The Bard be with you

Nicholas Adam Padget was killed in July 2006, at the age of 27. It was a blow to his head that did it. He had picked up a fight, while allegedly drunk, with a bouncer at a local pub. The latter was arrested, but ultimately acquitted. Days after switching off Nick's life support system, his devastated parents Patrick and Patricia turned to a long-dead writer for solace. William Shakespeare hasn't let them down.

Slowly letting go of what was a successful design practice, the couple spent three months painting. Their work was inspired by the Bard's plays. When this attracted the attention of The Shakespeare Globe Trust ufffd dedicated to 'the experience and international understanding of Shakespeare in performance' ufffd the Padgets discovered something unusual. Their son had been a supporter of the Trust since the age of 11. He had never mentioned it to them.

What could prompt a pre-pubescent boy to pledge his support to a Renaissance writer? Irrespective of whether the Padgets found an answer to that specific query, they found a solution to another problem insteadu00a0 ufffd the problem of how to fill the void left by their son.

Their decision may not, when looked at superficially, make much sense. Patrick and Patricia have chosen to occupy themselves with a project called Shakespeare's Treasure (shakespearestreasure.com). It is a virtual treasure hunt that will lead the persistent, via 15 questions, to a secret treasure hidden somewhere in England.
They refer to it as one of the most exciting challenges in the world, which isn't exactly true considering it primarily involves players in the United Kingdom while calling for an entry fee of ufffd10. The nice part is that profits from the year-long competition go to the Globe Trust, the Children's Society, and a scholarship called Nick's Fund to help gifted youth.

How some writers manage ufffd not always in obvious ways ufffd to assuage grief is hard to understand. In a collection of essays, the literary scholar A C Bradley helped analyse how Shakespearean tragedy worked. Aristotle may have had a clearer picture, though. Writing about tragedy, he held that the protagonist must be an admirable but flawed character; one the audience can sympathise with while understanding nothing.

The Padgets may never entirely understand the death of their son. They may never come to accept it either.

What they may find solace in is the possibility that 15 questions about Shakespeare may change the way some young man or woman looks at his work. I think Nicholas would have approved.