“We are such stuff as dreams are made on” – Shakespeare
Today is my birthday and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my Mother; Marjorie Joy and my Father; John Derrek Alan for having me, although I’m sure unplanned, on such an auspicious day. If I hadn’t been born on the 23rd I wouldn’t have a story to tell about St George, Shakespeare and Me 😉
My Dad and Me, the last photo of us together
Me, my Mother and my little sister Sue
Discovering that I was born on St George’s Day and William Shakespeare’s birth & death day has been an endless source of interesting discoveries. During my London walkabouts and UK travel adventures I have come across reference to them both….inciting many photos to be taken.
On my many, many London walkabouts I have taken thousands of photos of the city and of course anything I find on Shakespeare and St George. Here are some images I have discovered along the way and some of me at various events in London; Trooping the Colour in 2010, the Green Man event in 2013, the Tudor Pull in 2014, at the Feast of St George in 2014 at Trafalgar Square, up The Shard with my daughter Cémanthe in 2014, and pretending I’m a Queen at Hampton Court Palace in 2015, just some of the fun things I have done in London.
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me on the Trinity Tide for the Green man event in January
and our helicopter flight over London on my birthday in 2015.
The traditionally accepted date of Saint George’s death in 303 AD, April 23rd, is it seems an auspicious day….for not only is it recognised as St Georges Day (the patron saint of England) but it is also William Shakespeare’s birth and death day, and my birthday… 😉
Since 23 April 1616 was the date of death and possibly anniversary of birth of the English playwright William Shakespeare (according to the Julian calendar), UNESCO declared this day the International Day of the Book.
Celebrated by many other countries around the world, in fact St George is even mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great. England is not the only country to embrace our lad St George, many other countries celebrate St George’s Day too, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia as well as which a great number of cities including Genoa in Italy, Beirut in Lebanon, Qormi and Victoria in Malta, Moscow in Russia, Ljubljana in Slovenia and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, amongst many others it’s also celebrated in the old Crown of Aragon in Spain — Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and Majorca. So we do indeed have much in common with many other parts of the world.
6th floor of New Change
Liberty Store in London
St George and the Dragon
at St Magnus the Martyr Church
at St Lawrence Jewry Church
As for William himself, born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the date of his birth, although unknown, is universally accepted as 23rd April, he was baptised on 26 April 1564 during what became known as the Elizabethan era – 1558-1603.
statue at Leicester Square
a bust at Guildhall Art Gallery
Shakepear’s Globe Theatre
Sundial with a Shakesperean quote at Westminster
The George Inn at Southwark –
London has paid homage to both men and you can find many statues, busts, stained glass windows and paintings featuring them both.
Today is also the first birthday I’m celebrating as a fully-fledged British Citizen. 🙂
For some reason I have always loved my name and my birth date. Now this is not from any egotistical aspect, merely that my name is quite lyrical and somehow my birthday, especially the April bit (not so much the year anymore 🙂 ), appeals to me.
Back in South Africa I was an autumn baby. April is the start of autumn in the Southern hemisphere, and as far as seasons go it’s not too bad. Of course what it did mean is that growing up I could never have a ‘pool party’. Not that that was an issue since we didn’t ever have a pool in our backyard, but it was the thought of the delightful possibilities of having a ‘pool party’ that appealed to me.
My birthday usually signified the slow slide into winter and was a time of chilly winds and mornings, not t-shirt type of weather at all. Not that I minded, since I am a ‘wrap up warm in lots of layers’ type of person; one of the reasons I love the UK so much!
So when I came over to the UK, it was to the sudden realisation that I was no longer an ‘autumn’ person, I am now a ‘spring’ person!!! and how marvellous that is. I adore spring in the UK and it has become quite my favourite time of year. Of course I still do love autumn and that season in the Northern hemisphere is something to behold. So lucky me, I have the best of both worlds.
Now a little secret here…..I never progressed very far in school and left as soon as I reasonably could without being considered an uneducated dunce! 😉 haha!! In fact I left school in what is Standard 8 (should have been Standard 9 but I failed one year! What was that I said about being a dunce?). heehee!! ( f.y.i. Standard 8 in South Africa is Grade 10).
So the sum total of that is I never got to study any of the subjects that were on the higher curriculum, one of which was Shakespeare! or the classics for that matter, not that it matters now, since I can read up on whatever I wish, coz thankfully I did learn to read!!! and we have google!
So where am I going with this? Well here’s the thing. I learned about Shakespeare at some stage of my life (don’t we all?) and of course his sayings and quotes and stories are quite well known, aka Romeo and Juliet! But more than that I did not know! So when I came to the UK, it was quite a surprise to discover that this dude shared my birthday!!! and not only that, he also died on that date!! how weird is that?
William Shakespeare - born and died April 23rd
So, now of course when I celebrate my birthday I always think of ‘our Will’, and remember that he shares such an auspicious day with me! Of course I have thoroughly enjoyed discovering all the places he hung out in London, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre is one of my favourite sights in London (of which there are many). My daughter and I have visited Stratford-Upon-Avon (his birthplace) and walked through the house where he was born (which was beyond awesome).
In London you are quite unable to miss the man, he is everywhere. I have seen him in so many places, that if you didn’t know who he was before, you would most assuredly get the message that this is one important dude! So who is Shakespeare? Here is a wee biography courtesy of wikipedia (of course).
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men.
He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare’s private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.
William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, a successful glover and alderman originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual birthdate remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, St George’s Day. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholar’s mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, since Shakespeare died 23 April 1616. He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare probably was educated at the King’s New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but the curriculum was dictated by law throughout England, and the school would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar and the classics.
And as if that is not enough!!!! I also discovered that I share a date with……….St George! He who slays dragons. St George’s day is 23April!! Which in a weird way is quite apt, since I have often been referred to as ‘a dragon’ and one of my very ex-boyfriends put up at sign at the entrance to my house in R.S.A. ‘Never mind the dog, beware the dragon’. He didn’t last long! 🙂 The boyfriend that is, not the dragon!!
So what do we know about St George? Well first of all he is the Patron Saint of England; of course!! heehee. Secondly he is a Saint (I can’t lay claim to that title for sure), and like the bard, he is everywhere to be seen.
Saint George and the dragon
Saint George (ca. 275/281 – 23 April 303) was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic (Western and Eastern Rites), Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox churches. He is immortalized in the tale of Saint George and the Dragon and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. His memorial is celebrated on 23 April, and he is regarded as one of the most prominent military saints.
Many Patronages of Saint George exist around the world, including: Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, India, Iraq, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Serbia and Russia, as well as the cities of Genoa, Amersfoort, Beirut, Fakiha, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Kumanovo, Ljubljana, Pomorie, Preston, Qormi, Rio de Janeiro, Lod, Barcelona, Moscow, Tamworth and the Maltese island of Gozo, as well as a wide range of professions, organizations and disease sufferers.
The episode of St George and the Dragon was a legend brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance. The earliest known depiction of the legend is from early eleventh-century Cappadocia, (in the iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church, George had been depicted as a soldier since at least the seventh century); the earliest known surviving narrative text is an eleventh-century Georgian text.
In the General Calendar of the Roman Rite the feast of Saint George is on April 23. St George is very much honored by the Eastern Orthodox Church, wherein he is referred to as a “Great Martyr”, and in Oriental Orthodoxy overall. His major feast day is on April 23 (Julian Calendar April 23 currently corresponds to Gregorian Calendar May 6) and that very coincidentally is the birth date of my youngest sister!
We, my daughter and I will be celebrating the day with a visit to Sweetie Pies Boutique Bakery in the morning and in the afternoon going on a walk……check it out!! heehee!!!
And, in order to celebrate not only my birthday, but Shakespeare’s too, as well as Saint George’s Day I have created a short video. Hope you enjoy it 🙂
Not Just a Granny 
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