The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.2082  Wednesday, 16 October 2002

From:           Jack Lynch <
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Date:           Tuesday, 15 Oct 2002 09:22:04 -0400 (EDT)
Subject:        Exhibition Announcement

Dear SHAKSPERians,

I tried sending this last week, but had neglected to update my address
book with the current list address, and it took a week to bounce back to
me.  The opening has now passed, but the exhibition is open through
January.

                                *

Those of you who'll be in or near Philadelphia in the next three months
might want to stop by the Rosenbach Museum & Library, where an
exhibition I've curated opens this Wednesday [9 October] and runs
through early January.

It's called "Making Shakespeare," and traces Shakespeare's reputation
and reception from the Restoration through the early nineteenth
century.  It includes forty-some items from the Rosenbach's remarkable
collection, supplemented by some from the Library Company of
Philadelphia, the Athenaeum, and the University of Pennsylvania Library.

Some highlights:

  * The original patent Charles II issued to William Davenant in
    1663, authorizing him to open a theatre.

  * The Third Folio (in its second state, 1664, with the portrait
    frontispiece and the seven extra plays) -- the rarest of the
    four Folios.

  * The very rare first edition of Johnson's "Drury Lane
    Prologue," long believed to be the only surviving copy.

  * A dozen or so adaptations and rewritings of Shakespeare's
    plays, from Davenant's _Macbeth_ (1674) through Valpy's _King
    John_ (1800), along with the notorious _Family Shakespeare_
    of the Bowdlers.

  * Portraits of John Philip and Fanny Kemble.

  * Several playbills from late-C18 Philadelphia.

  * Sheet music from the Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769, along with
    a box said to be made from the wood of Shakespeare's mulberry
    tree.  (And if you believe that, see me about buying pieces of
    the true cross -- I offer the lowest prices in town.)

  * Some of the autograph MSS of William Henry Ireland, the
    Shakespeare forger, including the love letter to "Anna
    Hatherrewaye" and the lost play _Vortigern & Rowena_.

The exhibition opens Wednesday, 9 October, at the Rosenbach Museum &
Library, 2008 DeLancey Place, Philadelphia, and runs through 5 January.
I'll give a few curatorial tours in December, and on Friday, 13
December, I'll give a public lecture on Shakespearean adaptations,
accompanied by professional actors performing scenes from C18 butcheries
of the plays.  (Suggestions more than welcome, by the way.)

More details at the Rosenbach's Web site,

                     http://www.rosenbach.org

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