Norwich bulletin., 1922-08-16
Famous Literary Mysteries
Are the Shakespeare Relics a Myth9


 There is no literary shrine in the world that is visited by a greater number of people than Stratford-on-Avon. No one goes on a sightseeing tour of England without paying his respects to the great est literary genius the world has ever seen. There is much to be seen there that is. if authentic. quite closely con- nected with the bard. There is the house in which it Is declared that Shakespeare was born. It is now national property It contains the Shakespeare museum, which is full of relics. There is also the New Place, where Shakespeare died, and the Mary Arden farm.
 The StTatford iconociasts have thrown doubts as to the genuineness of any of these places as associated with Shakes peare in the degree they are represented to be. Is the Ann Hathaway cottage, then, nothing more than a fraud and is there not single genuine relic in the Shakespeare museum? At lease so cer- tain wiseacres would have the public now believe.
 No less important q Shakespeare critic than MT. Halliwell- ll-Phillipe, we are told. Is of the opinion that the probabilities are decidedly against the so-cailed cot tage ever having contained the woman whe, at the age of 27, married William Shakespeare when the latter was only 1S. Here is g pleasing ailusion dissipated at once, for those who hereafter visit the spot will conjure up the May morning when the Bard of All Time must have gone the same round on a, courting expe- dition, and probably sat under the caves with his arm around his future bride But what next? The next surprise is l the disestablishm ent and disendowment Of the old farmhouse still shown as that in which the poets mother, Mary Arden, l lived. It's history now is said to be alto gsther inconsistent with the theory that any of the ancestors of the Shakespeare stock ever resided there.
 Naturally. the people Of the little old English market town are resentful over | the scepticism. They would be the last | people fin the world to admit the truth of ! the story about Ann Hathaway's cottage l or Mary Arden's farm. even when backed 1 up by such competent critic as MT i Halliwe1i-Phil1ips. They have hitherto | found the fame of the prince of poets ex- l ceedingly useful to tAeir small borough With so much scepticism regarding the 1 place at present being noised abroad. it is possible that the time will come when visitors. instead of seeing the present 1 sign which guides them, will see, star- ! Ing them III the 1ace, the IOllOKinR. 1 the reputed cottage of Ann Hathaway ,'' and Mary Arden's Farm, labelled ''Tha uncertain building"
 Then suppose tilst tha Shakespeare 1 Museum were to meet the same fate
 and such is not unlikely, for the icono- clast has argued that many of the so- 1 called relics are spurious. Of what in. terest would be the ring that the bard is supposed to have worn, the chair and
 the books that he used, and so on Washington Irving described that an-
 cient chair many years ago. and is il possible that 41e was imposed upon? The American writer draws a picture of how
 Shakespeare may have sat in 1t when 2
 boy listening to the gossips and cron. iss of Stratford, dealing forth church
 yard tales and legendary anecdotes o the troublesome times of England"
 Irving remarks that the chair par
 took of the volatile nature of the Sant. ! Casa of Lorette. or the Flying Chair o . the Arabian Enchantress. for ''thoug! sold some time ago to a northern prfn
 ceSs, it has found it's way back agail
 to the old chimney corner"
 ,i To doubt Shakespeare's chair mean . depression in the relic and touris trade at Stratford and, after all, wha does it matter if the chair is a moder
 one, suppOsing every one believes it t
 be that in which Shakespeare sat whfl ' he composed ''Macbeth?'