Shakespeare's Church and the Pilgrim Fathers: Commemorating Plymouth Rock in Stratford

Abstract

The presence of Americans and American interests in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, stretches beyond the Shakespeare Memorial Fountain in Market Square. In the course of mapping this presence, this article reveals how the bond between America and Stratford, mostly forged by Victorian and Edwardian visitors and benefactors, rests on contradictory, ambivalent symbols. As so often happens in rites of remembrance, in which the commemorators often commemorate themselves, American presence in Stratford celebrates Shakespeare and asserts national identity at the same time. American commemoration of Shakespeare in Stratford works in two opposite directions, strengthening bonds with Shakespeare's England while simultaneously asserting self-determination and memorialising independence from the nation that gave birth to Shakespeare. While exploring these issues, this article unpacks the links between one of Stratford's iconic tourist destinations (Holy Trinity Church) and one of America's foundational myths, Plymouth Rock, which are jointly construed as sites of remembrance and symbols of origin in a late-Victorian stained glass window erected with money from American donors in Shakespeare's church. By arguing that the link between Shakespeare's Stratford and the Pilgrim's Rock is possible through the erasure of historical evidence, this article shows how communities remember and how communities choose to forget.