Not Minding the Gap/The Bard

And by not minding the gap, we left London and went to the birthplace of William Shakespeare, which is in Stratford-Upon-Avon. This was particularly exciting, because I study Shakespeare.

When we went to the birthplace, we were taken to the backyard where there was a garden and a sidewalk leading to the back door.

There were a lot of replicas of what the house would've looked like inside. At the time, I was in the middle of getting materials for Shakespeare's genealogy.

John Shakespeare (William's father) was a glover and sold gloves from out of the house window. There are references to this in some of the Bard's plays, so naturally they had them in the house.

When I got to what I think was William and Gilbert's bedroom, a crew from BBC came in and were going to start filming, so I had to get the hell out of there. Which was fine, because there were was an actor out back performing Puck's monologue from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I've heard that a lot of people who visit Stratford-Upon-Avon don't always visit the Holy Trinity Church. I think it's safe to say that I was nearly running there.

There are a lot of graves out front that are so old that reading some of them is impossible. William's parents and some of his sibling are buried here. 

The graves in the front of the Church were Anne Hathaway (William's wife), The Bard himself, Susanna (his daughter), and Dr. John Hall (Susanna's husband).

There is a bust of the Bard that is just above Anne Hathaway's grave that carries an inscription that reads:

Judicio Pylium, genio Socratum, arte Moronem

Terra tegit, populus moeret, Olympus habet.

Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast?

Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath placed

Within this monument: Shakespeare, with whom

Quick nature doed; whose name doth deck his tomb

Far more than cost; sith all that he had writ

Leaves living art but page to serve his wit.

Obiit ano doi [anno domini] 1616 Aetatis 53. Die 23 Ap.

The epitaph on his grave has a more sinister message, which warns against people who dig people back up;

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.

We also paid a visit to Susanna and Dr. John Hall's house.

I imagine Susanna to be the perfect child out of the three children that Anne and William had.