Category Archives: 1600s

The Bard was a bicyclist

shakespeare-on-bike

The Handlebards are a cycle-touring Shakespeare-playing foursome. They ride to all their performances (instead of swords they fight with bicycle pumps, and the trailer that schlepps their gear is called Penthesileia after an Amazonian queen mentioned in Twelfth Night) but they don’t appear to have twigged that their hero was very much into cycling too.

OK, I’m kidding, bicycles didn’t come along until 200 years after the Bard died but squint and you can imagine he was into his cycling …

Buy the best equipment

Will this gear ne’er be mended? Troilus and Cressida Act I, Scene 1

Lights, lights, lights! Hamlet Act III, Scene 2

I’ll provide you a chain; and I’ll do what I can to get you a pair of horns. Merry Wives of Windsor Act V, Scene 1

Lights, more lights! Timon of Athens Act I, Scene 2

Don’t buy poor equipment

A merry heart goes all the day, your sad tires in a mile-a. Winter’s Tale Act IV Scene 3

… to ride with ugly rack … Sonnet 33

Look you what hacks are on his helmet! Troilus and Cressida Act I, Scene 2

… thou hast worn out thy pump … Romeo and Juliet Act II, Scene 4

Don’t jump red lights

Stir not until the signal. Julius Caesar Act V, Scene 1

OK, you can jump lights that only turn green for cars

Lo, where it comes again! I’ll cross it, though it blast me. Hamlet Act I, Scene 1

Lock it or lose it

You shall not now be stol’n, you have locks upon you. Cymbeline Act V, Scene 4

Club riders arriving at a hostelry

…do you look for ale and cakes here, you rude rascals? Henry VIII Act V, Scene 4

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HT Rob Ainsley and Cyclismas for the pic

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Carlton Reid Tour Dates