The Bawdy Bard

Pal C. Hansen for TIME

CRAZY ABOUT MIDDLETON: Gary Taylor at the Globe, which put on A Mad World My Masters in 1998

I'm married to Shakespeare, but for 20 years I've been having an affair with Middleton. Shakespeare is the Bard Next Door your parents want you to love — respectable, familiar, stable, well-connected. I met him in high school and we've been together ever since. But Middleton — well, they don't tell you about Middleton in high school.

If Middleton is our other Shakespeare, why don't you know more about him? Because he's the madwoman in the attic — the secret we don't want our kids to discover. Would your parents want you to marry someone who describes getting...

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