All146;s well, will it end well?

Holy Trinity Church battles to preserve itself and Shakespeare8217;s resting place

At 2.30 on a cold January afternoon, Paul Ruan walked into Holy Trinity Church, stood before William Shakespeare8217;s grave and read the curse engraved on the headstone. 8220;Blese be ye man yt spares thes stones/And curst be he yt moves my bones.8221;

8220;What does this mean?8221; asked Ruan, a native speaker of Chinese.

8220;It was a warning. If anybody disturbed these bones, they got cursed!8221; said Nigel Penn, 67, the energetic retired timber surveyor who helps out in this historic church on the River Avon. Shakespeare was baptized in the stone font, now stuffed with fake flowers, that sits beside the stone-topped grave where he was buried in 1616.

The practice in those days was that people interred in the church kept their piece of that prized real estate for 40 years, and then their bones were removed to make room for another body. But Penn said that shortly after Shakespeare8217;s death, someone wrote a rhyme that was carved into his headstone warning that his bones should not be touched.

8220;It was obviously someone who thought a lot of him,8221; Penn told Ruan, who nodded in agreement, snapping photos. At 2.45, a busload of Argentine students crowded around the brass railing and red velvet kneelers at the foot of the grave. Most paid the white-haired lady collecting the suggested but not mandatory 3 admission fee, 1 for students.

Money is a big issue for the 800-year-old church these days because the roof leaks, the metal in the windows is corroding and a small invasion force of deathwatch beetles is boring into the ancient timbers. A group called Friends of Shakespeare8217;s Church is trying to raise more than 8 million. Penn added that British actress Judi Dench, who was nominated last month for a Best Actress Oscar, is a patron.

At 3.45, a German couple walked in, seemingly star-struck as they gazed at the resting place of the author of Romeo and Juliet. Collins Davis, 25, an organic fruit and vegetable farmer from Alabama, approached the grave, amazement on his face. 8220;We don8217;t have anything this old in the United States,8221; he said, kneeling to take photos.

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At 4 pm, as the fading afternoon sunlight shone weakly though the stained-glass windows, Cath Blann was one of the few English people in the old English church this Sunday afternoon. 8220;I thought he was buried at Westminster Abbey,8221; she said, referring to the London landmark where Charles Dickens and other giants of English literature lie. 8220;

As she spoke, her giggling son began to crawl under the brass railing, and she gently pulled him back. 8220;Aidan, darling,8221; she said, 8220;don8217;t crawl on Shakespeare8217;s grave.8221;

8212;LATWP / Mary Jordan / STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, England