Molly
Author
Each year the UN celebrates English Language Day on the day that marks Shakespeare’s death. Although Shakespeare was famously born in Stratford Upon Avon in England, Wales featured prominently throughout his work.
Shakespeare’s Welsh blood.
Shakespeare’s grandmother was Welsh.
Click here to read the elusive story of Shakespeare’s Welsh Gran, Alys Griffin.
Proud Welsh Characters
Shakespeare’s characters Sir Hugh Evans and Captain Fluellen are Welsh. These characters are keen patriots and very proud to be Welsh!
Many of Shakespeare’s actors were Welsh.
There were multiple Welsh actors in Shakespeare’s plays, including Robert Gough, Jack Jones and Henry Evans.
St David’s Day
When one of the Welsh characters workmates insults the famous Welsh leek on St David’s Day, they are forced to eat a leek as punishment.
“If you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek”.
Cymbeline: Shakespeare’s Welsh play.
One of Shakespeare’s romances, Cymbeline, is predominantly in Wales. The main character tries to run away from Milford Haven but becomes lost in the Welsh mountains.
Shakespeare and Wales by Maley and Schwyzer
Writers Willy Maley and Philip Schwyzer authored Shakespeare and Wales in 2010 to explore the place of Wales in Shakespeare’s productions.
“If Shakespeare remains, even today, a small part of the Welsh question, Wales has always been a big part of the Shakespeare question. […] the plays attest to a lifelong awareness of and engagement with the Principality”
