While I have already been to the Globe Theatre, we took a more in-depth tour with a very knowledgeable guide last Tuesday, and Saturday (yesterday) we took a day-trip to Stratford upon Avon, where Shakespeare was born and buried. I'm also studying for a Shakespeare midterm, so I'm currently in a Shakespeare Fervor, as it were.
Some pictures, with captions following!
The above two pictures are of the house where Shakespeare was born and lived with his family. Shortly thereafter he lived in the smaller cottage next to it, which his family also owned, with his wife Anne. He was 18 and Anne was 26 when they married; they had a daughter 6 months later named Susanna. (You do the math.)
I know it's blurry, but this is one of the original copies of Shakespeare's portfolio of plays. Someone must have taken great pains to compile it, because back then, plays weren't written like we read them now. Shakespeare would've written out the different parts for different people and they were posted around the stage so actors knew what they were supposed to be doing during rehearsals.
Holy Trinity Church, a 15th-century church where Shakespeare is buried. Somewhat ironically, because it is a Protestant church (as all churches had to be at the time), and Shakespeare was Catholic. But alas, you want to be buried on hallowed ground, and so it had to be.
Shakespeare's grave site (next to his wife, Anne). I stood in quiet contemplation here. I couldn't believe I was standing before the very place where William was buried, a man who, as an English speaker, I owe so much. And as a lover of literature, theatre, art, and the study of the human condition...so much more.Other things I have learned:
The year Shakespeare was born (1564), there was an outbreak of the plague in Stratford, and he was actually quite lucky to survive. Given that he has contributed thousands of words to the English language, I can't imagine what life would be like today had it not been for his existence.
Shakespeare did not attend university at Oxford or Cambridge, as some might have assumed. In fact, he didn't pursue higher education than high school (called grammar school at the time). What a thorn in the side that must be for traditionalists. But hey, when you're genius, you're genius.
We don't have any record of what William was up to between 1585 and 1592, when he finally showed up in London and people began performing his plays.
Shakespeare's style and plots were extremely original for his time. Before him, the only plays put on were Biblical stories and very simple tales that existed purely to teach morals.
William died in 1616 of consumption, an illness he contracted after a night of partying with one of his contemporaries, Ben Jonson.
The Globe theatre burned down in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII. A canon misfired, hit the thatched roof, and the entire building burned down in about 2 hours. Of the thousands of people who were likely to have been in the audience, all got out alive. (Although one man's pants caught fire, luckily people threw their ale on him and put it out.) It was rebuilt with a tiled roof, but The Globe Theatre that stands in London today was built in the exact likeness (as much as we can guess, anyway) of the first model, which means it has the first approved thatched roof since the fire of 1666.
I could go on for days about this man. The more I study him, the more I am inspired by his wit and his cunning ability to not only capture the nature of humanity, but to do so in such a way that arrests all the senses. His characters steal my heart every time, and after seeing an AMAZING rendition of Macbeth by the Royal Shakespeare Company, I feel, in a way, indebted to him. The most I can do to show my gratitude is...well...worship him. We are not worthy, Shakespeare! I applaud thee.
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