What’s in a Name

“… O, be some other name! / What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet …” —Romeo and Juliet II.ii, 42 (references to Shakespeare’s writing here and throughout are to the text of The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974).

“Shakespeare and a Cup of Coffee” is not the name I had first for the title of my blog. It was, rather, “Shakespeare for Breakfast,” which I thought smart, with several suggested obvious meanings. I could eat Shakespeare for breakfast, he’s no match for me; and, my plan was to be doing my reading with breakfast, after my personal literary writing endeavors but prior to when the responsibilities of my day job kicked in. Before I launched this auspicious enterprise, I thought it sensible to check if anyone else had chosen to use this as a title or a name for a project, book or blog, and, on checking, discovered an august institution in the United Kingdom that had already struck a claim to the wonderful appellation. So I went looking elsewhere, settling happily on that key component of a morning ritual so familiar to many—and to me—and so enjoyable. Coffee. Coffee in the morning. And Shakespeare. Was there a better way to start one’s day? Perfect. What’s in a name? A blog by any other word would still be me stumbling blindly, but what was key here was the dawn, the early-day hours, something warm, Shakespeare. And I had these things. And coffee seems to make everything better, so I had that too. And there you go.

For what it’s worth, I’ll admit that though I was and am happy with my choice, I nevertheless sought validation for it. For this I turned to Alexander Schmidt’s Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary, seeking evidence of interest in and some expression of coffee in the work of the Bard. Plenty of references to breakfast were to be found, but not a single one to coffee. Was it possible that Shakespeare wrote his plays without the benefit of coffee? I would imagine that if coffee had been available to him, he would have drunk it gladly and regularly. I have read, don’t ask me where, that coffee fueled the intellectuals of the Enlightenment. Just imagine, if Shakespeare indeed hadn’t had the benefit of coffee, what might have been possible had he had it? Plays that would have moved the people to early revolution? But perhaps he only didn’t write about coffee and drank it without making mention of that powerful and tasty elixir. As anyone with such a question nowadays would, I went to Google for the answer and found an article from the New York Times with this extraordinary title: “Shakespearean Diet: Pasta, no Coffee.” An interesting read if not an authoritative answer, the piece ends with a quotation from Jeffrey Horowitz, founder of the Shakespeare-oriented theater company Theater for a New Audience, who seemed to be intimately acquainted with the diet of the Elizabethans and who pointed out that what was most fascinating was not what Shakespeare ate, but what he did not: “He didn't have coffee, he didn't have vanilla, he didn't have cocoa,” Mr. Horowitz said. “Imagine writing Hamlet without a cup of coffee. That's amazing.”

Amazing, I agree. Now what’s this about cocoa?