{"id":295,"date":"2016-09-08T07:52:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T07:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/?p=295"},"modified":"2025-02-24T18:25:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T23:25:37","slug":"so-long-lives-this-a-celebration-of-shakespeares-life-and-works-1616-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/2016\/09\/08\/so-long-lives-this-a-celebration-of-shakespeares-life-and-works-1616-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018So long lives this\u2019: \nA Celebration of Shakespeare\u2019s Life and Works 1616-2016."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u2018So long lives this\u2019: \nA Celebration of Shakespeare\u2019s Life and Works 1616-2016.<\/h1>\n\n
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Joshua J. McEvilla<\/a><\/div>\n\n
in <\/span>Exhibition review<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Open<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018So long lives this\u2019: A Celebration of Shakespeare\u2019s Life and Works 1616-2016<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

25 January\u201328 May 2016<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In answer to America\u2019s \u201cFirst Folio!\u201d project<\/a>, which will see copies of Shakespeare\u2019s First Folio on display in museums, universities, public libraries, and at historical sites across the country, Canada\u2019s largest and most comprehensive Rare Book Library, the Thomas Fisher Library of University of Toronto, has assembled the most ambitious display of Shakespeare-related books in Canada, an exhibition complemented by a glorious full-colour catalogue, sized to match the Fisher\u2019s extra-tall First Folio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition<\/a> is designed around the essays of the accompanying volume, which is to be especially commended for two lengthy chapters written by Scott Schofield, of Huron College, University of Western Ontario (formerly of University of Toronto). Working from unpublished notes shared by world famous Folger Fellow and Freeman of the Stationers\u2019 Company, Peter W. M. Blayney, Schofield, in his first chapter, tells the history of the Jaggards: that of Isaac and William Jaggard, printers of Shakespeare\u2019s First Folio (27\u201331); but, also, as importantly, of John, Elizabeth, and Dorothy Jaggard, the family collaborators of the business (31\u201334). He tells the story in a very accessible way, at first highlighting cut-outs of Plate 4 from Nova Reperta<\/em> (1599\u2013c. 1603), an engraving showing the interior of a printing house, before focusing in on specific Jaggard items displayed in cases of the exhibition (27\u201331). Looking back from the Folio at such Jaggard books as Thomas Milles\u2019s The Catalogue of Honor<\/em> (London, 1610) and Ralph Brookes\u2019s A Catalogue and Succession of the Kings \u2026 of England<\/em> (London, 1619), Schofield meticulously lays the groundwork for bringing together Shakespeare\u2019s First Folio and the Jaggards\u2019 prior heraldry volumes: this argument is exceptionally well-timed, given Heather Wolfe\u2019s recent discovery<\/a> of a new illuminated crest for the Shakespeare Family, topped by a note on the bard\u2019s occupation as \u201cplayer\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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F7300, Wed Jul 30, 2014, 9:28:14 AM, 8C, 5416×4450, (2+2305), 100%, Default Settin, 1\/60 s, R63.4, G44.0, B70.6<\/figcaption><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Schofield\u2019s second chapter, though offering less by way of original, ground-breaking, new research, stands as a compact and yet impactful source-survey. Ideally read in the Fisher Library, with the documents right there to be seen, Schofield\u2019s examination depicts Shakespeare as anything but the divinely and socially inspired character of Tom Stoppard\u2019s Shakespeare in Love<\/em> (1998). To Schofield, Shakespeare is instead an unparalleled bibliophile, reading, discontinuously, Holinshed\u2019s Chronicles <\/em>(1577), Plutarch\u2019s Lives of the Greeks and Romans<\/em> (trans. Thomas North, 1579), the Geneva Bible (1557), and Ovid\u2019s Metamorphoses<\/em> (trans. Arthur Golding, 1567); Shakespeare is Agostino Ramelli (1531\u20131600), cranking through volumes of his imaginary \u201cbook wheel,\u201d a device to facilitate quick knowledge acquisition from a wide variety of Reference works (38; Dell\u2019 Artificiose Machine<\/em> [1588], figure 188). Some of the examples that Schofield selects are spot-on for undergraduate and even graduate learners: Shakespeare\u2019s selectivity over the mortality statistics of Agincourt, from Holinshed\u2019s Chronicles<\/em> (36); the bard\u2019s midrashic personalization of Plutarch for Enobarbus\u2019s sumptuous description of Cleopatra\u2019s barge (39). Others, albeit pure speculation, are visually striking: \u201cA Cabinet of Curiosities,\u201d out of Dell\u2019 Historia Naturale<\/em> (Naples, 1599), for Romeo and Juliet<\/em>\u2019s apothecary scene (42); \u201cMemento Mori,\u201d out of Andreas Vesalius\u2019s (1514\u20131564) De Humani Corporis Fabrica Librorum Epitome<\/em> (Basel, 1543), for themes of anatomy, death, and art, from Hamlet <\/em>(42\u201343). Schofield\u2019s treatment of Shakespeare\u2019s intertextuality takes expert advantage of both exhibition space and page space to create an ideal learning situation for tomorrow\u2019s scholars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other scholarship of the display and of the collection rises to meet the high measure Schofield sets: three pieces, in particular, do so gloriously, from their own respective angles. Anne Dondertman, outgoing Associate Chief Librarian for Special Collections and Director of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, begins the volume with a detailed introduction, discussing the earliest origins and provenance of the Fisher\u2019s main Shakespeare holdings \u2013 Canada\u2019s only known copy of the First Folio, and copies of its Second (1632), Third (1663), and Fourth (1685) printings. Her research for the project admirably fills in numerous critical gaps in the First\u2019s patchy history (its erroneous link to \u201cLady Drake\u201d in Sidney Lee\u2019s census [1902], and the separate provenance or descent of the Droeshout frontispiece [11; 11\u201314, with 12\u201313 displaying a to-scale repro]). Blayney comes out of retirement for the book\u2019s first chapter (the exhibition\u2019s first two cases) to re-tell his history of the publication of Shakespeare\u2019s First Folio. He tells the story with an energy and awareness even surpassing that of his own widely celebrated The First Folio of Shakespeare <\/em>(1991). His arguments come together even more naturally in part due to large full-colour illustrations, expertly cropped and captioned, shifted around, skillfully, by Stan Bevington, of Coach House Press, for optimum visual impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alan Galey, of University of Toronto\u2019s Faculty of Information and well-respected Book History and Print Culture Program (collaborative with Massey College of University of Toronto), steps in for the final display cases \/ catalogue chapter. Although Galey\u2019s wide range of interests have often taken him away from Shakespeare (e.g., XML tagging, e-reader formats, prototyping, and bootlegged heavy metal recordings), here it would be hard to say he has done anything less than a stellar job as a Shakespeare scholar. For concluding our tour of Shakespeare in print or our scholarly history of this topic, Galey brings us from 1700 through present day. He aptly notes the shift from collective large editions, like the Folios, to collective compact editions, like those of \u201cThe Tonson Era\u201d (65). With the dexterity of a born writer and a true Canadian bardophile, Galey unpacks the plays\u2019 recent textual histories, from scholarly editions through lithographic facsimiles, from lithographic facsimiles to photofacsimiles, and from photofacsimiles to art books (66\u201369). He particularly excels while demonstrating his admirable knowledge of Canadiana \u2013 by telling us about Laurence Hyde\u2019s (1914\u20131987) modernist illustrations of Macbeth<\/em> (c. 1939), influenced by the paintings of famed Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris (1885\u20131970), and the Barbarian Press edition of Pericles<\/em> (2011), anomalous in its artistic revitalization of a lesser-known play (75\u201377). Galey talks about Canadian book artist Robert Wu\u2019s art re-binding of English cartoonist W. Heath Robinson\u2019s (1872\u20131944) A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> (1914; re-binding, 2012), and Wu\u2019s use of \u201ca chemise, slipcase, opal inlays and onlays, and hand-marbled paper,\u201d as a kind of \u2018luxury\u2019 collaboration between historical text and present-day visual forms (78).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go see the exhibition. This is Canada\u2019s answer to \u201cFirst Folio!\u201d It is not to be missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua J. McEvilla
Independent Scholar<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Exhibition & Catalogue by Scott Schofield, Peter W. M. Blayney, Alan Galey, Marjorie Rubright; with an introduction by Anne Dondertman. Toronto: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, 2016. 97 p. Illus. (oversize [35 \u00d7 22 cm], double column).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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