Day 6: Where Literary Giants Walked

I slept in a little this morning. Well, a lot, considering how early I went to sleep. It was about 9:00 when I got up. And then I had the English breakfast downstairs. This basically meant eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, and biscuits. And it was a lot of food. I don't know if it was worth the price, still. But I was too lazy to go elsewhere. I was also hoping to meet some other tourists. And I guess I could have, but besides some British businessmen, there was a German couple and a large group from Chicago, but they seemed all coupled off. After breakfast I headed off for another "Walks of London" tour—this one to go see "Dicken's and Shakespeare's London." This one started at St. Paul's tube, so I decided to brave the subway today. It was like 5 pounds for the whole day, so it was a pretty good deal. And I can really see the convenience, especially in the inner city. Man, I took that thing practically everywhere today.

Anyways, the Dicken's and Shakespeare tour group was bigger, but with absolutely no chicks. The guide was this old British lady. She was a pro: well-rehearsed with great info and totally authentically British accent. The first thing we did was walk around St. Paul's cathedral, which was huge, but a little obscured by construction. Then we walked around the streets and alleys between St. Paul's and the river. We saw things like taverns and old schoolhouses and graves that would have been around in Shakespeare's or Dicken's time. And, of course, we learned a little about their life histories in relation to the city. So it was a great time. It really helped me understand where Dickens and Shakespeare were coming from.

After the tour, I went and visited the Museum of London for a little bit. That had a whole bunch of artifacts and information about London. I was mostly interested in the B.C. stuff, about the various Roman and native settlements in the area. From there, I hopped back on the tube and headed back down to Westminster. I was still pretty full from breakfast, so I skipped lunch (although I did get a bottle of juice from a stand next to the tube). In Westminster, I went straight for the Abbey. That is one impressively old building. Lots of dead people (or at least memorials) in there. It's somewhat surprising how chaotically it's all organized, though. You can definitely tell it's been a organized extemporaneously throughout the ages. It was cool seeing where all these kings and queens were buried, especially the ones I knew a little bit about. Like Charles I and II. And I found it funny to see kings and queens from different families (i.e. War of the Roses) all buried in the same place, as if the whole of English history was actually one long, happy tale, all sanctioned or guided or whatever by the keepers of the Abbey.

At any rate, you can probably guess my favorite part of the Abbey. Yep, Poet's Corner. It's amazing how many writers and artists were there. Dylan Thomas. Thomas Hardy. Dickens. Handel. Newton. And, of course, Eliot. It was just awe inspiring to be in this place surrounded by such greatness, and think back to a time when these very same people perhaps stood in the exact same place—they too in awe of the greatness. And then them becoming a part of this greatness... It really helped me understand where Eliot may have been coming from on "Tradition and the Individual Talent." And it also put "Little Gidding" in perspective. I mean, here's Eliot, watching the world fall apart, and then he looks at the Abbey and all the history there, complete with its own chaos, but the chaos doesn't matter anymore because it's all in an immortal rest at the Abbey. No wonder he wanted to become Anglican—become a part of this. 'Cause suddenly he sees that the epoch of his own WWII England is just a big part of this gigantic beast of British history at the Abbey, and it doesn't matter anymore. I probably stood next to his memorial for 15 minutes just soaking it all in. The epitaph was especially poignant—"the fire and the rose are one." I can see why the Anglican church would want that epitaph, but I can also see how it's especially relevant to the Abbey; standing so close to the place where the two houses of roses finally became united in death and history.

I also appreciated Tennyson's memorial. It reminded me of "In Memoriam." That seems especially appropriate in regards to Curtis. I mean, it's not the exact same situation, but the words give comfort—"ring in the Christ that is to be." That's the only real solution, isn't it? Looking past death to rebirth. Not necessarily the literal rebirth of anything, but the rebirth that occurs as one's thoughts and ideas and history proliferate throughout the human race, rebirthing oneself a million times over.

So anyways, I explored the whole building and the gardens and whatever. At the very end, I saw Winston Churchill's memorial. I'm beginning to understand the greatness of that man. And I also found the tribute to JFK stirring.

Then I decided it was time to check out The Globe. Actually, the first thing I checked out was the Millenium Bridge. It's a long, pedestrian-only bridge that lines up just about perfectly with St. Paul's Cathedral on one side of the Thames, and The Globe on the other. So I took the tube back to St. Paul's and crossed the bridge, which is cool looking, but nothing overly spectacular. Then I went to the Globe. But I couldn't tour it because they were doing an afternoon production (I hadn't realized that there was a company there still doing plays). But I was delighted to find out that I could still purchase tickets for an evening performance. I mean, who cares about a tour when you can actually experience a play first-hand in the theater. I imagine the performance isn't quite as good as you would find in the finest London theatres, but again, who cares. It's the Globe. I can't understand why they weren't sold out. So anyways, I bought myself a seat. I thought about standing, but my legs were already tired from walking around so much. And then, with about 3 hours before the performance, I took a stroll down the south bank of the Thames to the London Bridge and the Towers of London. It was a pleasant, scenic walk. Both places were closed by the time I got there, but I did get to see the outside, at least.

From there I took the tube over to Piccadilly Circus to see what that was about. As near as I can tell, it's about nothing. Looks like there were a lot of theatres and shopping, but none of that really interested me. And from Piccadilly Circus, I took the tube up to the Royal British Museum, or at least as close as I could get to it. Katie told me I should visit it, but I couldn't find it on my Pocket Street maps. Then when I was walking along the Thames earlier today, I saw a tourist map showing where it was. I had to do some guesswork to find it, but I did eventually. Only it was closed. Luckily, it has late hours tomorrow night, so I can probably see it after Stonehenge. And then I hustled on back to the Globe. By the time I got there, I was starved. So I got a really quick bite to eat at the restaurant there. And I mean really quick—I had to get a cold salmon plate with potato salad. Wait, was it Salmon? I can't remember. Anyways, it was good. A bit expensive, but I was starved and the play was about to start. Outside the globe, they also have a whole bunch of stands that are made to look like they came out of Shakespeare's time. They sell fruit and nuts mostly. So I got a cup of chocolate covered fruits and nuts, which made for a great desert during the play.

As for the play itself, it was Richard II, so I wasn't expecting much. I mean I love the histories, but Richard II? Not the most entertaining read. Instead, it was a great performance. The guy playing Richard was fantastic. Very good at going crazy. And the way they interpreted/performed it made Shakespeare almost easy to understand. I loved the line, "let us sit around the fire and tell sad tales of the death of kings." And Richard's monologue in V.5 was amazing. I love his line (and I'm paraphrasing here because I'm not sure I remember it exactly) "man with nothing shall be pleased till he be eased with being nothing." That really spoke to me. And I think that all goes back to what I was saying a few days ago about "The Hours." If we cannot accept our own nothingness, then nothing will give us pleasure in life. Because no thing is capable of satisfying the individual need to immortalize oneself. It's what we do once we discover our nothingness that is important. It's like Moses discovering that he was nothing. The discovery didn't destroy him, but gave him a greater vision of what man is all about, thus refocusing his efforts on the only thing that really matters.

As for the globe, it was smaller than I had imagined, but cool. My seat was up one the second floor, on the right side of the stage. It was a pretty good view—partly obstructed, but not too bad. During intermission I went down and saw what it would be like to stand on the floor. You can still see things pretty well. And the cool thing is the way the actors interact with audience; flirting, throwing things at it. The audience could even lean up against the stage. Another interesting thing about the theatre was that the company was all males, so there was a little cross-dressing there. The men didn't really do a persuasive job playing women, so that stood out a little. It was almost like they wanted to point out the fact that they were men dressed as women, which made for a surreal performance. At the end of the play, as a sort of encore presentation, they did a little choreographed dance, which we as an audience really enjoyed. Lots of clapping and cheering. I wish we had been allowed to take video of it.

After the play, it was late. Probably about 10:30. So I went back to the hotel and watched a bit of television. Really, it wasn't too different from American television. Except all the commercials were at the end. Now the German stations, those were crazy. Tacky and stupid was more like it. Lots of virtually naked people and way too much techno. I did manage to find out the score of Tuesday's Lakers-Spurs game, though. Spurs won. Apparently Horry missed a three-pointer at the end that would have sealed it for the Lakers. Now they go back to LA, and I hope the Spurs can wrap it up.

Anyways, I have to get up early for the tour tomorrow morning. Good night.

Posted May 14, 2003 (11:40 PM) | Comments (1)