RUMOUR. Open your ears;
The lengthiest string of characters matching a passage from a Shakespeare work, according to the Monkey Shakespeare Simulator Project, which began in July 2003.
The string, which was generated in “January 2005, after 2,737,850 million billion billion billion monkey-years of random typing,” matched 24 characters (including spaces) in this passage from Henry IV, Pt. 2:
RUMOUR. Open your ears; for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.
(from 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know by John Barrow)
