Shakespeare's Birthplace

John Shakespeare's house - bought by a newly formed Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust after an American had put in an offer to buy it, with the intention to dismantle it and rebuild it in the States.  The Shakespeare Bookshop behind this property is a marvel.  The Bard was born in the room above and left of Willow.  Although it was cold we wondered where all the tourists were - good to get a photo without the masses sharing our shot though!

 "All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts" (As You Like It, Act II Scene VII) 
Both Shakespeare's entrance and exit were on the 23rd of April in Stratford-upon-Avon.

In truth the dates themselves are a little dramatic because all we have is his Baptism certificate for April 26 1564, but as at that time baptisms were always a few days after birth, the 23rd seems a close enough guess. The best guess for his cause of death seems to be typhus or stroke and the only time record we have of it is his burial on April 25 1616, at Holy Trinity Church.

Stratford-upon-Avon is a pleasant little town but without the past presence of the greatest English writer that has ever been published, it would just be another pretty town. It would still have a brown tourist road sign announcing its status as an 'Historic Market town' and would still be prone to flooding when the River Avon swells.

The main street through Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon
Left: Walking past his Grammar school.  Centre: mr Nash's house(Elizabeth's first husband), the space where Shakespeare's New Place was and the Guild Hall across the road.  Right: Marlow's (a peer playwright of Shakespeare's) Restaurant, a statue of Shakespeare donated by a famous Regency player of Shakespeare's plays on the golden stone building.

He wrote a lot of silly characters to entertain the groundlings, 
usually including lots of toilet humour.

But William Shakespeare did live out his childhood, his grammar school education and the early years of his adult life here. His father was a very well to do businessman with a few strings to his bow, he tanned his own leather in the backyard for his glove making business and was fined a couple of times for shady deals on the wool exchange. Little Will would have grown up in the stinkiest house in town.

His dad became an alderman which provided Will and his brother Gilbert with a free Grammar School education. His father became Mayor of Stratford for a few years but then crashed from grace and the boys were removed from school to help the family's struggling fiances. Shakespeare was forced to leave school at 14 which explains why this literary genius never secured a University education. One of his teachers at King Edward IV Grammar School went on to found Corpus Christi college at Oxford. Other tutors in Latin, English, Greek, Classical authors and translation came from Oxford University because the town's aldermen paid excellent wages to their teachers. 

Spelling and maths were not subjects Shakespeare would have studied. Maths was considered to be little more than book keeping at the time and only people in trade needed to know that easily picked up skill. The only 'dictionaries' that existed in Shakespeare's time were word lists translated from Latin or Greek to English, none of them had common spellings or definitions. This must have given the written word - in English - a freedom that encouraged young Shakespeare on his way to invent over 1700 words still in use today. He spelt his own name at least three different ways - in fact the way we spell it now was never one of his options. Oh how my brain would revel in the freedom of 'open phonic expression'! Although Dr Johnson is a revered scholar, I cursed his 1755 Dictionary that took him 9yrs to complete, every Friday morning through primary school when my deep weakness was displayed to all. "But, for my own part, it was Greek to me". - (Julius Caesar Act I, Scene II).

The sudden poverty and exclusion from learning would certainly have been a motivating factor for Shakespeare's manic work ethic, which took him from his family to London for months and years at a time.

His Grammar School

At 18 he married his first love, Anne Hathaway, who happened to be 10 yrs older than him, a heiress to a goodly sum and pregnant. "My salad days, when I was green in judgment." - (Antony and Cleopatra Act I, Scene V). They lived in the cottage she inherited from her father and produced a daughter, Susannah, only 6 months after the wedding. Twins came along 2 years later. The twins, Judith and Hamnet were named after the Shakespeares' close friends, the Stratford Baker and his wife.  "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". - (Romeo and Juliet Act II, Scene II). Anne Hathaway's cottage is a famous tourist site but is not on the walking tour of Stratford so we didn't have time to see it.

A canal from the River Avon on the flood plane - market tents along the road leading to the Royal Shakespeare Company.

This ice cream long boat should have been called 'Yoricks Ices'.  They love using their most famous citizen to flog stuff!

Shakespeare's son died when he was eleven, was his longest play and most emotionally fraught hero an adaption of his son's name?
"Everyone can master a grief but he that has it". - (Much Ado About Nothing Act III, Scene II). "Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love". (Hamlet, Act II, Scene II)

Susannah's House just down the road from the church.

Susannah married John Hall, a doctor who was the second most famous person in the town. His cures and advice were sought far and wide. He even distilled asorbic acid(Vitamin C) from local grasses to cure his wife's scurvy. He did this one hundred years or so before citrus fruits were found to be the cure for sailors. The Halls were left as the executors of Shakespeare's will, they inherited the bulk of his estate and both were considered wise and worthy citizens.  Their only child, Elizabeth had no children through two marriages but was a celebrated intellectual and married a nobleman with six children after her first husband's death. She died in her 60's, quite a feat in those times.

Judith's husband's house. The bottom story used
to be a cage for people waiting for 'community
justice'. The roundabout in front was where the
stocks and whipping post used to be.

Judith married a womanising vintner(someone who sells wine) who Shakespeare had such a strong dislike for that he rewrote his will to protect Judith's inheritance from her husband. I'm not quite sure what that meant but I guess she didn't get a lump sum! "Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war". - (Julius Caesar Act III, Scene I).They had three children but none of them lived long enough to provide Shakespeare with great-grandchildren.

It is strange that although Shakespeare had 7 siblings only one had children.  Joan's son William Hart acted with the famous King's men troupe in the 1630s, there is no record of his marriage but he reportedly fathered an illegitimate child, Charles Hart; who also became a famous actor in the Regency period. Shakespeare's youngest brother, Edmund followed him to London and acted with him there but died of the plague before producing any offspring. His brother Gilbert became a haberdasher and made the most of William's royal favour when the family was awarded(purchased) a coat of arms lifting them to the level of 'Gentlemen'. Gilbert didn't marry and had no children. Shakespeare's other sisters all died young. The Bard's candle has burned brightly through the centuries but no one can legitimately claim the burden of his ancestry.

Many of the houses in Stratford have been 'renovated' to look like the traditional tudor style.  These shops across the roundabout from Judith's house are an example of an original beside a modern copy. Costa is the 'copy'.

The next record we have of Shakespeare's life after his marriage and fatherhood is a jealous attack from Robert Greene - a fellow London actor - in 1592. No one really knows what he did during the 7 previous years, some say he was a teacher at a country school, others that he was completing an acting apprenticeship in London, others that he was travelling around Europe as a tutor for an entourage of young men completing their classical education.  All of these guesses explain how he could have gone from young Dad helping his father in a failing business to Playwright.  His first play 'The Comedy of Errors' certainly demonstrates his love of farce and his knowledge of geography and classical training.

The Shakespeare Institute across the road
from his grammar school.

Shakespeare spent the majority of his time through his working life in London.  He wrote, directed and acted. Only a few of his original scripts with directors notes scribbled on them have survived and they are held in the world famous 'The Shakespeare Institute' affiliated with Birmingham University but housed in a very modest building in Stratford.  The Christopher Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge, has a copy of his 'First Folio' that I have seen.  After his death friends pulled together what they had of his work and published it. His Sonnets were published in his lifetime and but weren't hugely popular - they didn't drip with the honeyed sweet nothings gallants wished to recite to their lovers.

These Sonnets are addressed to two people, a handsome young man and a dark lady - neither of these his wife!  As always the truth about the Bard is murky - but on the Stratford walking tour none of this scandalous chat was offered about the town's most loved son.

The townsfolk were so disgusted with the architecture of this new building back in the 1800's that the Bank who commissioned it had frescoes of Shakespeare's plays built into the design and a bust of the Bard painted above the door. The one pictured on the left features poor old Bottom with his ass head in Midsummer Night's Dream.

Just in case you've ever wondered about how ale was measured and sold. The 99 barrels of beer wasn't that much after all.

Shakespeare's plays were loved by the Elizabethean audience and made him enough money to be able to invest and make some more. His narratives were reprinted hundreds of times because of their popularity and suggestive qualities. "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them". - (Twelfth Night Act II, Scene V). With this profit of his popular work he bought more property in Stratford.  He became the closet thing to a celebrity that his age knew. Queen Elizabeth heard of him and demanded performances of his plays at Court. She died in 1603 in her seventieth year after bringing stability and peace to the country she gave her life to.

When King James of Scotland, Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Queen of Scot's son, was named Elizabeth's heir, he travelled to London to take the throne.  Shakespeare's company became the royal choice, they performed at Hampton Court Palace during the Christmas celebrations.  There is even a whisper that Shakespeare was one of the 54 strong group of theologians, historians and wordsmiths appointed to translate the Bible into English upon King James' royal command.

An intriguing theory was shared with us as we looked into the Bible that would have been used in the Holy Trinity Church in Shakespeare's last years. If you have a copy of the old King James Version go to Psalm 46.  Now the whisper says that Shakespeare was 46yrs old the year that this committee worked. If you count 46 words from the beginning of the psalm you will reach the word shake, if you count 46 words from the end back you will reach the word spear. We tested this on the Vicar's copy and sure enough there is shake -spear in the 46th Psalm! It would make sense to have the times' most famous poet working on the translations of the Psalms. Perhaps a Hebrew scholar translated it, because the King demanded the original sources and then the Bard massaged the text into beauty with a little fun?

Psalm 46 King James Version (KJV)

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

² Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and

though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

³ Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though

the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

⁴ There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad

the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

⁵ God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her,

and that right early. ⁶ The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved:

he uttered his voice, the earth melted. ⁷ The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath

made in the earth. ⁹ He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;

he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;

he burneth the chariot in the fire. ¹⁰ Be still, and know that I am God:

I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

New Place was bought by a wealthy clergyman who only lived in it sporadically throughout the year as he had his main property in his own parish. He was sick of visitors trying to touch the Mulberry tree that town legend said Shakespeare had planted so chopped it down, the towns folk were so cross they broke his windows and the council raised his tax. The reverend argued that he should only have to pay it when in residence. The inflexible response from the town council so riled him that he had the place pulled down. Rev. Gastrell's name is mud in Stratford-upon-Avon!

Shakespeare eventually retired to the biggest house in Stratford. This was across the road from the Guild hall where he had helped his Alderman father organise players for the town's holy days(holidays) and next to his old school.  Perhaps he was rubbing the town folks noses in his success - who would have thought that the boy who had to leave school because of his father's business collapse and who was rushed into a shotgun marriage would do so well? Or perhaps he just wanted to live in a lovely home surrounded by the family that he prized above all.

Left: The pointy spire on the church was not there in Shakespeare's time.
Right: The family plot in the chancel - the string outlined one is the Bard's.

He paid a very large sum of money to arrange for himself, his wife, his daughters and physician son-in-law (but not the disliked, womanising, vintner son-in-law) buried under stone in the chancel of his family church, where he was baptised, after their deaths. He apparently had a fear of his bones being dug up from the graveyard. "This above all: to thine own self be true" (Hamlet Act I Scene III) This wasn't because of some sick paparazzi but because it was common practice to dig up the bones from the main cemetery around the church - once they were 30 or 40 years old and remove them to the ossuary. This was done to release spaces for new burials. Once the bone room was full, the grave diggers would burn the oldest bones on a bon(e)fire. "Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't." (Hamlet Act II Scene II) Shakespeare was so determined that his bones would be left in peace that he had this verse written on the stone above his resting place.

Good friend, for Jesus' sake, forbear 

To dig the dust enclosed here. 

Blessed be the man that spares these stones, 

And cursed be he that moves my bones.

His wife had a likeness carved and mounted on the wall above his tomb a few days after his burial. Most scholars agree that this would be the best likeness history has provided us of The Bard from Avon.

Interesting article at the same source of the image - right.  http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1883770,00.html

Left: The 'Flower portrait' of Shakespeare.  Right: The painting that scholars now think was the original that etchers copied from.  Images are scanned from a postcard and guidebook bought from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

I had always understood that Shakespeare and his father were Roman Catholics so I was surprised to see that the Church of the Holy Trinity was a Church of England parish. Perhaps that is the price of political astuteness, after all Shakespeare was born into political and religious tumult. Bloody Mary had disposed of thousands of Protestants at the stake and Elizabeth I's liberal Protestant rule was only 6yrs old when Shakespeare was born. During Elizabeth's reign their were countless papist plots to 'burn the protestant witch' and replace her with her murdering, but Catholic Scottish cousin Mary. William Cecil and later Francis Walsingham, developed extensive spy and intelligence gathering networks across Europe to protect their Queen. The Spanish Armada was the greatest threat to her rule but her privateers and tiny navy outmaneuvered the big Spanish galleons. Their orders to first go and pick up troops from the Netherlands, Sir Francis Drake's fire-boats and a terrible storm destroyed the threat of the inquisition. In this climate practicing Catholics, although not burned or tortured, were not trusted or given Royal support in any endeavor. Perhaps worshiping one way in the home and publicly supporting another was a financially wise tactic?

Many famous actors have walked the boards in the Royal Shakespeare Company's theater here in Stratford.  The architect was a woman who won a design competition, her uncle designed the red telephone boxes so loved here. The people of Stratford hated it at first but when it was remodeled  in the 80's to change the insides from the  Proscenium to a thrust stage that Shakespeare would have been more familiar with and the viewing tower added they all complained again.

Whatever the Bard believed, he knew human nature. Perhaps - in my very humble opinion - this is why he is still so universally admired. His stories of love, betrayal, fear, injustice, impetuous reactions, heroic fighting for principle, philosophy have been translated into many languages and time settings. Underlying all his plot variations is a deep understanding of the human condition, our hopes and dreams, fears and vices. To laugh or cry we have to recognise and empathise with the plights of the characters and we can only do that if they are painted strong and clear so we believe them during their brief flame on stage.
"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." - (Macbeth Act V, Scene V).
Check this out for an entertaining look at Shakespeare and his times: the cast of Shakespeare in Love present - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAfih_YUgMk  

An artwork of Shakespeare's house made from postage stamps - why - I know not but the texture is cool

Pat an owl for a donation at the market. Charlie was not allowed a turn!

A word from the Bard - Sonnet 81:

Or I shall live your epitaph to make,

Or you survive when I in earth am rotten,

From hence your memory death cannot take,

Although in me each part will be forgotten,

Your name from hence immortal life shall have,

Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:

The earth can yield me but a common grave,

When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.

Your monument shall be my gentle verse,

Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read;

And tongues to be your being shall rehearse,

When all the breathers of this world are dead;

You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen.

Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.

Left: We found out where everyone was - eating lunch. It took 4 tries to secure a table in one of the many dog friendly pubs.
Right: The girls were not impressed that we'd 'missed the opportunity' of dining in one of Marco Pierre-White's restaurants.

Here is the info if you would like to take the walking tour of Stratford-upon-Avon.  The Sunday we were there market tents were set up along Waterside. Make sure you go into the RSC shop if you are a die hard Shakespeare fan and want a T'shirt to prove it.  The walking tour gives a sheet of vouches which you can get savings on visiting all the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust sites - be cleverer than us and allow the day after the tour for these visits or do the 11am tour so you have the afternoon to have a look.

Meet by the yellow sign, close to the Swan fountain on Waterside, near the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and opposite the junction of Sheep Street.
Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri at 11am
(additional 2pm Friday walk during Aug, Sep & October)

Sat & Sun at 11am and 2pm              Christmas Day at 10.30am
Duration approximately 2hrs

Adults £6  Over 65's and students £5  Children (under 16) £3  Under 8 years FREE!

Just turn up, whatever the weather! There is no need to book (unless a group of 10+).