William Shakespeare was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon in England in 1616. Stratford is the small town (~20,000 people) where Shakespeare was born, and eventually retired back to. His body is said to be buried 17 feet beneath the ground and he placed a curse on his crave in order to not be disturbed after death. The curse reads:
Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forebeare
To digg the dust enclosed heare;
Bleste be the man that spares thes stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones
Shakespeare is buried alongside his family in Holy Trinity Church including his beloved wife, Anne Hathaway, where his body will remain in his hometown for good.
Prior to visiting Shakespeare’s grave in Stratford, I did not know much about the town or his final resting place. I was excited to stand so close to the body of such a historic literary icon as well as see his hometown and walk the same streets that he did during his life. I also knew nothing about The Royal Shakespeare Company before traveling to London, so I knew the workshop and show that we were going to experience would be exciting. I had always been forced to study Shakespeare throughout my years of school, and prior to our trip it had just seemed like a historic name, but visiting Stratford seemed to make it all real, and actually add relevance to the years of attempting to decipher his writings.
Visiting Stratford-Upon-Avon was an eye-opening experience for me. As I mentioned before, growing up I was forced to read Shakespeare and the name always held a negative connotation for me because of my struggles with it in early English classes. My senior year of high school is when I was finally able to really appreciate his works, and so traveling to his hometown during my freshman year of college was very appropriate timing. Walking his streets and seeing both his birthplace and grave were surreal experiences, but just observing the enormous influence he had on not only his hometown, but London in general, was astonishing. Visiting his actual resting place inside Holy Trinity Church was very interesting for me. Hearing about how adamant he was about his grave not being disturbed just shows how truly dedicated he was to his hometown of Stratford. There were many people walking around and visiting his gravesite, paying respects to the greatest writer of the English language right in his own town. Standing right above his grave was a very unique and interesting experience.
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