BBC celebrates the Bard...with emoji website!

AS the author of lines such as ‘to be or not to be’ and ‘a rose by any other name’, it’s little wonder Shakespeare is known as the master of the human heart.

And now the BBC is hoping to introduce the Bard’s stirring words to the texting generation... using cartoon smiley faces.

But the Corporation are facing accusations of ‘dumbing down’ the playwright’s works for the younger generation.

As part of a festival to mark 400 years since the playwright’s death, the BBC is launching an interactive website which lets users choose an ‘emoji’ – an image such as a love heart or cartoon face – and be given a quote from Shakespeare expressing the same feeling.

But while the BBC said the project, called ShakespeareMe, aims to make the dramatist’s works ‘irresistible to all’, yesterday experts claimed it would do nothing to help young people access the plays more broadly.

Chris McGovern of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘It sounds like a pretty desperate attempt to make Shakespeare accessible and relevant but actually Shakespeare deserves better than that.

‘I think reducing Shakespeare to an emoji is diluting it and dumbing it down beyond what is necessary.’ ShakespeareMe is aimed at ‘tech- savvy’ 16 to 35year-olds and has more than 250 quotes in its catalogue, drawn from 36 Shakespeare plays and two sonnets.

There will be 21 emojis, which are yet to be designed, to choose from. Anger might provide the line from King Lear, ‘come not between the dragon and his wrath’, while choosing humiliation could result in the line ‘the fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool’ from As You Like It.

When the user is given the quote to match their emoji, they will also be given information about the play it comes from and be shown where they can find out more.

The project forms part of a whole season of programming from the BBC to mark the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death on April 23.

Other highlights include an adaptation of Richard III starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and a variety show from the Royal Shakespeare company hosted by David Tennant.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘ The ShakespeareMe campaign has been created to appeal to an audience who may feel Shakespeare has no relevance to their lives in the 21st century and is just one part of a major Festival across the BBC which aims to make Shakespeare irresistible to all.’

‘Diluting and dumbing it down’