We complete our Shakespeare story aptly enough in the place that witnessed the beginning and the end; his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.
Act III: Stratford-upon-Avon
“When I was at home I was in a better place”
As You Like It, Act II, Scene IV
I’ve been to this picturesque market town in the county of Warwickshire a few times and there’s no getting away from the Shakespeare connection. Understandably, the man himself is a gift for the tourist board and local businesses, including a ‘Shakespeare in Love’ wedding dress shop, the ‘Food of Love’ cafe, and even a distillery that makes ‘Judith’s Pink Gin’, named after his youngest daughter. Add to this countless street names, several statues, and a lot of souvenirs, they certainly make the most out of their world-famous local son.
You could argue that all this commercialism hints at what’s been called ‘Bardolatry’: an excessive admiration of William Shakespeare. However, with almost three million visitors a year and supporting thousands of jobs, you can’t blame anyone in Stratford for wanting to be a part of the fandom.
It’s showbusiness after all.
It’s not all sound and fury signifying nothing though. Alongside the tea towels and cream teas, you can visit places with genuine* links to the family. His mother Mary Arden’s Farm, and his wife Anne Hathway’s Cottage are now both visitor attractions slightly outside the main town. However, you don’t have to walk far around Stratford’s centre to get an idea of Will’s own life here, when he wasn’t living and working in London‘s theatre district of course.
“Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits”
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I, Scene I
To begin at the beginning, let’s start with Shakespeare’s Birthplace on Henley Street. Once a simpler timber-framed tenement building with a small garden, it was where Will probably first saw the light from yonder window on 23rd April 1564. I say probably, we don’t know the exact date of his birth, only his baptism on the 26th is recorded. Also, his parents John and Mary had property on nearby Greenhill Street, so it’s possible that Will was born there. However, let’s give the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, who run all five family sites, the benefit of the doubt. Certainly, the tourists who flock to have their photo taken outside the front door, or to see a recreation of his Tudor childhood home (no objects directly connected to Shakespeare survive) have no such qualms. They seem genuinely excited to be in the location where William spent much of his young life.
It was here that he got his first education from his mum Mary, but then had the opportunity to go to the local grammar school, which was to have a massive influence on his career.
“Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining-morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school”
As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII
A seven-year-old Will didn’t have to drag himself too far to get to school in the morning, as from his home was only a short walk to the King’s New School, on Church Street. The Tudor curriculum focussed on a Classical education (you were even expected to talk to your classmates in Latin) reading Virgil, Horace, and works by Ovid, a writer who influenced much of William’s later writings (the play within a play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Ovid’s myth of Pyramus and Thisbe).
It wasn’t all declensions and rhetoric though, there was always fun to be had when the building hosted troupes of touring actors. From Bible stories and Greek tragedies to legends of Robin Hood and St George and the Dragon, these plays must have sparked the muse of fire in the young Shakespeare. There is even speculation that Will himself may have tried his hand at acting at this point, and he likely made personal connections that would become useful in his later theatrical career.
His formal education ended at 14 – only the elite posh boys went to university in the 1570s. As the eldest son, he would also be expected to take up a trade to support the family. The Shakespeare’s fortunes were mixed in these early years; underhand wool deals, bad debt and accusations of money lending plagued the household. The farmlands given to Mary had to be sold off – I imagine she was furious about losing her inheritance and the stress on the family (and for Will to get a ‘proper job’) must have been immense.
“It is a wise father that knows his own child”.
The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene II
From 1582, the 18-year-old Will also acquired the new responsibility of being a husband to wife Anne and father to baby Suzanna. Luckily for English literature, the trade he ended up choosing was the precarious life of an actor/playwright/poet/theatre manager in London. Down to substantial talent and probably a bit of luck, it turned out to be a roaring success, and in 1597, he could buy a fancy brick house for the family: New Place.
Bought from the Clopton family, the house passed from William to daughter Suzanna, then to her daughter Elizabeth. When it was sold back to the Cloptons, in 1702 they committed what would now be described as ‘heritage vandalism’: demolishing the house and replacing it with a more modern one.
However, even 250 years ago, Shakespeare tourism was indeed a thing. So much so, that in 1759 the owner Reverend Francis Gastrell was so sick of superfans disturbing him, that he cut down a mulberry tree allegedly planted by William himself and demolished the house.
The enraged citizens of Stratford basically ran him out of town. Good for them.
Recent archaeological investigations have shed light on New Place before its destruction, prompting extensive scholarly work to interpret the site’s history. Today, a beautiful Tudor knot garden occupies the space, featuring fruit trees and a kitchen garden that once provided essential plants for both household and medicinal needs.
While New Place is often associated with William Shakespeare, the site was primarily inhabited by the women of his family. His mother, Mary, wife, Anne, and daughters, Susanna and Judith, were the main residents. They managed the household and navigated William’s frequent absences due to his successful career as a theater impresario in London. With son Hamnet passing away at age 11 in 1596, and father John dying in 1601, this was a mainly female space until William’s retirement around 1613.
The house would pass to Suzanna, and Shakespeare’s relationship with his eldest daughter is a fascinating one. Some of his last plays (Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest) all feature strained father-daughter bonds. You wonder what conversations happened in these last years of his life, spent in New Place.
“Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.”
Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene I
William Shakespeare died at New Place in 1616, aged 52 and was buried on the 25th April. It’s assumed that he died on the 23rd, his own birthday, which makes it easier to remember.
He was buried where he was baptised, in the medieval church of Holy Trinity. The grave itself is fairly simple, a stone slab in front of the altar, which was fairly unusual. Most people were interred in the graveyard outside, but Shakespeare paid £440 (a huge sum, ten times what he paid for New Place) for the income and rights of a tithe** that gave him and the family the opportunity to be buried in this prime spot.
Shakespeare’s grave is famous for having a curse as an epitaph, no doubt wrote by the man himself. So carved into the gravestone is this warning:
Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
He may have been genuinely worried that his fame could lead to ‘relic hunting’: someone digging up his bones and selling them as souvenirs. And you think tourism is bad today…
William lies alongside wife Anne, daughter Suzanna, son-in-law John Hall (a Puritan doctor) and Thomas Nash, his grandson-in-law. His twins Judith and Hamnet were buried in the graveyard. Their graves are now lost and it’s not certain why they weren’t next to their parents.
Watching over the family from the wall to the left of the altar is a painted alabaster bust of Shakespeare. With its receding hairline, goatee, authentic quill, and parchment, it’s an instantly recognizable image. Created just a few years after his death, it’s also probably a good likeness—perhaps even commissioned by Shakespeare himself.
Shakespeare played many roles in his life: son, brother, husband, father, landowner, theatre manager, and actor. However, the inscription beneath the monument asks the reader to remember, above all, he was a writer:
‘all that he hath writ, leaves living art but page to serve his wit.’
The youthful connections to Lancashire, the fame in London and the bitter-sweet family life in Stratford – all may be true, but it’s the words that remain.
*I have to add the historian’s disclaimer that there has been much ‘restoration’ work in the past 200 years to make all these places look more ‘authentic’. The original versions probably looked very different, so bear that in mind!
** Tithes were the right to collect 10% of the produce grown by the local people. This used to go to the church, but after the Reformation, lay people could purchase these rights. The money made from selling the excess produce would have provided a nice income for the Shakespeare family.
Leave a Reply