The Shakespeare Code

It’s best to read Parts ONE  and TWO first.

A TOM’n’TRIX SPECIAL

Brothers and Sisters of The Shakespeare Code…..

On the way down to Sherborne….

……Your Cat, Trixie…..

……and the mysterious Tom ‘X’…

…….stopped off at Titchfield………

…….. where we saw a BRILLIANT performance of Richard III ….

…….given by the great Kevin Fraser’s Titchfield Shakespeare Festival Company….

www.titchfieldfestivaltheatre.com

…….in the beautiful Old Barn……

……with a STUNNING  central performance……..

….. by a SMOULDERING new young actor called Rick Oakley…..

Of this performance, Ed Howson wrote in the Daily Echo…..

As the “bottled spider”, Rick Oakley’s clearly deranged Richard dominated the stage, leering, gibbering and lolloping as he disposed of all who stood between him and the crown, his closecropped blonde hair and speech impediment always giving him an air of dangerous unpredictability….

Believe Your Cat, here is a star in the making….

We spent a night in the hugely characterful ‘The Bugle’……..

……where Tom’s bed broke into pieces…..

The Landlady’s only question was……

Was it in Room 1?

……as though Room 1 was to blame…..

We made our way by the slow train to Sherborne……

Tom had left his beloved Harley-Davidson……

…… back in romantic West London…..

He didn’t want to frighten the horses with the roar of his machine…..

And he didn’t want to frighten himself by driving down country lanes…

We passed the Sherborne Old Castle in the train……

……then alighted at Sherborne itself….

What a beautiful, beautiful town……

Your Cat would have been happy to have just slunk round its history-soaked streets….

But both of us were on….

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

……..to find the beautiful Avisa’s…….

……..crystal well……

……..in the IMMEDIATE vicinity of ‘The George’ tavern.

See: ‘Willobie his Avisa Decoded: Part Two. Topography.

As the Willobie author writes…..

At west side [of Sherborne] springs a crystal well:

And there doth this chaste Avisa dwell.

We mounted the hill that leads to Sherborne’s oldest pub…..

……..and found the town’s conduit…….

…….which had once supplied water to the whole of Sherborne……..

Could this be the…..

 …….crystal well…..

…….the Willobie author writes about?

…….the well that each of Avisa’s suitors….

…….tries……?

As the hill grew steeper and steeper…….

……. and ‘The George’ proved to be further and further away from the Conduit……

……..Your Cat and her Tom HAD to admit it was unlikely they had found ‘the crystal well’…..

They found ‘The George’ though…..

And a warm welcome from its Landlord and Lady……

…….Brian and Jacqui……

Tom ordered a pint of bitter…….

……and Your Cat was served with a saucer of delicious, Dorset cream….

Before our adventure, Tom had been sleuthing round the run down…….

………if EXORBITANTLY priced…….

……. London Library……

…….and discovered in the TOPOGRAPHY section……..

……..in the building’s dank and dingy basement……

…….a book that suggested there might have been a ‘New Well’ near ‘The George’……

Leaving his pint BARELY TOUCHED……..

…… Tom rushed off……

…..while Your Cat chatted to hosts Brian and Jacqui…….

……and discovered something EXTRAORDINARY……

Tom returned, hot and sweaty…….

…….in semi-triumph……

He hadn’t found a well, no…..

Not as such….

But he HAD found a ‘Newell Cottage’……

 

It was, he admitted, a few hundred yards away……

……..but it was just possible that…….

…….Newell……

…….was originally……

…….New Well……

Your Cat replied….

That’s pushing it a bit, Tom…..

…..even by Shakespeare Code standards.

Besides, our Landlord has something to show you…..

Brian was about to give Tom the shock of his life……

Come round the back

……he said…..

And took Tom out of the pub……

………..left through the arched passageway……

………..to the back yard……

……to the old Coaching House…..

He pointed to a brick structure, surrounded by dustbins and motor-bikes….

If that isn’t a well, then what is it?

…..he asked….

Brian was clearly right……

Like the Fairy Stories of old…..

………in the UNLIKELIEST of places…..

……..and looking NOTHING like the way he had expected it to look….

TOM HAD FOUND HIS CRYSTAL WELL!!!

We were  so excited by the discovery we IMMEDIATELY phoned the Chief Agent, Stewart Trotter…….

………who was as delighted as we were….

You know

….he said…..

……this reminds me of an incident in the summer of 1999……

…….when my great friend, the distinguished actor Mike Burnside…..

…….and I went down to Titchfield……

…….and called on a villager……..

We told him that his cottage……….

…… had been mentioned by William Shakespeare in Love’s Labour’s Lost!!!

Don Armado in the play…….

…….a satirical portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh…..

…….says to Holofernes…….

…….a satirical portrtait of John Florio……….

Do you not educate youth at the

charge-house on the top of the mountain?

You should have seen the look on the rustic’s face!

He invited us in…….

And showed us the remains of a secure room in an upstairs room……

It was the ‘charge-house’ itself!

Earlier in the year (on 15th February to be exact) the cottager had dismissed Shakespeare’s whole association with Titchfield as……

…..a completely uncorroborated but pleasant legend….

Now ‘Titchfield Ken’ gives guided Shakespeare tours……

I wrote about this incident in 2002 in Love’s Labour’s Found…..

But enough of this bucolic reminiscence…..

We’ve all got work to do…….

If Avisa was the ‘creation’ of Four Graces……..

…….as the Willobie author asserts….

……how could her ‘Sire’ be Sir Walter Raleigh?……..

….. and how could she be living in a pub?…..

Was she real?

Or was she…..

……fained…?

We’ve cracked the Topography Code of Willobie his Avisa…..

……now we have to……

CRACK THE LANGUAGE CODE….

SO, BACK TO WEST LONDON,

TRIX’n’TOM,

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

NOTE:

The Shakespeare Code would like to thank

BRIAN AND JACQUI

Landlord and Landlady of ‘The George’

http://www.thegeorgesherborne.co.uk/

……without whose kindness, curiosity and concern……

…… The Crystal Well might have lain undiscovered through all eternity…..

NOW READ PART FOUR: Echoes of Shakespeare in ‘Willobie his Avisa.’