Follow the Bard on a holiday with added drama

To celebrate Shakespeare’s ‘birthday’ today, Chris Leadbeater follows in the playwright’s imaginary footsteps, from Verona to Cawdor

It falls to the dour figure of Jaques, a lord given to fits of melancholy, to utter one of the most fabled lines in the annals of Shakespeare. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” he declares – in the comedy As You Like It.

He might just as easily opine that, for the playwright who put these words into his mouth, the whole world was a theatrical canvas – on which to sketch tragedies and traumas, merriment and laughter, romance and heartbreak, history and myth. Or, at least, if not the whole world, then an impressive cross section of it, for a writer toiling in the 17th century.

Shakespeare is rarely defined as anything other than a genius. But one oftoverlooked aspect of his talent was his ability to insert his dramas so persuasively into places he had never experienced. There is no evidence that a man who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, and died there in 1616, ever left the country that still holds him so dear. And yet he painted bright pictures of Italian cities and islands – and of Egypt, Greece, “Turkey” and Denmark – that can scarcely be said to have suffered for his lack of first-hand experience.

Four centuries later, this leaves Shakespeare in the rare position of being a tour guide as well as a theatrical heavyweight. And, of course, he is as relevant as ever. Next Tuesday is the 458th anniversary of his baptism, on April 26 1564. His precise date of birth is unknown, but widely accepted as being today, St George’s Day; a milestone that arrives just in time to witness the great wordsmith’s entry into the realm of ocean cruising (see panel, right). But beyond this, if his plays have touched you – whether in memories of A-level texts, in lyrical performances on stage in Stratford or London, or in cinematic recreations – you can trace the prose on the page to any number of locations in Europe, Africa, the United Kingdom, and even in the Atlantic. Ask not “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” when you can still find Montagues and Capulets – and many other characters – in the streets where their creator dropped them 400 years ago.

Strike a pose: a portrait of Shakespeare by the French artist Louis Coblitz Romeo + Juliet Kiss chase: Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1996 film