Welcome to the second chapter. Should be tons o' fun.
Cheers
Murielle
Shakespeare: The Biography
by
Peter Ackroyd
Part One: Stratford-Upon-Avon
Chapter 2: Shee Is My Essence
Warwickshire was often described as primeval, and evidence of the ancients can be found in the lay of the now denuded hills. It has also been called the heart of England with the clear implication that Shakespeare embodies this national worth. He is the very core of Englishness himself.
The countryside around Stratford was divided in two. To the north was the Forest of Arden, The idea of a forest may suggest endless woodland, but in the sixteenth century it would have included sheep farms and meadows with woodland running between them. Instead of being connected by roads or streets, the houses were strewn about, each one it`s own island. By the time William was wondering these woods, there were probably on serious decline thanks to the demand of timber to build new houses, as well as being stripped for mining and subsistence farming (subsistence farming: farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families. It would have had a range of crops and animals needed by the family to clothe and feed themselves during the year.)
Yet the wood has has always been a symbol of wildness and resistance. In As You Like It and A Midsummer Night`s Dream (Personal Note: One of my favourites!!!!), in Cymbeline and Titus Andronicus, it has become the emblem of folklore and ancient memory. The forest of Arden hid the British tribes from the Romans who invaded their land. The legends of Guy of Warwick, told to William as a young child, tell of the knight`s hermetic concealment in the woods, who would fight invading Danes with a sword that was kept in Warwick castle as a memorial.
Adren was also a place to hide. It was a place where outlaws and vagrants went to at liberty. That is why people who lived in the forest were regarded with disapproval.
Beyond the south of the country lay Fielden. The region was almost devoid of trees except for those growing for those growing in groves and small woods. The rest of the land had been changed to scrub and pasture. It was the classic picture of rural England. It has been presumed that Fielden was rich and Protestant while Wealden was poor and Catholic but this was simple prejudice suggesting a context to balance the oppositions that came so naturally to Shakespeare.
But what does the landscape to with Shakespeare? It could be the sense place that would determine the nature of those who grow up in a certain part of the world. Yet, with Shakespeare, the evidence of his work provides undeniable proof that he was neither born or raised in London. He did not have the harshness of John Milton, born in Bread street, nor the hardness of Ben Jonson who was educated at Westminster School. He is of the country.
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