Shakespeare Jubilee

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Ticket for the Shakespeare Jubilee in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. Ticket to Shakespeare's Jubilee.jpg
Ticket for the Shakespeare Jubilee in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
Garrick Speaking the Jubilee, engraving by Caroline Watson after Robert Edge Pine (1784, Metropolitan Museum of Art). Garrick Speaking the Jubilee Ode MET DP859554.jpg
Garrick Speaking the Jubilee, engraving by Caroline Watson after Robert Edge Pine (1784, Metropolitan Museum of Art).

The Shakespeare Jubilee was staged in Stratford-upon-Avon between 6 and 8 September 1769. [1] 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.

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Stratford was at the time a town with around 2,200 inhabitants. [2] Garrick, Britain's most famous Shakespearean actor and most influential theatre owner-manager, had the idea for the Jubilee when he was approached by the town's leaders who wanted him to fund a statue of Shakespeare to stand in the Town Hall. Garrick planned a major celebration with major figures from London's cultural, political and economic world attending. He oversaw the construction of a large rotunda, based on that in Ranelagh Gardens in London, which could hold 1,000 spectators. [3] "It is difficult to exaggerate how much space in the papers in the weeks and months beforehand was devoted to discussion of the Jubilee, announcing details of the program, advertising various accoutrements, reporting progress, speculating about its form, and attacking it." [4]

The Jubilee opened on 6 September with the firing of thirty cannons and the ringing of church bells. [5] Various events were held to commemorate Shakespeare's life. It drew in many people from fashionable society, or who were involved in the London theatre. There were seven hundred people at the dinner on the first day. [6] On the second day bad weather began to disrupt the proceedings and flooded parts of the Rotunda when the banks of the River Avon broke. The highlights of the second day were the unveiling of the new statue at the Town Hall and a masquerade held in the evening. [7] Another notable event from the second day of the Jubilee was a speech by Garrick thanking the Shakespeare Ladies Club for making Shakespeare popular again and for their contribution to the memorial statue of Shakespeare in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. [8] [9] The third day was to have seen a grand Shakespeare Pageant but the heavy rain forced this to be cancelled. Garrick later staged the Pageant in the Drury Lane Theatre with the music of Charles Dibdin where it was a success, running for ninety performances. [10]

It was the first jubilee celebration of the life of Shakespeare, although it was held more than five years after the bicentenary of his birth in April 1564. [2] In spite of the impact it had on the rising popularity of Shakespeare and his works, none of his plays were performed during the Jubilee. [11]

A recording of Dibdin's The Jubilee, also including Queen Mab (which was performed on the first day of Garrick's festival) and Datchet Mead, was released in 2019 featuring the singer Simon Butteriss and the keyboardist Stephen Higgins. [12]

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Soft Flowing Avon was a 1769 song with music written by Thomas Arne and lyrics by David Garrick. It was composed for and first staged at the Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1769. The lyrics refer to the River Avon which flows through the town, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The piece was later part of the Shakespeare Pageant performed at the Drury Lane Theatre. The song and the Jubilee were part of the growing culture of Bardolatry which sprung up in the eighteenth century.

The Jubilee is a 1769 play by the British playwright and actor-manager David Garrick, with music by Charles Dibdin. It was based on his Shakespeare Pageant which he had originally planned to stage during the Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon until heavy rain forced it to be abandoned. It was first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre on 14 October 1769 and proved a major success, running for ninety performances. This allowed Garrick to recoup much of the money he had spent on the Jubilee celebrations.

The Shakespeare Club of Stratford-upon-Avon is a society based in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, that celebrates the life and literary works of William Shakespeare. It is the oldest Shakespeare society in the world, having been in existence since 1824. It now meets monthly between October and May at the Shakespeare Institute, for a series of lectures on a wide range of Shakespeare-related subjects.

The Shakespeare Ladies Club refers to a group of upper class and aristocratic women who petitioned the London theatres to produce William Shakespeare's plays during the 1730s. In the 1700s they were referred to as "the Ladies of the Shakespear’s Club," or even more simply as "Ladies of Quality," or "the Ladies." Known members of the Shakespeare Ladies Club include Susanna Ashley-Cooper, Elizabeth Boyd, and Mary Cowper. The Shakespeare Ladies Club was responsible for getting the highest percentage of Shakespeare plays produced in London during a single season in the eighteenth century; as a result they were celebrated by their contemporaries as being responsible for making Shakespeare popular again.

References

  1. ↑ Cunningham 2008, p. 106.
  2. 1 2 Pierce 2005, p. 4.
  3. ↑ Pierce 2005, pp. 4–5.
  4. ↑ Tankard 2014, p. 18.
  5. ↑ Deelman 1964, p. 175.
  6. ↑ Deelman 1964, p. 177.
  7. ↑ Pierce 2005, pp. 8–9.
  8. ↑ Stochholm 1964, p. 91.
  9. ↑ Dobson 1992, p. 148.
  10. ↑ Pierce 2005, pp. 9–10.
  11. ↑ Pierce 2005, p. 9.
  12. ↑ "Retrospect Opera". retrospectopera.org.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-21.

Bibliography

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