This edited article about William Shakespeare originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 699 published on 7 June 1975.

Shakespeare is caught poaching deer by Ron Embleton

There had been people with the name of Shakespeare in Warwickshire for centuries. Some villages contained several families of that name, so that when John Shakespeare from a village near Stratford married Mary Arden, a girl from neighbouring Wilmcote, nobody took much notice.

They even lost the register in which the couple signed their names, so that no one is certain where the marriage actually took place. John and Mary had four daughters and three sons. Of these, the eldest boy, William alone is remembered.

John Shakespeare preferred town life to that of the country. He took his bride to a house he already owned in Stratford-on-Avon. There, he carried on his trade as a glove-maker, but ran a few sidelines in raw hides, wool and leather, corn and malt. He even worked as a butcher, a trade in which his son William, was said to have some skill.

As his business prospered, John Shakespeare also rose in his duties for the town council. He began as the official ale tester in 1556. Ten years later he achieved the top job as bailiff, and applied for the grant of a coat of arms.

It was against this background of a busy market town, of which his father was a leading citizen, that young William Shakespeare grew up. No doubt he was proud of his father’s prosperity and popularity, and enjoyed meeting all sorts of people at the fine house occupied by his family near the town centre.

Read the rest of this article »

This edited article about Warwickshire originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 698 published on 31 May 1975.

A picture history of Kenilworth Castle, one of the great historic buildings of Warwickshire, by C L Doughty

“Up school! Up school!” “Come on, Headmaster’s House!”

Supporters of both teams stood in groups round the football pitch, loudly urging their schoolfellows on to one last effort. The match was nearly over, the players muddy and tired. And still there was no score.

The scene was Rugby School, Warwickshire’s famous public school. On the football field that day in 1823 one boy was to make sporting history. His name was William Webb Ellis.

A dozen boys crowded round the ball. A deft flick of the foot, and the ball sailed towards Ellis. “Come on Ellis, now’s your chance!” roared the boys on the side-lines. A straight kick, and the match would be won.

But William Ellis did not kick the ball. At the side of the pitch, spectators gasped in astonishment as he gathered the ball in his hands, and ran, twisting and weaving, towards the goal.

Astonishment turned quickly to anger. “Foul! Foul! Drop the ball, Ellis! Shame!” yelled the watching boys, as Ellis, the ball tucked firmly under his arm, crossed the goal line and triumphantly touched down the ball there.

Read the rest of this article »

This edited article about Richard III originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 683 published on 15 February 1975.

Elizabeth Woodville is persuaded to give up her son, Prince Richard, to her brother-in-law, Richard of Gloucester, later Richard III, by Clive Uptton

The following notice appeared in the memorial column of the “New York Times” one recent August. It read: “Plantagenet – Richard, of York, Duke of Gloucester, King of England, who died 478 years ago today, the 22nd day of August in 1485, in battle at Bosworth Field, betrayed, slandered, his memory destroyed by the Tudors as was his body, a victim of malicious propaganda horrendously immortalized forever by W. Shakespeare . . .”

Stop! Wait!

These are strong words, indeed, to use about the memory of an English king. Strong – because the blunt facts about Richard III in the history books are quite clear. They tell us that he ruthlessly murdered the two sons of his brother, King Edward IV: Edward, Prince of Wales, and Richard, Duke of York. Then, having seized the throne, he was killed fighting on Bosworth Field by the troops of Henry Tudor, afterwards Henry VII.

It was a fitting end, you might say, for a brutal and vicious child-murderer.

The city records of York, however, would disagree with you and the history books. On learning of Richard’s defeat at Bosworth, the Mayor and Aldermen authorized this entry to be made in the records:

“This day was our good King Richard piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this city.”

Well! What really happened?

Read the rest of this article »

This edited article about Macbeth originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 679 published on 18 January 1975.

Macbeth and the Three Witches by Pat Nicolle

One of Shakespeare’s most famous plays is Macbeth. It is an action-packed thriller with several murders, ghosts, witches, battles and even a forest which marches up Dunsinane Hill.

But just how accurate is it?

Our knowledge about this great king of Scotland, who reigned for 17 years (1040-57) in comparative peace and prosperity, is scarce, and much of the evidence for and against him is derived from later historians who read the earlier writings but formed their own opinions, often prejudiced against him from the start.

Three main sources of information may, however, be regarded as relatively reliable. They are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the chronicle of a monk named Florence of Worcester (contemporary), and Prior Andrew Wyntoun’s chronicle (fourteenth century).

The first reference to Macbeth in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is in 1031, when Canute of England visited Scotland to receive the homage of Malcolm II and two lesser northern kings, one of whom was Macbeth. He belonged to the royal family of Scotland and began his career as king of a small dominion called Alban.

Macbeth was first cousin to Duncan I, who ruled Scotland from 1034 to 1040. The law of succession in Scotland at that time was a peculiar one. Sons did not automatically succeed to their father’s thrones, and for some time the succession passed to and fro between cousins.

Consequently, whilst Duncan had two sons, Malcolm and Donald, custom dictated that Duncan’s heir would in the first instance be Macbeth. This simple fact, then, disposes of Shakespeare’s story that Macbeth murdered Duncan and dispossessed his sons to usurp the throne, because the throne would have become his in any case.

Read the rest of this article »

This edited article about Dr Johnson originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 669 published on 9 November 1974.

Dr Samuel Johnson

He was a lumbering bear of a man. His face was scarred by a disease called scrofula, which he had caught in his youth, and his body used to jerk and sway backwards and forwards.

He would make faces, talk or mutter prayers to himself to such an extent that strangers sometimes thought him mad. He had “no passion for clean linen,” meaning that, like many people in the 18th century, he was not over-bothered with personal hygiene. He could be very rude, partly because his wit was so sharp and his tongue so deadly, but he never meant to be unkind and his friends adored him. He loved animals and children, and continually gave to the poor, even slipping pennies into the hands of the all-too-many young outcasts sleeping “rough” in the streets of London. The “bear” was really all heart.

Such was Doctor Samuel Johnson, the greatest literary figure of his age and the most remarkable talker. Fortunately for us, he had a young Scottish friend, James Boswell, whose ambition was to become a famous writer and who wanted to meet eminent men and women.

Boswell, born in 1740, first met Johnson in 1763 and the great man at once took a liking to him. The result was the finest biography in the language, Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson. Boswell had a marvellous memory, but, more importantly, was an avid taker of notes, and the result is the most quotation-packed book in English.

Read the rest of this article »

This edited article about the Renaissance originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 610 published on 22 September 1973.

Shakespeare on the stage of the newly built Globe theatre, by Peter Jackson

England had never known an epoch like it. Thanks to the endeavour of her explorers and the diligence of her merchants, the nation was richer than ever before. Her people were freer and their children sturdier than anywhere else in the world.

Her writers and story-tellers had no equals anywhere, and of course, her soldiers and sailors were feared by everyone. Over this realm, this “jewel set in a silver sea,” ruled the mighty Queen Elizabeth the First surrounded by courtiers who were the most talented, the most cunning, and the most enterprising to be found anywhere.

What great glory it was just to be a part of this, the poet Edmund Spenser said to himself. The time had come to put it all down in poetry, so that posterity could share the wonder of it all.

Spenser called his long poem “The Faerie Queene.” It is an allegory, which means simply a narrative describing one subject – in this case Elizabeth and her court – under the guise of another. Although the allegorical poem is a series of more or less disconnected episodes, each tale in it is a lesson in praise of moral goodness.

For to Edmund Spenser, that was what the fabulous court of Queen Elizabeth was all about – moral goodness.

He had been introduced at court after an education at the Merchant Taylor’s School in London and at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. For his services as secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland he was rewarded with an estate of 3,000 acres in County Cork, which included Kilcoman Castle.

Seated in his castle study one day, Spenser received a visit from a friend from court – Sir Walter Raleigh.

“I’ll read you some extracts from my new poem,” he told Raleigh.

The distinguished visitor listened in wonder as Spenser recited. In his poem the principal character is Gloriana, an idealised form of Queen Elizabeth. In and out of her court flows a procession of magicians and fearsome monsters, fair ladies and courtly knights, among whom can be distinguished men like Leicester, Essex, and even Raleigh himself. And running through it all is the enchantment of Spenser’s inimitable verbal music.

Read the rest of this article »

This edited article about Shakespeare originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 899 published on 14 April 1979.

Shakespeare’s birthplace by Francis S Walker

A half-timbered house in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon is not simply a fine example of Tudor market town architecture. It is also a place of pilgrimage for thousands upon thousands of people who visit it each year. For this is the birthplace of England’s greatest playwright and poet, William Shakespeare.

William’s father, John Shakespeare, was a leading figure in the town. A burgess in the recently constituted corporation of Stratford, he was also a leading merchant at the time of his famous son’s birth one April day in 1564.

The records show that the Shakespeares were living in Henley Street as early as 1552, when John was fined for having a rubbish heap outside his house. But it was not until 1556 that he bought the house now known to the world as Shakespeare’s birthplace.

The house stayed in the hands of the Shakespeare family until the last century. It is now the property of the Shakespeare Trustees, who have turned it into a museum.

Much attention has been paid to restoring the building to its original condition, and it is packed full of interesting objects, some said to have belonged to the bard himself.

This edited article about place names originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 897 published on 31 March 1979.

View of Dulwich College in the late eighteenth century

Do you live at Dulwich?

If you do, you are no doubt aware of the College, and the Art Gallery which houses a splendid collection of the great masters from Rembrandt to Reynolds. But did you know that the Art Gallery was the first one open to the public in England and that originally the collection was intended for the King of Poland?

There is more than one theory about the derivation of the name of this part of South London, but the one that seems most romantic is that it comes from the Old English words “dile-wisse” or “wise”, which mean “the meadow where dill grows.”

Whether dill still grows in Dulwich today is anyone’s guess, but it does boast a surprising amount of greenery for its metropolitan location. Not only are there the well-tended College grounds, but also a 72-acre park with lake and waterfall, one of the last farms left in London and its only toll-gate.

The College, which was founded by Edward Alleyn, a prosperous theatrical friend of both Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, was established originally to educate 12 poor scholars and to provide shelter, in the form of almshouses, for 12 elderly people.

Now there are more than 1,400 boys at the College and the revenue from it and the Dulwich property owned by the College estate still goes towards charity and, of course, education.

One of the College’s old boys was Sir Ernest Shackleton, whose boat was for many years on display at the college just as he had left it. The craft, in which he rescued the crew of his shipwrecked Endurance off Antarctica, is now housed at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

This edited article about castles originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 890 published on 10 February 1979.

The Roundhead cavalry occupied Glamis Castle during the Civil War, by Harry Green

Dark deeds and lurid legends are attached to many a British castle, and sorting fact from fiction is a tough task. Glamis Castle in Angus is no exception, even though its most recent association with the past is happiness itself. That most popular lady, the Queen Mother, was brought up in the castle.

Before her marriage to the Duke of York, later King George VI, she was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, her parents being the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. The Queen Mother was born in England in 1900, but her daughter, Princess Margaret, was born at Glamis. For the record, it is pronounced “Glarms”.

Another famous inhabitant of Glamis was the legendary Scottish ruler Macbeth, who achieved world-wide notoriety as the man who murdered his king and usurped the throne in Shakespeare’s famous play. In fact, Macbeth was Thane of Glamis during the 10th century, and he did kill Duncan I – but it was in battle, rather than in bed, as Shakespeare had it.

The castle as we know it today with its battlemented parapets and turrets was built in the late 17th century, though there are parts of it which are much older and which date back to the 15th century. And there was a much older stronghold of the Thanes of Glamis on the site before the castle was built.

Glamis has a splendid Great Hall with a huge fireplace and many other notable rooms, all of which are filled with fine furniture and paintings. There is also a panelled chapel which was consecrated in 1688, and a museum which houses historical relics and costumes. In the village of Glamis there is another museum, the Angus Folk Museum, which portrays local life in earlier times.

Read the rest of this article »

This edited article about Shakespeare originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 881 published on 2 December 1978.

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway in the garden of Anne’s cottage by Harry Green

The cottage did not belong to her. It is not even a cottage, strictly speaking, because it is far too big to be called one. Yet Anne Hathaway’s Cottage attracts some 50,000 tourists every year, and the visitors’ book shows that they come from every corner of the earth.

And no wonder, for it is a very romantic as well as a historic spot – the most beautiful of all the Shakespearean “shrines” at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Young Will Shakespeare courted his Anne there, and the house was to remain in the Hathaway family until the 1890s. Now it belongs to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which means it “belongs” to the world. The world? Yes, for Sheakespeare is the only playwright whose plays are regularly performed in nearly every nation on earth.

His wife, Anne Hathaway, was the daughter of a prosperous farmer, named Richard Hathaway, whose 12-roomed house in Shottery was once a mile from Stratford. But now, because of the town’s expansion, it is on the outskirts.

Anne was born in 1556, eight years before William Shakespeare, who was still a youth when she married him in 1582.

We are very short of hard facts about Shakespeare and all his fellow-playwrights, none of whom was “news” in the way Drake and Raleigh were news; besides which there were no newspapers to interview them or relate the latest gossip.

But we do know that Will’s father was a prosperous glover and wool-dealer. Will’s birthplace, tramped through by armies of tourists each year, is altered beyond recognition from the house he knew; but not so his Anne’s. It is very much as it was when he came courting her.

Read the rest of this article »