0:00:02 > 0:00:06BAND STRIKES UP
0:00:06 > 0:00:08Hello! If you've ever said,
0:00:08 > 0:00:11"I must be cruel to be kind" or "I'm in a pickle"
0:00:11 > 0:00:13or "on a wild goose chase",
0:00:13 > 0:00:15you've been quoting the great man himself.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17In the week that the country has been
0:00:17 > 0:00:21celebrating 400 years of William Shakespeare's legacy,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25I'm here in his hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon, to
0:00:25 > 0:00:27search for the religious influences
0:00:27 > 0:00:29that may have shaped his work.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32I decipher medieval wall paintings...
0:00:32 > 0:00:35glimpse a 16th-century Book of Common Prayer
0:00:35 > 0:00:38believed to have belonged to him...
0:00:38 > 0:00:41And look for answers in the inscription on Shakespeare's
0:00:41 > 0:00:43final resting place.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52And we join Shakespearean actor Simon Callow as he reveals
0:00:52 > 0:00:55what it's like to perform the great Bard's work.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08"Music oft hath such a charm to make bad good
0:01:08 > 0:01:10"And good provoke to harm",
0:01:10 > 0:01:13wrote Shakespeare in Measure For Measure and today, we have no
0:01:13 > 0:01:16shortage of music to inspire you, with hymns
0:01:16 > 0:01:18from across the country,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22including a special performance of one of the Bard's own sonnets
0:01:22 > 0:01:27performed here at the church where he was both baptised and buried.
0:01:27 > 0:01:28But we begin with a joyous hymn
0:01:28 > 0:01:31that Shakespeare himself would have known,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34sung for us now in London, where the Bard wrote most of his plays.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17BELL TOLLS
0:04:17 > 0:04:21It's a historic day here in Stratford-upon-Avon as 20,000
0:04:21 > 0:04:24people have gathered to commemorate William Shakespeare,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27400 years after his death.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32But it's not all sorrow and tragedy.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37- Hip, hip!- ALL:- Hooray! - Hip, hip!- ALL:- Hooray!
0:04:37 > 0:04:40- Hip, hip, hip!- Hooray!
0:04:40 > 0:04:43LIVELY JAZZ
0:04:44 > 0:04:45In a dramatic twist,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48both his death and his birth are marked on the same date.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54He is the most celebrated playwright in the history
0:04:54 > 0:04:55of the theatre.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57It's quite hard to overstate the influence his work has
0:04:57 > 0:04:59had on language and culture,
0:04:59 > 0:05:04so it's no wonder his hometown is putting on quite a show.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10But although his works are well known,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13his personal faith is more difficult to uncover.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Perhaps the first clue lies in the town's Guild Chapel
0:05:19 > 0:05:22that was well known to Shakespeare's family.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25As Dr Paul Edmondson explains, the young Shakespeare grew up
0:05:25 > 0:05:28in a time when Catholic imagery was suppressed.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32It was a turbulent time for religion.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36The state had moved from Protestant to Catholic to Protestant again
0:05:36 > 0:05:38and it was a time surely of
0:05:38 > 0:05:42psychological trauma for the people.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45Shakespeare has a direct connection to this very chapel, doesn't he?
0:05:45 > 0:05:48He does. When his father was Chamberlain for the borough council,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51John Shakespeare ordered the whitewashing
0:05:51 > 0:05:54and the defacing of the medieval images here.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56So this wall painting
0:05:56 > 0:05:59that we can still sort of see is important, then?
0:05:59 > 0:06:04The Last Judgment in this chapel was also known as a "doom image"
0:06:04 > 0:06:06and in Macbeth,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09when Shakespeare's conveying just how awful
0:06:09 > 0:06:13the image of the murdered King Duncan is, he talks about it being
0:06:13 > 0:06:15like "the great doom's image",
0:06:15 > 0:06:18perhaps thinking of paintings like this one.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21And in Hamlet, when he mentions Purgatory,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24a Roman Catholic belief, he also mentions
0:06:24 > 0:06:28the death of 20,000 men who go to their graves like beds.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32When you see what this picture was like and the souls are rising
0:06:32 > 0:06:36at the last judgment, it looks like they're just climbing out of bed.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40So it's becoming clearer and clearer that Shakespeare was heavily
0:06:40 > 0:06:42influenced by religious iconography of his time.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46I think so and he's really been brave in the way he's able to
0:06:46 > 0:06:50remind people of religious issues, but he wasn't allowed
0:06:50 > 0:06:53to refer to them explicitly, because of censorship.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56But he could allude to it and as the wall paintings had vanished,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59they're re-emerging in these vibrant, bold,
0:06:59 > 0:07:01brave images on stage.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04DRUMS
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Shakespeare is undoubtedly Stratford-upon-Avon's most famous
0:09:11 > 0:09:16son, but of course he spent most of his professional life in London.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19And it's from the capital that Shakespearean actor Simon Callow
0:09:19 > 0:09:23shines a little more light on the Bard's relationship with the church.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35"They have their exits and their entrances
0:09:35 > 0:09:38"and one man in his time plays many parts,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42"His acts being seven ages."
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Famous words from As You like It,
0:09:45 > 0:09:49and surely the way Shakespeare saw the world.
0:09:50 > 0:09:56We're all actors in this "wide and universal theatre", as he puts it.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04I've been enchanted, enraptured by the works of William Shakespeare
0:10:04 > 0:10:06since I was five years old.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09I've acted in his plays, I've written books about them,
0:10:09 > 0:10:11I've done a one-man show to try
0:10:11 > 0:10:15to find out who the man was who wrote these plays.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18He gives incomparably the greatest account of what it is to be
0:10:18 > 0:10:23a human being, but what of the spiritual dimension of his plays?
0:10:27 > 0:10:28This is Southwark Cathedral.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32In Shakespeare's day, it was St Saviour's Parish Church,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34just a short walk from the Globe Theatre.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38We obviously don't know how often
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Shakespeare will have come to church here,
0:10:40 > 0:10:42although there was an expectation
0:10:42 > 0:10:47and a legal obligation upon people at one stage to go to church.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52We do know, however, that he paid for his brother's funeral here,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55and we also know that that funeral had to be
0:10:55 > 0:11:00arranged for the morning so that the show could go on in the afternoon.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03'But the theatre was by no means universally
0:11:03 > 0:11:05'accepted by the establishment.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08'Indeed, when Shakespeare first came to the capital,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11'all productions had been forced outside of the City of London.
0:11:14 > 0:11:15'But I've come to Shoreditch,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19'near the site of the first purpose-built playhouse in London,
0:11:19 > 0:11:21'to discuss with Professor Alison Shell
0:11:21 > 0:11:24'how it wasn't all condemnation.'
0:11:24 > 0:11:25Here in Shoreditch,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27on the foundations of this actual church,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30was the first actors' church,
0:11:30 > 0:11:35so that tells us there was a church which looked favourably on actors.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37Yes, and I think that's partly because
0:11:37 > 0:11:38the techniques of actors,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41erm, were so often used by preachers themselves.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Both professions of preacher and player were in the business
0:11:44 > 0:11:49of communication and effective, entertaining communication.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53If you really had to, Alison, would you describe Shakespeare as
0:11:53 > 0:11:56a religious man or a non-religious man?
0:11:57 > 0:12:00I've never had the impression that he was somebody who found
0:12:00 > 0:12:05personal piety as important as many of his contemporaries did,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08and the interesting point of comparison here is John Donne.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12You never get away from religion in what Donne writes.
0:12:12 > 0:12:13Yes, by comparison with John Donne,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16who's always thinking about things in eternal terms,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20Shakespeare seems sublimely to connect with human life,
0:12:20 > 0:12:22with what it's like to be a human being.
0:12:22 > 0:12:28Yes, and in an age when Protestant theology was obsessed with
0:12:28 > 0:12:32the sinfulness of humanity, Shakespeare is offering
0:12:32 > 0:12:36a much more positive alternative, celebrating humanity.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38That's a religious perspective, too.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45'The idea of a spirituality rooted in human life is something that
0:12:45 > 0:12:48'appeals to me, whether Shakespeare intended it or not.'
0:12:50 > 0:12:55But what we do know, me and my fellow actors know,
0:12:55 > 0:13:01is that when we open ourselves to his work, we experience
0:13:01 > 0:13:06an extraordinary life force, a kind of profundity of emotion
0:13:06 > 0:13:12and experience which almost amounts to a religious experience for us.
0:13:18 > 0:13:25# Immortal, invisible God only wise... #
0:15:27 > 0:15:31'I hadn't expected to find a shop that celebrates Christmas
0:15:31 > 0:15:34'all year round on my trail through Shakespeare's Stratford,
0:15:34 > 0:15:37'but it's a reminder that the 12 days of Christmas
0:15:37 > 0:15:41'and their festivities were hugely popular in Elizabethan England.'
0:15:41 > 0:15:44It is the perfect opportunity for me
0:15:44 > 0:15:47to tell you about our Christmas card competition.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51It's your chance to create one of ten winning designs that will
0:15:51 > 0:15:56go on sale later this year, with the proceeds going to Children in Need.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00The closing date is May 23rd, so, yes, please, do get designing.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04All the information and terms and conditions you need to enter
0:16:04 > 0:16:05are on our website...
0:16:11 > 0:16:15Now, this Thursday marks 40 days since Easter Sunday,
0:16:15 > 0:16:17which means it's Ascension Day.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21Our next hymn celebrates Christ's ascension into Heaven
0:16:21 > 0:16:23in the glorious setting of St Albans Cathedral.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32# Rejoice, the Lord is King... #
0:18:53 > 0:18:56'I'm looking for clues to unlock Shakespeare's beliefs.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00'His writing was undoubtedly influenced by the Bible,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03'but I've been invited to take a look at another object that's also
0:19:03 > 0:19:06'very precious.'
0:19:06 > 0:19:11- So, Daniel, here it is. - So, this is it.- Wow, it's so tiny.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15- Tiny and very, very fragile. - Yeah, I can see that.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17Let's get this out and put it there.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20- So this is the Book of Common Prayer...- Uh-huh.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23..and it was first published in 1549,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26and it's really the handbook of the English Church.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29And this is special because it's not just any common book of prayer,
0:19:29 > 0:19:31this could actually be his.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34Yes, it seems so, and what we do is if we open here...
0:19:36 > 0:19:38..we see Shakespeare's signature.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40Wow, has that been authenticated?
0:19:40 > 0:19:43We very much hope this is Shakespeare's personal copy
0:19:43 > 0:19:45- since that would be such a wonderful treasure to have.- Uh-huh.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49But even if it wasn't his personal copy, he certainly would have
0:19:49 > 0:19:52known the contents by heart, as every worshipper in England would.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55You say he would have known this book by heart, is that because
0:19:55 > 0:19:59he would have had to have read it, or because he would have wanted to?
0:19:59 > 0:20:01Simply because he would have heard it
0:20:01 > 0:20:04repeated on Sundays at every church service, at morning prayer,
0:20:04 > 0:20:08at evening prayer, so simply by repetition and simply by a kind of
0:20:08 > 0:20:11common experience, he would have come to know them.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13How significant is this prayer book
0:20:13 > 0:20:15in understanding Shakespeare's beliefs?
0:20:15 > 0:20:18I think this book is absolutely crucial in understanding both
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Shakespeare's beliefs and his plays
0:20:20 > 0:20:24because it is often the secret hidden ingredient in those plays.
0:20:26 > 0:20:27'I'm intrigued to hear
0:20:27 > 0:20:30'just how Shakespeare uses the prayer book in his work,
0:20:30 > 0:20:32'but first Daniel takes me to
0:20:32 > 0:20:36'the schoolroom that was also a huge influence on his life.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39'Today it's part of King Edward VI School.'
0:20:40 > 0:20:43This is where he would have gone to school between the age of about
0:20:43 > 0:20:46seven and about 14, and he didn't really have much other education.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49He didn't go to university, so this is not only
0:20:49 > 0:20:52- one of his classrooms, this is really his only classroom.- OK.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54Here is where he would have first encountered plays,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58so he would have seen plays here and also acted in school plays,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01so it really is, you know, on both those levels.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04He's learning but he's also figuring out about drama
0:21:04 > 0:21:06and figuring out about the theatre.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08So let's talk more about the Book of Common Prayer
0:21:08 > 0:21:10and its influence on him.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12So, what the prayer book does is
0:21:12 > 0:21:14it gives a kind of structure to human life.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17When we're born, we're baptized, according to the prayer book.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20When we fall in love and marry, we say the words from the prayer book.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25So, really, the prayer book gives a kind of reservoir of things to do
0:21:25 > 0:21:26in times of extreme emotion,
0:21:26 > 0:21:30and I think that's why Shakespeare, as a dramatist, was drawn to it.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32There's a wonderful scene towards the end of Hamlet
0:21:32 > 0:21:35when Hamlet interrupts Ophelia's funeral,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38and because she's committed suicide she's not allowed to be
0:21:38 > 0:21:41buried in church ground, and Hamlet is horrified by this.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45And for me that's the voice of Shakespeare, who believed that these
0:21:45 > 0:21:49church rites were these crucial, emotional, important events.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52So, what's your personal view, then, of his beliefs?
0:21:52 > 0:21:54I think what's amazing about Shakespeare's plays is that
0:21:54 > 0:21:57they're like a mirror, so that whoever looks upon them
0:21:57 > 0:21:59can see him or herself in them.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02For me, personally, the important spiritual lesson that comes from
0:22:02 > 0:22:06Shakespeare's plays is, I suppose, compassion.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09That's the thing I think he truly believes in.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13It's incredible to think that such was Shakespeare's brilliance
0:22:13 > 0:22:17he's thought to have written 38 plays and 154 sonnets,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20one of which was later turned into a hymn.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24So, now, for a special performance of Sonnet 146,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28which is often thought to be his only Christian sonnet.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31And it's performed here at Holy Trinity Church,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34where Shakespeare was baptised and later buried.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33Sonnet 146 is important as it's Shakespeare's
0:25:33 > 0:25:37only piece of work that can be described as overtly Christian.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39But that doesn't make it any easier
0:25:39 > 0:25:42to pin down exactly what Shakespeare believed.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Dr Anjna Chouhan explains why.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49Now, a lot of people will look at the sonnet and say,
0:25:49 > 0:25:50well, it's profoundly spiritual.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54It's talking about the idea of the soul lasting for ever,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57when the body is going to "perish and be food for worms",
0:25:57 > 0:25:59as he says in the sonnet.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02But some other scholars will actually argue that,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05this could be read as a secular sonnet as well,
0:26:05 > 0:26:07because the focus is on the body.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09There's a lot of talk about earthliness
0:26:09 > 0:26:13and earthly sinfulness and lease and buying and selling,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16so there's quite a lot of commercial language in there too,
0:26:16 > 0:26:20so really you could bring whatever you want to the sonnet.
0:26:20 > 0:26:25But in his lifetime, he definitely identified himself as a Christian?
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Almost certainly, yes, of course a Christian,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30but, you know, ultimately, I think that Shakespeare's work
0:26:30 > 0:26:34means all sorts of things to everybody, no matter what your race,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37gender, where you live in the world, what age you are.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39It's special to everyone.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45As my search nears its end, I wonder if Shakespeare's grave and its
0:26:45 > 0:26:50inscription gives us any final clues to what he personally believed.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53He lies buried close to the altar of Holy Trinity Church.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forebeare
0:26:58 > 0:27:01"To digg the dust enclosed heare
0:27:01 > 0:27:05"Bleste be the man that spares thes stones,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08"And curst be he that moves my bones."
0:27:11 > 0:27:14So, Paul, what clues to Shakespeare's spirituality
0:27:14 > 0:27:20- lie here, on his tombstone?- He says, "for Jesus' sake", so it's a prayer.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23- Mm-hm.- It's two rhyming couplets,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25so it's a poem.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29It's a blessing and there's a curse at the very end,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33- "curst be he that moves" his bones. - Interesting.
0:27:33 > 0:27:34Why that curse at the end?
0:27:34 > 0:27:37He seems really clear that he wants to remain here.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40This is a man who, like the rest of the country,
0:27:40 > 0:27:43said that they believed in the resurrection of the body,
0:27:43 > 0:27:47- week-in, week-out in church.- Mm-hm. - There's a theatricality about it.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49There's a sense of doubt that we all feel
0:27:49 > 0:27:53as well as hoping in Jesus' company.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56And that hope is expressed in our next hymn,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59sung here at Shakespeare's church, encouraging us
0:27:59 > 0:28:03to praise God in words and music, both in this world and the next.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08# Angel voices ever singing... #
0:30:22 > 0:30:24Here at Shakespeare's final resting place,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27thousands of people are waiting to pay their respects.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31The church has become the focal point of the commemorations.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35I'm sure the Bard would have appreciated such an audience.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42My time here has shown me that, in life as well as death,
0:30:42 > 0:30:44Shakespeare was such an inspired dramatist
0:30:44 > 0:30:46that he managed to keep everyone guessing
0:30:46 > 0:30:49about the person behind his plays.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Perhaps because he could only offer more questions
0:30:53 > 0:30:56than answers about life, existence and the soul.
0:31:04 > 0:31:05Next week, Sally's in Belfast
0:31:05 > 0:31:08to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme
0:31:08 > 0:31:13and the Easter Rising and their impact on today's Northern Ireland.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17Until then, our final hymn today is a favourite for many of us
0:31:17 > 0:31:19as we continue on the pilgrimage of life.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21Thanks for watching.