What museum is located in the city of Stratford. Panorama of Shakespeare's tombstone. Virtual tour of Shakespeare's tombstone. Attractions, map, photos, videos. What attractions should you see?
The William Shakespeare House Museum is located on Henley Street, where the poet was born. This house is in Tudor style long years was divided into two parts, but has now been reunited. The Swan and the Mermaid's Head pub used to be here, but in 1847 the building was bought by the state, reconstructed and newly furnished. One of the rooms known as the "Bard's Birth Room" may not have been the place where he was actually born. It was chosen at random by the actor David Garrick in 1769. The names of people who became famous in the literary and theatrical world are scratched on the window glass: Thomas Carlyle, Henry Irving, Isaac Watt, Ellen Terry, Walter Scott. The garden around the house is planted with flowers, herbs and trees that are mentioned in the works of Shakespeare.
At the end of Henley Street, turn right onto High Street. Here on the corner stands Judith Shakespeare's house, where the poet's daughter Judith lived and is now a shop. Long before Shakespeare was born, this building was the city prison.
Outside the city council building stands a beautiful monument to Shakespeare, donated to the city in 1769 by David Garrick, who did much to revive the nation's interest in the playwright.
Harvard House, 1596, is also on High Street. (closed from Nov to May). The mother of John Harvard, one of the first American colonists, who bequeathed his property in 1638 to the future Harvard University, was born here.
The High Street merges into Chapel Street, where Nash's house stands, now home to the local history museum. The site was the site of New Place House, where Shakespeare moved in 1610 and where he died in 1616.
Other attractions
In the guild chapel, built in the 13th-15th centuries, a scene is depicted on the wall above the altar doomsday, written shortly before Shakespeare's birth.
Church Street leads into the Old Town, where Halls Croft stands, a house with a projecting upper storey.
Shakespeare's daughter Suzanne lived here with her doctor husband John Hall. The house houses an exhibition of medical instruments of that time.
In the Old Town, above the River Avon, sits the golden-gray Holy Trinity Church. Behind the altar rail lie Shakespeare, his wife, daughter and son-in-law. They may give you an extract from the parish register of the birth and death of the poet. Admire the 19th-century stained glass window, a gift from Shakespeare fans in the United States. Shown here are the seven ages of man from the comedy As You Like It.
From the church, a path leads along the river to the massive red building of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, open since 1932. Here the Royal Shakespeare Company performs the Bard's plays. If you want to get into the city center, turn left onto the bridge behind the theater.
I just ask you to take into account that even though the spirit is torn
up, sails will not replace wings,
at least there are similarities in the aspirations of these two
Shakespeare discovered it even before Newton.
I.A. Brodsky
It is difficult to find in the history of world literature a figure comparable to the figure of Shakespeare. Goethe, Pushkin or Hugo, the pillars of Russian, German and French literature, never tired of admiring Shakespeare’s work and willingly recognized his primacy. The figure of Shakespeare is as legendary as, for example, the figure of Homer, but unlike Homer, Shakespeare is perhaps reliably famous historical character, perhaps Sir does not have such a reputation due to its complete historical accuracy. And it is connected with the huge one. At least in the city of Stratford-upon-Avon they will even show you a record of his baptism and the place of his burial. His life in this town is described and documented in such detail by local residents that, being in Stratford-upon-Avon, it is even awkward to express the idea that he is not a completely historical character, or at least, there are disputes about whether he was or was not. What kind of controversy can there be if his father was the mayor of the town in which Shakespeare was born for several years? If, by the time his son came of age, his affairs were so upset that he was declared bankrupt and Shakespeare married an older woman, most likely for financial reasons? What doubts could there be if he had three legitimate children and a mistress?
The fact that Shakespeare did not bother to publish a single play during his lifetime is quite understandable: his father did not even go to church because he was afraid of being arrested. The search for money pushed Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon to London and forced him to act and write these plays. They paid for the plays, what more? Poems, and he published them, are eternal. History is a strange thing. Edison, answering the question why electricity is needed, modestly said that it would be possible to make funny toys. The great composer I. Kalman, whose name will remain for centuries and will forever be synonymous with operetta, considered himself a failure because of the failure of his operas! It is not possible for us to predict how our word will respond...
His plays were bought by acting troupes, and it was the acting troupes that later published them as owners. How much can we guarantee that the plays have come down to us in the original form in which Shakespeare sold them, and whether Shakespeare sold them at all? Wasn't the name Shakespeare a sign of quality and a guarantee of success with the public, and all literary blacks wrote? These questions will remain unanswered. At the very least, these answers should be sought outside of Stratford-upon-Avon, the place where the great poet was born and died. Here you can quickly find your favorite Shakespeare!
Whoever created Falstaff, whom Queen Elizabeth loved so much, this subtle nature will forever remain in centuries and hearts. Hamlet will remain the most mysterious figure for me - this bloody butcher, who personally killed 10 people during the play, went down in history as a restless and reflective intellectual! Could the remote, small provincial town of Stratford-upon-Avon inspire such varied stories for the son of a bankrupt mayor? Don't forget that this is the very heart of England! The castles of Warwick and Kenivels are history come alive for us, and for Shakespeare these are the neighboring towns at the peak of their glory! Coventry, about which we know that it was bombed by the Nazis and where I make a cab, was the largest in Shakespeare's time shopping center. And in Britain, the province is not a hopeless place, as in Russia, but quite the opposite! this is a refuge for losers who are not smart enough to survive in the provinces. The words “Into the wilderness in Saratov” are not understood here.
Who did the Duke of Southampton patronize and who was in the Lord Chamberlain's troupe? Was it the boy from Stratford-upon-Avon or someone else? Was the noble coat of arms given to his father prophetic (in my opinion, it shows a feather)? We can discuss this for a long time. Shakespeare's poor education and the fact that he borrowed some things from French books that a boy from Stratford-upon-Avon could not read due to ignorance of the language, in general, do not prove anything. They could have retold it, they could have just come up with it all again. Well, millions of such coincidences rather indicate an undiminished interest in the figure of Shakespeare... and this interest, as it turns out, is not counterfeit.
Probably one of the most remarkable testimonies about the role of Shakespeare for the British was left by Wodehouse's memoirs. When he, as a British citizen, was sent to an internment camp by the Nazis who had captured France, he took with him to the camp: “The complete works of Shakespeare, tobacco, pencils, three notebooks, four pipes, a pair of boots, a razor, soap, shirts, socks, underwear, half a pound of tea - and a volume of Tennyson. In the chaos, he forgot his passport at home, which caused him to suffer a lot in the future. At the last moment Ethel appeared and gave him cold lamb ribs and a bar of chocolate.” The list of essentials for a person who goes to a Nazi camp speaks for itself. It is clear that the Nazi camp compared to Stalin's camp resort and Varlam Shalamov left a lot of evidence of this, but still. Without food, a person washed his life, but without Shakespeare, no. In any case, 64 people lived in the same room as Woodhouch, room 309. The role of room 309 in my life is difficult to overestimate and I sympathize with him immensely, including for this.
In the city of Stratford-upon-Avon, one of the most interesting places is the Shakespeare monument, which is decorated with figures of heroes from his plays. Monuments to writers are not a rare thing, but this one is very appropriate and beautiful, which cannot be said, for example, about. Enjoy viewing these photos!
“Isn’t it time for us, friends, to take up our William Shakespeare”?
Personally, I became interested in Shakespeare back in school, when I read the tragedy “Hamlet” outside the program. Then I was surprised to learn from a textbook on medieval literature that the story of Hamlet, as well as Romeo and Juliet, did not belong to William Shakespeare.
In English class I told you that my favorite writer is William Shakespeare. But I was always worried about the question: who is the real author of famous tragedies?
I am not a Shakespeare scholar, although I have written several articles about the brilliant poet. And recently, in order to unravel the mystery of Shakespeare, I visited the homeland of the great playwright - the city of Stratford-upon-Avon.
The cult of Shakespeare flourishes in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is the greatest myth that has been feeding the residents of Stratford and all of England for two hundred years. They even built a Shakespeare theater and a Shakespeare center there. Shakespeare scholars and simply amateurs from all over the world come here.
All Shakespeare scholars are divided into two groups: “Stratfordians” believe that the author is William Shakespeare; “anti-Stratfordians” prove that someone else is hiding under the name of Shakespeare.
Investors and “Stratfordians” foam at the mouth about the genius of their idol, defending the money they invested. One of the apologists said: “even if Shakespeare rises from his grave and admits that he did not write his plays, we still will not believe him.”
In the USSR, studying the mystery of Shakespeare was not encouraged. State ideologists proceeded from the conviction that the “proletarian” could be a genius. The myth about the proletarian writer Mikhail Sholokhov, who wrote the novel “ Quiet Don", akin to the myth of William Shakespeare. I dedicated the article “The Secret of the Quiet Don” to this.
For a long time no one was interested in who William Shakespeare really was. Only 100 years after Shakespeare’s death began to look for manuscripts and documents of the author of the great tragedies. However, there is still no evidence that anyone mistook him for a writer.
According to official biography, William Shakespeare (or rather, Shakespeare) was born on April 23, 1564 in the city of Stratford-upon-Avon (Yorkshire) into a wealthy but not noble family. William's father was a glove maker and wool trader. And although he was illiterate, he was elected as a member of the city council and even as a city judge.
In the parish register there is an entry in Latin about a baptism on April 26, 1564: “Gulielmus, filius Johannes Shaksper.” William was the third child (and first son) of eight children of Mary Arden and her husband John Shakespeare.
The house where Shakespeare was born has survived to this day. In 2001, archaeologists from South Africa carried out excavations in the courtyard of the house and found several fragments of smoking pipes, on which they found traces of marijuana.
The house where Shakespeare died has not survived; now it is an empty place. But people still scour there in search of precious manuscripts. Perhaps this house will soon be restored for tourists.
It is generally accepted that William attended school, although lists of students have not been preserved. We were offered to visit the school of that time for two pounds, but they did not claim that the future great playwright studied here. Lists of students from the end of the 16th century have been preserved. The name William Shakespeare does not appear in them. It is known for certain that Shakespeare never studied at the University.
At the age of 18, young William married the daughter of a successful farmer, Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than him.
We visited Anne Hathaway's house, the only surviving half-timbered house from that era.
At that time, girls under 18 were not allowed to leave home: extra hands were always needed in the household, and in order to get married, a dowry was needed.
Anne Hathaway came from a wealthy family, and Shakespeare loved money.
Anne had good reasons to get married: firstly, she wanted to leave her parents' home and be a free, independent woman; secondly, she did not want to remain an old maid and wanted to have children; in addition, she was already pregnant with William's child.
The wedding took place on November 27, 1582, and six months later their daughter Suzanne was born. In February 1585, twins were born: son Hamlet and daughter Judith.
There is no reliable data on how Shakespeare lived for the next 7-8 years. It is believed that in his youth Shakespeare was a butcher's assistant. The earnings were not enough, and in order to feed his family, William poached on the lands of a local landowner. Sir Thomas Lucy Charlicote was sued for killing a deer. William had no choice but to sneak out of his hometown, leaving his wife and children.
Tradition says that William ran away with a traveling theater troupe. Women of that time did not have documents and they did not play on stage. William took advantage of this and, disguised as a woman, fled from Stratford to London.
He no longer visited his hometown, fearing prosecution, but he regularly sent money to his wife and children.
In London, Shakespeare got a job guarding the horses of wealthy spectators at the theater. At the end of the 80s, he joined the troupe of R. Burbage. Shakespeare was a poor actor; he was sometimes trusted with minor roles, such as the ghost of Hamlet's father.
Since 1595, Shakespeare is mentioned as a co-owner of the Lord Chamberlain's Troupe, and four years later as a co-owner of the Globe Theatre. However, there is no documentary evidence that any of the actors in the Globe Theater troupe considered Shakespeare to be a playwright.
If the playwright Shakespeare was famous, it was in a very narrow circle. It really became popular only in the 19th century, that is, two centuries later. Due to the changing political situation, he began to be extolled as England's No. 1 playwright.
Under the name "William Shakespeare" 37 plays, 154 sonnets, 4 poems were published. Most of the works were written over a period of 24 years from 1589 to 1613. However, there is not a single record that Shakespeare received any literary fees. The owner of the Rose Theater, Philip Henslowe, where Shakespeare's plays were staged, carefully recorded all payments to the authors. But the playwright William Shakespeare was not found in his books. They are not found in the surviving archives of the Globus Theatre.
GLOBUS THEATRE"
The first to doubt Shakespeare's authorship was his contemporary, the English writer Robert Greene. He graduated from university, wrote and staged good plays. Green could not come to terms with the success of an unknown provincial. In 1592, in his pamphlet “For a Penny of Wisdom Bought with a Million of Repentance,” Greene, addressing fellow playwrights, warned them not to trust roguish actors: “...there is among them a crow - an upstart, adorned with our plumage, who with the heart of a tiger in the skin of an actor ... imagines himself to be the only scene-stealer in the country...”
William Shakespeare did not leave behind a single manuscript. He put his signature (and that illegible one) only once - under his will.
Professor Vladimirov installed three signatures and 6 crosses made by Shakespeare's hand.
Boris Pasternak, who translated Shakespeare's works, was convinced that these plays were written by a person connected with the theater with everyday bustle - a hurried one is visible daily work to serve the current repertoire, and hence a lot of errors, typos, and contradictions in the text.
I am a supporter of the “biographical method” in literary criticism, and I believe that a text can only be understood in context historical conditions its creation.
I watched several productions of Shakespeare's plays: “Hamlet” at the Alexandrinsky Theater, “Measure for Measure” at the Lensovet Theater, “Richard III” at the Satyricon Theater by Konstantin Raikin. And everywhere tragedies played out in modern suits with a clear hint of what is happening today.
There is a point of view whose supporters (“anti-Stratfordians”) deny the authorship of Shakespeare (Shakespere) of Stratford and believe that “William Shakespeare” is a pseudonym under which another person or group of persons was hiding. Among the “anti-Stratfordians” were Charles Dickens, John Galsworthy, Bernard Shaw, Vladimir Nabokov, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud and many others.
Colonel Joseph Hart suggested that Shakespeare "purchased or procured by secret" the plays of other authors, which he later "seasoned with obscenity, profanity and filth."
The priest James Wilmot was a passionate admirer of Shakespeare. When Wilmot was commissioned to write a biography of his idol, he unsuccessfully searched for Shakespeare's manuscripts for 15 years. And in 1785, James Wilmot suggested that the real author of the famous tragedies was Francis Bacon.
The Englishwoman Delia Bacon wrote the book “The Philosophy of Shakespeare's Plays Unveiled” in 1857. She was the first to suggest that the real author of Shakespeare's plays was a whole circle of like-minded people led by Francis Bacon, the famous English philosopher, writer, composer and mathematician.
FRANCIS BACON
Francis Bacon led the Rosicrucian Union. The first opuses of the literary work of the Rosicrucian collective were two poems written on the plot of Ovid. One of them is “Venus and Adonis,” which is attributed to Shakespeare.
However, Bacon's dictionary is 8 thousand words, while Shakespeare's dictionary is 20 thousand words!
In 1901, a certain Hemingway commissioned a stylometric study of ten of Shakespeare's contemporaries to determine the authorship of brilliant tragedies. It turned out that none of the ten most famous poets of that time came close to Shakespeare.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Among the 63 candidates for the role of Shakespeare, there are undoubted leaders. In 2008, Marina Litvinova’s book “Shakespeare’s Vindication” was published. The author defends the version that Shakespeare's works were created by two authors - Francis Bacon and Manners, the fifth Earl of Rutland.
There is a version that Shakespeare was actually Italian. Allegedly he was born in Sicily and his name was Michelangelo Crolalanza. Fleeing from the Inquisition, he moved to England and changed his last name.
Scientists have put forward more than fifty versions of who could be hiding under the pseudonym Shakespeare. The fact is that the life of Shakespeare from Stratford contradicts the scale of the work of the brilliant playwright. From Shakespeare's work it follows that he knew French, Italian, Latin, Greek well, was fluent in the history of England and ancient world. In addition, the playwright was well versed in law, diplomacy, music, botany, medicine, military and naval affairs.
However, there is no information that Ulyam received at least some education. There were no books in Shakespeare's house; all family members were illiterate. So far, not a single copy of a play or sonnet written in Shakespeare's hand has been discovered.
One British publication published 10 little-known facts about the author of Hamlet. Lexical dictionary William Shakespeare's works contain 15 thousand different words, while his contemporary English translation King James Bibles - only 5 thousand.
Many experts doubt that the poorly educated son of a craftsman could have such a rich lexicon. Shakespeare never studied at universities or traveled abroad, and had no access to high society.
Modern Englishman with higher education uses no more than 4 thousand words. Shakespeare, as the Oxford Dictionary reports, introduced English language some 3,200 new words—more than his literary contemporaries Bacon, Johnson, and Chapman combined.
BEN JOHNSON
Ben Jonson, an English playwright who left memories of William Shakespeare, said that Shakespeare “had a poor command of Latin and an even worse knowledge of Greek.”
But the texts of Shakespeare's plays prove that the creator of immortal tragedies knew not only Latin, but Italian, and understood Greek. In the play Henry V, an entire scene is written in French.
The plot of Hamlet is taken from the book by the Frenchman Belfort, which was translated into English only a hundred years later. The plots of Othello and The Merchant of Venice are borrowed from Italian collections, which also appeared in English only in the 18th century. The plot of The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Romeo and Juliet) is taken from a Spanish pastoral novel, which had never been published in English before the play appeared.
One of the “trump cards” of supporters of the “Stratfordian” version is the fact of the publication in June 1593 of Shakespeare’s first work (the poem “Venus and Adonis”), on which his name was written. However, Venus and Adonis was not subsequently included in the Grand Folio of 1623. Moreover, the piece of paper with Shakespeare's name was folded into the finished book!
In 1906, Count Leo Tolstoy (whose vocabulary is half that of Shakespeare) published an essay “On Shakespeare and Drama,” in which he was very critical of the work of the English playwright.
“...Shakespeare cannot be recognized not only as a great, brilliant writer, but even as the most mediocre writer... Every person of our time, if he were not under the impression that this drama is the height of perfection, would only have to read it to the end, if only he had enough patience for this to make sure that it was not only not the height of perfection, but a VERY BAD, CLOSELY composed work, which... among us cannot cause anything but disgust....”
The famous American historian and writer Paul Straits claims that the great playwright William Shakespeare is actually Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. He wrote under the pseudonym Shakespeare and was the illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth.
EDWARD DE VERE EARL OF OXFORD
The director of the film “Anonymous” Roland Emmerich adheres to the same version. According to Roland Emmerich, Shakespeare is Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. In the film Anonymous, the Earl of Oxford invites the famous Elizabethan playwright Ben Jones to stage his plays under his name. “In my circle they don’t write plays,” explains the count.
The film Anonymous was called by critics "a mockery of British history and a brazen insult to the imagination of the audience." However, like the Hollywood film “Shakespeare in Love”, the script of which is also based on myth.
It is documented about Edward de Vere that he traveled a lot and was in Italy and Greece. In addition, Edward de Vere participated in the life of the royal court, while the Stratford actor William Shakespeare could not know the structure of court life.
The weak link in the Oxfordians' argument is that after the death of the Earl of Oxford, eleven more plays by Shakespeare appeared. The Count had no reason to hide, because at one time he was a very famous poet, and not only wrote, but also published.
In June 2004, American scholar Robin Williams stated that Shakespeare was actually a woman, namely the Oxford Countess Mary of Pembroke (1561-1621). According to the scientist, the countess composed magnificent literary works, but could not openly write for the theater, which in those days was considered immoral in England. Therefore, she decided to write plays under the pseudonym Shakespeare.
MARY PEMBROKE
At the end of the last century, a group of enthusiasts decided to put forward Nobel Prize Ilya Gililov, who published the study “The Play of William Shakespeare, or the Mystery of the Great Phoenix.”
Ilya Gililov argued that all the plays were actually written by Roger Manners, Earl of Rutland, who was assisted by his wife Elizabeth Sidney (daughter of the poet Philip Sidney).
PHILIP SIDNEY
Rutland's marriage to Elizabeth Sidney was platonic (the Earl was rumored to have syphilis). In fact, the plays were created by a literary circle: the Earl of Rutland, his wife Elizabeth Sidney and her aunt Shari Boodrock.
The Earl of Rutland was educated at Oxford and Cambridge and studied at the University of Padua in Italy. He traveled throughout Europe, took part in military campaigns led by Essex, and served as ambassador to Denmark.
Rutland visited Elsinore Castle twice in 1599 and 1603. After the second visit, the description of Elsinore Castle in the play Hamlet became more precise.
The names of the two courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the play Hamlet are not fictitious, but are real students with whom Rutland knew. Rutland was both a ship captain and a courtier to Queen Elizabeth I.
EARL OF RUTLAND
After the Earl of Rutland died at the age of 35, his wife Elizabeth Sidney, according to their agreement, committed suicide. Then, in 1613, Shakespeare's works stopped appearing.
According to Ilya Gililov, the Rutland couple was the heart of a literary circle, which included the famous Mary Sidney, Ben Jonson and other poets. They happily engaged in hoaxes, which included the invention of the “playwright Shakespeare.”
Shakespeare's gravestone in his hometown The Stratford-upon-Avon was commissioned by the Rutlands and is very similar to Rutland's own tombstone. ABOUT noble coat of arms Rutland personally worked for Shakespeare. There is a receipt that Shakespeare received 44 shillings in gold from the Rutlands, allegedly for silence.
During Shakespeare's lifetime and for several years after his death, no one ever called him a poet or playwright.
Contrary to the customs of Shakespeare's time, no one in all of England responded with a single word to Shakespeare's death.
Performances of Shakespeare's plays took place in Oxford and Cambridge, while according to the rules, only works by their graduates could be staged within the walls of these ancient universities.
A Cambridge graduate was the famous English playwright of the time, Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593). His portrait was discovered in the mid-twentieth century during the reconstruction of Corpus Christi College at the University of Cambridge.
CHRISTOPHER MARLO
I visited Cambridge in order to find out the truth - who Shakespeare was.
It turned out that Christopher Marlowe studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University from March 1581 to 1587. He studied theology, rhetoric, philosophy, and tried his hand at drama. After three years of study, Marlo received a bachelor's degree, but decided to continue his studies, wanting to become a master.
However, he began to leave Cambridge often and for long periods of time. There were rumors that Marlowe was connected with a seminary in the French city of Reims, where English converts to Catholicism were being trained for espionage and conspiratorial activities against Queen Elizabeth. On this basis, under plausible pretext, Marlowe was denied a master's degree. But when the university authorities received a letter from Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council, which stated that Marlowe served the interests of the queen, of course, Christopher Marlowe was immediately awarded a master's degree, and in absentia.
How did Christopher Marlowe serve the interests of Queen Elizabeth?
While studying, Christopher Marlowe was recruited by English intelligence, headed by Sir Francis Walsingham. It has been proven that, on assignments from British intelligence, Marlowe repeatedly traveled abroad, carrying out secret assignments. There was nothing unusual about this. Both then and now, intelligence services recruit talented students from universities in all countries to work as secret agents and informants. They tried to recruit me too...
“Truth has no price. Everything else can be bought!
In 1955, American scholar Calvin Hoffman published The Murder of the Man Who Was Shakespeare. In it, he proves that the real creator of immortal tragedies is the famous playwright of the Elizabethan era, Christopher Marlowe.
Ella Agranovskaya (author of the film “Shakespeare vs. Shakespeare”) also adheres to the version that the author of the Shakespearean canon was Christopher Marlowe.
This is despite the fact that Christopher Marlowe “died” two weeks before Shakespeare’s first work was published.
Christopher Marlowe was born two months before William Shakespeare was born. He spent his childhood in the town of Canterbury, where he studied at the royal school at the famous Canterbury Cathedral. After leaving school, he studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, on a church scholarship.
In 1587, Christopher Marlowe graduated from Cambridge, but refused the priesthood and went to London, where he became a professional playwright. After staging two parts of his tragedy “Tamerlane the Great” (1587-1588) and creating the drama “The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus” (1588-1589), Christopher Marlowe was recognized as the first poet of England. In 6 years, Marlowe wrote 6 plays and a long poem.
Christopher Marlowe was his own man in both literary and aristocratic salons. Marlowe was valued by Queen Elizabeth herself. He was not only an outstanding playwright, but also a spy of a very high caliber. Marlowe reported directly to Queen Elizabeth's first minister, William Cecil, who paid all the expenses of his agent.
Fame went to Christopher's head. This led him to blasphemy and abandon the Anglican faith. In addition, Marlowe was exposed as a double agent. He was repeatedly arrested, searched, and his manuscripts confiscated. On May 18, 1593, the Privy Council decided to once again arrest Marlowe. He was detained at the house of Sir Thomas Walsingham, but was released, prohibited from leaving London.
Christopher Marlowe should have been brought to trial by the Inquisition for denunciation of homosexuality and blasphemy. But on May 30, 1593, in Deptford, Christopher Marlowe allegedly died during a drunken brawl from a wound inflicted by a dagger. The death of Christopher Marlowe was recorded by secret police agent Melme's Thesaurus. A royal investigator “accidentally” happened to be nearby and drew up a report.
The next day, Christopher Marlowe was buried in a mass grave of plague victims.
Documents regarding his death were requested by Queen Elizabeth. She issued a verdict prohibiting anyone from examining this case except herself. Christopher Marlowe's killer has been released from prison and returned to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's secret service.
These documents were hidden from the public until 1925. From declassified documents it turned out that the official version of death was a legend. Marlowe was “killed” to free Archbishop of Canterbury John Whitgift, whom Marlowe accused of corruption, from persecution.
What will happen if all the documents are declassified?
Or, in order to protect the myth of the playwright Shakespeare, will these documents never be declassified?
Calvin Hoffman believes that the staging of Christopher Marlowe's death was necessary to save him from the Inquisition. In fact, Marlowe fled to Italy, where he continued to write plays and sonnets. He sent his writings to England, where they were presented by William Shakespeare, who acted as a figurehead.
Christopher Marlowe was the best playwright of the time, and the authorities needed his services in writing plays and promoting royal power. To free Marlowe from persecution by the church, his death was faked. Christopher Marlowe remained alive, but turned into a “literary slave.” And as a “cover figure” they chose Shakespeare from Stratford, a shareholder of the Globe Theater, who knew how to keep his mouth shut.
Numerous interdisciplinary literary, historical and linguistic studies have proven the complete similarity of the texts of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.
After Marlowe's official death, information came that he had been seen in Europe; in Spain, Christopher Marlowe was ordained as a Catholic priest. There are documents that in 1603 (that is, after his official death) Christopher Marlowe was kept in one of the London prisons.
Alfred Barkov in his work “The Mystery of Shakespeare’s Personality: Christopher Marlowe or Roger Manners, Earl of Rutland?” proves that the author of the Shakespearean canon is Christopher Marlowe.
Alfred Barkov considers the “discovery” of I.M. Gililov to be a deliberate deception. Roger Manners Earl of Rutland was not only a “Shakespeare”, but a poet in general.
The fact is that Lord Rutland was only 16 years old when at least three of Shakespeare's plays were written and performed in 1592.
Lord Oxford died in 1604. And such masterpieces of Shakespeare as King Lear, Macbeth and The Tempest appeared until William Shakespeare returned to Stratford in 1612.
There is an assumption that the “playwright Shakespeare” was an invention of the English secret police. She needed a man like Shakespeare from Stratford - an uneducated moneylender, obedient and able to keep his mouth shut. Shakespeare was hired by the head of the secret police, Sir F. Walsingham, as a living pseudonym for the dramatic and poetic works of Christopher Marlowe and other authors. So the moneylender Shakespeare becomes the playwright Shakespeare.
“Shakespeare the Playwright” is a “project” of Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council. Talented poets and poetesses from England began to write for the Shakespeare Festival. Many of them were related or friendly relations among themselves, enjoyed the patronage of Queen Elizabeth, and then King James I. By 1623, thirty-eight works had been created.
The real Shakespeare was engaged in petty usury and persistently pursued debtors through the courts. Although he was known for his stinginess, he made no attempt to in any way control the publication of his plays, many of which were published anonymously. At the height of his literary fame, William Shakespeare was most busy buying malt for brewing.
For the use of his “brand” and silence, Shakespeare received a decent fee, with which he was able to buy a share of the theater troupe, a share of the Globe Theater, a house in London, and the only residential stone house in Stratford. In December 1596, “for his services,” Shakespeare received “nobility with a coat of arms.”
The key to understanding the mystery of Shakespeare is the Sonnets. There is an assumption that the author of the “Sonnets” is Lord Hunsdon (born in 1524), the son of Queen Anne’s sister, Mary Boleyn, married to Carey.
Lord Chamberlain of Her Majesty's Household Hunsdon served Queen Elizabeth faithfully. She knew about the poetic talent of her faithful chamberlain. But the queen was interested in hiding the secret of the authorship of the “Sonnets” and the poem “Venus and Adonis” (which contains sexual fantasies and even declarations of homosexual love).
In my youth, reading Shakespeare's sonnets, I was perplexed: who is the author addressing?
The face of a woman, but stricter, more perfect
Nature has been sculpted by skill.
You are beautiful as a woman, but you are a stranger to treason,
The king and queen of my heart.
Your tender gaze is devoid of crafty games,
But it gilds everything around with radiance.
He is courageous and majestic in power
It captivates friends and destroys girlfriends.
The nature of you as a dear woman
I conceived it, but was captivated by passion,
She separated me from you,
And she made women happy.
So be it. But here's my condition:
Love me, and give them love.
(Sonnet 20 translated by S. Marshak)
Homosexuality is a very common phenomenon among Cambridge students. By the way, the very concept of “blue” (boys) came from blue color clothing for Cambridge University students. The living conditions of the students (there were two boys in each room) contributed not only to friendship, but also to homosexual love.
It has been proven that Christopher Marlowe was accused of homosexuality through denunciation, for which the Inquisition Court of England at that time could have sentenced him to death!
This wouldn't happen now...
In 1612, unexpectedly, abandoning all his lawsuits, William Shakespeare left London for his native Stratford, where he bought the only stone house in the city.
In March 1616, his friend Ben Jonson came to Shakespeare from London with two poets to tell him that the young playwright of the theater, Francis Beaumont, had died. The four of them remembered the deceased with a feast in a suburban tavern.
After this feast, Shakespeare felt ill and took to his bed.
Perhaps William Shakespeare was poisoned?
However, the doctor (Shakespeare's son-in-law - the husband of Suzanne's daughter) did not notice any signs of poisoning.
The dying Shakespeare managed to dictate a will to a notary, distributing his considerable fortune among his relatives, down to the “seventh generation.” This is a very voluminous and detailed document that lists all the tables and chairs. Shakespeare bequeathed the second best bed to his wife.
The will talks about a "large silver gilded vase" but nothing about the plays, which are the greatest treasure.
In those days there was already copyright, but Shakespeare did not mention it.
18 plays remained unpublished. However, nothing is said about them in the will either.
This will is still valid today.
William Shakspere was buried in the parish church of the Holy Trinity, as recorded in the Stratford parish register: “Will Shakspere, gent, was buried on April 25, 1616.”
Shakespeare is buried right in front of the altar, which is not typical for that time. In the niche above the grave you can see a bust of a man. But no one knows whether he is like Shakespeare. The bust was sculpted six years after Shakespeare's death by a third-rate sculptor who had never seen the deceased.
After Shakespeare's death, not a single image of him remained. The painting, previously thought to be a portrait of William Shakespeare, depicts someone other than the great playwright. Shakespeare's most famous portrait, the so-called Flower Portrait, which bears the date "1609", has been found to be a fake.
There are significant differences in the portraits of Shakespeare by Droeshout, Chandos, Jansen, Hunt, Ashbourne, Soust and Dunford, which strongly suggest that these artists did not know the true appearance of Shakespeare.
The most famous engraving is by Drushout in 1623.
But Drushout had never seen Shakespeare either. Portrait of Shakespeare - mask. The head is not connected to the body in the portrait, but rests on the collar. The strangest thing in the portrait is the camisole, one half of which is worn backwards.
Professor Mikhail Malutov from Northeastern University (USA) carried out mathematical attribution of Shakespeare's texts. He rejects the idea that nobles, including those who led the secret services and propaganda of England during the time of Queen Elizabeth, could become the authors of the Shakespearean canon.
“In my opinion, this is a very related problem to Sholokhov’s, namely, the use of literary slaves by the secret services in order to solve their problems,” says Mikhail Malutov. “Another author copied Marlowe’s style so amazingly that even Marlowe himself cannot imitate him.”
If it can somehow be proven that the author of the Shakespearean canon is Christopher Marlowe, this will be a warning to the secret services, who are confident that no one will ever reveal their crimes. But sooner or later they will still be revealed.
I adhere to the ancient Roman interpretation of the concept of “genius”, according to which each person has his own genius.
It is correct to say that it is not Shakespeare who is a genius, but the genius of Shakespeare who created the tragedy “Hamlet”!
The secret of Shakespeare is the secret of genius, the secret of creativity. And this mystery still remains unsolved.
There is also a “Shakespearean secret” in my life. In the novel “Stranger Strange Incomprehensible Extraordinary Stranger,” the copyright includes the name V. Veselov. More than half of the novel's circulation was signed by this man in his own hand, “With Best wishes! From the author! Veselov"
Someone posted information on the Internet that Nikolai Kofyrin is a “bot”, “int
Despite its worldwide fame, Stratford-upon-Avon is essentially an insignificant fair town with ordinary residents. Its first settlers first forded the River Avon, then built a bridge across it and began to develop trade relations with the farmers who plowed the nearby plains. The charter to hold a weekly market in Stratford was received in the 12th century; the tradition has survived to this day; later the city became a stopping place for postal communications between London and the North.
Like all such places, Stratford-upon-Avon had a clear system of class divisions, and in this typical environment John and Mary Shakespeare occupied a place in the middle, and would have been forgotten long ago if their first-born, William, had not become the world's greatest writer. who has ever written in English. The consequence of it happy fate it was that this ordinary little town today is suffocated by tourists and their luggage, and, at least in the summer, its central streets groan under the weight of thousands of tourists.
Stratford railway station is on the north-west end of the town, a ten-minute walk from the centre. Now this is the last station of the line. It receives hourly trains from Moor Street and Snow Hill stations and very frequent trains from London Paddington and Marylebone. Local bus services arrive and depart from Bridge Street in the center National Express and most other long-distance and regional bus routes are concentrated at Riverside station at the eastern end of the city centre, near Bridge-way.
The tourist office (Monday-Saturday 9.30-17.00, Sunday 10.30-16.30) is located a couple of minutes' walk from the bus station near the bridge and the junction of Bridgeway and Bridgefoot streets. There is a wealth of information on local attractions and an accommodation service, which is very useful in mid-summer when the choice of rooms can be quite limited. They also have bus schedules and sell bus tickets.
- Where to Stay in Stratford-upon-Avon (England)
As one of the most visited tourist destinations in Stratford-upon-Avon, accommodation is quite expensive and even these accommodations must be booked in advance. During peak season and during Shakespeare's birthday celebrations on 23 April, advance reservations are essential. There are a couple of dozen hotels in the city; the best choice is in the old half wooden houses right in the city center, but most visitors choose Bed and Breakfast.
Hotels (boarding houses) of this system are scattered throughout the city, in all parts of Stratford, but there are especially many of them in the south-west of the center, around Grove Road, Evesham Place and Broad Walk ). The travel agency has an efficient and very helpful Accommodation Booking Hotline (£3).
I). Hotels and pensions Bed and Breakfast
1). Best Western Grosvenor Hotel“The inn occupies a row of pleasant, two-storey Georgian houses. The interior is lively and modern, with ample parking at the rear. Short stays and interrupted stays with return are possible. Location: close to the canal, a couple of minutes walk from the city center;
2). Falcon Hotel– The hotel is conveniently located in the city center, has a facade half made of wood, which dates back to the 16th century, but most of The house is an unremarkable modern reconstruction. Location: Chapel Street;
3). Payton Hotel– Located at the northern end of the city centre, a couple of minutes' walk from Shakespeare House Museum. This comfortable hotel is set in an attractive Georgian town house on a quiet residential street. The hotel is family owned and has five comfortable rooms. Location: 6 John Street;
5). Woodstock Guest House– Nice and clean Bed and Breakfast 5 minutes walk from the center, at the start of the route to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. It has five very comfortable rooms, all suites. Credit cards not accepted. Location: 30 Grove Road.
II). Hostel in Stratford-upon-Avon
1). Hostel Stratford-upon-Avon“This hostel occupies a rambling Georgian mansion at the end of the pretty village of Alveston. There are dormitories and family rooms, some suites, plus laundry, Internet access, parking and the ability to cook your own meals. You can also get breakfast and hot dishes for dinner. Located 2 miles east of the city center on the B-4086, there are regular buses from Stratford's Riverside station. Open all year round. Place – £16. Location: Hemmingford House, Alveston.
Attractions in Stratford-upon-Avon
Spreading back from the River Avon, Stratford's town center is flat and compact, its mostly modern houses forming a simple grid, or lattice, just two blocks deep and four blocks long. Running along the northern edge of the center is Bridge Street, the city's main artery, lined with shops and crowded with local buses. At its western end, Bridge Street divides into Henley Street, where Shakespeare's Birthplace Museum is located, and Wood Street, which leads to the market square.
It also intersects with High Street. It and its continuation Chapel Street and Church Street run south, passing most of the old houses the town still possesses, the most notable of which is Nash's House and the neighboring Old Town Street, Hall's Croft. From here it's a short walk to the charming Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried, and a few more minutes' walk back along the riverside to the theaters at the foot of Bridge Street.
By itself, this circular walk will take no more than 15 minutes, but it will take the whole day if you explore the sights. There are also two Shakespearean properties, Anne Hathaway Cottage in Shottery and Mary Arden's House in Wilmcote - but you'd have to be a very serious sightseeing person to want see them all.
The main place of worship for all Shakespeare lovers is the Birthplace Museum, located on Henley Street (June-August Monday-Saturday 9.00-17.00, Sunday 9.30-17.00, April-May and September-October Monday-Saturday 10.00-17.00, Sunday 10.30-17.00, November-March Monday-Saturday 10.00-16.00, Sunday 10.30-16.00, £6.50). It includes a modern visitor center and the significantly restored half-timber building where he was born great person. The visitor center has delved into every corner of Shakespeare's life and times, squeezing everything it can out of even the less obvious.
The will is interesting in that he left all kinds of goods to his daughter, and very little to his wife - the museum's commentary tries to smooth out this apparent contradiction, but does not convince. Nearby there is a half-timbered dwelling, in which today two houses are combined into one. The northern half, today decorated in the style of a 16th-century domestic interior, was the workroom of the poet's father, who is thought to have worked as a glover, but some believe he was a wool merchant or even a butcher.
It is also unknown whether Shakespeare was born in this house on April 23, 1564 - only that he was baptized on April 26, and it is impossible to resist the temptation to believe that the national poet was born three days earlier, on St. George's Day. In the southern half of the building - purchased by John Shakespeare in 1556 - there is a modest exhibition of objects from the period, which should illuminate a life that remains completely mysterious.
- Nash House and New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon (England)
Walk south along High Street from the junction of Bridge Street and Henley Street and you will soon come to Nash's House, which is located on Chapel Street ) (June-August Monday-Saturday 9.30-17.00, Sunday 10.00-17.00, April-May and September-October daily 11.00-17.00, November-March daily 11.00-16.00, £3.50). It was formerly the property of Thomas Nash, the first husband of Shakespeare's granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall. The ground floor of the house is now furnished with a pleasant assortment of furniture from the period.
Upstairs, an exhibition showcases the history of Stratford in pottery, including an assortment of archaeological bits and pieces, and other interesting places in the house, such as a study with carvings of mulberry wood that used to stand here in the street. It is rumored to have been planted by Shakespeare and cut down in the 1750s by the owner, one Reverend Francis Gastrell, because he was tired of Shakespeare's many admirers. An enterprising woodcarver bought it and carved designs on it in memory of Shakespeare - the carving is now in his study.
The adjoining gardens contain the exposed foundations of New Place (same opening hours). Shakespeare's last residence, which was destroyed by the same Reverend Gastrell, but for a different reason - Gastrell was in a fierce battle with the city council over taxes.
A new mulberry tree has been planted to replace the old one near the foundations of New Place, and there are others in the adjoining Great Garden (March-October Monday-Saturday 9am to dark, Sunday 10am to dark, November-February Monday- Saturday 9.00-16.00, Sunday 12.00-16.00, free), it is a formal place with a trimmed garden, lawns and flower beds. The path leads into the Great Garden from New Place, but the main entrance is on Chapel Lane. One of the mulberries - there is a board with a sign on it - was planted by a certain lady Peggy Ashcroft.
At the other end of Chapel Lane stands the Guild Chapel, whose squat tower and strong stonework conceal a simple interior, enlivened by several garish glass windows and faded wall paintings above a triumphal arch. Adjacent Primary School King Edward VI's Grammar School, where Shakespeare is believed to have studied, is included in the winding line of 15th-century almshouses that runs along Church Street.
- Halls Croft House in Stratford-upon-Avon (England)
Chapel Street continues south as Church Street. At the end turn left along Old Town Street to see the Birthplace Trust's most impressive medieval house, Hall's Croft (June-August Monday-Saturday 9.30am-5pm, Sunday 10am-5pm, April-May and September -October daily 11.00-17.00, November-March daily 11.00-16.00, £3.50). Formerly the home of Shakespeare's eldest daughter, Susannah, and her husband, Dr John Hall, the immaculately kept farmhouse, the small house, with creaky wooden floors, beamed ceilings and a handsome row of utensils in the kitchen, contains a pleasing hodgepodge of period furniture. and - mainly upstairs - an impressive exhibition on Elizabethan medicine.
Hall had an established reputation for his own methods of healing. And after his death, some of his notes describing individual cases of his patients were published in a volume entitled “Selected Observations on English Organisms.” You can study extracts from Hall's book - it notes in particular that Joan Chidkin from Southam "vomited twice and stooled twice" after his arms and thighs began to tremble, which bothered him greatly, and then suffered from the use of eye tweezers when wetting the eye and from other procedures. Most best view onto the building itself - from the rear, from the neat walled garden.
Near All's Croft, Old Town Street turns right and reaches the slender Holy Trinity Church (April-September Monday-Saturday 8.30-18.00, and Sunday 12.15-17.00, March-October Monday-Saturday 9.00-17.00, Sunday 12.15-17.00, November-February Monday-Saturday 9.00-16.00, Sunday 12.15-17.00, free). Its softened, honey-colored stonework dates back to the 13th century. Highlighted by its riverside location, bordered by yew trees and weeping willows The cemeteries, proud and worthy of the proportions of this church, incorporating the quintessence of the traditions of English churches, were the result of rebuildings and changes, culminating in the replacement of the original wooden spire with a modern stone version in 1763.
Upon entering, at the second door, the Sanctuary Knocker recalls the times of the Middle Ages, when local criminals could seek refuge from the law here, but only for 37 days. This, as local custom dictated, was enough for them to come to an agreement with their pursuers. Inside, the nave is bathed in light from the upper row of windows, some of them of stained glass and dating from before the 14th century. Unusually, the nave is positioned slightly obliquely from the altar, presumably to represent the head of Christ tilted towards the cross.
In the north wing, next to the transept, is Clopton Chapel, which contains the stone tomb of George Carew - an extravagant Renaissance piece, decorated with military symbols, in keeping with George's position as Master of Artillery under James I. But poor old George has long been forgotten, unlike William Shakespeare, who is buried in the chancel (£1). Above his remains are a calm and painstakingly executed plaque and portrait, added seven years after his death.
- Theaters and Gower Monument in Stratford-upon-Avon (England)
Walking back from the church, turn right along Southern Lane and its Waterside extension to reach the two Royal Shakespeare Company theatres, the Swan Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Under Shakespeare, there was no theater in Stratford, and the first city festival in his honor did not take place until 1769, on the orders of the resident David Garrick. After this, the idea of building a permanent home in which to perform Shakespeare's plays slowly gestated and waited until finally, in 1879, the first Memorial Theater opened on land donated by local beer baron Charles Flower.
In front of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the manicured lawns of the small riverside park stretch north to the Bancroft Basin, where the Stratford Canal meets the river. The reservoir is usually crowded with kayaks (Narrowboats). In a small park on the river bank, at the far end, behind a small humpbacked footbridge, is the beautiful Gower Memorial of 1888, which depicts a seated Shakespeare surrounded by characters from his plays.
Anne Hathaway's Cottage (June-August Monday-Saturday 9.00-17.00, Sunday 9.30-17.00, April, May, September and October Monday-Saturday 9.30-17.00, Sunday 10.00-17.00, November-March daily 10.00-16.00 , £5) is also owned by the Birthplace Trust and is located a mile west of the center on the landscaped outskirts of Shottery. Shottery Cottage - now an old farmhouse - is a perfectly kept, half-timbered building with a thatched roof and a smart little fireplace.
- Mary Arden's house in Stratford-upon-Avon (England)
Birtplace Trust also owns Mary Arden's House (June-August Monday-Saturday 9.30-17.00, Sunday 10.00-17.00, April, May, September and October Monday-Saturday 10.00-17.00, Sunday 10.30-17.00, November-March daily 10.00-16.00, £5.50). It is located 3 miles northwest of the city center in the Village of Wilmcote. Mary was Shakespeare's mother, and at the death of her father, Robert, in 1556, she was his only unmarried daughter.
Mary, unusually for the time, inherited the house and land, becoming one of the wealthiest local women - John Shakespeare, eager to improve his position, married her within a year. The house is an example of a well-stocked Elizabethan farmhouse, and although the will is rather sparse, a platoon of guides will give you every detail of family life and traditions.
Food and drink in Stratford-upon-Avon
The English city of Stratford-upon-Avon usually feeds and waters thousands of guests, so finding something to eat is not that difficult. The problem is that many places are designed to cater to day trippers as quickly as possible - without going into the finer points of gastronomic pleasures. This means there is a group of very good restaurants, some of which have been favored by theatergoers for many years, and a host of pubs and cafes serving good food too. The best restaurants are concentrated along Sheep Street, which runs from Waterside near the theaters.
I). Restaurants and cafes in Stratford-upon-Avon (England)
1). Kingfisher Fish Bar- The most the best place in town for fish and chips. You can take food to go, or you can eat while sitting there. 5 minutes walk from the theaters. Opening hours: closed on Sundays. Location: 13 Ely Street;
2). Lamb's Restaurant– Excellent restaurant serving stylish English and continental food – mouth-watering – in a period setting – beamed ceilings and all. Expensive. Location: 12 Sheep Street;
3). Restaurant Malbec– A pleasant and intimate restaurant serving top quality seafood and meat dishes, often with a Mediterranean touch. Expensive. Location: 6 Union Street;
4). Cafe The Orro– Top notch, creative international cuisine, in a lively but pleasant atmosphere. The daily specials, chalked out on the board outside, are excellent. Prices are moderate. Location: 13 Sheep Street;
5). Cafe Russons– Excellent but not cheap cuisine, interesting meat and vegetarian dishes on the main menu, and a wide selection of seafood dishes. Opening hours: closed on Sundays and Mondays. Prices are moderate. Location: 8 Church Street.
II). Pubs in Stratford-upon-Avon (England)
1). Dirty Duck Pub– The archetypal actors' pub, filled with gunwales, with vocal support every night from RSC employees and their hangers-on. Classic beers in traditional premises, with an attractive terrace. Location: 53 Waterside.
2). Windmill Inn Pub– Popular pub with cozy little rooms, low beamed ceilings. A good choice types of beer Flowers. Location: Church Street.
