive it was:
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Google entry for Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
This morning, however, brought sad news:
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Mr. Shakespeare is now retired.
As the Bard himself wrote in The Tempest, “Our revels now are ended.” Even an extensive resource as this one, existing in what is now characterized as “the cloud,” runs its course and goes away. Therein lies a metaphor for all of us poor mortals.
“Mr. William Shakespeare” and Dr. Brooks bequeath a model of much-appreciated help, of respected generosity of spirit, and a legacy of passion shared.
“We are such stuff
As dreams are made on …”
