Shakespeare, "Art thou base, common and popular?" The answer to this question posed by the Bard is ironic. He is popular, no doubt, but the popularity of his work is not just a fad; he is part of us. References to his works and his name are permanently woven into our culture---in advertising, films, pop songs, television programs, cartoons, newspapers, book titles, music, and magazines. If one types his name into an Internet auction site, one will find a seemingly endless variety of Shakespeare paraphernalia such as bottle openers, ties, caps, mugs, stamps, statues, T-shirts, key-rings, chocolates, candies and bookmarks.
William Shakespeare is everywhere. His image, his characters, and quotes from his works can be found in countless movies and television shows. New film adaptations are constantly being made, and the Hollywood version of his love life, Shakespeare in Love, was a critically acclaimed box office extravaganza.
William Shakespeare's faculty to delve deep into the labyrinthine and tortuous intricacies of the human mind has stunned readers as well as theatergoers with amazement for more than four hundred years and will do so for many more centuries to come. His portraits of Hamlet, King Lear, Cleopatra, Portia, Othello, and Macbeth all attest to his genius for reaching into the depths of the soul and pulling out its quintessence for all to analyze.
This essay attempts to explore a few examples of Shakespeare's wide appeal and influence in our contemporary time. One of America's popular TV series starred a nonhuman characterMr. Ed, but few realize that this character originated in a series of 28 short stories in which the character would recite Shakespeare and speak Latin. Walter Brooks created the stories of the hard-drinking, Shakespeare-quoting horse. The TV show, made possible by the support of George Burns, demonstrates how much the Bard is relevant in our time and how he encompasses our psyche.
MacBird, a play by Barbara Garson, is a parody of Macbeth and is also a spoof on the political career of the American President Lyndon Johnson. MacBird is actually Macbeth representing the Johnson character in the play, while John Ken O'Duncs, a version of Duncan, is representing John Kennedy, and Lady Macbird (Lady Macbeth) characterizes Lady Bird Johnson.
In Shakespeare's Ghost Writer, published in Superman Comics in 1947, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen wind up in Shakespeare's England. While there, Superman ghostwrites Macbeth for the real Shakespeare.
The 1983 film Strange Brew, starring Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, is a loose spin-off of Hamlet. It centers around activities in the Elsinore Brewery, and a song from the soundtrack is "Shakespeare Horked our script." We can only wish that he did.
In an episode of Peabody's Improbable History from the Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (February 1962), Sherman and Mr. Peabody travel to Shakespeare's time when he is struggling with writer's block over a play tentatively titled Romeo and Zelda. During the episode, he is accused by the Earl of Oxford of stealing his work. In this episode, which has some resemblance to events in the widely popular film Shakespeare in Love, Mr. Peabody suggests Juliet as an alternative to Zelda.
The actual title of a Simpsons episode is Much Apu About Nothing. When an anti-immigrant law is put into effect, Apu risks being deported as an illegal alien, and Homer attempts to help him get fake papers.
In the ABC TV series Moonlighting, which starred Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, an episode titled Atomic Shakespeare in 1986, spoofed Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew. David continually quotes from other Shakespeare plays and is repeatedly admonished by the rest of the cast, and at one point, Maddie blurts out "Goest thou to Hell".
Neil Gaiman is the creator of the Sandman comic book series that features the supernatural Lord Morpheus, who makes a Faustian bargain with William Shakespeare that is the focus of two of his tales: A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest. A Midsummer Night's Dream won a 1991 won World Fantasy Award for Gaiman.
Gertrude and Claudius (2000), a novel by John Updike, and a prequel to Hamlet, tells the story of the title characters from the time of Gertrude's marriage to Hamlet's father up to the second scene of Shakespeare's play. The novel attempts to fill in the gaps of Shakespeare's play, and in doing so, gives interesting perspectives to many of the characters, most notably the usually maligned Gertrude and Claudius.
In the Brush Up Your Shakespeare episode of Goober and the Ghost Chasers, the Partridge kids are forced to cancel a concert when the ghost of Macbeth haunts the entire hall. Goober was a skinny dog who turned invisible when he was frightened, and only his hat would show. He was accompanied by a group of youngsters, including members of the Partridge family singing group, who investigated paranormal activity. Luckily for children everywhere, it produced episode for only one season.
The song, Brush Up Your Shakespeare, can be found in the musical titled Kiss Me, Kate. It is sung by two mobsters, which many consider to be the highlight of the show.
Produced in the 1950s, Shakespeare Howls delineates a set of cocktail napkins featuring humorous cartoons and Shakespearean quotes.
Shylock's Daughter, a novel by Erica Jong involves Jessica Pruitt, an American actress in Venice, who goes back in time to meet Shakespeare and his patron, the Earl of Southampton, who have come to the Italian city to escape the plague.
In episode #79 of Cosby Show, titled Shakespeare, Theo Huxtable and Cockroach are studying Shakespeare for a school assignment while a professor friend (played by Christopher Plummer) visits the family and a number of lines are performed from Julius Caesar. Plummer is a noted Shakespearean actor, and at the end of the show, Theo and Cockroach perform Antony's funeral oration in rap.
Steve Allen was the host for the 1979 PBS series Meeting of Minds, which brought together Hamlet, Othello, Romeo, Shakespeare, and the Dark Lady of the sonnets for a discussion on the nature of love.
In episodes #65 and #66 of the original Batman TV series, starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, the caped crusaders encounter a super-criminal played by the Shakespearean actor Maurice Evans, and the two shows are filled with quotes from the Bard. The name of the villain, played by Evans, was the Puzzler. Evans played a Riddler wanna-be and quoted plentifully from Hamlet and Macbeth.
Brutus and all other conspirators wash their hands with the blood from the 33 wounds they have just inflicted on the body of Julius Caesar. Cassius prophesies how their glorious act will be replicated again and again, century after century ,
"Stoop, then, and wash. How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over,
In states unborn, and accents yet unknown?"
The prophecy by Cassius comes true when it has been commonly said that a new book about Shakespeare is published somewhere in the world every day, millions of people go to theaters around the world to see his plays performed, innumerable television shows are made and enjoyed by viewers everyday, movies are shown across the continents and scholars as well as people of all classes quoting him so often.

(The birth anniversary of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was observed on 23 April).

Md Shafiqul Islam is a senior civil servant and a former student of English literature at Dhaka University.