Stratford-upon-Avon- LD24, September 26, 2015

The problem with visiting the places named in your history books is that such a visit requires history to hit you square in the face with its reality and significance.

I've known now that Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 15 something or other for years now. It's been the first rattled off fact whenever we started a class conversation about him, besides "Shakespeare was a genius" or something or other. "His father was a glovemaker, John Shakespeare, he married Anne Hathaway..." blah blah blah. Let's get to reading Macbeth.

It didn't quite hit me that we were actually going to Stratford-upon-Avon, and the force of what that meant, until we were waiting for the bus to go. Then, I started to get really excited. As real as history may get when you face it head-on, it's terribly exciting and fun. We were warned how easy it was to turn Stratford into a glorified Shakespeare-land, but seeing as that's its biggest claim to fame I can't really blame the town for making that particular fact important.

On the road here we go!

 The whole way there, I daydreamed and stared out the window. Upon arrival, I and many more of my friends were in a daze from the long bus ride and were very overwhelmed with the sudden onset of possibilities of activities we could venture on. Seeing as no one else had a plan, I took it upon myself to make one: Food, Shakespeare's birthplace, His grave, whatever else we had time for (other houses, theatres, etc.), then dinner. And then, of course, the show.

Welcome to Stratford!

Me and Brooke <3

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The plan worked swimmingly well. We found a lovely little cafe/tea shop that decorated itself with all the stereotypical legends of England and served a lovely cream tea. Alex even let us take pictures of him in the grand, throne-like chairs they had upstairs.

The ever-elusive Alex, in his throne

I got in on the fun

So British. Much British.

Next was visiting Shakespeare's childhood home, and also the place where he was probably born. Honestly, I've never thought about Shakespeare as a child- at least, not much.  But walking on the same floors as he did, and going through the same rooms, and in and out of the same house... it wasn't hard for my brain to wrap around the image of a tiny little boy waddling through the rooms, playing with his siblings and learning how to write...

THE First Folio- where his plays were published for the first time in a collection

 

 

 

Outside the house's back door

What his bed would have looked like- in the appropriate room

View from the master bedroom

Master bedroom/bed

This is where Mary Arden and John Shakespeare slept, which means Shakespeare was probably born in this room

The house was a pub at one point. Olivia found this amusing

Before we completely left, we hung around the courtyard a little while, where some random performers were taking requests for Shakespeare speeches. Being actors ourselves, we put them to the test and had them do a Richard II speech. Then, I missed the conversation, but somehow Alex got called up and allowed/convinced to do a speech himself from Titus Andronicus. Not going to lie- he did it better. The speakers there were just doing that- speaking. Alex became the character. And it was fun to watch.

Part of the reason we got Alex to do it, I think, is because Alex knows at least one speech from the majority of Shakespeare's tragedies. We've had fun playing "Name a play and hear Alex do a speech from it," so now that we knew he had the ability, I think it's natural we wanted him to be able to show off a bit :)

House from the back (+sun)

Alex, performing Titus Andronicus

The street when we finally left

We took our time wandering down the streets until we got to the next destination: Holy Trinity Church. It's an Anglican church that still holds services on Sundays, but has been around for years and years and years- before the United States was even founded. Next to a park and a waterfront, the front gates lead you into a pathway lined with lime trees and a cemetery in the front. The steeple is absolutely huge, reaching up to heaven like a spike in the ground. When you walk inside, the size and decoration of the place are overwhelming.

This is the church where Shakespeare was baptized, probably married, and where he is now buried.  We saw the exact bath thing where he was baptized, as well as his grave.

Walking in through the Avenue of Limes- 12 on each side (for the apostles and tribes of Israel)

Massive, massive steeple

Stained glass at the very front of the church. ALL the glass was this detailed and beautiful... and everywhere

Full view of the front of the church

There he is- Shakespeare himself. Surrounded by black cord.

More of the church

This place held a gravity that, I think, was very hard for us to shake off. It was emotional. As for me, I got to talk to a parish worker in the church who mentioned to me how he never felt alone while he was in it. I found that, and seeing the place where Shakespeare and his family are now buried, and all of the stained glass Bible stories, all strangely comforting. I left the church and wandered through the graveyard with a very full, grateful heart. Being there reminded me of a lot, I suppose.

Firstly, Shakespeare was a man, just like any other man. It's so hard to forget that, since we're all so used to glorifying him and dubbing him genius and discussing his work. William Shakespeare was a man with a bright and witty mind and a talent for writing. He had something to say, so he said it, and benefited the world by it. But at the end of the day, he was born somewhere, he's now dead somewhere. Under that stone are bones and dust that belonged to the soul of a man who changed the world. But that's what he is, either way- a man. It's so hard to remember that about him, or about anyone we look up to and admire in society. If you ever worried you're thinking about someone too much, think about this person doing very basic, banal human things. Like dying.

However, I'm also so grateful. We had this man in our world, at one time, who gave the earth so many immortal treasures that his name is on par with even religion's greatest. We have his grave conserved, we have the opportunity to visit where he once lived and worked. We also had the chance to go on adventures, explore, and run amuck. We have his legacy and his stories and his works and all that he added to the language that will never die. He was right, in his sonnets- one of the ways to live forever is to write.

On a deeper level too, I felt so grateful for life, and the chance we have to leave our own marks, and study those who came before us. We're born and we die, but there's so much that happens in between that time.

We talked to a parish worker inside the church, and he told us about how he never felt alone while he was there, in the church, even if there was no one else there. And I'm grateful for that more than anything. It's especially obvious in churches, but no matter where we go in our lives, we're never alone. Life is not a solo trip. Even when we feel at our lowest, we have a God who is always there. I left feeling very full in my heart.

I left my friends to go see a third house, Hall's Croft. This was where Shakespeare's oldest daughter lived with her husband, a doctor. They lived well, and the house was neat, but there were two parts that actually stood out to me as significant. His daughter's grave, which I saw next to her father's, has an epitaph that describes her as the "wittiest of her sex" and as having definitely inherited some of that from her father. I love how that's there. It tells us so much about who she was, and what her family must have been like. Secondly, out in the garden, behind a sundial, I found one of the most beautiful views in Stratford:

Beautiful

I couldn't find my friends again for a while after that, so I walked along the streets and by the waterfront towards the theater where we'd be seeing a show later that day. On the way, I got to have a short chat with some British people about Hamlet and Marie Antoinette, but when I got to the theater I ran into Brooke and Emily. Olivia texted us then, and we were able to meet up with everyone else for dinner. I finally got Fish and Chips!!! Then Brooke and Emily and I went on an adventure looking for dessert. We succeeded, and were then walking back to the theater when we got another text from Olivia: "Where are you? The show starts in 2 minutes!!!"

We thought it started at 7:30. It started at 7:15. Whoops.

We made it just in the nick of time to our seats, and proceeded to enjoy the Royal Shakespeare Company performing Henry V.

The Swan Theatre

Probably shouldn't have taken a picture of the set, but check out that throne

Yay!

 This is the first time I've seen a Shakespeare history play. It took me a while to understand what was going on, exactly, but once I got it figured out, I really enjoyed it! I loved the actor that played Henry, and also greatly enjoyed the man cast as the Chorus (he was in Star Wars, by the way! Saw in the programme).

Word of advice- when you see Shakespeare's history plays, see them after you've read them. When you read them, start at the beginning. It goes: King John, Richard II, Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2, Henry V, Henry VI part 1, Henry VI part 2, Henry VI part 3, Richard III, then Henry VIII.

Henry V has some beautiful speeches in it. The one that we've been quoting the most was the one that we worked on briefly in our Shakespeare class. It's a fantastic, rousing speech at the beginning of Act 3, and part of the first time we see battle in the play.

One thing I really enjoyed about Henry, and this portrayal, was how clearly he was such an innocent man, trying his best to rule the best he could and both be a good king but also protect his honor. He is doing his best, instead of just pompously flailing his kingdom all over the place. It's a battle fought and won.

After the show, we hopped on the bus and it was back to home. And here we are.

Overall, I'm honored, and feeling so blessed for this chance and opportunity. But as I said, even more than I feel honored, I feel grateful. And lucky. So incredibly lucky.

If you ever have the chance to go to Stratford-upon-Avon, I can confirm it is worth it.

Fight on, friends.