#shakespeare weekend

[uwmspeccoll]

Shakespeare Weekend

Working our way through the Shakespeare Collection, our next stop is The Plays of Shakespeare edited and annotated by Charles (1787-1877) and Mary Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) and illustrated by H.C. Selous (1803-1890). The collection was published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., likely in the mid to late 1860s and consists of three volumes each arranging the plays into comedies, histories, and tragedies.  

Scholarly English authors Charles and Mary Cowden Clark refer to the collection as the “People’s Edition” stating their intention for the work to be read within the household and among family circles. Keeping young readers in mind, the plays are annotated for a novice Shakespearean audience and Titus Andronicus is omitted from the collection due to its “grossness”. Additionally, the collection is heavily illustrated by Selous with wood engravings, providing valuable imagery for those unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s plays.  

Volume One contains all of Shakespeare’s comedies and opens with a full-page frontispiece of the author.  

View more Shakespeare Weekend posts. 

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[firelise]

Film & TV I Think About A Lot » Much Ado About Nothing (1993) dir. Kenneth Branagh

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more. Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea, and one on shore, To one thing constant never. Then sigh notso, but let them go

[cantheykillmacbeth]

Could Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream kill Macbeth?

Unfortunately, from what I could find, pretty much every classic folkloric interpretation of fairies/the fey doesn't specify how new members of the species come to be, and this extends to the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. I even looked into the supposed inspirations behind Puck specifically, and none of them clarify this either. This means that UBC and BPC are ambiguous and therefore off the table.

As for the Gender Clause, Puck doesn't seem to apply for it either, at least from the research I did on it; Puck is generally referred to with he/him pronouns both in and out of the play's text. If someone more knowledgeable on A Midsummer Night's Dream knows of a point where Puck is explicitly stated to not be a man (in context of gender, not species), or any information about Shakespeare's take on fairy reproduction, then that would be great.

For now, though, until any evidence surfaces saying otherwise, Puck will be categorized as not being able to kill Macbeth. He would most likely be able to get someone else who could to do it for him, though.

Sorry! Thank you for your submission!

[greenbloods]

actually i want to talk about the jon snow-julius caesar parallels more. at the end of the day both are stories about institutions. both are characters who politick within increasingly rotting institutions (the nights watch and the roman republic), who implement much needed reforms within the systems but whose reforms threaten the very foundation of the system itself (jon interferes in northern politics while the nights watch is supposed to take no part, and caesar increasingly erodes the supposedly democratic institutions of the republic for increasingly authoritarian and monarchical aims) and are betrayed by those they thought allies and friends in the hope that through their assassination the institution itself is saved. but it doesnt work. in caesar's case the death of the dictator was the death of the roman empire: despite the immediate cause of the fall being caesar himself, brutus and the conspirators' daggers and the mob's outcry dealt the killing blow. we dont know how the fallout of jon's assassination will go, but its not going to be as simple as melisandre coming over and reviving him. the fallout may be the death of the watch itself, and maybe the replacement of the old rotting institution with something new.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

TWELFTH NIGHT *AND* HAMLET ON THE AREA SHAKESPEARE COMPANY’S 2024 CALENDAR I AM WINNING AT LIFE

[mystery-deer]

b99 Doodles (Terry & Holt have an underratedly sweet friendship)

[transsexualjoanofarc]

i dont like kenneth branagh’s whole thing & i dont like the apparent mcu-ification of hercule poirot but i will not lie & say i dont love agatha christie style whodunnit murder mysteries making a bit of a comeback now

[szappan]

god i hate 18th century english writers theyre not old enough to be interesting and not recent enough to be exciting i hate those self contradictory little twits with their cheeky little satires and mock poems that require the memorising of a fucking phonebook to be enjoyable i dont KNOW who youre talking about leave me out of it i dont care about your incomprehensible double entendres and i dont like your so called wit and whatever happened to brevity anyway

[seishun-emergency]

my first class of the day. one hour lecture on shakespeare’s tragicomedies. i am wataru hibiki,

[vulpinesaint]

love being an english major. next week for my literary theory and criticism class we're reading donna haraway cyborg manifesto which is so awesome cause i've had a pdf of that open in my tabs for Months and just haven't gotten around to it 😭

[uwmspeccoll]

Shakespeare Weekend

This weekend we enjoy Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, Twelfth Night the thirty-fifth volume of the thirty-seven volume The Comedies Histories & Tragedies of William Shakespeare, published by the Limited Editions Club (LEC) from 1939-1940. The original full title of the play is Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, and it was written between 1600 and 1601 with its first performance noted in 1602 at the Middle Temple in London. Twelfth Night was not published until 1623 with its inclusion in the First Folio.  

Italian artist Francesco Carnevali (1892-1987) illustrated the LEC’s edition with colorfully detailed watercolors. Carnevali was a professor at the Academy of the Book in Urbino, Italy and was serendipitously already working on illustrations for Twelfth Night when the LEC wrote to him asking if he’d like to collaborate on their Shakespeare publications. The resulting watercolors are unique in their angled perspective providing readers with an elaborate view of the action as if they were sitting in balcony theater seats and transporting them into the ambiance of a seaside town. 

Laid in with our holding is a program from the Spring 1941 performance of Twelfth Night performed at Milwaukee’s historic Pabst Theatre. The performance starred Helen Hayes as Viola, Maurice Evans as Malvolio, and was presented by The Society of Allied Arts. 

The volume was printed in an edition of 1950 copies at the Press of A. Colish. Each of the LEC volumes of Shakespeare’s works are illustrated by a different artist, but the unifying factor is that all volumes were designed by famed book and type designer Bruce Rogers and edited by the British theatre professional and Shakespeare specialist Herbert Farjeon. Our copy is number 1113, the number for long-standing LEC member Austin Fredric Lutter of Waukesha, Wisconsin. 

View more Limited Edition Club posts. 

View more Shakespeare Weekend posts. 

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[purplemoonabove]

I saw Richard II hours ago

My new favorite Shakespeare play.

Until I see him as Hamlet tomorrow

[poetic-gays]

Book haul from Shakespeare and Company in Paris 🤌😭

[magratpudifoot]

It's not even remotely close enough to my monthly PMDD Black Mood for today to be swinging so hard for the "Then what is even to point of my existence?" fences.

[17yearcicada]

mercutio and hamlet are two sides of the same coin. hi hello can anyone hear me

[thursdaysbagman]

my weekend of seeing the lord of the rings musical tonight and a visit to Downton abbey tomorrow is what summer is all about actually