History
A brief history of St Andrew's
Page 2
One of St Andrew's proudest boasts is its connection with Shakespeare. The playwright worked close by at the Blackfriars Theatre for at least 15 years and would have known the medieval church well. He eventually bought a house in Ireland Yard, which was also in St Andrew's parish.
In tribute to its most distinguished resident, the modern St Andrew's now features a memorial next to the window in the west gallery. Carved in oak and limewood, the memorial includes one of Shakespeare's contemporaries, the famous lutenist, singer and composer John Dowland (1562-1626) who was buried in the churchyard of St Ann's, Blackfriars. St Ann's was not rebuilt after the Great Fire and its parish was afterwards merged with St Andrew's.
In a rather fanciful scene, Shakespeare and Dowland are shown kneeling on a stage while cherubs hold back the final curtain. Between the pair at the bottom of the plaque is the following inscription:
'If music and sweet poetry agree,
As they must needs, the sister and the brother...
Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense... '
Appropriate though these lines may be in Dowland's case, they have only a slim link with William Shakespeare. Although they come from The Passionate Pilgrim, a collection of verse published in 1599 with Shakespeare's name on the title page, this poem was in fact written by one Richard Barnfield.
