Lady Godiva
The City of Shakespeare Country
I once spent about a year at University of Warwick,
which is established at Coventry, the City of Shakespeare
Country. I visited David Michael Ritchie Park (1935-1990),
who encouraged me to acknowledge fair nondeterminism
in concurrency and the application of fixpoint theory to computing.
I also met Dr Stephen G Matthews, who has been gentle
enough to give comments on dataflow computing.
I could have made works on
logic languages with respect to dataflows.
In Shakespeare Country, there are nice towns:
- Stratford-upon-Avon: It is the birthplace of W.Shakespeare.
- Warwick: It is the county town, where the nice castle is.
- Kenilworth: The ruined castle is seen, where the lover of
Elizabeth I lived.
- Leamignton Spa: The architecture of the Victorian era is there.
It takes an hour and a little by coach
from Coventry to Stratford-upon-Avon,
where we can appreciate the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
I have ever enjoyed dramas by the theatres and cinemas:
- As You Like It
- Much Ado about Nothing
- Hamlet
- Romeo and Juliet
- Macbeth
- Othello
- Henry V
- Caesar
- Cymbeline
- Richard III
Unfortunately I missed the Merchant of Venice. Of course
it is too
difficult to understand Shakespeare.
However, the dramas make us acknowledge British flavours and
inspire us to learn English as well as possible.
The Cathedral, Old and Lady Godiva at the City Centre
Coventry is a nice city, having been developed
since the medieval era. At the City Centre, there is
the Cathedral, Old, the wall of which has been left
regardless of the German air raid in 1940. It was because
Coventry had been the centre of vehicle industries in Britain
by World War, II that the German chose the city as an attack
target. The destruction of the city centre at Coventry
by the attack was so thorough that the term "Coventrize"/
"Coventrate" was made to stand for the complete destruction.
Once upon a time the Earl of Coventry imposed
heavy tax on the people, for which his wife, Lady Godiva,
protested and rode on the horse, being naked. Her protest
and behaviour was successful in the solution of the tax
problem. However, there was someone who wished to glance
at the naked. His name was Tom, who became blind
as soon as he saw her, and whom it was that
"Peeping Tom" originated from. It is said that Lady Godiva and
Peeping Tom's tale came up from Coventry. In fact we
can even at present see the statue of Lady Godiva at the
City Centre, but not
of Peeping Tom.
As a daily phrase to mean "to refuse to talk"/"out of society,"
"to send to Coventry" is often used. For the reason there
are many theories, which I do not care about. But
I never forget the word "sent to Coventry," because
it is related to this nice city that I have ever known,
and "sent to Coventry" is now one of the most tragical phenomena
in the present Japanese society.
Arts Centre, University of Warwick
Finally let me remark that Arts Centre, University of Warwick
is one of the centres for cultural performances
at Coventry and Shakespeare Country.
In almost all universities, such facilities
are established for staffs, students and
citizens to enjoy dramas, music, ballets, cinemas and so on.
Anyway I have learned much classics from the traditional
city and the modern university.
Susumu Yamasaki, Visitor at Coventry in 1985/86