Three centuries have passed away + 

Since that most famous April day, + 

When the sweet, gentle Will was born, + 

Whose name the age will e’re adorn. + 

That great Elizabethan age + 

Does not leave on history’s page, + 

A name so bright he stands like Saul, + 

A head and shoulders over all. + 

Delineator of mankind, + 

Who shows the workings of the mind, + 

And in review in nature’s glass, + 

Portrays the thoughts of every class. + 

That man is dull who will not laugh + 

At the drolleries of Falstaff, + 

And few that could not shed a tear + 

At sorrows of poor old King Lear. + 

Or lament o’er King Duncan’s death + 

Stabbed by the dagger of McBeth, + 

Or gentle Desdemona pure, + 

Slain by the misled jealous Moor. + 

Or great Caesar mighty Roman + 

Who o’ercame his country’s foemen, + 

His high deeds are all in vain, + 

For by his countrymen he’s slain. + 

The greatest of heroic tales + 

Is that of Harry, Prince of Wales, + 

Who in combat fought so fiercely + 

With the brave and gallant Percy. + 

Imagination’s grandest theme + 

The tempest or midsummer’s dream, + 

And Hamlet’s philosophic blaze + 

Of shattered reason’s flickering rays. + 

And now in every land on earth + 

They commemorate Shakespeare’s birth, + 

And there is met on Avon’s banks + 

Men of all nations and all ranks. + 

And here upon Canadian Thames + 

The gentle maids and comely dames + 

Do meet and each does bring her scroll + 

Of laurel leaves from Ingersoll. + 