William Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon [antikvár]

SHAKESPEARE and Stratford-upon-Avon Michael St John Parker SHAKESPEARE'S family was deeply rooted in the Stratford country. In fact, it makes far more sense than such things usually do, that the town should be the focus of his cult. It has more in the way of provable associations with the poet, often in solid, tangible form (houses, churches and so on) than anywhere else. It is perfectly evident that Shakespeare's early experiences here colour many aspects of his plays, and inspire innumerable brush-strokes in his work. He probably wrote several plays at his home in the town. And above all, the whole pattern of his career-working in London while supporting his family in Stratford, buying property and investing in trade in the town, and finally retiring to live out his days as a respected and leading citizen of his own community -shows that he remained a Stratford man all his life, in more senses than one. Both his father and mother came from families of yeomen-small but independent property-owning farmers-in the Forest of Arden. This 'forest' covered most of Warwickshire north of the Avon. The word did not mean a continuous woodland, but rather something like the New Forest is today, that is, a wooded countryside, with scattered hamlets and small farms. Arden had in addition a sprinkling of industry, even at this date; early in Shakespeare's lifetime it was described by the antiquary and traveller, William Camden, as "for the most part thick set with woods, and yet not without pastures, cornfields, and sundry mines of iron." There is abundant evidence that this background was a constant reality to Shakespeare, throughout his life. To take only two of the most obvious examples from his plays-As You Like It is partly set in the Forest of Arden, and we may detect Shakespeare's own feelings in the words of the Duke: "And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything." Similarly, although A Midsummer Night's Dream is nominally set in a wood near Athens, its magic is entirely English. "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows." The forest pursuit of hunting crops up again and again in the plays, and Shakespeare was, as a young man at least, evidently a keen follower of the chase. It is interesting, though, to notice that like a true countryman he found little difficulty in reconciling a love of hunting with a balanced sympathy for the quarry, so that he could write of "... the poor frightened deer, that stands at gaze, Wildly determining which way to fly." As early as the 17th century we find the famous legend that on one occasion his enthusiasm carried him away, so that he was caught poaching deer in the park of Sir Thomas Lucy, at Charlecote, near Stratford. A good deal of doubt has been thrown on this legend recently-there is no solid documentary evidence in its favour, and, on the contrary, it has been proved that the park at Charlecote had not even been enclosed at the time when the event is supposed to have taken place. Something of the sort may well have happened, nonetheless. There seems to be a hint of personal experience in "What, has thou not full often struck a doe, And borne her cleanly by the keeper's nose?" The house at Charlecote still stands, not very altered from the appearance Shakespeare would have seen; and "the renowned ancient family of the Lucy's", as Camden called them, are still there, too. If the forest was the background of Shakespeare's early life, however, the immediate setting was the town of Stratford. His father, John, had moved from his home parish of Snitterfield early in life, and was already a householder of Stratford by 1552, when he was fined for making a dungheap in the street-something which sounds a lot worse now than it would have done then. In 15 57, John married a girl from nearby Aston Cantlow, called Mary Arden-the family name was a fairly common one in those parts. The Stratford of those days, when Shakespeare's parents set up their home, was a quiet little place of some 200 houses. It had its own essential part to play in the local economy of Warwickshire, and since the granting of its charter in 1553 had enjoyed the rights and privileges of a corporate borough. To the neighbouring vilages, no doubt, it was something of a capital; but a very sleepy capital, by our standards. Standing on the River Avon, it was the meeting point where the forest country of Arden to the north encountered the open arable farmlands of Feldon, south of the river. In fact, it was a focus of routes. Here the roads from the great towns of the west Midlands, Warwick and Worcester, Tewkesbury and Gloucester, converged and met, before running on south and east-over Edgehill to Banbury and Buckingham, or down to Oxford and the Thames, but in either case ultimately to London. For London was a national magnet even then. Not surprisingly, in view of the town's role as a meeting point, its most sigCotuinued on page 6 fM A, iTjL