The exterior of St George's GuildhallCredit: Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk
Posted on 12/02/2024 5:47:30 AM PST by SunkenCiv
The archway was uncovered during archaeological investigations and is believed to date back to the time when Shakespeare and his company performed there.
A remarkable 600-year-old doorway, potentially leading to legendary English playwright William Shakespeare's dressing room, has been uncovered in the UK's oldest working theatre.
The archway was discovered at St George's Guildhall in King's Lynn, Norfolk, during archaeological investigations sparked by curiosity about a "weird shape" in a wall.
When two noticeboards were taken down, an 18th-century wall was exposed. As bricks from this wall were removed, an even older archway came into view...
St George's Guildhall, which hosted its first recorded performances in 1445, predating Shakespeare's birth, played a vital role in the theatrical scene of the time. The guildhall was a popular venue for touring companies, including Queen Elizabeth's Men, a troupe established by royal command in 1583, who performed there ten times in the late 1500s.
Recent research by Professor Matthew Woodcock from the University of East Anglia has supported the local belief that Shakespeare performed at the guildhall with the Earl of Pembroke's Men in 1593, during the closure of London theatres due to the plague.
Today, the Grade I-listed guildhall, the largest intact medieval guildhall in England, is the only theatre in England where Shakespeare is known to have performed.
(Excerpt) Read more at euronews.com ...
The exterior of St George's GuildhallCredit: Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk
Exit, stage left....................
Pretty cool.
It’s gonna make a nice mosque.
Ping me when they find the lost play in his own Shaky hand.
Sent on your link to my research buddy, who is one of the main Shakespearean scholars in the world, though situated in New Zealand. I often send him your links and he’s always pleased so, for him, I thank you, too.
Love ‘em! Thank you.
Just dumb luck the building is still around after the Norwich Blitch.
At which point I have to wonder if this might be the only theater in existence where Shakespeare once might actually have worked in that’s still standing (not burned down).
Good to know! I had it on deck for a day or so, it was published in August and I hadn’t seen it before.
I thought it would be at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. That was from the 1500’s.
Or in Stratford-upon-Avon where he was born. I visited there a few years ago and went through his house.
There are a lot of very old buildings out in the country, any surviving authentic inns may have been used. Around the previous turn of the century a London neighborhood where Shakespeare used to hang out, sleep, drink, etc, that had managed to survive the Great Fire (1666) was photographed just before it was demolished to make way for late-Victorian construction. The Blackfriar's theater (the one where he was a partner) didn't make it either, but a reproduction stands on the site. Ah well.
Whoops. The reproduction was built in the US. My mistake.
A reconstruction of The Globe has been built I think on the Southwark site where it stood (it burned down during a performance of All Is True, if memory serves) after it was moved from north of the river.
His marital home in Stratford hasn't survived, but his birthplace still exists, as does the home of Anne Hathaway in Shottery.
mark
The known lost play is “Cardenio”, a page or so survives. Shakespeare collaborated with some younger playrights on the revision to the play “Sir Thomas More”.
It’s possible, even likely, that at least some were lost, but he died early in his 50s and his output was quality over quantity (although regarding Shakespeare’s reputation of not striking a line, that is, he wrote long, Ben Jonson said, “would he have struck a thousand”). Due to the 1666 fire, and the prior deaths of most or all of the people who knew him, the First Folio probably represents all of his work his old colleagues could get their hands on.
Quartos, which were scribbled-down excerpts made during play performances, have survived here and there. In one of these the “To be or not to be” soliloquy of Hamlet doesn’t show up until Act II.
Anyway, Bill’s handwriting:
https://nosweatshakespeare.com/sir-thomas-more-play/
‘Autocorrect’
*sigh*
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