This was such an exciting day. To finally be seeing the birthplace of Shakespeare! The whole day was about the Bard. First, we toured his home and learned about the history of the house and its restoration.
One of the day's special highlights was finding the Shakespeare Centre Library. The librarians there were very gracious and took the time to answer our questions about the collection (covers all aspects of Shakespeare's life, work and times, works by his contemporaries and Shakespeare sources, and an archive of performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company.)
After also investigating the quaint shops of Stratford, we then toured the home of Shakespeare's daughter Susan and saw the location of his second home (New Place, which is no longer standing but where some of the garden still remains). My group of lady friends and I then visited Trinity Chapel to see the graves of Shakespeare, his wife Anne, his daughter Susan and her husband (an fascinating and well-respected physician of his day).
Facts I learned about Shakespeare: he came from a fairly well-to-do working class family (his father was a glove maker/leathersmith as well as a leader in the community); though the famous bequeathing of his "second-best bed" to his wife sounded like an insult, the second-best bed would have been hers since the first-best bed was customarily reserved for company; his daughter Susan was well-respected and as honored as a woman of her day was allowed to be.
To read more about the Royal Shakespeare Trust, the organization that maintains and supports homes and library we visited today, go to their website at:
http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/main/3/20
A group of us had a good dinner at the well-known pub, The Black Swan/Dirty Duck. The sign at the entrance cleverly shows the Black Swan on the restaurant side but changes to the Dirty Duck on the pub side.
We ended our lovely day by attending the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of MacBeth. This was a unique telling of the telling of a timeless play with a mixture of modern with medieval elements in the costumes and character presentation.
After also investigating the quaint shops of Stratford, we then toured the home of Shakespeare's daughter Susan and saw the location of his second home (New Place, which is no longer standing but where some of the garden still remains). My group of lady friends and I then visited Trinity Chapel to see the graves of Shakespeare, his wife Anne, his daughter Susan and her husband (an fascinating and well-respected physician of his day).
Facts I learned about Shakespeare: he came from a fairly well-to-do working class family (his father was a glove maker/leathersmith as well as a leader in the community); though the famous bequeathing of his "second-best bed" to his wife sounded like an insult, the second-best bed would have been hers since the first-best bed was customarily reserved for company; his daughter Susan was well-respected and as honored as a woman of her day was allowed to be.
To read more about the Royal Shakespeare Trust, the organization that maintains and supports homes and library we visited today, go to their website at:
http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/main/3/20
A group of us had a good dinner at the well-known pub, The Black Swan/Dirty Duck. The sign at the entrance cleverly shows the Black Swan on the restaurant side but changes to the Dirty Duck on the pub side.
We ended our lovely day by attending the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of MacBeth. This was a unique telling of the telling of a timeless play with a mixture of modern with medieval elements in the costumes and character presentation.
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