09.00          Guided Tour of Stratford-upon-Avon

10.00          Anne Hathaway’s House

We will visit the house of William Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, who lived at Shottery until the couple married in 1582.  The little Hathaway house is a textbook English country cottage, complete with roses, thatched roof and small leaded windows.  The garden contains all the different types of trees mentioned in his plays.

Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden lived at Wilmcote in a pretty house that has changed little.  Glebe Farm next door, furnished in 19th century style, has displays on Elizabethan farming and country crafts.  Anne Hathaway's Cottage is in Shottery, a hamlet within the parish of Stratford but just over a mile from the town centre.

Today much of the land between the hamlet and town has been built over, but in Shakespeare's day they were two very distinct settlements, separated by open fields. The cottage was the childhood home of Shakespeare's wife, Anne, the daughter of a yeoman farmer, Richard Hathaway.  Richard died in September 1581, bequeathing Ann £6 13s 4d 'atte the day of her maryage': this marriage, to William Shakespeare, took place in November of the following year.  Richard's widow, Joan, lived until 1599.  She seems to have been a second wife: thus there were two sets of children in the household, three (including Anne) by his first wife and at least five by the second. 

The term 'cottage' hardly does justice to the Hathaway family home, which, by the standards of the day, was a substantial residence of a well-to-do yeoman farmer.  It appears to have been built in two stages. The lower part, adjoining the road, has been conclusively dated to the early 1460s and consisted of a cross passage, where the visitor enters today, with a hall to the left and kitchen to the right.  The hall, when originally built, would probably have been open to the roof.  On the first floor, above the cross passage is a space of matching size where the early construction of this part of the house is clearly visible.  The evidence for this is a cruck, a pair of large and matching curved timbers reaching from the ground to the apex of the roof, a characteristic of medieval timber-framed buildings.  On either side are bedchambers, the one to the west created when a floor was inserted into the open hall.  The chimney stack, which runs up through this part of the house, probably dates from the time of this alteration.  Outside, this stack bears a plaque, with the date 1697 and the initials I.H. (for John Hathaway): this would seem rather late for the alterations to the hall and may just record repairs or rebuilding of the exterior stonework.

Early in the seventeenth century, when the premises were owned by Bartholomew Hathaway, Anne's brother, a taller section was added to the house at the orchard end.  This is now divided into three small rooms on the ground floor, with two bedchambers above.

Given the fact that Shakespeare lived here over 400 years ago, from 1564 to 1616, a surprising number of original buildings have survived.  Born on 23 April, 1563 in the house which his father John, a glover and wool-dealer used partly for his business, his birthplace in Henley Street is an early 16th century half-timbered building, the oak timbers cut and transported from the nearby Forest of Arden.  Shakespeare's eldest and favourite daughter Susanna married well, her house, Hall's Croft with its very fine oak Elizabethan furniture and beautiful walled garden, reflected the standing in the town of her husband Dr Hall.  Nash's House in Chapel Street belonged to Shakespeare's granddaughter, Elizabeth Nash, and her husband Thomas.

Beside it stood New Place, bought by Shakespeare in 1597 for his wife and children to live in while he himself was acting in London's Bankside until he retired in 1610, dying in New Place on 23 April 1616. Sadly all you can see of this particular house are the foundations; one Reverend Gastrell demolished the building in 1759, apparently enraged by the large numbers of literary visitors.  But the garden has been planted much as Shakespeare's own orchard and kitchen garden would have been, and includes a delightful knott garden.

The half-timbered building in Henley Street, with its extensive ground to the rear, was bought by Shakespeare's father, John, probably in two stages (in 1556 and 1575): there is good evidence, though, that he was a tenant of one part, if not both, from at least 1552.  This is the house where Shakespeare and his brothers and sisters were born and brought up. 

As originally built, its plan was a simple rectangle, divided into, from north-west to south-east, a parlour with fireplace, an adjoining hall with a massive open hearth, and, beyond a cross passage, an unheated chamber which probably served as John Shakespeare's workshop (he was a glovemaker and wool dealer).  This arrangement was matched on the first floor by three chambers reached by a staircase from the hall, probably where the present stairs are sited.  By tradition, the chamber over the parlour is the birthroom.  Later, a separate single-bay house, now known as Joan Hart's Cottage, was built onto the north-west end of the house, and the present kitchen, with chamber over, added at the rear.

On John Shakespeare's death, the ownership of the premises passed to his son, William.  By that date, Shakespeare was also the owner of New Place, the second largest house in Stratford, and had no need for the Henley Street premises as a home for himself or his family.

Like many market towns, Stratford was built beside a river, which today makes a useful reference point for walking.  A gridiron of streets runs parallel to the river Avon, forming the old centre where most of the buildings associated either directly with the bard or

dating from his time are found.  Built right beside the river is the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, home of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

 

To the South, again standing peacefully beside the river is Holy Trinity Church where the young William was christened on 26 April 1564 by one vicar Bretchgirdle.  And here in April 1616, Shakespeare was buried.  It's a delightful, rather modest last resting place for the man who can claim to be the world's greatest playwright.  Shakespeare's tomb, with a curse on anyone who disturbs it, lies alongside the graves of his wife Anne, his eldest and favourite daughter Susanna, her husband Dr. Hall, and their son-in-law Thomas Nash.

‘The Malcontent’ by John Marston is a tragicomedy.  The true Duke of Genoa has lost his throne to the usurper Pietro.  The Duke returns to court in disguise to expose the corruption and regain his true office.  Resonating with echoes of Shakespeare's ‘Measure for Measure’ and ‘Hamlet’, ‘The Malcontent’ is a fabulous study of courtly intrigue, betrayal and treachery.

In ‘The Malcontent’, Marston outlines an essentially moral, Christian pattern.  Avarice, envy,wrath, lechery, and pride are all sins of the world that several characters in the play allow themselves to be overtaken by.  Pietro, Mendoza, Ferneze, Aurelia, and Maquerelle let fortune control their lives and are doomed for unhappiness.  Pietro, however, taking the protagonist Altofronto's advice, is saved after developing a moral sense and accepting God's will.  Mendoza, learns too late that there is no contentment in earthly things after placing all his hope in fortune and fate.  The element of Providence in the play does not lead the sinners to death but either to spiritual regeneration or to rejection from the new society.’  In this play, Marston creates a plot in which the themes and ideas are morally explicit and comment on the life of the people of the sixteenth century.