Much ado about Shakespeare?

Marking the 450th birth anniversary of William Shakespeare does sound anachronistic in a country where his language — and, by extension, even the Queen’s — has assumed a character all its own, but at least the lingering Bard effect should be celebrated. Even those who don’t “do” Shakespeare and would not come within miles of one of his plays or quote his sonnets would be familiar with the words of Bollywood arch-villain Ajit who ordered someone to be given “Hamlet poison” that would turn him from “to be” to “not to be”.

Yes, Hamlet also muttered — via his Elizabethan-era conduit — that “there is a method in my madness”, a term that has found resonance in the 21st century. Despite being “such stuff as dreams are made on” (The Tempest) Bollywood’s endorsement, of course, is “neither here nor there” ( Othello), but his relevance continues undiminished.

Indeed, Shakespeare is not for the “faint-hearted” ( Henry VI) and “too much of a good thing” (As You Like It) can be cloying, but there is no escaping his prolific prose. So, to “give the devil his due” — as Prince Henry said in Henry IV — Shakespeare may have exited this world centuries ago, but it will be sometime before the words and phrases he has popularised will become “as dead as a doornail” (Henry VI) or “vanish into thin air” (Othello).