Shakespeare Anagram: The Merchant of Venice
From The Merchant of Venice:
Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh?
Shift around the letters, and it becomes:
On these eight days, just as white snow blankets outside, we light menorahs, witness joyous children amass presents, and comment on our history and freedoms. Here, we beam feats of Judah Maccabee, who defied, and so defeated, the manacles of Seleucid antisemitism.
This website wants to wish you a Happy Hanukah season.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
So Mr. Shakespeare Teacher, readers want to know – could there be anagram making software at work here?
December 16th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Bronx Richie, this may be a better question for the artificial intelligence thread.
There is such a thing as anagram-making software, but I have never used it. This is partly because I don’t believe that a computer program can truly capture the art of matching the anagram’s content aptly to that of the original text, and partly because they don’t make it for the Mac.
I do use the Internet Anagram Server from time to time, but since it only allows you to enter around 30 characters at a time, it is of limited help. It’s good for generating suggestions of how to dispose of unusual letter combinations, or when you’re down to around 10-20 unused letters and want to see if they form words unto themselves.
Otherwise, it’s just a matter of time, determination, and love for the game.