FALSTAFF, SNOOPY, DOCTOR WHO, AND SHERLOCK HOLMES. Using the search feature, I looked back to the first three weeks of the blog —almost nine years ago—to find this post about how I learned the word “mythopeic” when I went to a W.H. Auden lecture about Falstaff. In that post, I told one of my favorite stories, one I’m surprised I waited almost three weeks to tell it:
Over twenty-five years ago there was a television production of THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR with Ben Kingsley playing Ford. I was talking to a man a week later who told me that he had watched the show with his four year old son. He told a bedtime story to his son every night, but this time he decided to let his son stay up to watch MERRY WIVES until he fell asleep. The boy never fell asleep, but watched happily until the end. The next night, the father went to tell his son his bedtime story. The boy said, “Daddy, tell me a story. Tell me a story about Falstaff….about Falstaff and ….Snoopy.â€