Today was Shakespeare day. We got up early for a group discussion with Shakespeare scholar Miriam Gilbert of tonight's production of All's Well That Ends Well. Katy told us that Miriam Gilbert was someone who knew everything about Shakespeare and saw every possible Shakespeare production at least twice, and she didn't disappoint. She had not only already seen the production but apparently had been hanging out with the actors in the play somehow, and offered us all sorts of fun tidbits about what the actors playing Bertram and Parolles said about their characters. We talked about all the difficulties of All's Well, whether all really does end well and whether Bertram is redeemable and what the heck is wrong with Helen anyway.

Then it was on the coach for a trip to Anne Hathaway's Cottage, which is actually not just a cottage but a whole little farm that tries to recreate what a place like this would have looked like during the sixteenth century. There are cows and doves and chickens still right there in the old barns. Our tour was led by a woman who had a highly entertaining obsession with etymology and attempted to prove to us that every idiom in the English language has its source in Elizabethan domestic life - we learned the original meanings of "pigeonholed," "turning the tables," "spooning," "the gilt on the gingerbread," and much, much more. "Sleep tight" appeared to be a particular favorite, since about five other tour guides in Stratford repeated the explanation. It originated with the need to use a big wooden key to tighten the ropes holding up your matress before bed. The main cottage we saw was not actually Anne Hathaway's, as carbon-dating proved fairly recently. However, Anne Hathaway's real cottage was nearby on the same land and, by fortuitous coincidence, had already been owned by the Shakespeare preservation society. It continued to be lived in until the nineteenth century, and is still set up that way.

We also met Banquo, who is an owl. The Anne Hathaway cottage keeps several birds of prey from all over the world, from tiny kestrels up to giant orange-eyed eagle owls. Anyone who wanted to got to let Banquo perch on their gloved hand; he's quite sociable for a raptor, since the owls are hand-reared. The falconer who spoke to us was a young man who seemed like nothing would have pleased him more than to talk about his birds all day.

Then it was off a local pub for some steak and kidney pie for lunch, and then free time to run around and see stuff in Stratford. First stop was Shakespeare's birthplace, which has a great musem display on the playwright's life before you get to the actual house. It was in this small cottage that we had the single oddest experience so far on the trip. In the room displaying the tools of William's father's trade (he was a glove-maker specializing in white leather), the guide was a little balding man with huge eyes and a purple sweater. He spoke v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and didn't seem very interested in talking about John Shakepseare, but was delighted to talk to us about our trip. Upon learning from whence we came, he informed us that he knew something about the geography of Iowa from the Catholic Church's website on Iowa, which divides the state into four quadrants. He also told us that since we seemed to be touring the great cathedral towns, we needed to visit Lincoln, which apparently has a very large and impressive cathedral on a hill. While in Lincoln, we must be certain to visit a shop called - I swear on my eyes I'm not making this up - Omnipuss Pottery, which specializes in charming small painted figurines of animals, particularly cats. We made our excuses as fast as politeness allowed and rushed on to the next location.

After stopping to see some fantastic street performers, the next stop was John Nash's house. Nash married Shakespeare's youngest daughter, Susanna. The place now not only has information about John and Susanna, but also some wonderful exhibits on the whole history of Stratford, starting with pleisiosaur fossils found in the location and going forward to Victorian relics. Unfortunately, we didn't have as much time as we'd have liked before it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready to head to the Swan Theatre for All's Well.

The play sounded very nice; it's just unfortunate that we couldn't see much of it. We had standing room, which meant that posts blocked much of our view and we were often too distracted by how much our feet ached from standing for so long to enjoy the play properly. However, Judi Dench was just as wonderful as you'd expect in the role of the Countess. I felt bad for her, since she appeared to be rather sick; she kept coughing, and at one point had to have water brought out for her on stage. If you're Dame Judi, you know that everyone who comes to a play is there to see you and so you really can't back out no matter how sick you might be. I really appreciated her sticking it out for us like that. The actors playing Parolles, Helen, Lavache and the King were all quite good too, and they nailed a lot of the play's humor. It wasn't a really fantastic performance that changed how I thought about the play or anything, but I did enjoy it.