It
is a tale so picturesque, one cannot help but hope it’s true. Most likely, it
is a story spun not from whole cloth, but from themore comforting fabric of awhimsical imagination.
Winters in London, for at least a five-century span ending in the early
19th century, tended to be more severe than they are now. While a
variety of possiblecauses of these
milder temperatures are being hotly debated, this much is certain: in the days
of old LondonBridge (torn down in 1831), the ThamesRiver froze over on a number ofoccasions, and Frost Fairs were held on the
ice. London would briefly have a new, if slippery, thoroughfare
and marketplace.
A legend,
used to great effect by Edward Rutherfurd in his novel London, holds
that William Shakespeare’s acting company, along with a small band of helpers
and roughnecks, carted the various parts of their aptly- named,timber-framed Theatre away from its original
location in Shoreditch and stealthily made their wayacross the ice of the frozen Thames to its
new location in Southwark, where it would later becomefamous as the Globe.
The
relocation of the Theatrebecame
necessary after a dispute with the Shoreditch landholder at the expiration of
the original lease. Historians agree that the Theatre was moved as a result of
the dispute; and the novelist Rutherfurd has Shakespeare’s intrepid band
crossing the ice as a way to avoid using London Bridge, where an excessively
vigilant city aldermanhad laid a trap
in vain to prevent the move.
Flights of Fancy on the Ice
Peculiar weather often seems
to give people peculiar ideas. This was as true in the Tudor and Stuart eras as
it is today, and the occasional freezing of the Thames River in the vicinity of
London Bridge during that time seemed to bring out the whimsy in Londoners.
In his book Shakespeare,
historian Michael Wood takes note of one woman who vowed to get herself pregnant
on the ice of the river so that she would always be able to claim that “Father
Thames” was the one responsible. Whether the woman was from one of the “stews”
of Bankside’s less discreet neighborhoods was not recorded, but apparently she
didn’t mind putting up with a little discomfort.
It was also widely recorded that in
the vicinity of Blackfriars, an elephant was led across the ice without
incident, simply as an eyebrow-raising stunt. It is difficult to imagine, in an
age well-acquainted with gambling, that a wager or two was not placed on the
outcome.
It all makes
for a wonderfully vivid Bad Cat/Good Mouse tale, with the mouse ultimately
winning. A somewhat less epic version of the story has the actors and their
cohorts taking to the ice merely to avoid the tolls they would have had to pay
if they used the bridge for their crossing.
The caper
doesn’t stand up to historical scrutiny, wishful thinking aside. There is no
historical indication that the Thames was frozen over during the time in which
the Theatre was believed to have been moved in 1598, although the move was
indeed accomplished during the winter. An oddly persistent feature of the story
is that the dismantling of the structure in Shoreditch was completed during the
course of one night, which hardly seems possible, given the Theatre’s size.
Facts are nevertheless rarely allowed to stand in the way of good drama.
But it is
true that such a timber-laden crossing, in the coldest of winters, could have
been accomplished. The nineteen arches of London Bridge, with their piers,had the effect of slowing down the rate at
which the water of the Thames would have ordinarily flowed, leading in winter
to the formation of ice. Embankments were not as prevalent then, either, so
there were more shallow areas that froze over more quickly.
An ice-bound
river was certainly not to the liking of the London wherrymen who made their
living with their boats, carryingpassengers back and forth across the Thames. No doubt the seagoing men
also regarded it all as a major hindrance to their work, which must have ground
to an almost complete halt during the worst of these freezes.
By most
accounts, Londoners were delighted at this wintertime diversion. During the
winter of 1564-65, less than a year after the birth of Shakespeare, Raphael
Holinshed observed the scene on the hard-frozen Thames: “People went over and
amongst the Thames on the ise, from London Bridge to Westminster......in
greater numbers than in anie street of the Citie of London.”Queen Elizabeth I is said to have been unable
toresist the temptation to try out the
ice for herself.Given her adventurous
spirit, it is difficult to imagine her doing otherwise.
The early Victorian Father Christmas was an old man
with a white beard who wore a long, hooded robe, usually green, but also
depicted as red, purple, brown, white, or even blue. The robe could be either
ankle or floor length, and was generally lined and/or trimmed with fur of some
kind. The hood was thrown back to reveal a crown of holly atop his head. He
rode a white horse and carried a Yule log, or a staff trimmed with holly and
ivy, and a wassailing bowl. The jolly Santa in a red suit and cap that we know
and love today is a combination of Thomas Nast’s 1860 illustrations and a Coca-Cola
ad campaign in the 1930s.