#the plays of shakespeare

[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 

[fawnvelveteen]

Mistress Page (Ellen Terry) by Window & Grove (English, 1872-1933 active). Publication: The plays of shakespeare. Photogravure. 1906.

[fakemichaelsheen]

-the theatre, 1597-

aziraphale, wiping tears: what did you think?

crowley: ...

aziraphale: did you not like it?

crowley, hesitates: weeell...

aziraphale, sighs: what was wrong with this one?

crowley, shrugs: I don't know. it was all so...depressing. I mean, they were kids, angel

aziraphale, rolls his eyes: it's romantic

crowley: it's morbid

aziraphale, shakes his head: yes but it's about the star crossed lovers. the forbidden love. the tragedy. two feuding families. you wouldn't understand

crowley: *stares at him*

crowley, incredulous: sorry, did you seriously just say that?

aziraphale, oblivious: yes. so?

crowley, sighs: nothing *takes his arm* come on, let's get out of here

aziraphale, smiles: yes, I believe I owe you a drink. for coming with me

crowley, nods: several, I should think

aziraphale: it wasn't that bad

crowley, glares at him: dead kids, angel

aziraphale, agreeing: yes, I see your point

[blondepw]

the sluttiest thing a man can do is be good at performing shakespeare

[writtebycamus]

from a Prince to a King; David Tennant in Shakespeare plays throughout the years

Hamlet (2009) // Macbeth (2023)

[flowerytale]

William Shakespeare, from "Henry V"

[transsexualcoriolanus]

"lady macbeth was manipulating macbeth because of her own ambition to be queen" "lady macbeth never really wanted to be queen she was only doing it because she loved her husband" no you don't understand she was doing it for them. at the beginning of the play the macbeths are a team, partners in greatness, one cannot exist without the other. she doesn't want power only for herself or only for him, she wants them to rule together, equally. that's why it's so devastating when she doesn't get that, when becoming king and queen only drives them apart, because she wanted them to be partners in greatness and she got the opposite.

[emotinalsupportturtle]

..and he wrote them for David Tennant

[the-evil-clergyman]

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Gustave Doré (1870)

[uwmspeccoll]

Shakespeare Weekend

Volume Three of The Plays of Shakespeare published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. in the mid to late 1860s finishes off the set with a collection of Shakespeare’s tragedies and The Story of Shakespeare’s Life written by editors Charles (1787-1877) and Mary Cowden Clark (1809-1898). Similarly to Cowden Clark’s annotations, The Story of Shakespeare’s Life is written for an audience new to Shakespeare and is a thorough account of his life, heralding him as a “shining example to the whole human brotherhood”.  

Englishman Henry Courtney (H.C.) Selous (1803-1890) illustrated all three volumes with his distinctive attention to minute detail and dense landscapes. Following his father’s portrait and miniature painting career, Selous attended the Royal Academy in 1818 where he exhibited his first work Portrait of a Favourite Cat. Twenty-two years later he would switch gears into historical painting and never look back. His illustrations for The Plays of Shakespeare add an emotive visual layer to the plays, benefiting young and novice readers who may not have experienced Shakespeare in a theatre.  

The Plays of Shakespeare are a collected edition of the serialization of plays originally published in one of Cassell, Petter, & Galpin’s weekly papers over the course of many years. Met with great success, some seventeen editions have been published. Our early copy is half-bound in red leather with Shakespeare’s portrait embossed in gold on the cover. 

View more Shakespeare Weekend posts. 

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[hamletthedane]

Shakespeare: I will create two teenage characters who are explicitly proto-postmodern examinations of the nature of character and fate within fictional narrative. I am their creator and - like their parents within the narrative - I exercise complete control over their fates, no matter how much they struggle against it. They are born like Athena from my mind and doomed to die by my pen, by my complicity in the narrative negligence of them, by my own actions and wishes-

Actor: cool, what's their names?

Shakespeare, father of twins named Judith and Hamnet: uhh…. Juliet and Hamlet.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

The hot new thing on Tumblr was the 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of King Lear with Ian McKellen, so every meme and reaction image was just screencaps from King Lear.

[charl3ss]

One thing about me is that I will defend Romeo and Juliet until the day I die. “They weren’t in love—” the point is that they were never allowed to figure that out themselves because of the hateful society they lived in. They were kids who didn’t get to figure these things out because they died. “Romeo should have checked—” Juliet didn’t have a pulse. He didn’t know about the plan. “Juliet was dumb for taking the potion—” She was a 13 year old girl. That was the Friar’s fault, not hers. It was the fault of the adults who should have known better.

[thatsbelievable]

[queenklu]

I was so confused during today’s Drac Daily about this part in particular

Because that??? Bro, that ain’t Hamlet.

I went digging and found someone attempting to explain it:

If it is referencing this scene then it’s the part in the play where Hamlet says he’s going to throw everything off the table of his mind and focus only on revenge (this does...not work out for him).

BUT THEN

SO BASICALLY

B A S I C A L L Y

Stoker’s dumb acting friend MISQUOTED SHAKESPEARE loudly and often enough that it wound up in this novel????????

[karl-von-moor-official]

Ok but consider: A production of Hamlet that starts with the last scene and then Horatio has to play his role in the rest of the play, but he’s still completely dissolved in tears. Everyone else is oblivious and he has to keep it together for the sake of storytelling, but his voice cracks as he says “I think I saw him yesternight”, regret filling his tone, and he frantically holds on to Hamlet as he begs him not to follow the ghost; he practically chokes on his words as he shouts, “Be rul’d!” And he knows it’s no use, but he’s so reluctant to play his part in this and he can barely keep his emotions at bay. And then the end of the story draws nearer. He takes longer and longer to say his lines. He hesitates, tries to stretch out the little time he’s got left with Hamlet. He doesn’t want to be in this narrative, but he is. Until finally, as Hamlet decides to duel Laertes, Horatio simply gives up. Reluctantly, but knowingly, he accepts the fact that there’s nothing he can do but play his part and relive it all, just to honor Hamlet’s legacy and story. And Hamlet dies in his arms a second time.