Shakespeare!

Friday January 13:

This was our all-Shakspeare day. We started the day off with a chat with Emma, an actress who played the part of Biddy in Great Expectations, last night. She told us what was needed to become an actor in Britian. Some good advice she gave us passed down from her director was "Remember what you risk losing when you open your mouth." Good advice no matter what you are doing with your life.

Photo from Cara Ballard

Our first stop in our day of Shakespeare was to his mother's house. Mary Arden lived in a small farmhouse, which even today is still a working farm. There is a falconry there and we all took turns holding and feeding an owl named Jess. Her handler told us that dispite popular belief, only 20% of owls are nighttime only.

The owl was well behaved and put up well with us of eager students wanting a turn to hold her. She seemed camera shy though, and refused to look right at the cameras.

We toured a house next to Mary Arden's that the museums had thought was hers. Turns out, it was the house next door. So we saw a house the way it would have looked like IF Mary had lived there, and then the actual house she lived in, which had people living there until the 1970's. That was interesting to see the differences and similarities between them.

Photo curtesy of Shakespeare Country

Amy, Cara, and I in the garden around Anne's cottage

Photo due to Cara Ballard

Another view of the gardens at Anne's Cottage.

Photo curtesy of Shakespeare Country

We then visited Anne Hathaway's Cottage. It was pretty big and had very beautiful gardens around it. We saw the "courting bench" which may or may not have been used when Shakespeare was courting Anne. There is also some scandalous gossip surrounding that bench, since Anne was 3 months pregnant when they married. However, the bench was very narrow and her father was always present so I dont know how much I believe that rumor.

Anne and William were so poor they could not afford the cost of a marriage license, so the neighbors got together and as their wedding picture they paid for the license. I thought that was a thoughtful present. More useful than three mixers, for sure.
Outside of the Shakespeare museum the cast members of The Tempest posed with not-quite corresponding finger puppets Diana had bought from the gift store at Anne's cottage. This is where the famous poet was born and grew up. His father was a tanner, so it was not the nicest smelling place, I would guess. The house was later transformed into an Inn, called the "Swan and Maidenhead", which must have been successful as it stayed that way for years.

In 1596 the Shakespeare family were granted a family crest, mostly due (experts think) to the rising fame of the playwrite. The family motto was "amore vole fe" meaning: "Love cannot exist without fidelity". Ironically, the only son of Shakespeare died within that year, ending the family name. O Cruel Fate!

 

If you would like to learn more about the Shakespeare houses and properties, or book a trip, then visit Shakespeare Country for more information.
After visiting Shakespeare's House, Anne and I went to a little deli next door called As You Like It and had a light lunch/snack since we had missed real lunch for the day. After counsulting the map, we didnt think we had enough time to get to the other properties in the 10 mintues before they closed. Of course, we learned soon that these stops were on the way back to the hotel. We did, however catch up journals before heading back for dinner and the play of the evening.

Canterbury Tales seen in the Swan Theater

The seats were at the top of the house on the actor's left-hand side of the stage. The production was well done, and very funny. It was theater in the round and involved the audience in some scenes, especially the front row audience. We had good seats, although with theater in the round it is hard to not have good seats.
We had dinner at Russon's Restaurant, and the power went out. So we had dinner literally by candlelight. I had some amzing cheese ravioli, and then a rich chocolate mousse cake for dessert.

After the play, a group went to the Dirty Ducks to have drinks, and the rest of us went back to the hotel to work on our journals and get some sleep so we wouldnt get sick.

Our Hotel was the Falcon Hotel. It was a good place to stay with both standard hotel rooms and rooms "with character" as Katy described them.

The building was old so we all pretended to be scared when all the lights when out around us. At one point the building next door got their lights back, but we never did. I think it added to the atmosphere much better.

  For a more detailed description of the life and times of William Shakespeare and his compantions, visit this page