Past is Prologue : The Bard
Title
Past is Prologue : The Bard
Collection Items
The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles
Raphael Holinshed intended his “universal cosmographie” to serve as both a comprehensive geographical and historical description and a testament to the growing influence and prestige of English scholarship. This edition was heavily censored after…
Miss F. A. Kemble
An item from the Fanny Kemble Playbill Collection documenting Kemble's early years on the English stage.
The Plays of William Shakespeare in Fifteen Volumes with Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators to Which are Added Notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens
This landmark edition contains 150 illustrations and is commonly referred to as “Steevens’ own edition.” Literary editor and Shakespearian expert George Steevens (1736-1800) was a renowned scholar of Elizabethan literature and accumulated a large…
Illustrations of Shakspeare [sic]
These nineteenth-century wood engravings with captions demonstrate a type of storytelling akin to today’s graphic-novels. Every play has six vignettes with a line from the play followed by scene number.
The History of the World
Raleigh wrote this history while imprisoned in the Tower of London from 1603 to 1616 for his alleged role in the plot to remove King James I from the throne. It was published after his first expedition to the New World. Masked within the recounting…
Miss Fanny Kemble as Juliet
Fanny Kemble was born into a theatrical family; her mother was a famed actress and her father was the manager of the Covent Garden Theatre in London. Kemble established a reputation as one of the greatest actresses of her time in England and in…
Shakespeare's Comedy of The Tempest; With Illustrations by Edmund Dulac
Edmund Dulac garnered great success as a commercial illustrator in the early twentieth century, and was considered a prominent participant in the Golden Age of Illustration (ca.1880-1920) which was influenced by Pre-Raphaelites, Art Nouveau, and the…
The Dramatic Works of Shakspeare
Published for the acclaimed engraver and print seller John Boydell and his father Josiah, this edition incorporates the Steevens text together with large detailed illustrations.
The Tragicall Historie of the Life and Reigne of Richard the Third [sic]
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) was an English statesman, author, social philosopher, and Lord Chancellor. He was executed by Henry VIII for his opposition to the King's schism with the Catholic Church. Shakespeare was very familiar with More’s History…
The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles
Raphael Holinshed intended his “universal cosmographie” both as a comprehensive geographical and historical description and as a testament to the growing influence and prestige of English scholarship. This edition was heavily censored after…