Four hundred years after William Shakespeare’s death, I sit back and look at my association with one of the world’s greatest literary geniuses, and remember the first time I was introduced to his work, at the age of nine. Thanks to the dictionary, I was able to relish the beauty of literature in the historic drama of Julius Caesar.

The sequence of action, right from the soothsayer’s prediction and the hatching of conspiracy to the assassination of Caesar on the Ides of March, followed by Mark Antony’s eulogy is enchanting even now as it was nine years ago.

I enjoyed the English classes when we had to study Macbeth. I enjoyed every bit of that play, and the plot and various key points, words and phrases were automatically imprinted on my mind. I still remember the excitement of our class of 37 pupils when we started off with Scene 1, and how we used his magic words, even much later, when we played a sport — “Fair is foul and foul is fair.”

His words were chosen in a way that enabled us to visualise everything, making the characters feel alive. The perfumes of Arabia and the multitudinous seas, which couldn’t wash the blood of King Duncan off the hands of Lady Macbeth was a poetic expression, which I often use to derive other expressions while writing poems.

I did not give up Shakespeare after that and have read quite a few of his plays. The tales by Charles and Mary Lamb acted like a guide, translating complex archaic English conversations during my early stages of reading. Jealousy and hatred for your loved ones couldn’t have been portrayed more lightheartedly and humorously as done in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Antagonism, in my opinion, has been best defined through Iago, known for his pretence of honesty to disguise his jealousy, and in turn, break relationships and lives. This list is never ending. Every character has brought something into this world, a quality or idea that is relevant even today.

His poems were equally lovely. The powerful ideas of life and death, love and lust were all explained in great detail in most of his sonnets — the poems comprised of 14 powerful lines that can set you thinking for an unlimited time.

For all those who love the classic literature of the bygone days, Shakespeare’s plays and poems alike, are inspiring pieces of thought and a mirror of the beauty of language. The realms of archaic English couldn’t have been put to a better purpose.

— The reader is an Indian student based in Dubai