The Francis Bacon Research Trust
Wisdom of Shakespeare Summer School

Time, the Great Initiator

(‘As You Like It’ & ‘Winter’s Tale’)

4-8 August 2010
Holycombe, Whichford, Warwickshire, England

Five-day Summer School
led by
Peter Dawkins & Jill Line

This 5-day Wisdom of Shakespeare summer school in the heart of Warwickshire provides a chance to investigate more deeply the wisdom embodied in Shakespeare's plays and understand them as a major part of and vehicle for the Western Wisdom tradition.

In both these Shakespeare plays, As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale, the story and process of initiation is decribed dramatically in two different yet similar ways. Each one is based on the classical Mysteries of initiation, which allegorise and thus reveal how both the individual soul and also the group soul of society can move from an inharmonious, self-destructive, weak or tyrannical state of being, to a harmonious, healthy, strong, compassionate and illumined state of being. They show how the spiritual world can and will help if called upon, and how nature plays its part, and how all wrongs can actually be righted – with magic. But what is this magic? Who is the magician? Who or what is the Initiator, and why? How does it work?

During this summer school we will have fun looking at these things and exploring them with Shakespeare’s ‘magical’ assistance.

RSC Performances and Excursions
During the summer school we shall visit Stratford-upon-Avon to see performances of two Shakespeare plays, As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale, by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

We will also make an excursion to Warwick and its Collegiate Church of St Mary, and learn how this church on its geomantically important hill marks the ‘eye’ of the ‘Swan’ that forms ‘Cygnus’ in the landscape Zodiac of Britain.

Attached to St Mary’s is the beautiful Beauchamp Chantry, a masterpiece of Gothic style and the finest medieval chapel in England, which houses not just the magnificent tomb of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (d.1439), but also the tombs of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (d.1588), who played such a pivotal role in establishing professional acting companies in England, and Robert’s brother, Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick (d.1590).

The tomb of Fulke Greville, Baron Brooke (d.1628), a great friend of Philip Sydney and Francis Bacon, also lies in St Mary’s. Greville was an eminent dramatist and poet, as well as a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I and chancellor of the exchequer under James I. He was granted Warwick Castle by King James I in 1605, which he converted into a country house. It was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978.

Greville is supposed to have claimed that he was “the Master of Shakespeare”. There is a proposal to examine his sarcophagus in the near future, to see what the three boxes within it contain (see report).

Academy/House Party
“With lectures, play-acting and outings punctuated by great food and stimulating conversation, Wisdom of Shakespeare summer schools take on the magical and indescribable air of a combined esoteric academy and house party, and are a delight to the senses as well as the intellect.”

Programme
The summer school will start on Wednesday at 10:00 am and finish on Sunday at 4:30 pm.

Venue
The group will gather at Holycombe, a beautiful home and retreat set in the ancient village of Whichford in the rolling green Cotswold hills of England’s ‘Shakespeare Country’. Nestling in a valley, Holycombe has extensive gardens, a lake and a stone circle (modern) standing on a ‘sacred hill’ and surrounded by a moat that once encircled a Norman castle.

Holycombe is 15 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon, 12 miles from Banbury (and the M40), 5 miles from Moreton-in-the-Marsh and 3 miles from the pre-historic Rollright Stone Circle. Banbury and Moreton-in-the-Marsh both have railway stations with rail links to London. (See map.)

Accommodation and Meals
Bed & breakfast accommodation (residential) is available at Holycombe.
Lunches and evening meals as well as refreshments will be provided.

Cost and Booking
£475 per person (non-residential)
£595 per person (residential – 4 nights B&B single or shared accommodation)
The fee is inclusive of refreshments, lunches, dinners, tuition and two top-price theatre tickets.
Extra nights B&B @ £30/night (2 extra nights max.)

To book a place, please select button.

NB. The number of attendees is limited to 20 persons maximum.
If you are late in booking and want to book less than three weeks before the event, please contact the FBRT to see if this is possible.

	For further information, please select button.
	Wisdom of Shakespeare books by Peter Dawkins are available for purchase. Select button to go to online Bookshop.