A week ago we took a day off classes and went on a field
trip to Warwick Castle and Stratford upon Avon. I had been to both of these places before when I visited
England four years ago with my family, and it was interesting to see what had
changed and what had not.
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| Warwick Castle |
Our
first stop was Warwick Castle, which is a legitimate Medieval Castle. It is also very touristy and caters to
British elementary field trips (British schoolchildren were all over the
place). This was a new development
that I do not recall from my first visit.
The castle is fun to visit, but it doesn’t exactly carry a feel of
authenticity (think Disney World gone Medieval, except it is a real castle). The castle is filled with wax figures
made by the famed Madame Tussaud.
This gave it a rather creepy feel in the medieval tunnels...you turn the
corner and THERE IS A MAN WITH A SPEAR WHO IS GOING TO KILL ME. Oh wait; it’s just wax figures. There is also an upstairs portion of
the Castle with wax figures to imitate a late Victorian garden party. This part was very entertaining as it
filled us in on Lady Daisy who had once lived there, and all of the affairs she
had in her life, including some with royalty. Extremely scandalous. There was also an exhibit featuring the
popular BBC TV show Merlin, which
also has fans in the USA. It was
extra money, so we didn’t go in.
Dr. Ryken told us it was of course, “cheap and tawdry”. There was an archery booth, which I
participated in. It was fun and
got me in touch with my inner warrior princess. There were sword exhibits, a bird of prey exhibit (including
a falcon demonstration), and a trebuchet demonstration. A trebuchet is a large catapult (they
were used in Lord of the Rings), and
it was the highlight of the exhibits.
They hyped it up with music and an exciting commentary of how the
trebuchet worked. It took a while
to wind it up (they had a person in charge yell at the others to walk them
through it. It was like watching a
coxswain with his or her boat). The
MC also graphically explained trebuchet sickness, which is where you walk on
the wheel so long you become disoriented, throw up, then the wheel turns, and
it ends up on you. (This did not
happen during the demonstration.
But the fifth grade British children loved the details). The cannon ball went very far, and it
was cool to see. Later on, they
were going to repeat the show with a fireball, and I was a little disappointed
I missed that.
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| The Trebuchet |
After
Warwick, we piled back on the bus to go to Stratford. This is Shakespeare Mecca. He was born there, married his wife Anne Hathaway there, and
retired and died there. Our first stop was Anne Hathaway’s cottage. Shakespeare and Anne actually lived
there when they first got married because they were dirt poor. Shakespeare was eighteen when they
married and Anne was twenty-six.
She was also three months pregnant. That’s right: Shakespeare had a shotgun wedding. Our tour guide called Will “Anne’s boy
toy”; she then took a sip of water and made a comment about how she wished it
was gin and not water. She was definitely one of the most entertaining tour
guides of the trip. Later that
night, when we saw a performance of Twelfth
Night, I noticed there is a comment in the play said by Duke Orsino about
never marrying a woman older than you.
Makes you wonder about Shakespeare’s marriage.
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| Anne Hathaway's Cottage |
The
cottage had wood beams dating back to medieval times and a beautiful
garden. We also learned that they
used to clean their chimney by sending down a chicken on a rope…the chicken’s
flapping wings would clean it.
PETA would definitely not approve.
Afterwards, we saw the ruins of New Place, which is where Shakespeare
retired. The house is no longer
standing, but there was a beautiful garden and an archaeological dig of the
house’s foundation to see. We then
saw Shakespeare’s grave, and the famous inscription that demands his bones not
be moved. So far it has worked for
him. We then saw his birthplace,
which was a small cottage.
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| Shakespeare's Birthplace. The guy in the window was reciting lines from Romeo and Juliet as Juliet. |
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| His grave, with the sign asking the bones not be moved. |
To the end the night, we saw a
performance of Twelfth Night. This play has always held a special
place in my heart because it is the first Shakespearean comedy I ever read, and
in high school I had to act out a scene for my school’s annual Shakespeare
festival (I was Feste). The
performance was amazing! So funny and very well acted. It was in a modern setting, and the set
was very cool: it had a pool of water onstage that Violet and Sebastian both
swam out of to represent washing ashore.
As it was a modern setting they did take some liberties with the text;
most notably Malvolio intentionally mooned the audience (his costume he wears
with the yellow stockings left little to the imagination), and Sir Toby
accidently mooned us as well. Poor
Dr. Ryken already hates the play and was none too pleased with the liberties taken. So far I have seen four Shakespeare
plays this summer, two modern and two traditional. I’ve enjoyed both and comparing the two experiences. All in all, it was a good trip out of
Oxford, and hopefully all this new Shakespeare knowledge will help us do well
on our upcoming test!
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