ForumGarden

I'd have thought it beyond possibility, but routine building work in Southwark has uncovered the yard, at least, of the Curtain Theatre where, for example, Shakespeare's Henry V had its premiere. Nobody could put a pin in a map and say where it was until now, and suddenly there's cobbles and a ground plan emerging.

BBC News - Shakespeare's Curtain Theatre remains found

The very first time an actor stood in front of an audience and asked"Can this cockpit hold

the vasty fields of France? Or may we cram

Within this wooden O the very casques

that did affright the air at Agincourt?"

he was on stage at the Curtain.

Every time I have thought in the past, "That's it. There can't possibly be any really amazing finds left in Britain," they come up with a new one. What next? Camelot, complete with "Welcome to Camelot. Please ride with care" sign?

Somewhere in the Welsh hills there's a cavern, you know, with a dozen long-gone men in chain-mail waiting for a shaft of light to call them back and rescue the nation. What they'd make of the current Establishment I've no idea but I can't see Miliband making much of an impression on them.

And Merlin rebuilt Stonehenge with magic and music and the Devil hunts Dartmoor with his pack of Hellhounds when the storm winds blow.

Thinking about monarchs of that period, the truly outstanding one to me is Alfred. Without him, England would never have been born and we'd have been the West Danes or something. And for someone at that time in those circumstances to be so concerned about matters of culture, education and law is just amazing. If I could pick the next big find, it would be something to do with Alfred.

I like the headline. "Shakespeare's Curtain Theatre remains found".

Do they expect they'll lose it again? :wah:



Seriously, I love this stuff. Time capsules. Gateways to our past. It makes one wonder, though, what of our society will be lost then found hundreds of years later.