In the wide realm of Shakespeare worship, the house in
Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare was born in 1564 - known
colloquially as the 'Birthplace' - remains the chief shrine. It's not as
romantic as Anne Hathaway's thatched cottage, it's not where he wrote
any of his plays, and there's nothing inside the house that once
belonged to Shakespeare himself. So why, for centuries, have people kept
turning up on the doorstep? Richard Schoch answers that question by
examining the history of the Birthplace and by exploring how its
changing fortunes over the past four centuries perfectly mirror the
changing attitudes toward Shakespeare himself.
Based on original research in the archives of the Shakespeare Birthplace
Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Folger Shakespeare Library in
Washington, DC, and featuring two black and white illustrated plate
sections which draw on the wide array of material available at the
Folger Shakespeare Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum, this book
traces the history of Shakespeare's birthplace over four centuries.
Beginning in the 1560s, when Shakespeare was born there, it ends in the
1890s, when the house was rescued from private purchase and turned into
the Shakespeare monument that it remains today.
