Penzance

Birren #1

May 11, 2006

I just ordered two books on the internet from Amazon : "Dawn in Lyonesse" by Mary Ellen Chase, and "Tristram" by Edwin Arlington Robinson. I read both of these books in college over fifty years ago, but hadn't thought of them for years. Why now?

A new tenant in our complex, a recent graduate of Oxford University, now an understudy in the Geffen Theatre production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons", and I have been discussing Stephen Sondheim, one of my favorite composers. She was unaware that in 1990 Sondheim had been the first Visiting Professor in Contemporary Theatre at Oxford. Since I have an extensive collection of musical theatre video tapes, I have been showing her some of Sonheim's work with which she was not familiar; I asked if there was any musical tape which she might like to see, and she mentioned Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" in which she had appeared in a student production.

I do have "Pirates" with Kevin Kline, and was reminded that I was actually in Penzance - though many many years ago.

In 1950 I had been teaching theatre at Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, and

decide to enroll in a symposium on Shakespeare given by the University of Birmingham's noted Shakespearean scholar, Allardyce Nicholl, at Stratford-upon-Avon in England. I sailed on the Queen Mary in mid-June and arrived in London to stay with two friends from Northwestern who were there on Fulbright Scholarships at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

I spent several weeks attending the theartre (including The Windmill) and doing all the usual tourist things, and still had about two weeks before I was due in Stratford; so I decided to tour England. At Denison a beloved English professor, Ellenor Shannon, started me reading about the Tristan and Isolde legend (see above) and Land's End in Cornwall became my prime destination. I caught the train at Victoria Station and went to Penzance where I knew I'd have to get local transportation to get to Land's End.

Now "Penzance" to most Americans seems almost an exotic locale, but it is

probably similar to Rockaway or Atlantic City (before the gambling) to the English. The title "Pirates of Penzance" is really a non sequitor.

So I found a cab, and told the driver I wanted to go to Land's End, and he said "Sure", and started to ask about my wanderings. I had no reservations, and when I told him that, he asked if I wanted a private or a public house; it was then I learned that a private house served no booze, but a pub did. He then suggested that an old inn had newly re-opened in Sennen Cove, a pirate cove (Yep, PIRATE) just north of Land's End, and might be to my liking. What the hell - why not?

So I arrived at the Old Sucess Inn (built in 1492) which had just re-opened and was welcomed by the hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Chatham. Dinner was being served, and by the time I had been to my room, freshened up, and returned downstairs, it

seems that everybody in the place knew I was the first American to stay at the Old Success since the war. Since at that latitude daylight lasts quite late, I decided to go for walk after dinner along the high cliffs, when a car driven by one of the guests stopped and offered me a lift to Land's End.

The sign as we approached the pub announced "The Last Pub in England" and

beyond that one had to cross the Atlantic to find the next. And it was here that I played darts in an English pub for the first time.

When closing was announced (and they were very strict about pub hours in those days), we drove back to the inn where I discovered to my delight that registered guests could order drinks 24 hours a day (very civilized); so I settled down with the Chathams and a few other guests for a nightcap.

The captain of a Dutch cable ship which had laid a cable from America, had been a guest at The Old Success, and had come back to visit with the Chathams, as well as the local "squire"; a honeymoon couple and I were invited to tea the following afternoon by the squire at his estate where he was planning to have a million daffodils ready for the London market by Christmas time. There are no trees along that part of the coast, but warm winds from the Gulf Stream make it ideal for horticulture.

My one night stay had already been extended, so when the Dutch captain invited us to dinner the evening after that aboard his ship which was docked down the coast at Mousehole (pronounced "Muzl") I was delighted.

Sennen Cove proved fascinating. I visited the pub below the inn which seemed to be carved from solid rock, and many of the older denizens were speaking Cornish which has just about disappeared. As for the "pirates", they were now mostly smugglers; French perfumes and many other continental goodies were not available in this country which was still recovering from World War II, but locals

could find them "for a price".

So my one night stay turned into three. I would no longer think of traveling without reservations, but if I had been on a timetable then, I would have missed so much. I went on to Tintagel, the Lake District, Edinborough, and St. Andrews (with adventures all along the way) before arriving at Stratford where I spent six weeks - but all that's another story.

So "The Pirarates of Penzance" brought so much to mind I had to go back to my original source - and order the two books that started it all.

rwtf