A visit to the Bard in his hometown
“Ever living” was how the publisher described William Shakespeare, the Swan of Avon, on the title page of his unforgettable sonnets in 1609. “Ever living” echoed in my head as I arrived in Stratfordupon-Avon for the first time and opted not to take an “Othello Taxi.”
Shakespeare was going to be everywhere, I thought. I was not disappointed.
Entering town, I see the Shakespeare Memorial Fountain and Clock Tower — a gift of American newspaper magnate George Childs for Queen Victoria’s 1887 Golden Jubilee — commemorating the Bard with the engraved praise of early American writer Washington Irving, an early Shakespeare tourist: “Ten thousand honours and blessings on the bard who has gilded the dull realities of life with innocent illusions.” Elsewhere: A selfie-savvy streetside setup involving a large painting of the Bard with his face cut out and a Byzantine-style portrait over the doors of a bank.
For some, Stratfordupon-Avon is the holy grail of Shakespeare pilgrimages: the place of his birth, the home of the extraordinary Royal Shakespeare Company and the center of an entire tourist industry designed around the great English poet and dramatist who became a global force of proportions perhaps unimaginable in Shakespeare’s own era.
Stratford-upon-Avon’s Bard-based tourism also makes it a Shakespeare Disneyland with more kitsch than even I imagined. In addition to Othello Taxis, you might take a bus named Lady Capulet or buy, in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust gift shop, Romeo and Juliet bath and shower gel (which I don’t recommend for teenagers). Had there been Lady Macbeth-themed hand sanitizer, I would have grabbed it. I settled for a Shakespeare-shaped rubber duck (“To quack or not to quack”).
Old and new mingle casually in Stratford-upon-Avon. A kebab house peeks out of a Tudor-era structure, as do Starbucks and supermarkets. One day, I lunched on decidedly contemporary fare in the Garrick Inn. Although named for the legendary 18th-century actor David Garrick, it dates to around 1400 and claims to be the oldest inn in town. Visitors can stay and eat in aged and aura-clad buildings (such as the White Swan or the Falcon) with comfortably updated interiors.
Most visit this town to glean what insights they can from the remainders of Shakespeare’s life. You can tour Shakespeare’s Birthplace, the house in which he was raised. You can visit Holy Trinity Church, where he was baptized, married and buried. You can stop by the Edward VI School, where he was likely educated. Those of us in Stratford for a Shakespeare conference were allowed early access to New Place, a Shakespeare-era house next door to the house Shakespeare bought upon retiring to Stratford from the London stage.
With a little more time — or a taxi or rented car — you can make your way to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage or Mary Arden’s Farm, the properties associated, respectively, with his wife and mother. I can’t promise you’ll understand his plays or poems any better, but you will get a nice walk and a little taste of the 16th century.
The River Avon really is one of the draws of Stratford. It winds beautifully through town, offering up many leisurely activities, including a little time for swan-spotting. A peaceful walk along the water is a must, especially in the sometimes-crowdfilled streets, but you also can avail yourself of guided riverboat cruises.
Slightly more trusting souls might cross the not-terribly-wide Avon on England’s last functioning chain ferry, a platform that two hefty ferrymen crank across the river by virtue of an underwater chain. Smaller rowboats are available for rent near the chain ferry. They’re all named for Shakespearean heroines, which is charming until you remember Viola suffered shipwreck, Miranda was stuck on an island and Ophelia drowned. Hold out for the good ship Rosalind.
As a scholar, I sometimes travel the world for Shakespeare. Though the performances of the Royal Shakespeare Company do pass through London and are now often projected to cinemas around the world, there’s nothing like seeing theater in Stratford at the company’s facilities, which boast the Royal Shakespeare Theater and the smaller Swan theater in their huge Waterside facility as well as the Other Space and an outdoor venue called the Dell down the road. If you have time to spare, try to do a backstage tour, but book in advance.
I saw excellent productions of Shakespeare’s lesser-known “Cymbeline,” Ben Jonson’s satirical comedy “The Alchemist” and Christopher Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus.” In the last, the lead actors burn matches on stage at the beginning to determine who would play Faustus, who signs away his soul for knowledge and power, and who would play Mephistopheles, the devil who tempts and guides him to his doom.
The offerings are primarily but not exclusively Shakespearean. This fall, you can catch Shakespeare’s “King Lear” and “The Tempest,” Aphra Behn’s “The Rover,” as well as the world pre- miere of Anders Lustgarten’s “The Seven Acts of Mercy,” which swings between the present-day and the era of the great Baroque painter Caravaggio.
By the time I caught a bus back to London, I was Shakespeare-saturated. But I won’t forget a beautiful final moment in Holy Trinity Church. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the cathedral offered an achingly atmospheric midnight candlelit reading of some of his sonnets, all of which seemed to whisper, “Good night, sweet prince.”