Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

Stratford.
military power mightier than any subieot , , ,
would give the district an exceptional •;vi®}ded b.efore
annals, which would be locally reflected in in in.tbe natmnal
historic tradition. In Shakespeare’s dav wf .s'veru)g' Yealth of
plied the materials of a lS efemenSrv ^ SUP'
annals of the past, and especiallv in fPn " training in the heroic
past that had established' the Tudois on E'fhm"1* °f ''''V'',"1"1
the permanent interests of tL Government and X'elnSi'1,dl‘tei
speiity “S “<I V™'
work on The Houses of Lancaster and York Mr Jame? /1S
says: For this period of English history we’ are fortuna^ ler
sessing an unrivalled interpreter in ourgreat dr^
Shakespeare. A regular sequence of historical plays exhibits to us
not onlythegeneralcharacter of each successive reign butnearlv
the whoie cham of leading events from the days of Richard IT
to the death of Richard III. at Bosworth. Following the £uidaui
thTcUse, i'srh’TmosE obsc^ T sSgllh dT"118
nni^i1’!1^ . Seneral historyaofatlmeStimesWwas not’wrft^n tilf a
much later date. But the doings of that stormv c i
calamities endured by kings-tlfe sudden channes o? fortune tn
»f chivalry and the horrom of cM war -
all left a deep impression upon the mind of the uatinn atrPinU ’
kept alive by vivid traditions of the past at the time that no ^
dramatist wrote. Hence, notwithstaSg the scaTtiS of m
and the meagreness of ancient chronicles, we have singular!v little
FaS ^ rderStaAding SI,irit aild character oKiei^
thatenabRd^dm1!!) in^te^ret^o starring a°perio^^it is^not*13^^61^^8
mg that even amidst the quiet hedgerows and meadows 0 "S'
ford Shakespeare’s pulse should have beat high wiTh patriot
thusiasm, or that when launched on his new career' in tbe
metropolis he should have sympathized to the full extent on his
Field andthe'blrth ohfaSheAapSed be^een.t1he battle of Bosworth
X iem ana. tne birth ot Shakespeare Warwickshire continued tn l,n
C^lh76^ 8l7tV.pc^^ession11toCUie crown'llemy VIII rtwkh^Que^
made ^a state visit ^tQ6 (loyeiutiy^Kmnlwortln’^nif V^rwick^the
unusually ^plendhf d’emonSralion™! iSyaUytnddeJS88 Ad
nine years before Shakespeare's birth kflg SZd £ ihe kl?
^rehgL^'dm£hgh“afh“sSrgred th“
The town of Stratford lies on the north bank of the
fb a p°mt,a.bou^ midway in its course from its rise
at Towk1 ab Pt°nShAre hlllS t0 ltS Junction with the Severn
ClontSf bUn' u°f entlenng tlle town> across Sir Hugh
Cbatons noble bridge the road from the south-east fans
out m three mam directions,—on the right to Warwick and
EntraW ° t ^ Alcester> while between runs the
w^ + SS-eet’- thf modern representative of the old Roman
.I’ /l ^ Bmmmgham, Chester, and the north. Further to
I pL d °Uffch ^nd less lmportant road leaves the town
cyond the church, and, keeping in the main the line of
the river, goes to Bidford, Salford Priors, and Evesham.
. t is a picturesque* country road connecting a string of
undulating villages and hamlets with Stratford. The
town itself consisted in the 16th century of the low gable-
rooted wood-and-plaster houses dotted at intervals along
lose roads and down the cross streets that connected
them with each other and with the river. Most of the
houses in Shakespeare’s time had gardens at the back,
SHAKESPEARE
741
and many at the sides also; and the space between the
gave'ttr131110" ^ ^ UnUSUal width of ^
Stain nlcn t 'I'1 01!en cheerful look wiiich enabled it to
prosneritv TrTc t0Ufei°f its earIier rural state. As its
tended to cW 11 •the fCattered dwellings natumlly
front of Pxnn dP *1611 ran?S’ and present a more united
exposed wares and convenient hostelries to the
frequented thSrTrS’ Wh; .With tlleir
requented the place on fair and market days. But in
akespeare s time the irregular line of gables and porches
of penthouse walls and garden paling® with patches of
Uerand^efreT^i”8 f0liage A »«U at
+1 T,^ eAesbed Bie eye in looking down the leading
thoroughfares. These thoroughfares took the shape of f
central cross, of which Church, Chapel, and High Streets
running in a continuous line north fnd south constitaM
n^ tV6"1’ 'vtlliIeJBrid«e aIld Wood Streets, running
or bff hAtaf f? tanfd- TeSt’ "ere tlle transverse bean!
tor. At the point of intersection stood the High Cross
a solid stone building with steps below and opff athes
a ove, rom which public proclamations were made and
Ser^X^ °tller t0W,1S- SWmo“ somethn^
oeiivered. The open space around the High Cross was
from tWn anfd merchandise on market days, and
from the force of custom it naturally became the site on
which at a Inter jDenod the market-house was built. Oppo¬
site the^ High Cross the main road, carried over Sir Hugh
through SHprfl 68 ai°ng Bridge Stfeet’ turns t0 the left
through Henley Street on its way to Henley-in-Arden
end of ""wood6 n°rthe!'ly towns‘ At the western
R^Setf^nrKot^trttrnnir^
EveshSoar61 “ ~ la"“ the
mnTulf °PfAiSr?g11 j Was’ as the name indicates, the great cattle The
^ges most ot the wealthier inhabitants were engaged in farmino-
operations, and the growth and prosperity of themplace resulted
lom its position as a market town in the midst of an agricultural
and grazing district. In the 13th century a number of chaSs
were obtained from the early Plantagenet kings, empowering the
fon'rVf0 1h-<ia Weekly and n° fewer th™ fivePannual fairs,
foui of which were mainly for cattle. In later times a series of
great cattle markets, one for each month in the year, was added
tl, t1St The name of the Stratford cattle market embodies
this feature of its history, “rother” being a good Saxon word for
horned cattle, a word freely employed in Early English, both alone *
and in composition. In the 16th century it was still in familiar
llte™ture b»t in official documents and especially
tphrS 0fu w lTlmi TludS Cowell> in bis law dictionary unde^
the headmg “Rother-beasts,” explains that “the name eompre
hends oxen cows steers, heifers, and such like horned beasts ”
and refeis to statutes of Elizabeth and James in support of the
usage. And Arthur Golding in 1567 translates Ovid’s lines
“Mille greges illi totidemque armenta per herbas
Errabant—”
... , , , , “A thousand flocks of sheep,
m. t thousand her<ls of rother-beasts, he in his fields did keep."
Hie word seems to have been longer retained and more freely
used in the Midland counties than elsewhere, and Shakesneare
himself employs it with colloquial precision in the restored line of
Timm of Athens: It is the pasture lards the rother’s sides.”
Many a time, no doubt, as a boy, during the spring and summer
fairs, he had risen with the sun, and, making his way from Henley
street to the bridge, watched the first arrivals of the “ large-eved
™ i(mh dnven “ 1from tbe rich pastures of the “ Red Horse
valley. There would be some variety and excitement in the spec¬
tacle as the droves of meditative oxen were invaded from time to
time by groups of Herefordshire cows lowing anxiously after their
skittish calves, as well as by the presence and disconcerting activity
of still smaller deer. And the boy would be sure to follow the
crowding cattle to the Rother Market and observe at leisure the
bumours of the ploughmen and drovers from the Feldon district
heavy intermittent talk would be in perfect keeping with the
bovine stolidity of the steers and heifers around them. There was
a market-cross at the head of the Rother expanse, and this was the
chief gathering place for the cattle-dealers, as the High Cross was
the rail}mg point of the dealers in corn and country produce. In