ll the world’s a stage,/ And all the men and women merely players;/ They have their exits and entrances;/ And one man in his time plays many parts

I never stopped feeling inquisitive about William Shakespeare, the renowned English playwright, poet and actor often remembered as England’s national poet and the Bard of Avon ever since I got familiar with his works. I still recall reading a few of his plays, including The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet, in my father’s library in the basement of our family home in Lahore. Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s poetry also remain popular to this day.

Later in my life, especially during postgraduate studies in the UK, during my regular outings to London Southbank, I often passed by The Shakespeare’s Globe situated on the bank of the River Thames. This was also a great way to interact with cultural and artistic institutions and the architecture in general, including landmarks like Southbank Centre, Hayward Gallery, Royal Festival Hall and Tate Modern at Bankside. The Globe is an attractive white building with lots of wooden beams and staves going across vertically, horizontally and diagonally in a framework reminiscent of the Tudor era between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales. The Globe was built in 1599 using timber from an earlier building, The Theatre, which had been built by Richard Burbage’s father, James Burbage, in Shoreditch in 1576. Julius Caesar, a tragedy by Shakespeare, is believed to be likely the first production performed at The Globe on September 21, 1599. On June 29, 1613, during the performance of Henry VIII, the Globe suddenly went up in flames. After enduring a large deal of wear and tear and unfavourable decisions over the centuries that followed, the current building, a modern reconstruction of the theatre, named Shakespeare’s Globe, opened to the public in 1997, with the production of Henry V. It is an academic approximation of the original design, based on available evidence of the earlier buildings. Shakespeare spent most of his life and half of his career writing under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch.

In recent years, when my eldest daughter decided to choose English literature in her A levels following her interest in English language and history from her GCE, we once again started discussing famous writers and poets, including Jane Austen, Mary Shelly, William Blake, Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Anthony Burgess and the most renowned playwright above all, William Shakespeare. We also decided to visit the Bard’s birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Houses and anything else Shakespearian we could find.

Upon arrival in the town, it felt like walking through a time warp to the past; beautiful Tudor buildings and dwellings, restored to their former splendour, across both sides of paved walkways housing modern brands, eatery places, bookstores and even banks e.g, Costa Coffee, McDonald’s, Waterstones, Barclays Bank, The White Company and many more. Far from being just a tourist attraction, it’s also a thriving little town with modern residents who require contemporary goods and services. Interestingly, after a two-year Covid break, the Festival of Motoring has returned to Stratford-upon-Avon. We also enjoyed rallies of classic cars as a bonus, thinking if these beautiful cars existed in the Tudor times, what would have been Shakespeare’s favourite car? It was an inspirational walk that took just over 20 minutes to reach the Avon River. The riverside walk was packed with tourists and locals enjoying pubs, microbreweries, curry houses and pizza restaurants with outdoor seating arrangements under the beautiful brollies and umbrellas.

There is still much to Shakespeare’s dwellings and memorabilia in this town, Nash’s House/ New Place, Hall Croft, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Mary Arden’s House and the Holy Trinity Church, where William Shakespeare was baptised, worshipped and is buried.

Swans can be seen everywhere in this whimsical little town. Along with canal boats, skiffs, passenger steamers and the astonishing Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in the background, numerous swans were floating over freshwater in the river. RSC’s Swan Theatre was initially constructed in 1936 and received plenteous improvements in 2010. This theatre is the first substantial British construction from the plans of a female architect, Elizabeth Scott. As we approached the Clopton Bridge in the direction of a massive Ferris wheel, the functional design of the manually operated water locks on the Avon caught my eye. Despite being located in a flood plain, Stratford has also been a market town for 800 years.

The Gower Memorial Statue in Bancroft Gardens along the river is another marvel paying homage to this awe-inspiring erudite. There are four corners, and a character-themed statue can be found on each one, slightly off-centre from the main monument. Shakespeare is at the centre of everything here. Each character represents a different genre among Shakespeare’s plays. So, for tragedy, you have Lady Macbeth; for philosophy, Hamlet; for comedy, Falstaff; and for history, Prince Hal. A bronze mask and flowers representing each figure may be seen behind them. Now it was time to explore Shakespeare’s birthplace and museum. Which, to be fair, was the whole point of the trip. Shakespeare’s birthplace house is an excellent place to start.

Once through the small museum, we found our favourite bit – the museum’s massive walls plastered with summaries of all the Shakespeare plays. We wish we could stay there for as long as it took to read them all, but we didn’t have much time at hand. Luckily, we bought a smaller printed version in the gift shop to read it later.

A staff member was waiting for us in the first room of the house. She looked incredibly eager to tell us everything there was to know about the place. The house mainly has a one-way layout with a few extras on the flanks. Each chamber contains a wealth of knowledge, and there are actors and professionals present to provide you with even more in-depth information. The parlour, or guest bedroom in modern language, was the first room we visited after the entrance. Back in the day, the common perception was that you must be wealthy if you could afford a guest bed. In Shakespeare’s day, it was all about flaunting money; honestly, not much has changed since then. The material that was on display in the hallway was colossal. This chamber contained some intriguing facts about sumptuary laws, which we thought pretty engaging. In Elizabethan England, the class you belonged to determined what attire and colours you could wear. Shakespeare had access to more styles and colours than the lower classes because he belonged to the middle class.

The workshop, on the ground floor, was where Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, worked. His father created gloves as a profession, so there were a variety of glove skins on display there. Once upstairs, we saw Shakespeare’s childhood room which he shared with his brother. There was an attic room above that. We found some interesting information about common folklore back in those days. We came to know that people thought fairies, demons, and a creature called “nightmares” were responsible for bad dreams. This lore and superstitions influenced Shakespeare’s writing.

The birthing room was the last in the house before the garden exit. Although there is no concrete evidence to support this, it is widely accepted that the Bard was born there. We were amused to know that there was a pull-out drawer under the bed, which was pulled out when a baby was born and utilised as a place to sleep. We saw the performers performing in the garden as we left the room.

We were unaware of what happened to this house after Shakespeare and his family relocated. Shakespeare transformed the house into a business because he had no use for it. The house hence became The Swan and Maidenhead, an inn that went out of business in 1846. The American showman PT Barnum intended to purchase the structure and transfer it, brick by brick, to the US when Shakespeare’s birthplace was placed up for sale. However, it never happened due to the establishment of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1847, with the assistance of another literary titan, Charles Dickens, as one of its key members. During this time, it was frequented by numerous literary pilgrims, some of whom etched their names into the delivery room window.

There is much more to Shakespeare’s dwellings and memorabilia in this town, Nash’s House/New Place, Hall Croft, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Mary Arden’s House and the Holy Trinity Church, where William Shakespeare was baptised, worshipped and is buried. I would return to Stratford-Upon-Avon once more to experience all these places and would pen it down sooner than later.

Till then, to be, or not to be, that is the question.

The writer is an art/ design critic. He heads the Department of Visual Communication Design at Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts & Design, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore