Gender bending: 1595

It wasn't considered moral (or legal) for women to perform on stage, so all shows were drag shows.

Now, imagine Romeo and Juliet like this:



...because it was the norm.

Bromance: 1609

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

From Shakespeare's Sonnets--

Oh, the things one man writes to another man, and then publishes.

Echinacea: 1599

Marg. A maid, and stuffed! there's goodly catching of cold.
Beat. O, God help me! God help me! how long have you professed apprehension?
Marg. Even since you left it. Doth not my wit become me rarely?
Beat. It is not seen enough, you should wear it in your cap. By my troth, I am sick.
Marg. Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus, and lay it to your heart: it is the only thing for a qualm.
Hero. There thou prickest her with a thistle.

--From Much Ado About Nothing--

If you take Echinacea because people say it will fight a cold, why not try Carduus Benedictus? Shakespeare recommends it and he's better than "people", isn't he?

Save the children: 1805

"Among the various absurdities with which modern times and modem manners abound, there is no one which seems to threaten more evil consequences to society..."

Than child actors!

"...and hence it follows, that, instead of reading Caesar's Commentaries, and Studying Euclid's Elements, the youths are reading Shakespeare's Plays..."

Nothing good can come from reading Shakespeare.

"But, to be serious :—among the many schemes set on foot by Voltaire, Condorcet, D'Alembert, and that host of wretches who combined to destroy Christianity, and to diffuse misery over civilized society..."

Voltaire, Condorcet, and D'Alembert; according to Wikipedia these are their crimes:

Voltaire - believed in freedom of religion

Condorcet - proponent of equal rights for women and people of all races

D'Alembert - helped write an encyclopedia

Who would have guessed? Long before the internet, video games, and television existed, the greatest danger to our children's minds was Shakespeare and Enlightenment philosophers.

--From The Gentleman's Magazine--