We visited the British Library in the morning, where we wandered through a wonderful exhibit about the effect of the English landscape on British writers. I stopped to read about Keats (a letter to his brother describing a walking tour), Wordsworth (a travel guide to the Lake District which he authored in 1835), Hopkins (a long, lovely poem about a river), and several others. Because of our schedule, we had to leave after only an hour, but we may be able to get back for more in a day or so.
Mark Rylance as Richard in The Globe's Richard III |
The highlight of the day was a performance of Richard III at The Globe Theater. It has to be one of the finest Shakespeare performances I've ever seen. The actor playing Richard was spectacular, portraying him as a giddy, childish, addle-brained, but very skilled and cunning "performer". The only disagreement I had with the actor's performance was that he made Richard seem almost insane -- almost completely free of the ability to be reasonable and make sense -- whereas I think of him as more confused than crazy. I was disappointed, too, that the actor didn't make it seem like Richard had an epiphany at the end of the play (which I think he did, realizing that he's been a fake all his life). The overall production was superb, however -- one of the best I've ever seen.
Dinner was excellent pasta at an outdoor cafe in breezy coolness, then a walk home to our hotel.
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