Start 'Em Simply Ravin'

Just recite an occasional sonnet
And your lap'll have honey upon it...
~ Cole Porter

I'm more "Can't we all get along?" than "Battle of the Sexes," so The Taming of the Shrew has never been my favorite Shakespeare play. I know, there are various interpretations of it, and someone could probably convince me to like it, but my attitude is generally this:


Here's a song from Kiss Me, Kate anyway. I can't resist clever use of Shakespeare references.

Brush Up Your Shakespeare
by Cole Porter

The girls today in society
Go for classical poetry,
So to win their hearts one must quote with ease
Aeschylus and Euripides.
But the poet of them all
Who will start 'em simply ravin'
Is the poet people call
The bard of Stratford-on-Avon.

Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
Just declaim a few lines from "Othella"
And they think you're a heckuva fella.
If your blonde won't respond when you flatter 'er
Tell her what Tony told Cleopaterer.


Also, here's Bill Murray reading Brush Up Your Shakespeare.