Shakespeare's small, serene hometown

It sits practically in the center of England and there are those that would say it sits at the center of the literary world, thanks to its most famous son.

Stratford is though a quiet little town whose population of around 25,000 people seems to be constantly supplemented by a flow of international tourists.

A statue of Shakespeare sits thoughtfully looking over Stratford upon Avon. (JP/Simon Marcus Gower)

Stratford upon Avon is a fairly typical English market town made exceptional by the fact that it is the birthplace of the literary giant that is William Shakespeare. Indeed the town is so synonymous with the most outstanding playwright in the English language that for miles around road signs tell the traveling public that the town being approached is in fact "Shakespeare's Stratford".

Centuries after his death then, Shakespeare is awarded some sense of ownership of the town and this is fairly well reflected by the way in which his presence seems to pervade throughout the town. The town hall bears his image, enter a bank and his image is watching you. Monuments and statues to him and his characters abound and the Royal Shakespeare Company, which produces his plays here, in London and around the world, is a major resident.

The River Avon runs through the town giving it part of its name. (JP/Simon Marcus Gower)

But the town's name does include that "upon Avon" and this is due to the fact that it sits upon the Avon River. This river creates scenic vistas as it winds its way through the center of the town. Graceful swans and an abundance of ducks gather round to receive bread thrown to them by local residents and tourists alike.

Docked in a small waterway are long canal boats that have been converted to accommodate the tourist trade. People can dine in restaurants that have been set up in the long boats or shop for paintings or handicrafts in waterborne boat galleries.

Also sitting by the side of the river is the large Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) theatre. Currently, however this (perhaps the largest single building in the town) is undergoing a massive refurbishment, not to say near-total rebuilding. This means the building is not operative for now and the RSC continues its performances elsewhere in the town and in London. The "renewed" theatre is set to open in 2010.

Outstanding amongst monuments and statues to Shakespeare in the town is the Gower Memorial. This impressive monument incorporates a representation of Shakespeare himself surrounded by four of his most outstanding characters - Prince Hal, Lady Macbeth, Hamlet and Falstaff. These five fingers are finely executed in bronze and combine to make up the monument that has something of a Shakespearian tale of intrigue behind it.

The Gower Memorial interestingly commemorates Shakespeare and some of his most memorable characters.(JP/Simon Marcus Gower)

The monument is named the Gower Memorial after the sculptor Ronald Gower who conceived of it and sculpted the figures. In his time Gower was something of a renown sculptor who its seems held a love of both the theatre and the works of Shakespeare. To register his appreciation of Shakespeare, he put forward the idea of raising a memorial in Stratford in the year 1877.

At that time, however, the town's attention was rather predisposed on the development of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and was not particularly enthused by Gower's plan. This though did not perturb Gower who continued to work on the models for the statues.

In 1880 Gower exhibited the Prince Hal figure in Paris, and two years later he exhibited (again in Paris) a plaster model of his proposal for the complete memorial. Still, however, there was no home for this memorial in Stratford, but Gower worked on and in 1886 exhibited the bronze figure of Lady Macbeth.

Then, in 1887, controversy seemed to come to the rescue of the memorial project. An American by the name of Ignatius Donnelly questioned the authorship of the Shakespeare plays and claimed that the true author of much of the work was in fact Bacon. This controversy it seems stimulated a response from Stratford.

The people of the town felt that the raising of the memorial would represent something of a rebuttal of the Donnelly claim and reflect favorably on the Shakespearian legacy and so too the town of Stratford. Consequently, the memorial was erected in 1888 and received its official unveiling on Oct. 10, 1888.

Somewhat ironically, the Gower Memorial still stands whilst the theatre that took precedence over it in 1877 burnt down in 1926. As a consequence of the rebuilding of the theatre in 1933, the memorial was moved to its current location and this also led to a change of positioning of the figures.

In particular, the Shakespeare figure was turned around to face upstream of the Avon River. But still, that figure of Shakespeare sits looking rather thoughtfully over his characters and Stratford, his right foot at the very edge of the pedestal on which he sits almost suggesting that at any moment he might choose to get up and walk away.

Elsewhere in the town apparent statues to Shakespeare do in fact walk away. Street performers dress up in costumes that are cleverly colored to resemble stone stand motionless in the street, but may suddenly move and frighten the unsuspecting tourist or child that approaches.

These moving statues, or ghosts as they are sometimes referred to, are in a way also memorials and commemorations of Stratford's most renowned son. Just a short distance away from these street performers is the actual birthplace of Shakespeare. It has a modern visitors' center attached to it, but is a typical timber framed building of its time - rather modest with its gables and small leaded windows.

The place of Shakespeare’s birth attracts tourists from all over the world. (JP/Simon Marcus Gower)

The house that was Shakespeare's birthplace is in many ways representative of both Shakespeare and Stratford. It is a quiet and serene place much like the town in which it stands, and quite small and humble. Shakespeare in his time was certainly well known but would have been relatively humble and certainly be humbled and hardly believe that his plays are now known and performed all around the world.

Shakespeare's humble existence is well represented in Stratford, but so too is his world renown. Taking tea in a tearoom opposite his birthplace one can hear languages from all over the world, and the visitors have come to Stratford because of the language of Shakespeare.

Source : The Jakarta Post