Memorials to William Shakespeare

Last updated

Engraving of the sculpture of Shakespeare at the entrance to the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery. The sculpture is now in the former garden of Shakespeare's home New Place in Stratford. Thomas Banks Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry c 1789.jpg
Engraving of the sculpture of Shakespeare at the entrance to the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery. The sculpture is now in the former garden of Shakespeare's home New Place in Stratford.

William Shakespeare has been commemorated in a number of different statues and memorials around the world, notably his funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon (c. 1623); a statue in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, London, designed by William Kent and executed by Peter Scheemakers (1740); [1] and a statue in New York's Central Park by John Quincy Adams Ward (1872). [2] [3]

Contents

17th century

Shakespeare's funerary monument ShakespeareMonument cropped.jpg
Shakespeare's funerary monument

Shakespeare's funerary monument is the earliest memorial to the playwright, located inside Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, UK, the same church in which he was baptised. The exact date of its construction is not known, but must have been between Shakespeare's death in 1616 and 1623, when it is mentioned in the First Folio of the playwright's works.

The monument, by Gerard Johnson, is mounted on a wall above Shakespeare's grave. It features a bust of the poet, who holds a quill pen in one hand and a piece of paper in another. His arms are resting on a cushion. Above him is the Shakespeare family's coat of arms, on either side of which stands two allegorical figures: one, representing Labour, holds a spade, the other, representing Rest, holds a torch and a skull.

18th century

As Shakespeare's reputation rose, monuments began to be created in nationally significant locations. William Kent designed a statue for Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. The design was executed by the sculptor Peter Scheemakers and installed in 1740. Its creation was funded by Lord Burlington and Alexander Pope, among others. At least two fundraising events were led by the efforts of the Shakespeare Ladies Club: a benefit performance of Julius Caesar on April 28, 1738 at Drury Lane and a benefit performance of Hamlet on April 10, 1739 at Covent Garden. [4] [5] There are carved heads on the pedestal, which probably depict Queen Elizabeth I, Henry V and Richard III. Shakespeare is depicted leaning on books and pointing to a scroll which has a slightly misquoted version of Prospero's lines from The Tempest about the globe dissolving to "leave not a wrack behind". A variant of Kent's design was installed in a Glasgow theatre in 1764. It is now in the Theatre Royal in Dunlop Street. [6]

Poets' Corner in Westminster abbey, showing Scheemaker's statue of Shakespeare Poets corner.jpg
Poets' Corner in Westminster abbey, showing Scheemaker's statue of Shakespeare

In 1757 the English actor David Garrick commissioned a marble statue of William Shakespeare from the French sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac for his Palladian Temple to Shakespeare at Hampton. Garrick himself is thought to have posed for the statue. [7] It was bequeathed, along with Garrick's books, to the British Museum in 1779; in 2005 it was transferred to the British Library. [8] Garrick later commissioned Roubiliac to produce a bust of the poet for his Shakespeare festival in Stratford in 1769; [9] this is now in the Garrick Club in London. [2]

In 1788, in the exterior wall of John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery building, the architect George Dance the Younger placed Thomas Banks's sculpture Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry, for which the artist was paid 500 guineas. The sculpture depicted Shakespeare, reclining against a rock, between the Dramatic Muse and the Genius of Painting. Beneath it was a panelled pedestal inscribed with a quotation from Hamlet: "He was a Man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again". [10] [11] The building was later used by the British Institution. After its demolition the monument was relocated to the garden of New Place in Stratford.

19th century

By the nineteenth century Shakespeare's reputation had advanced to the point of what came to be known as bardolatry. Statues and other memorials began to appear outside Britain, while in Britain itself Shakespeare's status as national poet was consolidated.

United States

Statue in Central Park, New York, by John Quincy Adams Ward, 1872. William Shakespeare Statue, Central Park, NYC.JPG
Statue in Central Park, New York, by John Quincy Adams Ward, 1872.

New York City's Central Park contains a statue of Shakespeare that was commissioned in 1864 as a celebration of the tricentenary of Shakespeare's birth in 1564. Funds were raised by a performance of Julius Caesar in which Edwin Booth took the lead role, with John Wilkes Booth playing Mark Antony. [12] The statue was designed by John Quincy Adams Ward. Following the creation of the statue, in 1873 commissioners proposed that the Mall should be a designated location for sculpture and the statue was moved there, soon to be accompanied by others [13] (in 1986, a replica of the statue was made for the State Theater in Montgomery, Alabama, which has a yearly Shakespeare Festival). [14]

In 1888, a large seated statue by William Ordway Partridge was unveiled in Lincoln Park, Chicago and in 1896 a bronze statue of Shakespeare by Frederick William MacMonnies was erected as part of a series representing the world's geniuses in the gallery of the reading-room of the Library of Congress.

Britain

The monument in Stratford-upon-Avon, designed by Lord Ronald Gower. Shakestrat.jpg
The monument in Stratford-upon-Avon, designed by Lord Ronald Gower.

With the removal of Banks's sculpture to New Place in 1871 London boasted no outdoor public memorial to the bard, and the erection of the New York statue in 1872 made this omission particularly glaring. In 1874 the financier Baron Albert Grant, wishing to address this situation, installed a fountain with a marble statue of Shakespeare at its centre in the gardens of Leicester Square. Sculpted by Giovanni Fontana, this was a replica of Scheemakers's monument in Poets' Corner. [15] Another statue was erected in Stratford, London, a suburb with the same name as Shakespeare's home town.

In 1877 a committee was created in Stratford-upon-Avon to erect a memorial to Shakespeare. This originally comprised a theatre building, to be sited on land donated by the bank of the Avon within sight of the church where Shakespeare was buried. The Gower Monument was unveiled in 1888, the work of Lord Ronald Gower. This is situated in Stratford's Bancroft Gardens. The monument shows Shakespeare seated on a pedestal, surrounded, at ground level, by statues of Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Prince Hal, and Falstaff. These characters were intended to be emblematic of Shakespeare's creative versatility: representing Philosophy, Tragedy, History, and Comedy. [13] Another statue is present in a niche on the exterior of the town hall building.

Other countries

Though most memorials are to be found in English speaking countries, there are also monuments elsewhere. In 1888 a statue was erected on the Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, designed by Paul Fournier. [16]

20th century

Britain

PS20 Bank of England note. Shakespeare20Lbanknote.jpg
£20 Bank of England note.

Between 1970 and 1993, an image of the Poets' Corner statue of Shakespeare appeared on the reverse of Series D £20 notes issued by the Bank of England. Alongside the statue was an engraving of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. [17] [18]

A complex memorial to Shakespeare was created in Southwark Cathedral, which was his parish church when he lived in London close to the Globe Theatre. It is also the burial place of Shakespeare's brother Edmund, along with other Elizabethan actors and playwrights. A recumbent statue of Shakespeare, created by Henry McCarthy in 1912, was placed in a niche on which was carved images of Elizabethan Southwark depicting the Globe, Winchester Palace and the tower of the church. An elaborate stained glass window was also created, depicting Shakespearean characters. The original window was destroyed by a bomb blast in World War II but was replaced in 1954. A birthday celebration of Shakespeare is held every year in April. [19]

Continental Europe

Otto Lessing's Statue in Weimar. Fotothek df roe-neg 0006011 004 Shakespeare-Denkmal.jpg
Otto Lessing's Statue in Weimar.

Despite Germany's early role in canonising Shakespeare it was not until 1904 that a statue was erected in Weimar showing him, as one critic has put it, "seated and staring into the distance with a bemused and thoughtful look". [20] It was designed by Otto Lessing.

In Denmark, a memorial statue was commissioned to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the publication of Hamlet in 1603. [21] The statue, designed by Louis Hasselriis, was funded by public subscription and erected in Elsinore, along with a sculpture of Hamlet.

Australia

An early Frank Hurley photo of the Sydney Shakespeare Memorial Shakespeare Memorial Sydney.jpg
An early Frank Hurley photo of the Sydney Shakespeare Memorial

A memorial in Sydney, Australia was erected in 1926, designed by Australian sculptor Sir Bertram MacKennal. It was commissioned by Henry Gullett (d. 4 August 1914), a former president of the Shakespeare Society of New South Wales. Paid for with a bequest from his estate, Gullett's daughter Lucy Gullett ensured that the commission was carried out after her father's death. It depicts not only Shakespeare at the top, but five of his most famous characters around the base – Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet embracing, Portia and Falstaff. It is located in Shakespeare Place, between the Mitchell Library (part of the State Library of New South Wales) and the Royal Botanic Gardens. In 1959 the statue was repositioned to make way for the Cahill Expressway.

Though initiated in 1889, the project to create a Shakespeare statue in Ballarat was not completed until 1960. Financial problems led to repeated shelving of the project. Eventually private donations to the fund produced sufficient resources to commission a bronze sculpture from Andor Meszaros, an Australian artist originally from Hungary. The statue depicts Shakespeare bowing, as if at the end of a performance.

North America

A statue was created for Logan Circle section of Philadelphia in 1926, designed by Alexander Stirling Calder. It does not depict Shakespeare himself, but rather the figures of Touchstone the jester from As You Like It , representing comedy, and Hamlet, representing tragedy. Touchstone is lounging with his head tilted laughing, his feet hanging over the top of the tall stone pedestal and his left arm resting on Hamlet's legs. Hamlet is seated, brooding, his knife dangling over Touchstone's body. [22] The opening lines of the famous All the world's a stage speech from As You Like It are inscribed on the pedestal beneath the figures.

A statue made from tin was erected in the gardens outside the Festival Theatre, the principal theatre on the grounds of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, held every year from April to November in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.

See also

Notes

  1. "William Shakespeare". Westminster Abbey . Retrieved 19 April 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Memorials and Statues of William Shakespeare" . Retrieved 17 October 2008.
  3. "William Shakespeare statue". New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. 12 February 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  4. Avery, Emmett L. (1956). "The Shakespeare Ladies Club". Shakespeare Quarterly 7 (2): p. 157
  5. Dobson, Michael (1992), The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660-1769, Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, pp. 137–38, 159–60 ISBN   0198183232.
  6. Raymond McKenzie, Gary Nisbet, Public Sculpture of Glasgow, Liverpool University Press, 2001, p. 434
  7. "Marble full-length figure of William Shakespeare by Louis-François Roubiliac". British Museum. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  8. Howes, Jennifer (11 November 2013). "The Shakespeare sculpture at the British Library". English and Drama blog. British Library. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  9. Michael Dobson The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660–1769, Oxford University Press, p. 6
  10. Sheppard, 325–38.
  11. William Shakespeare, Hamlet . Act I, scene ii. Wikisource . Retrieved on 15 January 2008.
  12. Villanova Magazine Archive – Winter 2001. Archived 29 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine It is sometimes mistakenly said that John Wilkes Booth played Cassius, cf. Frederick Wagner, American Actors and Actresses, Dodd Mead Company, New York, 1961.
  13. 1 2 "Shakespeare Memorials". William-shakespeare.info. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  14. "William Shakespeare Statue, New York City department of Parks and Recreation". Nycgovparks.org. 12 February 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  15. Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011). Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1. Liverpool University Press., pp. 114–15
  16. "Statue of Shakespeare (1564–1616) on Boulevard Haussmann, unveiled in 1888". Scholarsresource.com. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  17. "What Did Shakespeare Look Like?". The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
  18. "Withdrawn Banknotes Reference Guide". Bank of England. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  19. "Southwark Cathedral – Shakespeare Memorial". Southwark.anglican.org. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  20. Stephen Kinzer, "Shakespeare, Icon in Germany" New York Times, 30 December 1995
  21. "American Dramatic Pilgrimage to the Tomb of Hamlet", New York Times, 20 January 1907.
  22. Patricia Vance, Intimate bicycle tours of Philadelphia: ten excursions to the city's art, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, P.64.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Banks (sculptor)</span> English sculptor (1735–1805)

Thomas Banks was an 18th-century English sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Garrick</span> English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer

David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Samuel Johnson. He appeared in several amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III, audiences and managers began to take notice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Nollekens</span> 18th-century British sculptor

Joseph Nollekens R.A. was a sculptor from London generally considered to be the finest British sculptor of the late 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Scheemakers</span> 18th century London-based Flemish-born sculptor

Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger was a Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicist style had an important influence on the development of modern sculpture in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Ordway Partridge</span> American sculptor, teacher and author

William Ordway Partridge was an American sculptor, teacher and author. Among his best-known works are the Shakespeare Monument in Chicago, the equestrian statue of General Grant in Brooklyn, the Pietà at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, and the Pocahontas statue in Jamestown, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis-François Roubiliac</span> French sculptor (1702–1762)

Louis-François Roubiliac was a French sculptor who worked in England. One of the four most prominent sculptors in London working in the rococo style, he was described by Margaret Whinney as "probably the most accomplished sculptor ever to work in England".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakespeare's funerary monument</span> Monument in Stratford-upon-Avon

The Shakespeare funerary monument is a memorial to William Shakespeare located inside Holy Trinity Church at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, the church in which Shakespeare was baptised and where he was buried in the chancel two days after his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cheere</span> English sculptor

John Cheere (1709–1787) was an English sculptor, born in London. The younger brother of the sculptor Sir Henry Cheere, he was originally apprenticed as a haberdasher from 1725 to 1732.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portraits of Shakespeare</span> Visual representations of William Shakespeare

No contemporary physical description of William Shakespeare is known to exist. The two portraits of him that are the most famous are the engraving that appears on the title-page of the First Folio, published in 1623, and the sculpture that adorns his memorial in Stratford upon Avon, which dates from before 1623. Experts and critics have argued that several other paintings from the period may represent him, and more than 60 portraits purporting to be of Shakespeare were offered for sale to the National Portrait Gallery within four decades of its foundation in 1856, but in none of them has Shakespeare's identity been proven.

Sir Henry Cheere, 1st Baronet was an English sculptor and monumental mason. He was the older brother of John Cheere, also a notable sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerard Johnson (sculptor)</span> 17th-century English sculptor

Gerard Johnson Jr. was a sculptor working in Jacobean England who is traditionally supposed to have created Shakespeare's funerary monument. In May 1612 Johnson was paid for making part of a fountain for the east garden at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakespeare Jubilee</span> 1769 jubilee celebrating William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon

The Shakespeare Jubilee was staged in Stratford-upon-Avon between 6 and 8 September 1769. The jubilee was organised by the actor and theatre manager David Garrick to celebrate the Jubilee of the birth of William Shakespeare. It had a major impact on the rising tide of bardolatry that led to Shakespeare's becoming established as the English national poet. Thomas Arne composed the song Soft Flowing Avon for the Jubilee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare</span> Garden folly in Hampton, London, England

Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare is a small garden folly erected in 1756 on the north bank of the River Thames at Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Grade I listed, it was built by the actor David Garrick to honour the playwright William Shakespeare, whose plays Garrick performed to great acclaim throughout his career. During his lifetime Garrick used it to house his extensive collection of Shakespearean relics and for entertaining his family and guests. It passed through a succession of owners until coming into public ownership in the 1930s, but it had fallen into serious disrepair by the end of the 20th century. After a campaign supported by distinguished actors and donations from the National Lottery's "good causes" fund, it was restored in the late 1990s and reopened to the public as a museum and memorial to the life and career of Garrick. It is reputedly the world's only shrine to Shakespeare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of William Shakespeare, Leicester Square</span> Statue in London by Giovanni Fontana

A statue of William Shakespeare, by the sculptor Giovanni Fontana after an original by Peter Scheemakers, has formed the centrepiece of Leicester Square Gardens in London since 1874.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Heminges and Henry Condell Memorial</span> Memorial in London

The John Heminges and Henry Condell Memorial is a memorial to the actors John Heminges and Henry Condell – the editors of William Shakespeare's First Folio, published in 1623 – in the former churchyard of St Mary Aldermanbury on Love Lane, London EC2. The memorial is made from pink granite and is topped with a bust of Shakespeare by C. J. Allen, dated 1895.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy's Campus</span> Campus of Kings College London

Guy's Campus is a campus of King's College London adjacent to Guy's Hospital and situated close to London Bridge and the Shard, on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is home to the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine and the Dental Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of Edward VI (Scheemakers)</span> Bronze statue at St Thomas Hospital, London

The statue of Edward VI by Peter Scheemakers at St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth, London is one of two statues of the king at the hospital. Both commemorate Edward's re-founding of the hospital in 1551. It was moved to its current location inside the North Wing of the hospital in the 20th century. The sculpture was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Sullivan Memorial</span> Memorial in London

The Memorial to Arthur Sullivan by William Goscombe John stands in Victoria Embankment Gardens in the centre of London. It was designated a Grade II listed structure in 1958.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of William Shakespeare (Roubiliac)</span> Sculpture by Louis-François Roubiliac

In 1757, the actor David Garrick commissioned the sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac to make a full-size marble statue of William Shakespeare for Garrick's octagonal Temple to Shakespeare, erected near his villa beside the River Thames at Hampton, to the west of London. The sculpture cost 300 guineas and was installed at Garrick's temple in 1758; it remained there until it was bequeathed to the British Museum along with Garrick's books in 1779. The sculpture was transferred to the new British Library in 2005, where it is displayed on a new travertine plinth beside the main staircase in the main entrance hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Gower Monument</span> Monument in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire

The Gower Monument is a grade II* listed monument in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Erected in 1888, the monument's centrepiece is a seated bronze sculpture of the playwrite and poet William Shakespeare. The monument is flanked by four detached bronze statues on plinths representing popular characters from Shakespeare's plays; Prince Hal, Lady Macbeth, Hamlet, and Falstaff.