Gregory Doran, The Telegraph
April 22, 2014
How did the Bard cause a plane crash? Why did his theatre stink? To celebrate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, the RSC’s Gregory Doran presents 10 startling facts.
1. Shakespeare caused an air crash
On October 4th 1960 a Lockheed Electra aeroplane setting off from Boston Airport stirred up a flock of 10,000 starlings on the runway. It flew straight into the avian cloud which choked the engines and brought the aeroplane down. 62 people died in the crash.
Now, starlings are not a species which are native to North America. They were introduced in 1890 by a Shakespeare nut called Eugene Schieffelin. He wanted Central Park in New York to be home to all the songbirds mentioned in Shakespeare.
The thrushes and blackbirds had no impact on the environment, but the starlings thrived. By the late twenties they had reached the Mississippi and by the forties had arrived in California. Now they are found from Alaska to Florida, and have ousted many native species, driving off bluebirds and woodpeckers, and forming gigantic flocks of up to a million birds.
So Schieffelin’s romantic gesture not only brought about an air crash, but an ecological disaster too.
But where does Shakespeare ever mention starlings? There is only one reference. It comes in “Henry IV Part One” when Hotspur, forbidden by the king to mention the name of Mortimer, declares that he will train a starling to say his name and sing it continually in his majesty’s ear. […continued]
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