Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity Exhibition Material: Difference between revisions

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1) Joseph Saunders after Benjamin Van der Gucht. ''Mr. Garrick as Steward of the Stratford Jubilee, September 1769''. Great Britain, 1773. Engraving. ART 242301. 
1) Joseph Saunders after Benjamin Van der Gucht. ''Mr. Garrick as Steward of the Stratford Jubilee, September 1769''. Great Britain, 1773. Engraving. ART 242301. 


2) Bill of advertisement for horse race. Stratford, 1769. PR2923 1769 R2 Cage 
2) Bill of advertisement for horse race. Stratford, 1769. PR2923 1769 R2 Cage. 


3) Anonymous. ''The Procession at the Jubilee at Stratford upon Avon!'' Oxford, 1769. Engraving. Folger Garrickiana Maggs no. 198
3) Anonymous. ''The Procession at the Jubilee at Stratford upon Avon!'' Oxford, 1769. Engraving. Folger Garrickiana Maggs no. 198.


4) Signed “F. Westwood” Medallions commemorating the Jubilee, 1769 
4) Signed “F. Westwood” Medallions commemorating the Jubilee, 1769. Recto: “We shall not look upon his like again.” Verso: “Jubilee at Stratford in honour and to the memory of Shakespeare, Sept. 1769, D.G., Steward”. Coin Collection Env. 29. 


Recto: “We shall not look upon his like again.” Verso: “Jubilee at Stratford in honour and to the memory of Shakespeare, Sept. 1769, D.G., Steward” 
5) John Boydell (1719-1804). Ticket for his Shakespeare Lottery. London, 1804-05. No. 320 of approximately 22,000 lottery tickets sold for the inventory of 167 paintings during the dissolution of the gallery Y.d.295


Coin Collection Env. 29 
6) LOAN. Bonnet from 1995 BBC production of ''Pride and Prejudice''. Worn by actress Susannah Harker as Jane Bennet London, 1995. Property of Cosprop Ltd., London.


7) REPRODUCTION. Promotional image for BBC’s ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1995). DVD Box. Reproduction. Loan courtesy of private collector


8) REPRODUCTION. Francis Wheatley (1747-1801). Boydell Shakespeare Gallery. Watercolor on paper, 1790. Reproduction. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum.


5) John Boydell (1719-1804) 
9) ''Mr Garrick Reciting the Ode, in honor of Shakespeare''. England, after 1769. Line engraving. ART FILE G241 no. 2.


Ticket for his Shakespeare Lottery 
=== '''Deification''' ===
'''Fans of both Will and Jane have, at times, claimed divine status for their beloved author.''' The phrase “the divine Jane” was coined by American critic William Dean Howells in 1891 (4), joining existing references to Shakespeare as “the God of our idolatry” in the cultural lexicon. 


London, 1804-05 
Devotees continue to make pilgrimages to locations associated with both authors, following routes spelled out in special guidebooks and maps. (2 & 3)


No. 320 of approximately 22,000 lottery tickets sold for the inventory of 167 paintings during the dissolution of the gallery Y.d.295 
In 1756, just as Stratford began to attract the first trickle of literary tourists, an old mulberry tree that Shakespeare supposedly planted was cut down, inciting nationwide lament. A local man named Thomas Sharp bought the wood and turned it into mementos for visitors, including this chalice. (5) A thriving industry ensued in an impossibly large number of relics that claimed to be made from that same tree. Fragments were even embedded in bindings of Shakespeare editions, as if pieces of an alternative True Cross. (6)


More recently, acorn-shaped darning eggs (used to mend socks) were carved from the wood of an oak tree that Jane Austen is said to have planted beside the boundary wall of her Chawton cottage but which had to be felled in 1986–87. (7)


==== <br> Items Included ====
1) Johann Heinrich Ramberg (1763-1840). ''Shakspere.'' Drawing, watercolor. 1832. ART Box R167 no.1. 


6) Bonnet from 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice 
2) E. Cilks, printmaker. Twelve Shakespearean landmarks. London: E. Cilks, 19th century. Colored lithograph. ART File S898 no.21. 


Worn by actress Susannah Harker as Jane Bennet 
3) LOAN. Janet Aylmer. ''In the Footsteps of Jane Austen''. Bath: Copperfield Books, 2003. Loan courtesy of private collector. 


London, 1995 
4) LOAN. William Dean Howells (1837-1920). Criticism and Fiction. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1891. PN81 H6. Loan courtesy of Georgetown University Library. 


Property of Cosprop Ltd., London 
5) Thomas Sharp (1725-1799). Goblet made from mulberry tree wood, trimmed with silver. Stratford, n.d. Inscription: "Made from a piece of Shakespeare’s mulberry tree by Mr. Sharpe silversmith Stratford on Avon." Wood no. 12a.


6) William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Dramatic Works. London: Sherwin and Co., 1821. Fragment of mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare embedded in binding. PR2752 1821c copy 1 Sh.Col.


7) LOAN. Local Chawton craftsman. Large decorative acorn (and darning egg) made from oak tree planted by Jane Austen. Chawton, England, ca. 1987. Loan courtesy of private collector.


7) Promotional image for BBC’s Pride and Prejudice (1995
=== '''Relics''' ===
Locks of hair have long been cherished and fought over as primary relics. Each of the hair relics in this case has a contentious history. (1 & 2


DVD Box 
'''Objects used by the author are of course also much coveted, especially if they have a strong provenance history to back claims to authenticity.'''


Reproduction 
The turquoise ring that once graced the hand that wrote ''Pride and Prejudice'' radiates value, even in the form of this gold replica. (3) Kelly Clarkson, the American pop star and Austen fan, briefly won the true ring at auction but was ultimately not allowed to take the “national treasure” out of Britain.


Loan courtesy of private collector 
Even ordinary, random objects found beneath the floorboards of Austen’s house (5) or a bundle of old sticks (4) that may or may not have been Shakespeare’s chair, become evocative of saintly relics— preserved solely for their distant association with the “divine” Will or Jane.


==== Items Included ====
1) “Shakespeare’s Hair”. Single auburn strand, mounted on card with inscription dated August 24, 1866. London, Before 1820. ART Inv. 1004. 


The inscription states that the hair was enclosed in an undated letter sent by Samuel Ireland, presumably around 1800, to a Mr. Bindley and auctioned on 8 August 1820. It then passed into the possession of one J. E. H. Taylor, Esq., who donated it to the collector W. J. Bernhard Smith in 1866. The Folger acquired it in 1896.


8) Francis Wheatley (1747-1801) 
2) LOAN. Lock of Jane Austen’s hair in a circular copper alloy frame with a ribbon bow crest. Formerly owned by Alberta Burke. CHWJA:JAH28. Loan courtesy of Jane Austen’s House Museum.


Boydell Shakespeare Gallery 
3) Jane Austen’s gold and turquoise ring. Briefly owned by singer Kelly Clarkson. Replica.


Watercolor on paper, 1790 
4) Wood from Shakespeare's Birthplace. Bundle of seven pieces of wood from a chair, molding, chest, and walking stick. Stratford, 1600-1900? ART Inv. 1180.


Reproduction 
5) LOAN. Selection of items found under the floorboards of Jane Austen’s House. Glass bottle; iron alloy spoon, knife, and nail; copper alloy buckle; white clay pipe. Chawton, England, 18th and 19th century. CHWJA: JAH63.5, JAH360; JAH361; JAH363; JAH362; JAH364. Loan courtesy of Jane Austen’s House Museum.


Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum 
=== '''Passionate Collecting''' ===
'''Two American couples shared parallel literary passions that led to two monumental collections: Henry and Emily Folger, who founded the Folger Shakespeare Library, and Alberta and Henry Burke, collectors of Jane Austen materials''' (now divided between The Morgan Library and Goucher College). 


The Folgers faced the challenge of collecting through the First World War while the Burkes lived through the Second. Each couple was childless, looking after their collections with parental fidelity. Both couples worked tirelessly for decades to collect books, art, decorative items, and every possible type of object that carried their author’s name, image, or association. '''Without the Folgers and the Burkes, ''Will & Jane'' would not exist.'''


Remarkably, the Folgers and Burkes systematized the daunting process of collecting in similar ways, using early bibliographies as virtual shopping wish-lists. (1 & 2) A 1940 telegram exchange between a London bookshop and the Burkes demonstrates how some fish got away (4 & 5), while a 1918 Folger check returning borrowed funds suggests the vast sums devoted to the enterprise. (3) Even the Burkes’ bookplate is similar to one adopted early on by the Folger Library. (6)


9) Mr Garrick Reciting the Ode, in honor of Shakespeare 
==== <br> Items Included ====
1) James Orchard Halliwell-Phillips (1820-89). ''A Calendar of the Shakespearean Rarities'', 2nd edition, Ed. Ernest E. Baker. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1891. Folger Collection. 


England, after 1769
Extra-annotated bibliography of coveted Shakespeare treasures, handled to pieces and marked throughout by Henry and Emily Folger. 


Line engraving 
2) LOAN. Geoffrey Keynes (1887-1982). ''Jane Austen: A Bibliography''. London: Nonesuch Press, 1929. Z8048 .K44 1968. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.


ART FILE G241 no.
Extra-annotated bibliography of Austen editions, handled to pieces and pasted throughout with clippings from dealer catalogues by Alberta and Henry Burke. 
 
3) Henry Folger to John D. Rockefeller. Bank check for $53,000, dated January 29, 1918. Folger Collection.
 
This sum was partial repayment for a personal loan to buy more Shakespeare.
 
4-5) LOAN. Bernard Quaritch Bookshop, London, to Henry Burke, Baltimore, December 1940. RCA Radiogram and Postal Telegraph telegrams. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.
 
6) Bookplates from the Folger and [LOAN] Burke collections. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.
 
=== Devotion Beyond Death ===
The original of this dedicatory plaque hangs inside the adjacent Folger Reading Room, just a few feet away. Behind this plaque, the ashes of Henry and Emily Folger are interred, at their request, inside a wall of the room where scholars work with the collections. The Folgers did not want to be parted from their Shakespeareana—not even by death.
 
In an open letter addressed to the Jane Austen Society in 2008, a distraught Louise West, then-curator at Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, England, asked Austen fans not to instruct relatives in legal wills to strew their ashes in the cottage’s garden. The letter banning the practice identifies a similar urge among Austen fans to associate their last resting places with their beloved Jane.
 
'''“While we understand many admirers of Jane''' 
 
'''Austen would love to have ashes laid here,''' 
 
'''it is something we do not allow.''' 
 
'''It is distressing for visitors to see mounds'''
 
'''of human ash, particularly so for our gardener.'''
 
'''Also, it is of no benefit to the garden!”'''
 
 —Louise West, Jane Austen’s House Museum Chawton   
 
National/Universal Reputations
 
One big difference between Will and Jane that seems to make no difference to their fans is that while Austen’s stories are set exclusively in England’s southern counties, Shakespeare’s plots roam from Venice and Padua, Italy, to Denmark and Scotland. 
 
'''The different geographical locations of their fictional settings doesn’t impact these authors’ perceived Britishness.''' Will and Jane each appear on British stamps and bank notes, with Shakespeare on a now retired 20pound note and Austen, starting next year, on the 10pound note. While their Britishness is unquestionable, their works have been enthusiastically translated and celebrated throughout the globe.
 
==== [Images of] Covers of Shakespeare translations from Folger collections: ====
''King Lear'' in Spanish, 1894. PR2796 S5 K6 1894 Sh. Col.
 
''King Richard III'' in German, 1964. [http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=19166 PR2796 G3 K8 A12 Sh. Col.]
 
''Othello'' in Russian, 1983. PR2796 K25 O1 1983 Sh. Col.
 
''Merchant of Venice'' in Spanish, 1944. PR2796 S5 M3 1944 Sh. Col.
 
''King Lear'' in Hindi, 1972. PR2796 H4 K6 1972 Sh. Col.
 
''Hamlet'' in Japanese, 2003. PR2796 J3 H3 K39 2003 Sh. Col.
 
==== [Images of] Covers of Jane Austen translations from Goucher College Special Collections: ====
 
''Pride and Prejudice'' in Dutch, 195? Goucher RARE PR4034 P7 D7 195-
 
''Northanger Abbey'' in Spanish, 1945. Goucher RARE PR4034 N7 S6 1945 c.2
 
''Sense and Sensibility'' in Dutch, 1922. Goucher RARE PR4034 S4 D7 1922
 
''Pride and Prejudice'' in Danish, 1952. Goucher RARE PR4034 P7 D2 1952
 
''Pride and Prejudice'' in Italian, ca.1957. Goucher RARE PR4034 P7 17 1957c c.1
 
''Pride and Prejudice'' in Hebrew, 1984. Goucher RARE PR4034 P7 H3 1984
 
==== [Other Images Reproduced:]<br>  ====
Bank of EnglandTwenty pound sterling note with William Shakespeare on verso. Print on cotton paper. Bank of England Printing Works, 1970-1991. No longer legal tender Sh.Misc. 269541
 
 
Bank of England. Concept design for ten pound sterling note depicting Jane Austen. Revealed July 2013, to be released as legal tender in 2017.
 
 
Jane Austen stamps. Six stamps on one sheet. British Royal Mail, 2013. Image courtesy of private collector.
 
 
Shakespeare stamps 1899-1902, specimens of different issues. Five stamps on one postcard. England, ca. 1911. ART File S527.3 no.26
 
=== Will and Jane Go to War ===
In World War I, both Shakespeare and Austen reached troops on active duty through the American Library Association’s “War Service Library” program. Copies of Shakespeare and ''Pride and Prejudice'' survive in their original publisher’s bindings from the 1880s and 1890s, still bearing the bookplates that served as their passports to the front. (1 & 2, 6) For Rudyard Kipling, reading Jane on the front lines was something of a cruel joke—as well as a universal truth. His 1924 short story "The Janeites," which describes a “mess-waiter” bonding with his fellow WWI soldiers over the reading of Austen, popularized the term “Janeite” to designate an Austen devotee. (3) In World War II, heavy shipments of used books for camp libraries gave way to lightweight paperbacks designed to fit in the pocket of a uniform. Penguin’s “The Forces Book Club” published two Austen novels for British servicemen. (4) More recently, ''Henry V'' was printed as part of the new “Armed Services Editions” for American troops serving in Iraq. (5) 
 
=== <br> Items Included ===
1) William Shakespeare (1564-1616). ''The Complete Works of William Shakespeare''. Ed. W. G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright. Chicago: Morrill, Higgins & Co., 1892. “War Service Library” label inside. PR2752 1892c Sh.Col. 
 
2) LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). ''Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey''. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1880s. “War Service Library” label inside. Loan courtesy of private collector.
 
3) LOAN. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). “The Janeites”. In ''Hearst’s International Magazine'', May 1924. LOC PN4854 .J36 1924, Colt Kipling Coll. Loan courtesy of the Library of Congress.
 
4) LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Persuasion. Penguin: The Forces Book Club Series, 1943. Loan courtesy of private collector.
 
5) LOAN. William Shakespeare (1564-1616). ''Henry V''. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications for the Legacy Project, 2002. Loan courtesy of private collector.
 
6) REPRODUCTION. Bookplate of the American Library Association’s War Service Library. From Shakespeare, Complete Works, Chicago, 1892.

Revision as of 15:50, 28 November 2016

This article offers a comprehensive list of each piece included in Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of the Celebrity, one of the Exhibitions at the Folger.

Introduction

Will & Jane tracks the parallel afterlives of two of the most popular writers in English: William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Jane Austen (1775-1817). In 2016, we can consider the rise of literary celebrity in real time. This year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and the approaching 200th anniversary of Austen’s.

Modern celebrity culture was born in the late 18th century when a growing entertainment industry staged popular spectacles and exhibitions that fanned the flames of Shakespeare’s early reputation. Similarly, starting in the late 20th century landmark TV mini-series and a wealth of films have done for Austen as she nears her bicentenary what theater and public entertainments did for Shakespeare at his 200 mark.

Two writers, acclaimed for their works, have soared in public recognition, transforming into cultural superheroes. The process of fandom leaves a trail of material objects— from the sublime to the ridiculous. Literary celebrity, from its 18th-century beginnings, is as much about relics and souvenirs as about books and plays.

Explore how today’s Cult of Jane resembles the first exuberant wave of “Bardolatry” (coined from “the Bard” and “idolatry”) in Will & Jane.

Curated by Janine Barchas (University of Texas at Austin) and Kristina Straub (Carnegie Mellon University) with assistance from Georgianna Ziegler, Louis B. Thalheimer Associate Librarian and Head of Reference for the Folger Shakespeare Library

Will & Jane is made possible by the generous support of May Liang, Roger and Robin Millay, the Winton and Carolyn Blount Exhibition Fund of the Folger Shakespeare Library, and supporters of The Wonder of Will: 400 Years of Shakespeare including The Lord Browne of Madingley, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Share Fund, and other generous donors.

[Painting to the right]

Items Included

George Romney (1734-1802).The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions. Oil on canvas. London, 1791-92. FPa49

This painting, which reimagines the birth of Shakespeare as The Nativity, was cut down on all four sides by a previous owner. When it hung as a centerpiece in John Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery in the 1790s it would have been even larger. To see this painting in its original Georgian context, go to the What Jane Saw touch screen at media station 1. 

Biography

Will and Jane are beloved not just for their writing, but for the people that readers imagine them to have been. The fact that we know so little about their lives or what they looked like has meant that readers have felt the need to imagine much. Our desire to know these authors intimately has led to over two centuries of trafficking in the images, lives, and loves of Will and Jane. We have stocked libraries, museums, movie theaters, and gift shops with portraits, souvenirs, forged love letters, and bio-pics that embody what we want them to have been like. Jane Austen lived through the first wave of Bardolatry. In some of her work, we see glimpses of one author’s participation in the fan culture around another.

Picturing the Author

Author portraits and biographies play important roles in Will’s and Jane’s reception as literary celebrities, yet their earliest portraits (in the nearby reproductions) provide a base for imaginative depictions rather than definitive images. The portraits gathered here cluster around the first flush of their fame, 200 years after the authors’ respective deaths.

Even though the well-known Droeshout engraving from the First Folio in 1623 is now the most “authoritative” and widely-circulated image of Shakespeare, it was created after his death in 1616.

In portraits from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Shakespeare is imagined as an aristocratic gentleman in lace collar, a more down-to-earth working artisan, and a romantically poetic dreamer. Painters exercised their imaginations—and contemporary ideas about Shakespeare—with artistic license that seems unconstrained by historical accuracy.

Several images of Austen were made during her lifetime, but most were considered inadequate for use as a public author portrait—too informal or too young. In 1869, Austen’s family commissioned an artist to prettify a small candid sketch of Jane by her sister Cassandra (in the nearby reproductions), originally made around 1810. Re-engraved in 1870 for use as a frontispiece to a memoir by James Edward Austen-Leigh, this Victorian version has become the public face of Jane we recognize today. It will be even more widely circulated when it appears on the British ten-pound note next year.

For both authors, ongoing portrait controversies continue the public’s longing for intimacy with the elusive “real” author.

Items Included

1)   Parian bust of Shakespeare. 19th Century. ART 248540

2)   LOAN. Anonymous. Marble bust of Austen on wooden base. Late 20th century. Loan courtesy of Joan Doyle, Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Eastern Pennsylvania Region

The best-known public images of Shakespeare and Austen are the first engravings used as author portraits to front their printed works. Both are posthumous images. Left: Martin Droeshout’s portrait of Shakespeare for the title page of the First Folio (1623). Right: The engraving made for James Edward Austen-Leigh’s A Memoir of Jane Austen (1870).

  • REPRODUCTION. Martin Droeshout (b. 1601). William Shakespeare from the title page of the First Folio. London, 1623. Engraving.
  • REPRODUCTION. After Cassandra Austen (1773-1845) . Portrait of Jane Austen in J. E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen. London: Richard Bentley, 1870. Engraving. Reproduction courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

[Shakespeare Portraits]

1)   Anonymous.The Staunton Portrait of Shakespeare. Oil on canvas. English, ca. 1770. FPs18.

2)   Anonymous. The Lumley Portrait of Shakespeare . Oil on canvas English, 18th century. FPs23.

3)   Anonymous.The Dexter Portrait of Shakespeare. Oil on panel. 19th century. FPs10.

[Austen Portraits]

From left to right, these works represent the progression of Austen’s public image, from original sketch in 1810 to engraved public portrait in 1870.

1)   REPRODUCTION. Cassandra Austen (1773-1845). Jane Austen drawn from life. Pencil on paper. ca. 1810. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

2)   REPRODUCTION. James Andrews, of Maidenhead Jane Austen. Watercolor on paper. 1869. Image courtesy of 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, Stevenson, Maryland.

3)  REPRODUCTION. Jane Austen Engraving as published in James Edward Austen-Leigh (1798-1874). A Memoir of Jane Austen. London: R. Bentley, 1870. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Missing Lives and Loves

The first biographies of Will and Jane prefaced editions of their works. Editor Nicholas Rowe wrote Shakespeare’s earliest biography in 1709 (1), while Austen’s was authored by her brother Henry for Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in December 1817 (2). In both instances, the authors’ lives take up little print space relative to the bulk of their work, yet these slim accounts remain foundational.

The shared myth of humble origins is literally painted onto souvenirs with images of the authors’ respective birthplaces. (3 & 4)

Fan culture tends to fill in biographical gaps with romance. A fake love letter from Shakespeare to Anne Hathaway, forged in the 1790s by William Henry Ireland (5), and the manuscript pages from Tom Stoppard’s 1990s screenplay for Shakespeare in Love (6) are just two examples of the continuing desire to give Will the love life for which we have so little evidence. Recently, the film Becoming Jane (7) similarly conjured a romance for Jane.

Items Included

1)   Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718).The works of Mr. William Shakespear… with an account of the life and writing of the author. London: Jacob Tonson, 1709. PR2752 1709a copy 1 Sh. Col.

2)   LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion. London: John Murray, 1818. First edition in original boards. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Library. PR4034 N7

3)   Pomade jar depicting Shakespeare’s house. Prattware jar with lid, ceramic. England, 19th century. ART Inv. 1056

4)   LOAN. Pillbox depicting Steventon Rectory (Jane Austen’s birthplace). Silver-trimmed ceramic, with image on lid. England, late 20th century. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Library.

5)   William Henry Ireland (1775-1835). Forged letter from William Shakespeare to Anne Hathaway. Manuscript, ca. 1790s. S.b.157, no.6

6)   LOAN. Tom Stoppard (b. 1937). Typescript page and manuscript scrap of screenplay drafts for Shakespeare in Love. August 1992. Stoppard 51.6.1, Stoppard 50.9.1. Loan courtesy of the Tom Stoppard Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.

7)  REPRODUCTION. Becoming Jane. Miramax, 2007. Film poster. Loan courtesy of private collector

Jane's Shakespeare

Jane Austen, born in 1775, experienced Shakespeare’s early rise to celebrity status first-hand. She read and admired his work, referenced him in her fictions, and saw his plays performed on London’s stage. In her novel Mansfield Park (1814), Austen’s characters “all talk Shakespeare” while rehearsing amateur theatricals. (7) Three of her fictional characters in that novel, Yates and the Crawfords, share surnames with famous Shakespearean actors of the 18th century. The playbill on display announces the performance of The Merchant of Venice that Jane saw on 5 March 1814. (1) In a letter to her sister, she deftly describes that night’s performance by Edmund Kean. (6) Kean’s portrait on a snuff box contrasts with an engraving of him as he looked in the role of Shylock. (2& 3) A paper “pinup” of actress Mrs. Crawford and a jewelry pin of diva Mrs. Yates give further evidence of the emerging culture of celebrity in which Austen was both witness and participant. (4 & 5)

Items Included

1)    Playbill for Merchant of Venice. Drury Lane Theatre, March 5, 1814. Bill Box G2D84 1813-1814. No. 141. Copy 2.

2)   Samuel Raven (1775-1847), artist. Circular table snuff box painted with portrait of Edmund Kean (1787-1833). Papier mâché. English, ca. 1822. ART 241306

3)   Henry Hoppner Meyer (1783-1847), printmaker. Edmund Kean as Shylock. Great Britain, 19th century. Mezzotint. ART File K24.4 no.39 part 1

4)   Mrs. Crawford in the Character of Cleopatra. Stipple engraving of tragedienne Ann Barry Crawford (1734-1801). Great Britain, late 18th century. ART File C899 no.7

5)   Mary Ann Yates (1728-1784), Actress. Depicted on medallion en grisaille. English, ca. 1777. ART 241267

6)   LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Letter signed to her sister Cassandra Austen. March 5-8, 1814. Manuscript. MA 977.36. Loan courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Purchased by J.P. Morgan, Jr. in 1920.

7)   LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Mansfield Park. London: T. Egerton, 1814. First edition in original boards. PR4034 M3 1814 v.1-3. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.

Austen as Playwright?

No manuscript of a complete Shakespeare play in his handwriting survives, but a play in Austen’s hand does. 200 years later, theater and film professionals dramatize her novels, turning them into scripts for stage and screen.

This lighthearted dramatization sets scenes from the 1755 novel Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson—one of Jane Austen’s favorite writers. (1) While it remains uncertain whether Austen authored this adaptation in whole or in part (family legend held that her niece Anna was author and Aunt Jane a mere amanuensis), it does give us evidence of Austen’s participation in just the type of amateur theatricals that she seems to critique in her fiction.

Biographers agree that the young Jane was an active participant in family theatricals throughout her youth at the Steventon rectory, where the Austens staged plays in their barn. The back-stage tomfoolery in Mansfield Park does not make Austen anti-theatrical.

Just as Austen turned Richardson’s novel into a play, others have realized the dramatic potential of her novels. Actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson adapted Sense and Sensibility for the silver screen in 1995 (2). Thompson scripted and starred in the film, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress.

Items Included

1)   LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Sir Charles Grandison, or the Happy Man. A Comedy. Manuscript in five sections, of varying sizes, pinned separately. ca. 1791, ca. 1800. 792 AUS. Loan courtesy of Chawton House Library.

2)   LOAN. Emma Thompson (b. 1959). Screenplay of Sense and Sensibility. Author’s annotated typescript. 1995. Loan courtesy of Emma Thompson.

Making of Literary Celebrity

Will and Jane’s respective celebrities were each kicked off by media extravaganzas marking, roughly, the 200th anniversaries of their lives and work.

In 1769, David Garrick organized a Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon, while in 1789, in London, John Boydell opened the Shakespeare Gallery. The television “bonnet drama” is to Austen as the Jubilee and Boydell’s Gallery were to Shakespeare. Assisted by Hollywood, the BBC awarded Austen, and her characters, special star status just as she approached her bicentenary.

Reverence for Will and Jane has swelled into numerous expressions of devotion— from pilgrimage routes to the collection of “relics.” This exhibition would not exist without the committed collecting activities that such devotion has inspired.

The claiming of Will and Jane as national (and international) icons is another offshoot of their celebrity effect. Their portraits grace money and stamps, each has been translated into a host of languages, and both marched to war as reading material for active duty military during two World Wars. 

The Best Friend

David Garrick, actor and theater manager, leans familiarly on a bust of Shakespeare, summing up the integral relationship between Shakespeare’s growing fame and the cult of theatrical celebrity that emerged in the 18th century. Garrick’s status in the British theater and Shakespeare’s reputation as “the English Bard” proved mutually beneficial, strengthening the celebrity around both men.

Items Included

Unknown, after Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88). David Garrick Leaning on a Bust of Shakespeare. Oil on canvas, after 1769. The original painting by Gainsborough was destroyed by fire in 1946. FPb27.

Museum Spectacle

The first-ever museum dedicated to The Bard was the Shakespeare Gallery, built by London entrepreneur and publisher John Boydell in 1789. 

Until financial difficulties forced it to close its doors in 1804, the gallery was a popular tourist attraction and charged visitors a shilling to see life-sized paintings of famous scenes commissioned from contemporary artists. The gallery had its own shop on the ground floor and sold large engravings of the pictures (like today’s museum posters) as well as subscriptions to a grand, multi-volume edition of Shakespeare’s works. The whole enterprise, like the 1769 Jubilee, was a financial failure despite its significant cultural influence on Shakespeare’s popular reception.

The building that housed the Shakespeare Gallery was demolished in 1870 and the bulk of Boydell’s paintings, sold by lottery and subsequently auctioned off in 1805, are now considered lost. A paper lottery ticket (in nearby case) and George Romney’s canvas of the “Infant Shakespeare” at the exhibition entrance (also reproduced nearby) are rare survivors from the gallery’s dissolution.

Touch the screen and join Jane in a visit to the Shakespeare Gallery in 1796.


Items Included

George Romney (1734-1802). The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions. Oil on canvas London, 1791-92

FPa49. Reproduction – see the original on this wall at the exhibition entrance 


This painting reimagines the birth of Shakespeare as The Nativity. When first engraved, this image carried the following explanation: “Nature is represented with her face unveiled to her favourite Child, who is placed between Joy and Sorrow. On the right hand of Nature are Love, Hatred & Jealousy: on her left hand, Anger, Envy, & Fear.”

Spectacle at 200

An advertisement for a Shakespearean horse race (2) illustrates the odd range of activities—from fireworks to concerts—planned for the Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford in 1769, which was ultimately rained out. The portrait of Garrick, master of ceremonies, reverently contemplating a miniature of Shakespeare’s likeness, links the star status of actor and playwright. (1)

The planned parade of Shakespeare’s characters (3) never happened at the Jubilee, but was regularly performed at London’s Drury Lane Theatre. Events that did happen, such as Garrick’s recitation of his ode to Shakespeare (9), “the God of our idolatry,” circulated far beyond the soggy audience at Stratford.

Similarly, the paintings that John Boydell had assembled for the first-ever Shakespeare Gallery (5, 8), beginning in 1789, continued to be disseminated through engravings to an even larger audience after the museum closed in 1804.

The televised “bonnet drama” functions as the modern equivalent to these Georgian spectacles. In particular, the BBC’s 6-part television broadcast of Pride and Prejudice in 1995 (7) proved a watershed moment in the popular reception of Austen, as commemorated here by a bonnet (6) worn during that production’s final wedding scene.

Items Included

1) Joseph Saunders after Benjamin Van der Gucht. Mr. Garrick as Steward of the Stratford Jubilee, September 1769. Great Britain, 1773. Engraving. ART 242301. 

2) Bill of advertisement for horse race. Stratford, 1769. PR2923 1769 R2 Cage. 

3) Anonymous. The Procession at the Jubilee at Stratford upon Avon! Oxford, 1769. Engraving. Folger Garrickiana Maggs no. 198.

4) Signed “F. Westwood” Medallions commemorating the Jubilee, 1769. Recto: “We shall not look upon his like again.” Verso: “Jubilee at Stratford in honour and to the memory of Shakespeare, Sept. 1769, D.G., Steward”. Coin Collection Env. 29. 

5) John Boydell (1719-1804). Ticket for his Shakespeare Lottery. London, 1804-05. No. 320 of approximately 22,000 lottery tickets sold for the inventory of 167 paintings during the dissolution of the gallery Y.d.295

6) LOAN. Bonnet from 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. Worn by actress Susannah Harker as Jane Bennet London, 1995. Property of Cosprop Ltd., London.

7) REPRODUCTION. Promotional image for BBC’s Pride and Prejudice (1995). DVD Box. Reproduction. Loan courtesy of private collector

8) REPRODUCTION. Francis Wheatley (1747-1801). Boydell Shakespeare Gallery. Watercolor on paper, 1790. Reproduction. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

9) Mr Garrick Reciting the Ode, in honor of Shakespeare. England, after 1769. Line engraving. ART FILE G241 no. 2.

Deification

Fans of both Will and Jane have, at times, claimed divine status for their beloved author. The phrase “the divine Jane” was coined by American critic William Dean Howells in 1891 (4), joining existing references to Shakespeare as “the God of our idolatry” in the cultural lexicon. 

Devotees continue to make pilgrimages to locations associated with both authors, following routes spelled out in special guidebooks and maps. (2 & 3)

In 1756, just as Stratford began to attract the first trickle of literary tourists, an old mulberry tree that Shakespeare supposedly planted was cut down, inciting nationwide lament. A local man named Thomas Sharp bought the wood and turned it into mementos for visitors, including this chalice. (5) A thriving industry ensued in an impossibly large number of relics that claimed to be made from that same tree. Fragments were even embedded in bindings of Shakespeare editions, as if pieces of an alternative True Cross. (6)

More recently, acorn-shaped darning eggs (used to mend socks) were carved from the wood of an oak tree that Jane Austen is said to have planted beside the boundary wall of her Chawton cottage but which had to be felled in 1986–87. (7)


Items Included

1) Johann Heinrich Ramberg (1763-1840). Shakspere. Drawing, watercolor. 1832. ART Box R167 no.1. 

2) E. Cilks, printmaker. Twelve Shakespearean landmarks. London: E. Cilks, 19th century. Colored lithograph. ART File S898 no.21. 

3) LOAN. Janet Aylmer. In the Footsteps of Jane Austen. Bath: Copperfield Books, 2003. Loan courtesy of private collector. 

4) LOAN. William Dean Howells (1837-1920). Criticism and Fiction. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1891. PN81 H6. Loan courtesy of Georgetown University Library. 

5) Thomas Sharp (1725-1799). Goblet made from mulberry tree wood, trimmed with silver. Stratford, n.d. Inscription: "Made from a piece of Shakespeare’s mulberry tree by Mr. Sharpe silversmith Stratford on Avon." Wood no. 12a.

6) William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Dramatic Works. London: Sherwin and Co., 1821. Fragment of mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare embedded in binding. PR2752 1821c copy 1 Sh.Col.

7) LOAN. Local Chawton craftsman. Large decorative acorn (and darning egg) made from oak tree planted by Jane Austen. Chawton, England, ca. 1987. Loan courtesy of private collector.

Relics

Locks of hair have long been cherished and fought over as primary relics. Each of the hair relics in this case has a contentious history. (1 & 2) 

Objects used by the author are of course also much coveted, especially if they have a strong provenance history to back claims to authenticity.

The turquoise ring that once graced the hand that wrote Pride and Prejudice radiates value, even in the form of this gold replica. (3) Kelly Clarkson, the American pop star and Austen fan, briefly won the true ring at auction but was ultimately not allowed to take the “national treasure” out of Britain.

Even ordinary, random objects found beneath the floorboards of Austen’s house (5) or a bundle of old sticks (4) that may or may not have been Shakespeare’s chair, become evocative of saintly relics— preserved solely for their distant association with the “divine” Will or Jane.

Items Included

1) “Shakespeare’s Hair”. Single auburn strand, mounted on card with inscription dated August 24, 1866. London, Before 1820. ART Inv. 1004. 

The inscription states that the hair was enclosed in an undated letter sent by Samuel Ireland, presumably around 1800, to a Mr. Bindley and auctioned on 8 August 1820. It then passed into the possession of one J. E. H. Taylor, Esq., who donated it to the collector W. J. Bernhard Smith in 1866. The Folger acquired it in 1896.

2) LOAN. Lock of Jane Austen’s hair in a circular copper alloy frame with a ribbon bow crest. Formerly owned by Alberta Burke. CHWJA:JAH28. Loan courtesy of Jane Austen’s House Museum.

3) Jane Austen’s gold and turquoise ring. Briefly owned by singer Kelly Clarkson. Replica.

4) Wood from Shakespeare's Birthplace. Bundle of seven pieces of wood from a chair, molding, chest, and walking stick. Stratford, 1600-1900? ART Inv. 1180.

5) LOAN. Selection of items found under the floorboards of Jane Austen’s House. Glass bottle; iron alloy spoon, knife, and nail; copper alloy buckle; white clay pipe. Chawton, England, 18th and 19th century. CHWJA: JAH63.5, JAH360; JAH361; JAH363; JAH362; JAH364. Loan courtesy of Jane Austen’s House Museum.

Passionate Collecting

Two American couples shared parallel literary passions that led to two monumental collections: Henry and Emily Folger, who founded the Folger Shakespeare Library, and Alberta and Henry Burke, collectors of Jane Austen materials (now divided between The Morgan Library and Goucher College). 

The Folgers faced the challenge of collecting through the First World War while the Burkes lived through the Second. Each couple was childless, looking after their collections with parental fidelity. Both couples worked tirelessly for decades to collect books, art, decorative items, and every possible type of object that carried their author’s name, image, or association. Without the Folgers and the Burkes, Will & Jane would not exist.

Remarkably, the Folgers and Burkes systematized the daunting process of collecting in similar ways, using early bibliographies as virtual shopping wish-lists. (1 & 2) A 1940 telegram exchange between a London bookshop and the Burkes demonstrates how some fish got away (4 & 5), while a 1918 Folger check returning borrowed funds suggests the vast sums devoted to the enterprise. (3) Even the Burkes’ bookplate is similar to one adopted early on by the Folger Library. (6)


Items Included

1) James Orchard Halliwell-Phillips (1820-89). A Calendar of the Shakespearean Rarities, 2nd edition, Ed. Ernest E. Baker. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1891. Folger Collection. 

Extra-annotated bibliography of coveted Shakespeare treasures, handled to pieces and marked throughout by Henry and Emily Folger. 

2) LOAN. Geoffrey Keynes (1887-1982). Jane Austen: A Bibliography. London: Nonesuch Press, 1929. Z8048 .K44 1968. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.

Extra-annotated bibliography of Austen editions, handled to pieces and pasted throughout with clippings from dealer catalogues by Alberta and Henry Burke. 

3) Henry Folger to John D. Rockefeller. Bank check for $53,000, dated January 29, 1918. Folger Collection.

This sum was partial repayment for a personal loan to buy more Shakespeare.

4-5) LOAN. Bernard Quaritch Bookshop, London, to Henry Burke, Baltimore, December 1940. RCA Radiogram and Postal Telegraph telegrams. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.

6) Bookplates from the Folger and [LOAN] Burke collections. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.

Devotion Beyond Death

The original of this dedicatory plaque hangs inside the adjacent Folger Reading Room, just a few feet away. Behind this plaque, the ashes of Henry and Emily Folger are interred, at their request, inside a wall of the room where scholars work with the collections. The Folgers did not want to be parted from their Shakespeareana—not even by death.

In an open letter addressed to the Jane Austen Society in 2008, a distraught Louise West, then-curator at Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, England, asked Austen fans not to instruct relatives in legal wills to strew their ashes in the cottage’s garden. The letter banning the practice identifies a similar urge among Austen fans to associate their last resting places with their beloved Jane.

“While we understand many admirers of Jane 

Austen would love to have ashes laid here, 

it is something we do not allow. 

It is distressing for visitors to see mounds

of human ash, particularly so for our gardener.

Also, it is of no benefit to the garden!”

 —Louise West, Jane Austen’s House Museum Chawton   

National/Universal Reputations

One big difference between Will and Jane that seems to make no difference to their fans is that while Austen’s stories are set exclusively in England’s southern counties, Shakespeare’s plots roam from Venice and Padua, Italy, to Denmark and Scotland. 

The different geographical locations of their fictional settings doesn’t impact these authors’ perceived Britishness. Will and Jane each appear on British stamps and bank notes, with Shakespeare on a now retired 20pound note and Austen, starting next year, on the 10pound note. While their Britishness is unquestionable, their works have been enthusiastically translated and celebrated throughout the globe.

[Images of] Covers of Shakespeare translations from Folger collections:

King Lear in Spanish, 1894. PR2796 S5 K6 1894 Sh. Col.

King Richard III in German, 1964. PR2796 G3 K8 A12 Sh. Col.

Othello in Russian, 1983. PR2796 K25 O1 1983 Sh. Col.

Merchant of Venice in Spanish, 1944. PR2796 S5 M3 1944 Sh. Col.

King Lear in Hindi, 1972. PR2796 H4 K6 1972 Sh. Col.

Hamlet in Japanese, 2003. PR2796 J3 H3 K39 2003 Sh. Col.

[Images of] Covers of Jane Austen translations from Goucher College Special Collections:

Pride and Prejudice in Dutch, 195? Goucher RARE PR4034 P7 D7 195-

Northanger Abbey in Spanish, 1945. Goucher RARE PR4034 N7 S6 1945 c.2

Sense and Sensibility in Dutch, 1922. Goucher RARE PR4034 S4 D7 1922

Pride and Prejudice in Danish, 1952. Goucher RARE PR4034 P7 D2 1952

Pride and Prejudice in Italian, ca.1957. Goucher RARE PR4034 P7 17 1957c c.1

Pride and Prejudice in Hebrew, 1984. Goucher RARE PR4034 P7 H3 1984

[Other Images Reproduced:]

Bank of EnglandTwenty pound sterling note with William Shakespeare on verso. Print on cotton paper. Bank of England Printing Works, 1970-1991. No longer legal tender Sh.Misc. 269541


Bank of England. Concept design for ten pound sterling note depicting Jane Austen. Revealed July 2013, to be released as legal tender in 2017.


Jane Austen stamps. Six stamps on one sheet. British Royal Mail, 2013. Image courtesy of private collector.


Shakespeare stamps 1899-1902, specimens of different issues. Five stamps on one postcard. England, ca. 1911. ART File S527.3 no.26

Will and Jane Go to War

In World War I, both Shakespeare and Austen reached troops on active duty through the American Library Association’s “War Service Library” program. Copies of Shakespeare and Pride and Prejudice survive in their original publisher’s bindings from the 1880s and 1890s, still bearing the bookplates that served as their passports to the front. (1 & 2, 6) For Rudyard Kipling, reading Jane on the front lines was something of a cruel joke—as well as a universal truth. His 1924 short story "The Janeites," which describes a “mess-waiter” bonding with his fellow WWI soldiers over the reading of Austen, popularized the term “Janeite” to designate an Austen devotee. (3) In World War II, heavy shipments of used books for camp libraries gave way to lightweight paperbacks designed to fit in the pocket of a uniform. Penguin’s “The Forces Book Club” published two Austen novels for British servicemen. (4) More recently, Henry V was printed as part of the new “Armed Services Editions” for American troops serving in Iraq. (5) 


Items Included

1) William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Ed. W. G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright. Chicago: Morrill, Higgins & Co., 1892. “War Service Library” label inside. PR2752 1892c Sh.Col. 

2) LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1880s. “War Service Library” label inside. Loan courtesy of private collector.

3) LOAN. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). “The Janeites”. In Hearst’s International Magazine, May 1924. LOC PN4854 .J36 1924, Colt Kipling Coll. Loan courtesy of the Library of Congress.

4) LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Persuasion. Penguin: The Forces Book Club Series, 1943. Loan courtesy of private collector.

5) LOAN. William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Henry V. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications for the Legacy Project, 2002. Loan courtesy of private collector.

6) REPRODUCTION. Bookplate of the American Library Association’s War Service Library. From Shakespeare, Complete Works, Chicago, 1892.