Hello, my name is Edwyna, and I am a new Library and Archive Volunteer.  I hope you find this month’s Book Review interesting.  In order to cater for a wide range of tastes, this choice will hopefully be diverse enough in its attempt to inspire new readers.

I Am Shakespeare. A play by Mark Rylance

I am Shakespeare. A play by Mark Rylance

This play examines the authorship debate using a ‘Webcam Daytime Chatroom Show’ setting as its platform.

It presents four alternative candidates as authors, the philosopher, Francis Bacon, the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere and Mary Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke.

Fundamental explanations address each individual claim and dramatic representation is employed as an exploratory debate, within a contemporary context.

  Frank. I know, but Bacon’s got all the education and almost all the life experience that’s in the plays. He’s one of the strongest candidates. He told a friend he was a concealed poet, Barry. Secret.

  Bacon. If you couldn’t keep a secret in my time, you lost your head. We keep much larger secrets than who wrote the plays.

Act 1 scene 9 p41

  Mary. Mr Chorlton, The First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays was dedicated to my sons, the incomparable brethren. I think I can shed some light on this question of authorship, You don’t have any tobacco, do you? Cigarettes?

Act 2 scene 2 p7

Deathly Experiments. A Study of Icons and Emblems of Mortality in Christopher Marlowe’s plays by Clayton G MacKenzie

Deathly Experiments. A Study of Icons and Emblems of Mortality in Christopher Marlowe’s plays by Clayton G MacKenzie

Whilst recognising Marlowe’s intellectual charisma as a successful Elizabethan playwright, the book examines his morbid obsession with mortality within the plays.MacKenzie explores how Marlow uses emblems and icons to coerce the audience into questioning the political and social implications of the time and how these affect their everyday lives.Reporting to the Soldan, the messenger of Act 4, scene 1 of Part One describes Tamburlaine as the universal mower:

         And jetty feathers menace death and hell,

         Without respect of sex, degree or age,

(Part one 4.1. 59-63)

He conceives of Tamburlaine as the Death –dealer who plies his trade amongst young and old, poor and rich, male and female. Here is exactly the thesis of Death in Holbein’s Imagines Mortis, and yet the messenger’s picture is incomplete. Like the messenger, Tamburlaine, may see himself as the universal, irresistible foeman whose will may not be assuaged.

Actaeon becomes a symbol of spiritual ugliness, driven by animal desires and carnal excess, whose annihilation is both inevitable and warranted:

Did Marlowe expect that his audience’s emblematic pre-knowledge might just have turned the image on Faustus himself- morally transforming him into the brutish Actaeon who has “things vnlawfull craue{d}”?  (Whitney 15)

Chapter 6. Fausts’s Contract and the Manipulation of Visual Resonances in Doctor Faustus. P104.

The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Sisters: Gender, Transgression, Adolescence by Jennifer Higginbotham

This series of essays explores how the sex-gender system was established and challenges conceptions of female characters within certain texts. By using the vehicle of girlhood, adolescence and gender transgression, girlhood is demystified by the use of narrative feminist theory.

 ‘The very need to control female behaviour, to insist that the female  Sex enjoins… Modesty’, exposes the fact that women were not naturally modest but that modesty was imposed upon them through social and cultural restraints.

Roaring Girls and Unruly Women: Producing Femininities p62

30  Great Myths About Shakespeare by Laurie Maguire and Emma Smith (John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2013)

30 Great Myths About Shakespeare – Laurie Maguire and Emma Smith

These two authors examine the 30 great myths of the playwright’s scholarship by presenting new evidence and an alternative method of reinterpretation from a personal perspective. By using this format, the reader is then given the opportunity to question whether perceived assumptions are either true or false.

The myth within Shakespeare’s work is deconstructed and the reader is both informed and left permanently engaged.

Edwyna Whittaker
Collections Volunteer

The post May Book Review appeared first on Finding Shakespeare.

Mulberry wood snuff box – STRST: SBT 1935-20

In this blog Emily Millward, Museum Collections Assistant, discusses a mulberry wood snuff box from the early 1800s currently on display in the Birthplace. This object represents early Shakespeare-related tourism and souvenir trade in Stratford upon Avon. Shakespeare had a mulberry tree in his garden at New Place. When this tree was chopped down in the 1700s, local entrepreneurs capitalised on Shakespeare’s name and began to sell ‘genuine mulberry’ souvenirs. This object demonstrates early interest in Shakespeare the man and tells us about what 18th-early 19th century tourists wanted to buy to mark their visit to Stratford.

This box was used as a container of snuff and dates from approximately 1823. It is made from wood (probably mulberry), and the lid is decorated with the shield from Shakespeare’s coat of arms lined in silver gilt.

Snuff commonly refers to a scented, powdered, smokeless tobacco and the process of preparing snuff has changed very little over the centuries. Generally the mixture consists of tobacco leaves, and sometimes stalks, which are broken down into a coarse powder. They are then ground in a mill and finally sieved. In some cases oils and other flavourings (such as rose, cinnamon, and spearmint) are added, and the mixture is stored to allow the flavours to blend.

The practice of inhaling a pinch of snuff dates to as early as the 1490s when the explorer Christopher Columbus first saw it in use. He brought quantities of the powder back to Europe where it later became common in England until the seventeenth century. During the early eighteenth century snuff was considered by many Europeans to have both preventative and curative properties recommended by doctors as a cure for colds, coughs and headaches.

Gradually the taking of snuff became a social activity throughout Europe, particularly at the royal court in France. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries snuff distinguished the elite classes of society from the common populace, the latter of whom generally smoked their tobacco. Snuff, and the manner in which it was taken, became a refinement of aristocracy and snuff boxes were an extension of the owner’s social status.

One of the most avid users of snuff was King George IV, during whose reign our snuff box was made. He was known to have used up to 12 different varieties of snuff a day, to have had a room at Windsor Castle set aside to contain these many mixtures, and to have regularly gifted snuff boxes to foreign representatives – they were often considered to be ‘the ultimate gift’.

Snuff boxes were not only for practical purposes. As our example demonstrates they could be intricately designed and created, depending on the status and wealth of the owner. Throughout Europe snuff boxes were considered a personal and bespoke possession. Many eighteenth-century snuff box lids were decorated with typical subject matter of the period such as allegories and flowers and others were embellished with cameos or a coat of arms. In this case it consists of the detail of the shield crossed with a spear from Shakespeare’s coat of arms, which the playwright was successful in receiving in 1596 after renewing his father’s original claim.

At the peak of its usage snuff taking became commonplace across society, an activity not only reserved for the elite classes. During the nineteenth century the downsides of snuff taking became apparent; in a society where decorum was of the upmost importance for the aristocracy, the act of ladies eating and simultaneously taking snuff was considered somewhat less than desirable and medics began to warn of its overuse. The twentieth-century introduction of filtered cigarettes, which were quickly considered to be more ‘convenient and elegant’ than the powered tobacco, also contributed to the decline of taking snuff.

The post An Early Shakespeare Souvenir – The Mulberry Wood Snuff Box appeared first on Finding Shakespeare.

In recent weeks we’ve found ourselves searching for items from other countries as the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has welcomed the Russian Ambassador (who shared photos of his visit on his website), as well as providing a display of Indian items for the Tagore event and a stack tour for Prof. Schulte Herbrüggen from Germany. It never ceases to amaze me how many exciting items from abroad we find when preparing for these occasions.  Many of these items can only be found in our card catalogues, so readers may not even be aware they exist.  So we set ourselves a challenge!  In a limited period of time, we decided to try and find items in our collections from as many of the Eurovision countries as possible!  Bear in mind, there are 39 countries taking part this year…  Here’s what we found:

1.  Albania

Albania is mentioned on page 341 of Purchas His Pilgrimage, 1614.  This early printed book is an important item in our collections as one of the few possible sources of The Tempest.

2.  Armenia

A pamphlet from 2006 entitled Ethe Shekspire liner [If Shakespeare was around], written by Levan Ivanyan.

3.  Austria

A facsimile of a letter written on 20^th February 1609 by Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria from Graz.  She wrote to her brother, Archduke Ferdinand, mentioning performances of the Merchant of Venice by English players.

4.  Azerbaijan

A wonderful book/album called “Shakespeare on the Azerbaijan stage”, 1964.  This includes playbills and photos.

A playbill and pictures from a 1919 production in Azerbaijan

5.  Belarus

A translation of King Lear date 1974, with an unusual cover.

6.  Belgium

A picture of the Théâtre Royal de Bruxelles in our Picture Collection (searchable in our card catalogue in the Reading Room).

7.  Bulgaria

A pamphlet presented by the author, Vasil Marodiev.  He wrote “Shakespeare in Bulgaria and on the Bulgarian stage” in 1964.

8.  Croatia

Hrvatski Prevoditelji Shakespearea, by Mladen Engelsfeld.  A book at our Shakespeare and foreign countries classmark (63.2).

9.  Cyprus

Demotiko Theatre Leykosias, a 1976 playbill  for Measure for Measure.

10.  Denmark

A postcard of “Hamlets Grav” (Hamlet’s grave!) in Marienlyst, Denmark in our picture collection AND a letter from Hans Christian Andersen in our Autograph Collection.

11.  Estonia

A photo of the President of Estonia meeting the then Director of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Roger Pringle, in March 2000 (in the SBT events folder of our Reading Room photo drawers).

12.  France

A passport from 1757 issued by Louis XV of France

A passport issued in 1757 by Louis XV of France to Andrew Archer, gent., S. Anderson his tutor and their servants, returning to England from Venice through Germany and Flanders. Dated at Versailles and signed `Louis’ . The Seven Years’ War had been declared on 9 June 1756 whilst Andrew Archer was on the Grand Tour.  The passport is valid for 6 months and states that Andrew Archer not to be given any trouble or impediment, but instead to be offered any assistance he might need in his passage through France.  This is part of the Archer family collection, later Barons Archer of Umberslade who had estates principally around Tanworth and Solihull, where they were settled from the 12th century.

13.  Georgia

King Lear on the pre-revolutionary Georgian stage

William Shakespeare on the Georgian Stage wonderful albums of photographs from pre-revolutionary times up to the late 1950s, presented by the Georgian Theatre Society, Georgian tourists and the people’s artist of the USSR, Mr Vas Godziashvili to Levi Fox.

14.  Germany

The wreath from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust arriving at Frankfurt Airport in 1958

We have copies of Goethe’s works (as well as those of other foreign writers and dramatists).  Germany’s national poet was a great admirer of Shakespeare. We exchange birthday wreaths with his birthplace in Frankfurt every year.  Here is a picture of the wreath arriving at Frankfurt Airport in 1958.

15.  Greece

“The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines”, 1612.  North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives provided Shakespeare with the source stories for all of his Roman and Greek plays, including Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Timon of Athens.  First printed in 1579, this edition was printed by Richard Field, another native of Stratford-upon-Avon who had made his name and fortune in London.

16.  Hungary

We have in our collections and around the Shakespeare Centre some fantastic examples of the work of Tibor Reich.  Tibor

Tibor Reich wallhanging outside the Conference Room and the Director’s Office

Reich was a designer and manufacturer of printed and woven textiles who was born in Hungary in 1916.  He ran a successful business, Tibor Limited in Stratford-upon-Avon from the late 1940s until 1978 having fled the rise of Nazism as a student.  As well as designing furnishings and fabrics named after Shakespearean characters for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre for the 1951 Festival of Britain celebrations , he also created bespoke furnishings and souvenirs for the Shakespeare Centre in 1963/4.  We still have these furnishings today and often mention them in our talks to visiting groups.  A skilled photographer, his “Forest of Arden” carpet was based on aerial photographs of woodland.  He also created tapestry wall hangings and panel designs for curtains or display.  Here is his fabric commissioned for the 1964 anniversary celebrations,  featuring scenes from Shakespeare’s plays: Coriolanus greeting Volumnia, Hamlet musing over Yorick’s skull, Romeo dueling with Tybalt, and wooing Juliet on her balcony, and Malvolio displaying his stockings to Olivia. These are depicted against a background of theatrical architecture from Italy and from Britain.

Tibor Reich’s Forest of Arden carpet in our Conference Room

We also have Magyr Shakespeare (a periodical), 1908-1911.

17.  Iceland

A 1939 Complete Works in Icelandic.

18.  Ireland

Items relating to the Dublin Shakespeare Society in our Shakespeare Societies pamphlet collection.

19.  Israel

We have translations of fourteen of the plays and The Sonnets into Hebrew as well as “Strands afar remote:  An Israeli perspective on Shakespeare”, edited by Avraham Oz, 1998.

20.  Italy

An exciting early printed book called Coryat’s Crudities.  Written in 1611, this was the account of Thomas Coryate

Thomas (from Odcombe in Somerset) and a Venetian courtesan!

travelled around Europe, sometimes on foot and hoped to encourage others to enrich their minds with continental travels.  It contains a remarkable number of dedications / commendatory verses and is also notable as Coryate is credited with introducing the use of the fork (for dining) and for using the word ‘umbrella’ for the first time in the English language as a result of his descriptions of the Italians shading themselves from the sun.

21.  Latvia

A 1938 Complete Works presented by the Latvian Legation in 1938.

22.  Lithuania

Photos of Othello, created by V. Ivanov, merited artist of the Lithuanian Republic at the Vilnius Drama Theatre, Lithuania – a production described as being full of charm and tragic force.

 23.  Malta

A copy of The Malta Times from March 31^st 1841.

24.  Norway

Gilbert Henry Chandos Leigh’s (1851-1884) journal of a holiday in Norway (1870s?).  He was the eldest son of William Henry Lord Leigh and this is part of our extensive Stoneleigh Estate Collection.  He was obviously quite a character and had a rather mixed experience!  Each section begins with a summary title and these include:  ”Ye beautiful interpreter”, “Ye uncomfortable beds”, “Ye sunset & ye midges”, “Ye legend of Curly-locks”, “Advance of ye mosquitoes”, “Ye cake weigheth somewhat on us”, “Round about ye mulberry bush” and “Ye nimble damsel”!!  You will have to come and look at this in the Reading Room to find out exactly what he got up to!

An extract from the travel journal

25.  Romania

Romania is included in one of our favourite items, Abraham Ortelius’ Epitome of the Theater of the Worlde, 1603.  This pocket sized atlas has original binding with a blind stamp on the front, as well as some (at times) politically incorrect descriptions of the countries!

26.  Russia

Then Chief Guide, Charles Wilson, introduces a member of the Bolshoi Ballet Company to “Rosemary for remembrance”

We have a wealth of material from Russia, including a playbill from 1894, an hand-

Signatures of the Bolshoi Ballet Company who visited Stratford-upon-Avon in 1956

coloured early printed map featuring camels and the “Golden Granny”, engravings of Paul Scofield as Hamlet, by I. Kadina (created in honour of the 1955 tour to Moscow, the first theatre tour behind the iron curtain), the signatures of the first woman cosmonaut  and the Bolshoi ballet.

27.  Slovenia

A miniature translation of The Sonnets from 1976

 28.  Spain

Cardenio in Spanish from our Spanish friend Dr. Jose Saiz

We were recently given this lovely edition of Cardenio in Spanish by our friend and reader Dr. Jose Saiz.  He sent us this gift for Shakespeare’s birthday!

29.  Sweden

An illustrated Complete Works from 1880-1887 with beautiful binding.

30.  Switzerland

We have a lantern slide of a Swiss person in ‘native dress’ from 1900.

31.  The Netherlands

This is one of the items we talk about in our “Treasures Talks” to visiting groups.  The

The Chesterfield Portrait, thought to be by a Dutch artist

‘Chesterfield Portrait’ of Shakespeare, attributed to Pieter Borsselaer (Peter Borsseler, or Peter Bustler), about 1664-1679.  This portrait, possibly by the Dutch painter Pieter Borsselaer (or Peter Borsseler, also Peter Bustler), was once owned by the Earl of Chesterfield. It is perhaps the most Baroque of all paintings of the poet, with its flamboyant and expressive gesture. Shakespeare’s head is clearly modelled on the Chandos Portrait (now in the National Portrait Gallery, London), including the characteristic earring. It is one of only three paintings of Shakespeare which can be dated with some certainty to no later than the middle years of the seventeenth century. The others are the Chandos Portrait and the Soest Portrait (the latter also in the collections of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust).  Recent talks have seen speculation as to the meaning of his hand gesture.  Do you know what this signifies?

32.  Ukraine

We have production materials  (prompt book, reviews, production records and photos) as well as a text of this Ukrainian play, staged at The Courtyard in 2009.

33.  UK

Where to start?  We thought of choosing Queen Elizabeth I’s signature, or indeed that of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, but perhaps our UK choice really has to be Shakespeare and his Birthplace, without which none of the other items would be here.  Not only the Shakespeare and performance-related items, but also the local history and estate collections.  The Birthplace Trust pre-dates the creation of County Record Offices and it is perhaps this fact and the Shakespeare connection that we have to thank for our extensive Local Collections, stretching around 400 years either side of Shakespeare’s life.

Whilst Eurovision may, for most of us, be something to enjoy ironically, it was doubtless thought up in the post-war era in the interests of uniting Europe and bringing countries together.  As countries drop out and we giggle at some of the weird and wonderful entries, it may be questionable how much it achieves this aim, but I think we’d all agree that one subject that does unite and interest people around Europe and beyond is Shakespeare.  Many of the items featured in this blog were given by the representatives of other countries to celebrate the quatercentenary of Shakespeare’s birth and the opening of the Shakespeare Centre.  As we head towards 2014, it would be nice to think that this next anniversary will bring a similar amount of international co-operation and celebration. The constraints of time and space, as well as political changes with independent states emerging from the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, mean that we haven’t quite managed all 39 countries, but maybe in a few years time we’ll be able to proudly show off items from even more countries!  

In the meantime, we’d like to know which of these items you’d give “Dix points”.  Each country is worthy of its own blog, and if enough people are interested, we’ll try to find out more about the items we have for the “Winning country”.

Enjoy Eurovision….!

The post Tales from the Reading Room – Episode 35 appeared first on Finding Shakespeare.

Textiles, whether everyday clothes or theatre costume, are at risk of attack from a variety of sources. Light, insect and animal pests, fluctuating levels of temperature and relative humidity – these are just some of the threats that give curators sleepless nights!

Insect damage to wool backing of belt worn by Richard Burton as ‘Henry V’ in the 1951 Stratford production.

One of the key tasks for the ‘Shakespeare-by-Design’ project team is to assess the condition of the RSC’s costume collection, identify specific issues, and recommend how to address them so that the collection survives in good shape for the future.  Actions may range from making new padded hangers to support garments which hang in wardrobes, to identifying key items in need of specialist conservation.

So far (fingers crossed!), we’ve found little evidence of insect damage – Richard Burton’s belt, shown in the image at the top of this blog, is a relatively rare example.  Pests like moth and carpet beetle prefer organic material such as wool, fur and feather, and much of the collection is made from man-made fibres.

However, modern materials bring problems of their own. Actors playing Richard III have often been padded out with body suits that help to create the character’s shape.

Robyn Greenwood with padded body suit, worn by Alan Howard as ‘Richard III’ in the RSC’s 1980 production. This foam is currently stable!

Unfortunately the foam used to create Anthony Sher’s ‘hump’ in the RSC’s 1984 production has degraded into crumbs and dust. There is nothing we can do about this – the foam is self-destructing!

Anthony Sher as ‘Richard III’, with foam ‘hump’ worn beneath black tunic. © Joe Cock’s Studio Collection.
Copyright Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Degrading foam seeping out from silk fabric containing ‘hump’

We’ve looked at single garments that incorporate many different materials – fabrics, plastics, adhesives, wood, metal, paint, dye and decorative effects. Over time these can react against each other, and cause the costume to degrade.

The image below shows a detail of a large flag worn as a drape by the character ‘Queen Margaret’, also in the 1984 production of ‘Richard III’.  The thin fabric has been dyed red and blue, and then applied to a stiff backing with an adhesive.  These areas are now stiff and wrinkled; they have become brittle and are beginning to crack. Like the foam, there is very little that can be done to reverse this process.

Detail of drape, showing wrinkled surface of fabric and distortion of colour caused by adhesive.

Theatre costume is made for its moment on the stage, and not for posterity. This sets up interesting challenges for how best to preserve these wonderful garments for future use and access!

Maggie Wood and Robyn Greenwood
‘Shakespeare by Design’ Team

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An Elizabethan earthenware money pot from the collections of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

My object this week will be instantly recognisable to many of you: its large, bulbous body, tapering top with distinctive ‘knob’ detail, along with the slit in its side, indicate its use as a money box. This particular example, a ceramic southern borderware pot with a green glaze, dates from between 1550 – 1650, and can be seen on display as part of the exhibition leading to Shakespeare’s Birthplace.

One of the distinctive features of this form of money box is the fact that it is entirely sealed: there is no opening which would allow for the removal of the money stored within. In order to retrieve the contents, the jar has to be smashed. And this peculiarity of its function points to its use, which is connected with Shakespeare and his life in the metropolis: boxes of this sort would have been used to collect money as people paid to see the latest play and as such played an important role in the commercial world of London’s first theatres. (In fact, it is thought that the office in which these boxes would have been stored is where our term ‘box office’ originates, although there is some disagreement on this). People called ‘gatherers’ holding these boxes would have been stationed at entrance and access points around the theatre and theatregoers would pay a penny on entry to stand and see the play as a ‘groundling’, or they could pay further pennies as they moved up into the galleries, if they decided to sit. Once full, the jars would have been smashed to retrieve the takings. Ben Jonson makes reference to the practice of paying to go to the theatre in his play of 1614, Bartholomew Fayre:

It is further agreed that every person here, have his or their free-will of censure … it shall be lawful for any man to judge his six pen’orth, his twelve pen’orth, so to his eighteen pence, two shillings,
half a crown, to the value of his place: Provided always his place get not above his wit … if he
drop but sixpence at the door, and will censure a crown’s worth, it is thought there is no conscience, or justice in that. (Induction, 75 – 85)

It is clear that these money boxes were not intended to be durable, financially valuable objects in themselves, but instead were used because they were sturdy, portable and cheap. This made them ideally suited for the purpose of collecting (and holding) large quantities of cash in a short amount of time. As a result of their relatively brief lives and destructive ends, therefore, survivals of complete examples are rare. Museum of London Archaeology (MoLA) excavated the site of The Rose theatre in Bankside in 1988 and found many pieces of these pots, most notably their distinctive finials, while further examples were found during excavations of The Theatre in 2010. Recent excavations by MoLA at the site of The Curtain in Shoreditch have yet to yield any remnants of money boxes, although it is expected that these will appear as work continues. The featured example from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, while it may look complete, is in fact not entirely so: it has a hole in the base, which was probably made by an owner retrieving its contents – luckily for us this doesn’t impact on the object’s structural integrity.

In recent years this particular form and style of money box has become very popular: modern examples look almost exactly the same as this Elizabethan one, and are often sold decorated as gifts for weddings, christenings and other special occasions. It seems we’ve adapted the practical utility and intended ephemeral nature of these objects to meet our modern sensibilities. Because of this, however, there is some tension around the object and how it should be used. Modern versions of these money boxes are still manufactured fully-sealed, and come with instructions stating that the jar should be smashed when full, but might there not be a sense of unease or guilt around destroying an object given as a wedding or birthday gift? It would be interesting to hear if any of you own money boxes of this kind, and whether you intend to use it and break it as Shakespeare and his fellow entrepreneurs did, or whether it will remain empty and intact, as a reminder of a special occasion.

The post Shakespeare’s World in 100 objects: Number 76, a Money Pot appeared first on Finding Shakespeare.

Where better to begin this series, on the week of William Shakespeare’s Birthday, than with a look at the Holy Trinity Parish Register 1558 – 1652. On this very day in 1564 Shakespeare was baptised…

Holy Trinity Church , where William Shakespeare was baptised and buried.

The Parish Register is of enormous significance as in one book it contains the baptism and burial of William Shakespeare, as well as records for his children. Bound in brown leather with a brass Tudor Rose on each corner, on the front of the register is the date, 1600. This date refers to when the register itself was physically created, however, many of the entries pre-date it. It was decided that parish registers should be kept in 1538, from this date they were kept on paper. In 1598 there was a decree that paper registers should be copied out onto parchment as it was more durable, so all entries since the beginning of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign in 1558 were copied up and the original paper registers were discarded. Because of this, early pages in each section of the register are very neat and all in the handwriting of the copyist, whereas after 15^th September 1600 the copying ended and entries were made by the parish official at the time. All of the entries relating to Shakespeare in the parish register are marked with “X”, there are 3 next to his baptism! At some point, possibly when the register was on display in the church, someone marked all of these entries. It is obviously not something we would do now, but it does make the relevant entries easier to find!

The baptism entry for William Shakespeare

William’s baptism is written in Latin, “Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere” (William son of John Shakespeare). Registers of the 16^th and 17^th centuries were often written in Latin, they could be in Latin or English at this time and Shakespeare’s burial is recorded in English, “Will Shakespeare. Gent”.  After 1733 the use of Latin in registers was forbidden. The exact day of Shakespeare’s birth has always been a matter of speculation but it is celebrated on the 23^rd April each year which is based on the entry of his baptism in the Parish Register on 26^th April 1564. Children would usually need to be baptised before the next Sunday, the 26^th was on a Wednesday so his birth could not have been earlier than Sunday 23^rd. If you look at the year of Shakespeare’s birth in the burial register it becomes clear how lucky it was that Shakespeare survived. Written in the summer of 1564 are the words “hic incepit pestis” (here began the plague) the number of burials chillingly accelerate at this time, this phrase was added later to explain the growth in burials. More than 200 people died in the town at the time which was roughly 1/6^th of the population. Shakespeare’s burial entry is the original record and is not in the hand of the copyist, it is most likely that the man who wrote the entry knew Shakespeare himself. The fact that he is recorded with the word “gent” next to his name signifies his social standing. The register also includes the baptism of Shakespeare’s children, Susanna (26 May 1583) the twins, Hamnet and Judith (2^nd February 1585) and Hamnet’s burial (11^th August 1596). The register came to be looked after by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1966, to be kept in an environmentally controlled strong room on behalf of the church.

Burial entry for William Shakespeare

How can parish registers help with family history research?

Parish registers can be an invaluable source for people who are searching for their own family history. Church of England parish registers are the prime source of information for genealogists particularly between 1538 and 1837 but they also remain useful sources after this date as although this is the point that civil registration was introduced, many births were omitted from the system until 1875. From 1598 copies of entries from many parish registers were prepared by parish priests and sent to bishops or archdeacons, these copies are known as Bishops’ Transcripts. Catholic priests also kept registers of baptisms, marriages and burials, and from the 17^th century Protestant groups such as the Baptists also developed independently of the Church of England and kept their own registers. There can be so many parishes in a small area that it can be difficult for family historians to know which parish records they need when tracing ancestors. Parish registers are often easier to get hold of than civil registration certificates. Despite the order that parish records should be kept in 1538 many parishes did not start keeping registers until some years later. Many early registers did not survive and there are some gaps in many registers particularly around the period of the Civil War. Parish registers contain the names of people, the dates when they were baptised, married or buried, and the names of some of their relatives. A register may also record whether spouses were widows or widowers, as well as the occupation and place of residence of those people marrying, being buried or having their children baptised. After 1754 marriage registers should include the signatures or marks of the spouses or witnesses (who were often the spouses’ parents or other relatives). You may find your ancestor in registers acting as a witness to someone’s wedding.

A baptism entry in early registers usually only records the date and the names of the child and the father. In the 18^th century the mother’s Christian name started appearing on entries. In 1812 baptisms, marriages and burials were required to be printed in separate books. For burials entries only recorded the name of the deceased and the date of the burial. Later registers record the deceased’s age, occupation, abode or even the cause of death (particularly from 1812). If the age of the deceased is recorded in their burial record then this can help in the location of their baptism record. A date of burial may help with the location of the gravestone or the location of a will in probate court records.

Parish Register containing the baptism and burial entries for William Shakespeare

Which parish registers can be accessed in the Reading Room?

In the Reading Room here at the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive it is possible to look at Parish registers for Church of England: Holy Trinity Church, St. James the Great, St. Andrew’s Shottery, St. Peter’s Bishopton (old chapel and rebuilt on new site in 1836) and All Saints Chapel Luddington. Congregational Church: Rother Street Independent Chapel. Methodists: Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Birmingham Road. Roman Catholic: St. Gregory’s, Warwick Road. Baptists: Payton Street Chapel. The churches tend to keep the more recent registers, the latest we have is 1988 but the dates vary for those that we hold. It is worth checking with us to see if we have the register you are looking for. We also hold registers and Bishops’ Transcripts for many other local parishes; some can be viewed on microfilm, microfiche, hand copied manuscripts or printed copies published by the Parish Register Society.

For more information on Shakespeare’s entries in the parish register and the use of parish registers in general the following books are useful and also available in the Reading Room:

Bearman, Robert, (1994), Shakespeare in the Stratford Records, Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd.

Schoenbaum, S., (1975), William Shakespeare A Documentary Life, Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

Savage, Richard (transcriber), (1897), The Registers of Stratford-on-Avon In the County of Warwick, London: Parish Register Society

Herber, Mark D., (2000), Ancestral Trails. London: Sutton Publishing Limited.

Adolph, Anthony, (2008), Tracing Your Family History, London: Collins.

For Shakespeare biography:

Wells, Stanley, (2002), Shakespeare For All Time, London:  Macmillan.

Greenblatt, Stephen (2004), Will in the World:  How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, London:  Jonathan Cape.

Honan, Park (1998), Shakespeare:  A Life, Oxford:  Oxford University Press.

(And many more…)

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Halls Croft, Old Town, Stratford-upon-Avon

This week’s ‘object’ is, in fact, a building; Hall’s Croft is a house traditionally associated with William Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna, who married the physician John Hall in 1607.  As a wedding gift, Shakespeare gave his daughter 107 acres of land in Old Stratford – and it is possible that some of that land served as a plot for Hall’s Croft.  Some years after this, in 1612 or 1613, a two-storey house, with a hall and parlour on the ground floor and two over-chambers above, was built.* It still stands today in Old Town and is open to visitors as one of the properties managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

The early seventeenth century was a time of urban and rural transformation in England.  New houses were erected and the medieval homes of past generations were modified.  More land was available as a result of the Crown’s seizure of Church property after the Reformation and, together with the fixing of rents, increased consumption of goods and rising prosperity, there was a dramatic change in the living standards and material conditions for people even of relatively moderate means. Historians refer to this architectural and cultural shift as the ‘great rebuilding’ of England and some authors have argued that it was during this period that something resembling our modern experience of privacy emerged.

The internal layout of Hall’s Croft is representative of some of the shifts in practice that occurred during this rebuilding.  Medieval homes had open communal halls at their core; in larger houses this was where servants slept but also doubled as the main reception room for feasting and entertainment.  At Palmer’s Farm in Wilmcote, a fire burned in the centre of the hall with smoke rising up to the roof space and escaping through the thatch.  In 1581 however, Adam Palmer modified his hall, adding another floor, fireplaces and chimneys; new technologies and new spaces in which to live.  The building at Hall’s Croft dating to 1612/13 was built from scratch, albeit next door to an older dwelling, but as a new build it was arranged in the new style; an equally sized hall and parlour, with chambers on the first floor.

The hall was a reception room and an opportunity to demonstrate wealth and status.  In other Stratford homes of the middling-sort, inventories reveal a range of furnishings in these rooms, from painted cloths (an alternative to expensive tapestries) table carpets, arm-chairs with carved decorations, to ‘quisshins [cushions] of downey’ (see Jeanne Jones, Stratford-upon-Avon Inventories, 1538-1699, The Dugdale Society, 2002).  Some homes had an adjoining parlour and this could function as a more intimate and comfortable adjunct space.  Parlours are generally understood as withdrawing rooms serving as a retreat from the more open hall and to accommodate smaller companies, but at this level of society they were furnished with a range of household equipment; beds, benches and bibles, cooking utensils to coffers. The Halls may have used their parlour for a range of different activities, but they almost certainly would have socialised with other well-to-do Stratfordians in this room.

The ‘great rebuilding’ may have shifted emphasis away from the medieval hall as the core space and hub of domestic activity, but it did not necessarily create what we would recognise as private or personal spaces. In most urban houses the parlour was still a multi-functional room, accommodating the daily routines of eating, sleeping and domestic production, while also serving as a place of business and social interaction.

* R A Meeson and N W Alcock, Hall’s Croft, Stratford-upon-Avon: an architectural survey and history, report for Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, 1998.

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One hundred years ago, the 359^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s Birthday took place on 23^rd April and Picture of the Month features an image of this event from our local collections of photographs of Stratford-upon Avon. It shows large crowds lining Bridge Street as the flags are unfurled.

By Permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

This is a modern print from  a collection of mainly glass negatives from the premises of Frederick J. Spencer, who managed a chemist shop and photographic business  at 31 High Street between c. 1924 and c. 1959.

The Morning Post’s report of the celebrations appeared the following day, 24^th April 1913; “The event of the day was the unfurling of the National and Empire flags, 52 in number, in Bridge Street….The day has been beautifully fine and the crowd is thought by most to be larger than ever before.” The Morning Post also reported that at a private meeting of the Memorial Theatre Committee at the Library later in the day, Mr. William Calvert on behalf of his mother, Mrs. Charles Calvert, presented to the theatre “two immense albums containing a unique collection of coloured scenes and costumes by the late Mr. Charles Calvert in connection with his famous Shakespearean revivals in Manchester.” These fine volumes are now looked after by the Collections Department at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

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Tercentenary Festival Poster

Shakespeare’s Birthday Weekend and the anniversary of his birth are nearly here again, the next in a long line of celebrations in the town to mark this occasion.  

The earliest evidence of his birthday being celebrated is a poem which appeared in the London Magazine, 24 in 1755, ‘On the annual meeting of some Gentlemen to celebrate SHAKESPEAR’s BIRTHDAY.’  I wonder how they celebrated?

Shakespeare celebrations in Stratford began with Garricks’s Jubilee, originally to be held in 1764, but finally taking place in August of 1769. We are lucky enough to have both archive and museum items relating to the Jubilee, including the mulberry wood and silver gilt medallion presented to Garrick and  a Chinese salt cellar and boxwood ladle used at one of the meals during the three-day celebration.  We often include items and information relating to Garrick’s Jubilee in our talks and welcome readers who are researching it, but today a chance reader request gave us an insight into the next  big celebration, the Tercentenary Festival of 1864.  I was aware we had a souvenir albums relating to this event, but only today had a chance to look inside them!

Souvenir Badges

The Tercentenary Festival had none of the cannon-fire or ringing of bells that announced the Garrick Jubilee, but lasted a week and did include a banquet, a fancy dress ball, a wonderful firework display, an excursion to Charlecote,  a concert, readings and portrait exhibition.  A special pavilion was constructed to improve upon Garrick’s wooden rotunda and provide a venue for theatrical and musical performances.  You can read all about in this digital copy of the programme.

The programme includes a biography of Shakespeare and detailed information about the events taking place.  The fireworks are even listed individually, with exotic-sounding names such as “Peacock’s Plume” rockets, a “Grand display of Bengal lights” and, rather puzzlingly,  ”A mine of saucissons”.  The programme also includes ‘tourist information’ of the day with recommended places of interest and practical details of rail travel and suitable lodgings for those attending.  A special badge and ribbon were created for the event by a Coventry firm.  The badges are made of silk and show Shakespeare’s Birthplace and Holy Trinity Church.  The firm even brought a special loom to the town to provide demonstrations of how these were made.

Seven Ages of Man playing card

Dance card and pencil

Although we have finer surviving examples of the badges in our museum collections, it is fantastic to leaf through the two souvenir albums, turning the pages to discover more and more treasures.  Other gems include a tiny dance card and pencil and a ”Seven Ages of Man” playing card.  There is also a colourful steward’s sash, tickets,correspondence and a wealth of engravings and printed ephemera relating to the festival.

Residents are encouraged to hold their own festivals!

These items provide not only an insight into early celebration of the birthday and pilgrimage to the town, but also into the social history of Stratford at the time.  The Tercentenary did provoke some controversy amongst Stratford residents as this poster, urging them to stage their own festivals, shows!

Wherever you are in the world, we hope you enjoy Shakespeare’s Birthday!

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A late 16th/early 17th century knife and fork set from the collection of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Why do we use cutlery?  It is not self-evident or instinctive – other cultures don’t use it and for the greater part of the medieval and early modern periods cutlery was not used at the table in England and Europe.  Most of us probably feel that eating with our fingers or hands seems unhygienic, yet we eat a variety of food with our hands everyday: chocolate, sandwiches, fruit, cake, crisps, and the list goes on.  In the 1920s the German sociologist Norbert Elias argued that the reason we don’t eat with our hands is not because it’s seen as unhygienic, but because we are conditioned to feel that it is barbaric or uncivilized to put food into the mouth with one’s hand, especially in the company of others.[1]  Elias went on to contend that cutlery, and more specifically the fork, is the thing that civilizes us, separates the eating practices of animals and humans, and transforms the act of eating into the refined ritual of dining.  Thus, I think it’s important to regard forks, knives and spoons as things that extend beyond their practical uses, embodying far more than a means to bring food to the mouth.  Not only do they speak to the central role that eating and food plays in our lives, their forms and materiality signify how past societies regarded the rituals of dining.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust dates this knife and fork set in their collection to the early 1600s.  The two-pronged fork was probably used for eating sweetmeats, such as preserved ginger, marzipan, or candied fruits.  (Another sweetmeat fork was recently excavated from the site of the Rose Theatre in London and appeared as an object in the British Museum’s project Shakespeare’s Restless World. Have a listen to the episode here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g62pm.  The use of forks for this purpose was still a novelty in early seventeenth-century England and was essentially a luxury article of the higher social classes.  While sweetmeat forks were often made of gold and silver, the fork in the Shakespeare Birthplace collection incorporates iridescent ‘bloodstone’, a rare and exotic mineral.  The set could be slid into the accompanying leather sheath, which is stamped with a Tudor rose, making this a personal and transportable cutlery set to be taken with you to dine in public or at another’s home.  For discussion of the meanings of knife sheaths, see Peter Hewitt’s earlier blog on a decorated box wood sheath: http://findingshakespeare.co.uk/shakespeares-world-in-100-objects-number-17-a-knife-sheath

Cutlery was also commonly given as a gift.  In England, a pair of knives was a customary wedding present gifted from grooms to their new bride, while silver Apostle Spoons were given at births and christenings.  In wills, the bequest of cutlery is often recorded alongside its previous ownership, perhaps to enhance the value of the object.  For example, the 1597 will of Thomas Crispe records that he gave his son Samuel two spoons, one of which ‘shalbe the selfe same spone which his godmother gave unto him’, thereby illustrating the material endurance inherent in the bequest but also drawing a connection to family history and lineage.[2]  Thus forks, knives and spoons commemorated essential rites of passage like marriage and birth, but also functioned to extend the memory of close kin, as a perpetual reminder of ancestral heritage.

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