BY SHAKESPEARE’S AVON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 192, 15 August 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

BY SHAKESPEARE’S AVON

MEMORIES OF A VISIT (By T.C.L.) The programme arranged for the Imperial Press delegates included, very appropriately, a visit to Stratford-on-Avon, the birth and resting place of England’s immortal bard, William Shakespeare. The party had been to Birmingham, a city throbbing with industrial life, with its accompanying ugliness and evidence of squalor and sordidness, and had gained some insight into the activities of a centre whoso manufactured wares are found in every corner of the globe. A few minutes in the motors and the party were ushered into beautiful rural country, park-like, with clumps of woods dotted here and there, and thatched cottages and farm buildings that haimonised and seemed to form an essential part of the rural scene. Trees lined the lanes and met overhead, forming a green corridor, with beautiful wild flowers, primroses, and cowslips and roses and violets peeping out of hedgerows, and scenting the atmosphere. Every corner opened up a new vista o£ interest and delight. This was Warwickshire, Shakespeare’s country! No wonder the nard loved his countryside and sang its praise in prose and verse. No wonder our fathers and mothers loved to tell us as children of the loveliness and sweetness of the countryside of the land they had left. To them the England that is a garden, must always be, as it is to the visitor to-day, a joyous and fragrant memory. The attractiveness and beauty of the countryside arc reflected in the town of Stratford-on-Avon, much of which has altered little since Shakespeare’s timeIt is still the market town, the rural centre, free from the contamination of industry and commerce. The river Avon meanders through the town, and its green slopes and park-like spaces give it an atmosphere of quietness and restfulness, providing an ideal setting and background for Shakespearian associations. It is not surprising that every year the town attracts thousands of visitors from overseas, mainly from the United States, who do the rounds —the memorial theatre, the art gallery, the church near by in which are buried the remains of the great poet and his wife, Shakespeare’s house, and Anne Hathaway ’s cottage. The Press delegates were received by the lady mayor (Councillor Nancye Justin) in front of the Gower monument to Shakespeare (a statue erected by Lord Ronald Gower), and by Sir Archibald .Flower, chairman of the governors of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and after the usual felicitous speeches, having reference to the immortal poet’s dominating influence on literature through the ages, the party were taken over the foundations of the new memorial theatre. The old theatre, it will be remembered, had been destroyed by fire. On a previous visit I had had the pleasure of going over it, and was relieved to learn that the art gallery adjoining, containing priceless pictures and other Shakespearian treasures, had not suffered by the fire. The site of the memorial theatre is the same as the old one, and alongside the Avon. The building was designed by a woman, Miss Scott, a relative of Sir Gilbert Scott, the genius who designed the great Liverpool Cathedral. The plans contain a clever arrangement permitting of the adjustment of the stage for large or small performances. There was open competition for suitable designs, and much astonishment was shown when it was found that the winner was a young lady. The house in which Shakespeare was born is regarded, of course, as one of. the nation’s shrines. It is built, in the Elizabethan style, slats of oak and a material consisting of compressed fibre and clay, called cob. forming the walls, and inside massive beams carrying the first and second floors. Shakespeare’s birthroom is on the second floor. It is low of stud, with wide, adzed floor boards, and contains several articles of furniture that are declared to be originals. They are a writing desk, a chair, a heavy case or trunk, with the lid richly carved and ornamented. There arc the usual warming pans and a heavy iron kettle, and a bust, of the great bard himself. How Shakespeare’s mother and the rest of the family toiled up the. precipitous stairs is a source of wonder to the visitor. This house, it should be remembered, was one of the best houses in Stratford at the time. It was quite commodious and convenient as houses went in those days, and the roof was of shingles, as it is to this day. Ann Hathaway’s cottage is not far away. The roof is of thatch, which was being renewed at the time of our visit. The lower part of the structure is of stone and brick, with slats of timber to strengthen and support them. Ihe rooms arc small and dingy, the 4 fparlor,” wherein Will and Anne so often repaired and plighted their troth, be ing, of course, the best part of the house. There is a collection of cooking utensils and furniture that arc described as originals. Very little is known of William Shakespeare’s antecedents. His father lived in a village just outside Stratford and married his former landlord s daughter, Mary Arden. He became bailiff and alderman of Stratford, and then fell upon hard times and is said to have been involved in much litigation. William married Anne Hathaway win n only 18 years of age, and went, to London in his twenties. Why he did so is not known. Some say because of his shrewish wife, some because of a poaching escapade. There are stories of his first connection with the stage, one being that he held the horses of the actors as they came to take their parts. Others that he was a servitor to the audience. What is definitely known is that in 1594. nine years after his arrival in London, he was an accredited actor, and on the registry of the Lord Chamberlain; in other words he was ->n«blcred good enough to appear with others in the n’nvs that were one of (he diversions nt the, Rovnl Pa I nc''if those days. From then on he became better known as a playwright, obtained a share in the Blackfriars Theatre, and prospered exceedingly. The youth who slipped quietly away from Stratford was able, 17 years after, to buy near that town an estate of 107 acres, to which he subsequently added 20 acres,

and a 4 ’cottage and garden” in the, borough itself. Sir Sydney Lee thinks that from 1599 Shakespeare's income would not be Jess than £6OO per year, which in terms of our money would be equal to £6OOO a year, at least. He probably returned to Stratford to live m 1613, though he had not then severed all connection with London, for in 1613 he bought a shop and house near the Blackfriar’s Theatre. His term as country gentleman or' solid burgess was brief. -Five years' after his return to Stratford he died.' His eldest daughter Susanna, who mar-i ried John Hall, survived him, and on the death of her only child in 1670,1 Shakespeare’s descendants became extinct. He is buried with his wife in the parish church, within a stone’s throw of the memorial theatre and art I gallery, leaving works of superlative power and beauty that have enriched English literature beyond measure andi influenced more than any other agency the whole course of human thought and culture. It -was Robertson Nicol! who indeed declared “Shakespeare is notan influence in English literature: he is one of its foundations.” And to that affirmation there will be no dissent, j