December 4, 2009
In search of the Bard’s garbage
by Dennis Johnson
The dig at the Shakespeare abode
A team of archaeologists began digging on the site of William Shakespeare‘s home on Tuesday, looking for his garbage, according to a story from The Times of London.
“You can tell a huge amount a person by going through what they threw away and we think we’ll be able to get some of that here,” says Kevin Coll, who is leading the dig for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. “We want to find waterlogged areas that will have perfectly preserved animal bones, textiles and documents. It is very possible we can find parchments if the conditions in the grounds are as good as we’re hoping.”
Says the Trust’s Richard Kemp, “We are hoping to find organic debris that will teach us what the great man had for dinner. Our dream find would be the first draft of The Tempest, which we know Shakespeare did write here.”
The likelihood of this? As one commentator to the post says, “The Bard sighed gloomily and tossed another ink-smudged manuscript out of the 3rd floor window. It fluttered in the last rays of a setting sun, landing miraculously intact in a small puddle of brackish water just by the rhubarb. In an instant, Elizabethan garden fairies sprinkled magic powder on the pages and trod carefully on the vellum, ensuring that it was fully submerged before returning to their game of croquet ….”
Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.