#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.

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[mrs-starkgaryen]

MORE PRECISE POLLS:

Comedies

Tragedies

Histories

Please say why you chose, I'm interested and please share for bigger sample

P.s: I chose to do this poll cuz after r&j, hamlet, macbeth and midsummer's night's dream, I didnt study any of the others.

I was curious to see which one I should read first (as I want to expand my reading and I'm getting shakespeares works for christmas which I wanted after I went to see Tom Holland's r&j which blew me away and made appreciate shakey a lot more)

I'm sorry I failed you 'much ado about nothing' fans 😭

[manny-jacinto]

HAROLD PERRINEAU as Mercutio | ROMEO + JULIET (1996)

[thatgirlonstage]

Okay okay I wanna play

Spin the wheel for a Shakespeare character!

Reblog for sample size, etc. Would love to hear what you got + reasoning in the tags!

[crowleybrekkers]

god keep your ladyship still in that mind, so some gentleman or other shall ’scape a predestinate scratched face.

much ado about nothing (2011)

[bethanydelleman]

I was talking about a historical male author I dislike because I found his works misogynistic and the person said, "Oh, well I suppose you don't read Shakespeare either." and I was like, "Shakespeare? SHAKESPEARE?!?! Of course I read Shakespeare, that man loved women."

Shakespeare wrote a wide variety of fleshed out female characters. He wrote Damsels in Distress, Cross-dressing Girlbosses, and Complex Female Villains. He wrote a woman who refused to sell her virtue to save her family and then shamed her brother for suggesting it. He wrote Taming of the Shrew and it's opposite, All's Well that Ends Well, in which the wife hunts down and tames the husband. He wrote men who are good because they listen to, trust, and defend women. He wrote women of all kinds. He wrote women who drive the plot and women doomed by the narrative. He wrote women in love and women who pathetically follow a man who doesn't like them and women in hatred. He wrote sensible women and silly women and everything in between of all ages.

I wish modern authors could write women as well as he did.

[aq2003]

david tennant + shakespeare

[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.

[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 

[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

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[mrs-starkgaryen]

Favourite Shakespeare's Tragedies

After my other poll, I am going to be specific.

There shall be a battle of the favourites!!

For the love of Shakespeare, please reblog for a better analysis

[lauravian]

Colin Morgan as Ariel in The Tempest | Shakespeare's Globe | 2013

[a-j-s-the-only]

“…make death proud to take us.”

-Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra