Shakespeare's birthday

Apropos "Trivia Shakespeareana" (The Sunday Times, January 9), Tony Cassar Darien, methinks, was not only witty in himself but the cause of wit in whoever copy-edited/proofread the following:

"An Idiot's Guide to the Bard's background

"The Bard's actual birth date is not known.

"We do know, however, that he was born on April 23, 1564."

This howler left your readers, blinking idiots or not, laughing themselves into stitches. It is reminiscent of that anonymous classic "Shakespeare was born in 1564, supposedly on his birthday".

Joking aside, Shakespeare's true birth and death dates will remain a mystery forever as in his days no birth or death records were kept. We do, however, have records of his baptism on April 26, 1564 and of his burial on April 25, 1616. Both these events took place at Holy Trinity Parish Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

It was George Steevens in 1773 who first published the baptism record and inferred from it April 23, 1564 as Shakespeare's birthday (Schoenbaum, Shakespeare's Lives).

The assumption that both Shakespeare's birth and death coincided with the feast of England's patron saint, St George the Dragonslayer, is merely a romantic, sentimental myth perpetrated to lend an exciting, esoteric aspect to England's greatest artist, especially since Shakespeare had helped immortalise the saint in English tradition - "Cry, 'God for Harry! England and St George'!" (Henry V).

Editor's note: The 'howler' sentence in Mr Cassar Darien's article should have read, of course, "We do know, however, that he was baptised on April 26, 1564".