In Appreciation of L.M. Montgomery’s Bertie Shakespeare

This isn’t really about Bertie Shakespeare Drew in the sense that I don’t have a vested interest in Bertie Shakespeare as a character in the Anne of Green Gables series. I have absolutely nothing against him, but he’s fairly negligible as a character. Bertie Shakespeare is a child in the Glen who’s born around the same time as Anne’s eldest son, Jem. He’s one of Jem’s friends in Anne of Ingleside and Rainbow Valley and appears throughout both those novels. But he’s no Myra Murray and as an individual doesn’t particularly distinguish himself. What I want to touch on is that “Bertie Shakespeare Drew” is the funniest name I’ve ever come across in all my years as a reader.

“’I’m glad you didn’t load him down with some highfalutin, romantic name that he’d be ashamed of when he gets to be a grandfather. Mrs. William Drew at the Glen has called her baby Bertie Shakespeare. Quite a combination, isn’t it?’”

-L.M. Montgomery, Anne’s House of Dreams

L.M. Montgomery must have been aware that she’d hit on an incredibly funny name because the majority of the mentions of Bertie Shakespeare throughout both Anne of Ingleside and Rainbow Valley are as “Bertie Shakespeare.” He’s mentioned seventeen times in Anne of Ingleside and is only referred to as “Bertie” five times. Montgomery actually manages to stick in the whole hilarious “Bertie Shakespeare Drew” six times—and makes it seem natural. In Rainbow Valley, he’s mentioned ten times and only twice is it just “Bertie”—the other eight mentions are either “Bertie Shakespeare” or the full “Bertie Shakespeare Drew.” All of her books are very funny so of course she knew that this insane name is very funny.

Bertie Shakespeare Drew is mentioned for the first time in Anne’s House of Dreams—Susan just points out and shares the name—but he isn’t mentioned and doesn’t appear in Rilla of Ingleside at all, which I find interesting because the novel’s all about World War I and various characters enlisting is of course notable throughout it. You’d think that as one of Jem’s contemporaries, Bertie Shakespeare enlisting or not enlisting would be mentioned. But he doesn’t come up at all.

Given that Rilla of Ingleside is about World War I, the novel’s focus isn’t on being funny—though it definitely still has many funny moments. Anne of Ingleside and Rainbow Valley, on the other hand, are really about getting to know child characters—the Blythe children and the Meredith children—and Montgomery leans heavily into the absurd and ridiculous throughout both novels. Bertie Shakespeare’s very existence throughout the novels just subtly adds to the hilarity.

In my opinion, “Bertie Shakespeare Drew” is the funniest name in literature. It makes me chuckle every time I read it. It’s so over-the-top ridiculous and the way it’s treated so casually throughout Anne of Ingleside and Rainbow Valley—no one ever bats an eye at the name—just makes the effect even better. Bertie Shakespeare Drew might not really make a mark as a character, but his name is absolutely priceless.

#lmmontgomery