The English Pre-Raphaelite artist Henry Wallis (1830-1916) painted “The Room in Which Shakespeare Was Born” in 1853. It now hangs at London’s Tate Gallery. The Shakespeare home on Henley Street was described in an 1843 biography by Charles Knight (1842), who commented on “the mean room, with its massive joists and plastered walls, firm with ribs of oak.” Wallis also took to heart Knight’s passage describing “hundreds amongst the hundreds of thousands by whom that name is honoured have inscribed their names on the walls of the room.” Apparently, however, the bard must have been born on the floor. Motherhood was hard in those days.
Tags: Charles Knight, Henry Wallis
May 2nd, 2014 at 9:19 pm
I beg to disagree with motherhood being difficult those days, if I look at my Grand Mother she had about dozen kids, and her mother had about dozen too, insane isn’t it ? Remember those days no electricity, no primary heath care or any other facility. I tend to believe men and women from past era’s were quite hardworking which made them strong, per my grand mother those days “delivering baby was as simple as a sneeze” and now ?
June 18th, 2014 at 12:43 pm
I beg to disagree with motherhood being difficult those days, if I look at my Grand Mother she had about dozen kids, and her mother had about dozen too, insane isn’t it ? Remember those days no electricity, no primary heath care or any other facility. I tend to believe men and women from past era’s were quite hardworking which made them strong, per my grand mother those days “delivering baby was as simple as a sneeze” and now ?
June 18th, 2014 at 12:49 pm
Interesting. Your comment is exactly the same as the comment below, except a different email and website. Could this be spam … or do great minds think alike?
December 20th, 2014 at 1:27 am
Cynthia, that’s clearly a case of spam comment. Not sure, why it was approved in the first place !
Anyways, coming to the topic, I am not sure what is meant by ‘Motherhood was hard in those days’. Are you implying that Motherhood is not difficult in modern times ? That’s so not true !