Holy Trinity Church, better known as Shakespeare’s Church, where the famous poet and playwright was baptised on 24th April 1564 and buried on 25th April 1616.
The church was begun in 1210 and looks much the same as the church Shakespeare would have known and worshipped in as a boy and again on his return to Stratford in retirement.
During Henry VIII’s reformation, the original chantry, rood screen, much of the carving and most of the glass were destroyed. Henry closed the college and sold off the tax income privileges, “the duty of employing a Priest and looking after the Chancel went with the privileges” (Holy Trinity Church, 2008).
In 1605, the son of a glove-maker - William Shakespeare, purchased a share in them and with it, the right of burial in the chancel. He is not alone in the chancel, buried along side him are his wife, Ann Hathaway, his daughter, Suzanna and son-in-law, Dr John Hall.
During his daughter’s lifetime, Shakespeare’s funerary monument was erected. Made by Gerard Johnson and mounted on the north wall of the chancel, it features a bust of the poet holding a quill pen in one hand and a piece of paper in the other.
Shakespeare's Funerary MonumentBelow the bust is engraved a Latin epitaph and a poem in English. The poem reads:
STAY PASSENGER, WHY GOEST THOV BY SO FAST? READ IF THOV CANST, WHOM ENVIOVS DEATH HATH PLAST WITH IN THIS MONVMENT SHAKSPEARE: WITH WHOME, QVICK NATVRE DIDE: WHOSE NAME, DOTH DECK YS TOMBE, FAR MORE, THEN COST: SIEH ALL, YT HE HATH WRITT, LEAVES LIVING ART, BVT PAGE, TO SERVE HIS WITT.
The bust is reputed to be a good likeness of William Shakespeare, although last year a startling discovery was made when a previously unknown sitter in the Cobbe portrait was identified by one of the world’ s leading Shakespearean experts, as a portrait of Shakespeare. Claimed to be the only portrait of him painted during his lifetime.
Is this the real Shakespeare?
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