William Shakespeare

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Standard Name: Shakespeare, William
The "Chandos" portrait of William Shakespeare, perhaps by John Taylor, c. 1610. Its claims to authenticity are doubtful, but better than most. It was the first portrait acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, 1856. An oval frame is painted round Shakespeare, who looks inscrutably at the viewer, with a bald forehead, moustache and small beard, wearing a black coat with white collar and a hoop earring in his left ear.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Education Shelagh Delaney
At the age of twelve, SD attended her first theatrical event: an amateur production at Broughton Secondary School of Shakespeare 's Othello, which made a great impression.
“Meeting Shelagh Delaney”. Times, 2 Feb. 1959, p. 12.
12
Education Maria Riddell
The future MR was in all probability privately educated. At sixteen she wrote a poem to commemorate the pleasure of reading with a friend the works of Milton , Pope , Spenser , Shakespeare ...
Education Catherine Cookson
The house had no books and when a lodger brought in Shakespeare, Milton , and Donne , they were pronounced unsuitable for a child. CC did read a Shakespeare sonnet at about this age and...
Education Sarah Kane
At school, SK directed plays by Shakespeare , as well as Joan Littlewood 's musical Oh, What a Lovely War. She took a BA degree in drama at Bristol University (first class honours), and...
Education Jan Struther
JS was educated privately in London, going to classes held in a private home. She hated history and geography but loved literature. Her teacher, Miss Moseley, took the children through Shakespeare before she began...
Education Mrs F. C. Patrick
She must have been well educated. She has a good grasp of history and politics, and of canonical English fiction from Richardson to her own most respected immediate female predecessors. She took a wry interest...
Education Anna Brownell Jameson
Anna was educated by Miss Yokeley , a governess, who taught her French. After the departure of Miss Yokeley, some time between 1803 and 1806, Anna acted as governess to her sisters. She also taught...
Education Jean Rhys
At a very young age, JR imagined that God was a book. She was so slow to read that her parents were concerned, but then suddenly found herself able to read even the longer words...
Education Frances Ridley Havergal
FRH was an avid reader within limits: her selection of material was mostly dictated by her religious interests. After receiving a copy of a book about literary women she commented, The sad sketch of L. E. L.
Education Maria Theresa Longworth
MTL was educated in France at an Ursuline convent school.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2025, 22 vols. plus supplements.
She later undertook further study in Italy. She consequently became familiar with both French and Italian.
Rosenman, Ellen Bayuk. Unauthorized Pleasures. Cornell University Press, 2003.
137
Erickson, Arvel B., and John R. McCarthy. “The Yelverton Case: Civil Legislation and Marriage”. Victorian Studies, Vol.
14
, 1971, pp. 275-91.
275
From her writings it is clear...
Education Ellen Wood
She was educated at home under the influence of a father interested in music and classical scholarship.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
As a child she was noted for her prodigious memory and active imagination, and knew much of Shakespeare
Education Catherine Cookson
Once married, CC set out to educate herself with books from the public library. She read the central canon in English from Shakespeare to the Romantics. She also read philosophy and found Socrates a help...
Education Mary Agnes Hamilton
Initially, MAH was taught by her father , who also coached her in Formal Logic in preparation for her Cambridge Little-go (entrance) examinations. Her parents frequently took their children to the theatre to see the...
Education Jean Rhys
JR attended the local Catholic convent school where whites were in the minority. Most of the girls were coloured (of mixed blood). Mother Mount Calvary, the Superior of the convent, gave her extra instruction in...
Education Elizabeth Barrett Browning
EBB 's early immersion in fairy stories and popular tales was followed by a more ambitious course of reading that began around the age of seven with history, classical poetry, and some of Shakespeare 's...

Timeline

About March 1681: Nahum Tate's re-written version of Shakespeare's...

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About March 1681

Nahum Tate 's re-written version of Shakespeare 's tragedy King Lear was staged in London; it was printed the same year.
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.

1702: An Act to Oblige Jews to Maintain and Provide...

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1702

An Act to Oblige Jews to Maintain and Provide for their Protestant Children forbade Jewish fathers from disinheriting daughters who (like Jessica in William ShakespeareThe Merchant of Venice) converted to Christianity.
Kerrigan, John. “Fathers Who Live Too Long”. London Review of Books, Vol.
35
, No. 17, 13 Sept. 2013, pp. 18-19.
18

20 May 1707: Jacob Tonson the elder signed the first of...

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20 May 1707

Jacob Tonson the elder signed the first of two copyright agreements giving him sole right in Shakespeare 's plays.
Nichol, Donald W. “Warburton (Not!) on copyright: Clearing up the Misattribution of An Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Literary Property”. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
19
, No. 2, 1996, pp. 171-82.
172
Bernard, Stephen. Whig Literary Culture and the Canon: the Legacy of the Tonsons. Oxford University Press, 2015.

10 April 1710: An Act for the Encouragement of Learning...

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10 April 1710

An Act for the Encouragement of Learning (later called the Copyright Act), passed in 1709, became effective.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
29
Sutherland, James. Defoe. Methuen, 1937.
170

6 December 1718: Nicholas Rowe, playwright, translator, and...

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6 December 1718

Nicholas Rowe , playwright, translator, and editor of Shakespeare , died after four years in the post of Poet Laureate.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

2 July 1737: The Opposition paper The Craftsman published...

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2 July 1737

The Opposition paper The Craftsman published excerpts from Shakespeare 's King John which were designed to reflect obloquy on the conduct of George II .
Clark, Jonathan Charles Douglas. Samuel Johnson: Literature, religion and English cultural politics from Restoration to Romanticism. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
149

Late 1737 to spring 1738: A group of women calling themselves Shakespeare's...

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Late 1737 to spring 1738

A group of women calling themselves Shakespeare 's Ladies persuaded the two licensed playhouses in London to stage many of Shakespeare 's long-neglected plays.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
3: 679, 689

By February 1741: A monument was erected by subscription to...

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By February 1741

A monument was erected by subscription to the memory of Shakespeare in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
11 (1741): 105

1767: At auctions of copyright, Richardson's Clarissa...

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1767

At auctions of copyright, Richardson 's Clarissa was valued at £600, but Addison and Steele 's Spectator at £1,300, Shakespeare at £1,800, and Pope at £4,400.
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
135

14 October 1769: Garrick's afterpiece The Jubilee opened at...

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14 October 1769

Garrick 's afterpiece The Jubilee opened at Drury Lane , where it enjoyed the record run of the century: ninety performances in one season.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
4: 1419

20 June 1787: Actor John Palmer briefly opened the first...

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20 June 1787

Actor John Palmer briefly opened the first new London theatre since 1732: the Royalty in Well Street.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
5: 911-12, 986

By 1 May 1789: John Boydell opened his Shakespeare Gallery,...

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By 1 May 1789

John Boydell opened his Shakespeare Gallery , an exhibition of British artists' renderings of scenes from Shakespeare .
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
246-7
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
59 (1789): 442-4, 632-3; 60 (1790): 1088-90

29 November 1790: Edmond Malone, who in 1778 had published...

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29 November 1790

Edmond Malone , who in 1778 had published the first serious attempt at a date order for Shakespeare's plays, followed that with his immensely learned edition of Shakespeare , which set the standards for later scholarship.
Martin, Peter. Edmond Malone, Shakespearean scholar. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
133

2 April 1796: Vortigern and Rowena, allegedly a newly-discovered...

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2 April 1796

Vortigern and Rowena, allegedly a newly-discovered tragedy by Shakespeare but actually written by William Henry Ireland , opened under Richard Brinsley Sheridan 's management at Drury Lane .
“William Henry Ireland and the Shakespeare Fabrications”. University of Delaware Library: Special Collections Department: Exhibitions and Publications: Special Collections Exhibitions 1995 - 2001: Forging a Collection: the Frank W. Tober Collection on Literary Forgery.

November 1802: Thomas Holcroft's "A Tale of Mystery", produced...

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November 1802

Thomas Holcroft 's "A Tale of Mystery", produced at Covent Garden , formally introduced melodrama to the English stage.
Emeljanow, Victor. Victorian Popular Dramatists. Twayne, 1987.
2-3

Texts

No bibliographical results available.