To be able hold a document in my hand that William Shakespeare held in his hands is hard to put in words. Surreal is a word that I am sure will come to mind quite a bit this trip.

I met Dr. Bearman at the Stratford Record office at the end of his work day. This office holds documents from Shakespeare's time as well as current day records. Things like marriage licenses, court papers, wills, and birth records, all from the Stratford region, are kept here.

Once we signed in, Dr. Bearman took us down several flights of stairs, grabbed some keys, and unlocked a large, heavy door. It was a bit like entering a bank vault. He turned on the lights, which were a strange yellow that made us all look a little sickly in the photos and video. The lights are usually left off to protect these old and important documents.

There were several large documents that had already been set out for us to look at. We wasted no time; he started to explain the Corn and Malt Survey with Shakespeare's name clearly visible.

With the help of Dr. Bearman, I tried to read some papers that had Shakespeare's name on them. The writing is very different than our own so it took me some time to decipher. For example, some "s" letters look like " ſ " when they are at the beginning or middle of a word. This is called a long s. Also, W's were actually double U's, so "sword" looked like ſuuord.

Each time he pointed out Shakespeare name on a document I felt like I was taking trip to the past. By far, the best part was a little piece of paper that Queen Elizabeth I had signed. I tried to make out the handwritting on the warrant with little luck, so Dr. Bearman read it aloud for us.

Cheers,

Go to the next day >

Copyright © 2006 ProjectExplorer, LTD. All Rights Reserved.