Sometime in the late 18th century, a sign appeared outside a shambly butcher’s hut in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon: “The Immortal Shakspeare was born in this house,” it announced, using a then common spelling of his name. Devotees began making pilgrimages — dropping to their knees, weeping, singing odes: “Untouched and sacred be thy shrine, Avonian Willy, bard Divine!”A tradesman grew rich selling carvings from a local mulberry tree, like pieces of the true cross. Some skeptics suspected that the sign was part of a scheme to bring visitors to Stratford; others wondered if it had been hung by the property’s occupant. About 250 years after its break from the Catholic Church, England had its own Bethlehem and manger. The problem: No one really knows where Shakespeare was born.

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Persons: Shakspeare, Avonian Willy, Shakespeare Organizations: Avon, Catholic Church Locations: Stratford, ”, England, Bethlehem