Garrick Collection

Last updated

The British Library's Garrick Collection is a collection of early printed editions of English drama amassed by the actor and playwright David Garrick. The collection was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1779. [1]

Contents

Collection overview

Little evidence about the provenance of Garrick's collection is found in his archives and correspondence. [2] However, internal evidence from the books themselves suggests that a large proportion of the printed plays came from the collections of Robert and Edward Harley, the 1st and 2nd Earls of Oxford, and the bookseller and writer, Robert Dodsley. [3] Other notable previous owners of items in the Garrick Collection include Humfrey Dyson, Richard Smith (d. 1675), Lewis Theobald, Narcissus Luttrell, Richard Warner, Thomas Astle, and William Cartwright. [4] The latter bequeathed his library to Dulwich College Library and there is some speculation that "Garrick had free access to the library of Dulwich College ... and pillaged without scruple or remorse". [5]

The collection, in its original state, comprised approximately 1300 individual items. However, on its arrival at the Museum it was found that the collection was incomplete, some volumes having been retained by Garrick's family. In addition to this, since becoming the property of the British Museum, some items have been sold in duplicate sales. In total more than 70 items that were originally owned by Garrick are not in his collection as it now exists in the British Library. [6] A manuscript catalogue compiled by Edward Capell, one of Garrick's closest friends, does still survive. Entitled A catalogue of plays; the collection of David Garrick Esq, its creation was first proposed in 1756, and it formed the basis by which British Museum staff could identify what was missing when the collection came into their possession. [7] The layout of Capell's catalogue is idiosyncratic and difficult to use. In constructing a more up-to-date catalogue George Kahrl writes that "the overall arrangement of the [Capell] catalogue baffles understanding, and as a working tool it is worthless and frustrating". [8]

The earliest item in the collection, a Wynkyn de Worde printing of Robert the Devil , dates from around 1517. The latest item is a collected edition of William Wycherley's Plays printed in 1735.

The collection, as received by the Museum in April 1780, [9] did not include Garrick's copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, which remained the property of Garrick's wife, Eva Maria. Following her death in 1822 the remainder of Garrick's library, including the Shakespeare volume, was sold at auction. [10] The folio passed through several hands before being bought by Queen's College, Oxford, in the mid-nineteenth century. [11]

Use of the collection during Garrick's lifetime

David Garrick's collection of old plays was well known during his lifetime and he made it available to friends and acquaintances. [12] Various contemporary works make reference to his library.

In his introduction to the 1760 edition of John Dryden's collected works, Samuel Derrick wrote that "we are particularly obliged to Mr. Garrick, who with great civility gave us the use of his fine collection of old 4to [i.e. quarto] plays." [13]

Isaac Reed, the editor of the 1780 edition of Robert Dodsley's A select collection of old plays, wrote that "The present volumes were originally compiled from the only collection then known to exist, that which had been formed by the Earls of Oxford. This afterwards came into the possession of the late Mr. Garrick; and, with great additions, hath since been bequeathed by him to the British Museum. The mention of this gentleman's name naturally reminds the Editor, that he should be deficient in point of gratitude, if he omitted to notice the readiness with which he was allowed the free use of whatever Mr. Garrick's library contained for the service of this work." [14]

Collection in the British Museum and Library

Garrick's collection was transferred to the Museum in 1780 and was said to have been delivered from the actor's home in the Adelphi to the British Museum on a hand cart escorted by three Museum representatives. [15] Since then it can be said to have had a turbulent history.

In 1767 the British Museum had been authorised by the British Museum Act 1767 "to exchange, sell, or dispose of, any duplicates of printed books ... laying out the money arising by such sale, in the purchase of other things that may be wanting in, or proper for, the said Museum". [16] The first such sale took place in 1769 and raised £564. The second sale occurred in March 1788 and raised £529. [17] Included in the later sale were approximately 43 items from the Garrick Collection identified as duplicate items and deemed inferior to copies already in the Museum's possession. [18] The checking of copies was, however, not rigorous and the Museum ended up selling unique editions and printings. [19]

In the period 1805-06 the museum implemented a policy of transferring items from other collections to supplement the now incomplete Garrick Collection. This was in part to allow for a new subject arrangement of the Museum's rooms. Twenty items were removed from the Thomason Collection and at least three from the Sloane Collection. The sources of other transferred items cannot be identified. [20]

David Garrick's copy of Fulke Greville's Workes, showing the family arms on the binding. Binding of David Garrick's Greville.JPG
David Garrick's copy of Fulke Greville's Workes, showing the family arms on the binding.

In 1840 Anthony Panizzi, the Museum's Keeper of Printed Books, recommended that the Garrick Collection, still largely bound in tract volumes, be broken up and the items bound individually. Although there was opposition to this plan from within and without the Museum, in 1841 the Trustees gave their approval, and by the beginning of 1846 the rebinding programme was completed. [21] During the process of breaking up the tract volumes Museum staff had taken the opportunity to more closely examine the individual printed items with the view to making copies more perfect. Approximately twenty Garrick items were improved in various ways: some by the addition of facsimile leaves, others through the exchange of leaves between duplicates. In some instances leaves were removed from Garrick items to improve plays in the King's Library. [22]

The last recorded disturbance of the Garrick Collection was announced in October 1956. A significant number of leaves stolen from British Museum items were identified as being bound in volumes in Thomas J. Wise's Ashley Library, a collection acquired by the Museum in 1937. Further investigations proved that stolen leaves were also present in the collection that Wise had assisted John Henry Wrenn in amassing (the Wrenn Library is held at the University of Texas's Harry Ransom Center). In total 206 leaves were identified as being stolen, [23] the majority of these from the Garrick Collection. [24] The worst example of theft occurred in the Garrick copy of James Shirley's play of 1640, The Opportunity , which lost seventeen leaves. [25]

Major studies

A comprehensive study of the Garrick Collection by George Kahrl and Dorothy Anderson was published in 1982 under the title The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. R. James</span> British author and scholar (1862–1936)

Montague Rhodes James was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1913–1915).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antiquarian</span> Specialist or aficionado of antiquities or things of the past

An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts. The essence of antiquarianism is a focus on the empirical evidence of the past, and is perhaps best encapsulated in the motto adopted by the 18th-century antiquary Sir Richard Colt Hoare, "We speak from facts, not theory."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Library Sound Archive</span>

The British Library Sound Archive, formerly the British Institute of Recorded Sound; also known as the National Sound Archive (NSA), in London, England is among the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word and ambient recordings. It holds more than six million recordings, including over a million discs and 200,000 tapes. These include commercial record releases, radio broadcasts, and privately made recordings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secretum (British Museum)</span> Former collection in the British Museum

The Secretum was a British Museum collection of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that held artefacts and images deemed sexually graphic. Many of the items were amulets, charms and votive offerings, often from pre-Christian traditions, including the worship of Priapus, a Greco-Roman god of fertility and male genitalia. Items from other cultures covered wide ranges of human history, including ancient Egypt, the classical era Greco-Roman world, the ancient Near East, medieval England, Japan and India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Newton (caricaturist)</span>

Richard Newton was an English caricaturist, miniaturist and book illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Moutard Woodward</span> English caricaturist and humor writer

George Murgatroyd Woodward (1765–1809), more commonly known as George 'Moutard' ("Mustard") Woodward, was an English caricaturist and humor writer. He was a friend and drinking companion of Thomas Rowlandson.

<i>Hemmings Cartulary</i> 11th century English manuscript

Hemming's Cartulary is a manuscript cartulary, or collection of charters and other land records, collected by a monk named Hemming around the time of the Norman Conquest of England. The manuscript comprises two separate cartularies that were made at different times and later bound together; it is in the British Library as MS Cotton Tiberius A xiii. The first was composed at the end of the 10th or beginning of the 11th century. The second section was compiled by Hemming and was written around the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century. The first section, traditionally titled the Liber Wigorniensis, is a collection of Anglo-Saxon charters and other land records, most of which are organized geographically. The second section, Hemming's Cartulary proper, combines charters and other land records with a narrative of deprivation of property owned by the church of Worcester.

Nalini Balbir is a French Indologist who lives in Paris. She is a scholar of Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. She was previously a student of Indologist Colette Caillat. She is known for her work on the publication of the Catalogue of the Jain Manuscripts of the British Library published by the Institute of Jainology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private Case</span> Collection of erotica at the British Library

The Private Case is a collection of erotica and pornography held initially by the British Museum and then, from 1973, by the British Library. The collection began between 1836 and 1870 and grew from the receipt of books from legal deposit, from the acquisition of bequests and, in some cases, from requests made to the police following their seizures of obscene material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King's Library</span>

The King's Library was one of the most important collections of books and pamphlets of the Age of Enlightenment. Assembled by George III (r.1760–1820), this scholarly library of over 65,000 volumes was subsequently given to the British nation by his son, George IV. It was housed in a specially built gallery in the British Museum from 1827 to 1997 and now forms part of the British Library. The term "King's Library" was until recently also used to refer to the gallery in the British Museum built for the collection, which is now called the "Enlightenment Gallery" and displays a wide range of objects relating to the Enlightenment.

Janet Moira Backhouse was an English manuscripts curator at the British Museum, and a leading authority in the field of illuminated manuscripts.

George Weare Braikenridge (1775–1856) was an English antiquarian. He was born in the Colony of Virginia, but lived for most of his life in Bristol, England, where he created a large collection of Bristolian historical and topographical material known as the Braikenridge Collection. It contains over 1400 drawings and watercolours of Bristol landscapes and buildings. These are held in Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, with related collections of manuscripts and other items held by Bristol Central Library and Bristol Archives. The Braikenridge Collection has become the most important historical record of Bristol's appearance in the early 19th century, and makes Bristol one of the best documented English cities in this respect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Library Philatelic Collections</span> Collection within the British Library

The British Library Philatelic Collections is the national philatelic collection of the United Kingdom with over 8 million items from around the world. It was established in 1891 as part of the British Museum Library, later to become the British Library, with the collection of Thomas Tapling. In addition to bequests and continuing donations, the library received consistent deposits by the Crown Agency and has become a primary research collection for British Empire and international history. The collections contain a wide range of artefacts in addition to postage stamps, from newspaper stamps to a press used to print the first British postage stamps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Dunhuang Project</span> International archeology conservation effort

The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is an international collaborative effort to conserve, catalogue and digitise manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from the Mogao caves at the Western Chinese city of Dunhuang and various other archaeological sites at the eastern end of the Silk Road. The project was established by the British Library in 1994, and now includes twenty-two institutions in twelve countries. As of 18 February 2021 the online IDP database comprised 143,290 catalogue entries and 538,821 images. Most of the manuscripts in the IDP database are texts written in Chinese, but more than fifteen different scripts and languages are represented, including Brahmi, Kharosthi, Khotanese, Sanskrit, Tangut, Tibetan, Tocharian and Old Uyghur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Wright (archivist)</span> British manuscript curator

Christopher John Wright is a former Head of Manuscripts at the British Library and Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries of London. During his time at the library he oversaw several acquisitions, and in retirement became involved with the Friends of the British Library and the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art.

Mary Dorothy George (1878–1971), née Gordon, was a British historian best known for compiling the last seven volumes of the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, the primary reference work for the study of British satirical prints of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bookbindings in the British Library</span>

The British Library contains a wide range of fine and historic bookbindings; however, books in the Library are organised primarily by subject rather than by binding so the Library has produced a guide to enable researchers to identity bindings of interest. The collection includes the oldest intact Western bookbinding, the leather binding of the 7th century St Cuthbert Gospel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington</span> British artist (1699–1758)

Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington and Countess of Cork was a British noble and court official, as well as a caricaturist and portrait painter. Several of her studies and paintings were made of her daughters. Through her daughter Charlotte, who married the 4th Duke of Devonshire. A collection of 24 of her works of art descended to the Duke of Devonshire and kept at Chatsworth House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cary Coke</span> English book collector

Cary Coke was a book collector and patron of the British stage. She was the daughter of Sir John Newton of Barrs Court, a member of the House of Commons of England, and mother of Thomas Coke, the 1st Earl of Leicester.

Alexander Hyatt King, also known as Alec Hyatt King, was an English musicologist and bibliographer, who was a music librarian of the British Museum and leading scholar on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Educated at Dulwich College and King's College, Cambridge, he began his career at the British Museum as a cataloguer in February 1934; a post he remained in until December 1944 when he succeeded William Charles Smith as Superintendent of the Music Room. He remained in that position until 1973 when he was named Music Librarian of the Reference Division at the British Library. He also concurrently served as the British Museum's Deputy Keeper of the Department of Printed Books from 1959 until his retirement in 1976. He was involved in the early days of the British Institute of Recorded Sound: as Chairman in 1952 he helped find accommodation for the collection within the British Museum.

References

  1. ↑ "Named Collections of Printed Material, Garrick Collection". British Library. Archived from the original on August 31, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2011.
  2. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 5. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  3. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. pp. 7–15. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  4. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. pp. 16–20. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  5. ↑ T.F. Dibdin (1817). The bibliographical decameron ... Vol. III. London: W. Bulmer and Co. p. 313.
  6. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. pp. 287–288. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  7. ↑ Paul Baines. "Capell, Edward (1713-1781), literary scholar". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved March 8, 2011.
  8. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 21. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  9. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 54. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  10. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 63. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  11. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 230. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  12. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 1. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  13. ↑ John Dryden (1760). The miscellaneous works of John Dryden, Esq ... Vol. I. London: J. and R. Tonson. pp. xi.
  14. ↑ Robert Dodsley (1780). A select collection of old plays ... Vol. I. London: J. Nichols. pp. xiii.
  15. ↑ Dorothy Anderson (1980). "Reflections on librarianship: observations arising from the examination of the Garrick Collection of Old Plays in the British Library". British Library Journal. 6 (1): 1.
  16. ↑ "Affairs in the East Indies, and in England". The Scots magazine. 29: 220. 1767.
  17. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 50. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  18. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 288. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  19. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 51. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  20. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. pp. 58–59. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  21. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. pp. 64–67. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  22. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. pp. 70–71. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  23. ↑ D.F. Foxon (1959). Thomas J. Wise and the pre-Restoration drama: a study in theft and sophistication . London: Bibliographical Society. pp.  1.
  24. ↑ George M. Kahrl; Dorothy Anderson (1982). The Garrick Collection of old English plays: a catalogue with an historical introduction. London: British Library. p. 72. ISBN   0-7123-0004-X.
  25. ↑ D.F. Foxon (1959). Thomas J. Wise and the pre-Restoration drama: a study in theft and sophistication . London: Bibliographical Society. pp.  31–32.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.