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 Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
MEC was educated at home. She read widely during her childhood, including works by Shakespeare and Malory . She studied poetry, history and drawing. Saturday afternoons were spent with friends, acting scenes from Scott 's...
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 Eva Figes
Eva read the usual children's books, but the great discovery was her first Shakespeare play, As You Like It. She received this as a present on her ninth birthday and built an imaginative life...
Education Melesina Trench
After the deaths of her parents Melesina Chenevix was committed to the care of a governess who had a determination to rule by rigour. . . . The fear and distaste I had for her...
Education Frances Reynolds
FR denied that she knew Latin, yet she used Latin tags in her letters. As an adult she worked persistently at self-education. Her commonplace-book contains her reading notes on Plato , Aristotle , Pliny ,...
Education Dora Greenwell
Thereafter, she taught herself, studying philosophy, Latin, German, Italian, French, political economy, and theology.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
199
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Dorling, William. Memoirs of Dora Greenwell. James Clarke, 1885.
73
She was very well read and took a particular interest in the writings of Caroline Norton , Felicia Hemans
Education Maya Angelou
Marguerite Johnson had already become a voracious reader, both of Black writers and of canonical dead white males. Shakespeare , she wrote later, was my first white love.
Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Heinemann New Windmill Series, 1995.
12
She also enjoyed and respected...
Education Pearl S. Buck
Mr Kung despised fiction and the Sydenstricker library contained only the supposedly factual Plutarch 's Lives and Foxe 's Book of Martyrs, but Pearl read fiction avidly in both Chinese and English, devouring Shakespeare
Education Sarah Daniels
Attending a secondary modern school (for those children not selected for grammar school) in Essex, on the north-east borders of London, she hated school and made a habit of sitting at the back...
Education Hilary Mantel
HM had discovered Shakespeare at ten years old, and since nobody told her he was difficult she found him a pure pleasure to read. In summer 1968, aged sixteen, she spent three days in Stratford...
Education Margaret Fuller
MF 's father established a rigorous and structured education for her that began at age three-and-a-half. She was given daily lessons in Latin grammar, mathematics, history, and classics. This course of study later included French...
Education Melesina Trench
Her successive years with different guardians account for the apparent inconsistency in her comments about her education. In maturity she named her favourite youthful reading as Shakespeare , Molière , and Sterne .
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Yet she...
Education Germaine Greer
GG 's PhD thesis, The Ethic of Love and Marriage in Shakespeare 's Early Comedies, was officially approved by Cambridge University .
Wallace, Christine. Germaine Greer: Untamed Shrew. Richard Cohen Books, 1999.
117n22
Education Maya Angelou
When at seven she moved from Stamps to St Louis and attended Toussaint L'Ouverture High School, Marguerite found the teachers more formal but the students comparatively backward. In a year there she felt she learned...
Education Harriette Wilson
HW 's story of her education is one of tyranny and resistance. Her worst beating from her father was incurred for obstinacy. Her elder sister Jane (called Diana in her memoirs) was supposed to teach...

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

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