ontents Illuminating Shakespeare

n 1926 the English artist Alberto Sangorski completed a commission of an illuminated manuscript that was destined for the most important collection of Shakespeare and Shakespeariana ever assembled. The manuscript contained a selection of Songs and Sonnets by William Shakespeare. Sangorski copied the poems by hand on vellum leaves Illuminating Shakespeare and illuminated the contents of the book with original drawings and embellishments. He also included an essay by Sir Sidney Lee, the noted Shakespeare scholar, titled Daniel De Simone “A National Hero: Tributes of Three Centuries,” commemorating the three-hundredth anniversary ix of the death of Shakespeare in 1916. The London bookselling firm of Messrs. Robson & Co. The Facsimile commissioned the work, which they sold to Henry Clay Folger of Brooklyn, New York. Alberto Sangorski (1862–1932) was the older brother of Francis Sangorski, partner with George xv Sutcliffe in the London bookbinding firm of Sangorski and Sutcliffe. Gifted in the arts and Shakespeare as a Lyric Poet experienced in working with precious stones, Alberto joined the firm and was trained by Francis in calligraphy and bookbinding. In 1904 he produced his first original manuscript for Sangorski and Barbara A. Mowat Sutcliffe, Of Gardens, by Francis Bacon, and signed the colophon, “Written out by A. Sangorski, May 79 1904.” He continued working with Sangorski and Sutcliffe until 1910, when, after falling out with his brother, he went to work for another important London bindery, Rivière & Sons, where he continued About the Authors his trade of designing manuscripts and executing commissions under his own name. 1 His 86 bibliographer Stephen Ratcliffe writes of Sangorski’s artistry, “his first talents were painting and The Original Cover drawing. He always had good hand writing and so calligraphy was a natural development… . A final skill… [was] illumination, not just in colours but in the difficult art of raised gold. These talents [that] 86 he brought together in these manuscripts are a wonderful achievement.” 2 Acknowledgments By the time he completed Songs and Sonnets, Sangorski had already produced eighty-two illuminated manuscripts for the binderies of Rivière & Sons, Bayntun, Morrell, and Sangorski and 87 Sutcliffe, as well as commissions for booksellers and collectors. The subjects of his manuscripts focused almost exclusively on poetry. He would render the most famous poems from the works of Browning, Byron, Emerson, Thomas Gray, Keats, Shelley, and Tennyson in particular into works of calligraphic art. Each was embellished with original watercolor drawings depicting idealized landscapes, fanciful portraits of authors and poetical characters, illuminated initial letters, and decorative border work. The manuscripts were executed in the medieval manner, but exhibited the pronounced influence of the Art Nouveau sensibility fashionable in his day. This facsimile edition of Songs and Sonnets by William Shakespeare, published by Levenger Press, is reproduced from the 1926 manuscript by Alberto Sangorski that is among the holdings at the Folger Shakespeare Library. 3 It was written on eighty vellum leaves, illustrated with twenty full-page and twelve half-page illuminations, eight illuminated vignettes, and initial letters and For ease of reference and to maintain the integrity of the facsimile, page numbers in this edition have been set to conform to those imprinted on the facsimile, and are ix expressed only on those pages preceding or following the facsimile pages. William Shakespeare Songs and Sonnets

border designs decorating twenty-two leaves. The original was bound in full red levant morocco, the president of Standard Oil of New York and John D. Rockefeller’s right-hand man, Folger spent his upper cover decorated with an inlay of solid 18-karat gold depicting Shakespeare’s coat of arms, set free time buying books, reading bibliography, and cultivating his relationship with booksellers and within an oval pattern of gilt flowers and leaves. The crest was enclosed by a border designed in a auction houses. After fifty years of collecting, he was immersed in the details of purchasing the land classical wreath motif of green leather and gilt. on East Capitol Street in Washington, D.C., where he intended to construct his library. He knew that ach corner of the front cover Each corner of the front cover was embellished he would need hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a library to house his collection; although was embellished with with sapphires mounted in 18-karat gold, and the against his nature, he was reluctant to buy books at the same time, as he was attempting to save his covers were additionally decorated with a black money to pay for the library construction. Although Folger was well known as a collector of sapphires mounted in 18-karat gold. line border, a gilt dot pattern and a single fillet gilt Shakespeare, having received in 1914 an honorary doctorate from Amherst College in Massachusetts border. 4 On the final leaf of the book, Sangorski in recognition of his prowess in this arena, he was extremely private about what he owned. He signed his work and acknowledged Robson & Co. maintained an embargo on his collection, fearing that news about it would raise prices and as the firm that commissioned its production. It is not known for certain, but probably Sangorski compromise his ability to buy books. Scholars, designed the binding and Rivière & Sons bound the book. particularly English scholars who witnessed the e maintained an embargo on The inspiration for Sangorski’s Songs and Sonnets appears to be an edition with the same title loss of their cultural patrimony to American his collection, fearing that published in 1863 by Howard Staunton, containing forty-four songs and poems from Shakespeare’s collectors like J. P. Morgan, Henry Huntington, sonnets and plays. It is illustrated with woodcuts by Sir John Gilbert (1817-1897), 5 the noted and J. Marsden Perry, were furious that Folger news about it would raise prices and illustrator and painter, who was active through much of the Victorian period. Gilbert’s woodcut would not open his then-private library for their compromise his ability to buy books. designs evolved over his career from an emphasis on atmosphere and tone to images that reflected use. Folger’s plan was simple. When the Folger a sparser, more economical line with minimal background and contrast. He was prodigious in his Shakespeare Library was completed, and all the output and a highly regarded member of both the Society of British Artists and the Royal Academy. 6 thousands of books housed in wooden crates in Standard Oil’s warehouses were on the shelves, he One of Gilbert’s favorite subjects for illustration was the works of Shakespeare. Between 1859 and would then invite scholars to examine his collection. Until that time, he would maintain his privacy 1861 he made eight hundred twenty-nine designs for a three-volume edition of Shakespeare’s Works, and the mystery of what his collection held. a publication that “earned him his greatest fame as an illustrator.” 7 It must be said, Henry Folger would not have been able to accomplish this feat without his wife, Sangorski includes twenty-four songs and sonnets in his manuscript, sixteen of which appear in Emily Jordan Folger (1858-1936), whom he married in 1885. A Vassar graduate, Emily complemented the 1863 edition that Staunton published. He also copied three of Gilbert’s vignettes and adapted Henry’s interest in Shakespeare, and wrote her master’s thesis in 1896 on the Bard, titled “The True three other images, making changes that better reflected his understanding of the songs. Using Text of Shakespeare.” She worked side by side with Henry, reading catalogs, doing research, writing previously published works as a source of inspiration is not unusual for an artist, and Sangorski’s letters, and keeping track of the thousands of purchases that the Folgers made over the decades. She appropriation of the text and images from the 1863 edition does not reflect on his gifts as an artist. was involved in the decision to build the library in Washington, D.C., and in choosing Paul Cret as the Rather, it suggests that while researching the Bard’s songs and sonnets, he himself became inspired by architect of the library building. Emily was Henry’s partner in this endeavor from beginning to end, the artistry of one of England’s most important nineteenth-century illustrators. and her importance is represented in the Reading Room of the Folger Library in the form of a In a December 23, 1926 article in the Times Literary Supplement, 8 the editors described portrait that hangs next to one of Henry. Both are dressed in their academic garb. 9 Sangorski’s masterpiece and emphasized its connection with the work of medieval scribes, whose It was not until the Folger Shakespeare Library opened in 1932, two years after Henry’s death, tradition of creating illuminated manuscripts and beautiful books was realized in this stunning that the scope of their collection of Shakespeariana was revealed. It is not immodest to say that production. The editors also wrote that this richly illuminated manuscript was destined for the Folger’s collection is the greatest assemblage of materials by and about William Shakespeare ever United States, although the collector who purchased it was not identified. On January 11, 1927, the formed. The British Library in London and the Bodleian Library in Oxford have extensive bookseller George Robson sent a receipt for payment of £300.10.5 for “the unique and beautiful collections, but together they do not come close to the Folgers’ achievement. Henry Folger purchased Shakespearian work” to H. C. Folger of New York, along with a copy of the Times ’s article. eighty-two copies of the First Folio edition of the collected plays of Shakespeare printed in 1623. He added to this a combined one hundred sixty-five copies of collected plays of the Second Folio (1632), the Third Folio edition (1664), and the Fourth Folio, printed in 1685. In addition, his collection included one hundred sixty quarto editions of the individual plays printed between 1594 and 1637, Henry Clay Folger (1857–1930) was nearing the end of his career as a collector when he purchased nearly double that of the British Library, and three times that of the Bodleian Library. He also this manuscript from Robson & Co. in 1927. While he climbed the corporate ladder, becoming the amassed scores of editions of the sonnets and poems, and nearly every collected edition of

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Shakespeare’s works printed from 1709 to the early twentieth century. To these he added the plays, examples of English patrimony and chronicled their movement from England to the United States. poems, and prose of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. He complemented his collection of printed books Ironically, the information that Lee supplied in his censuses became road maps for Folger as he with a large visual arts collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century oil paintings, prints and executed his plans to purchase as many copies of the First Folio as possible. drawings, photographs, porcelains, and costumes. In addition, he developed an important theatrical In “A National Hero,” commemorating the tercentenary of Shakespeare’s death, Lee chronicles collection, including playbills, thousands of theater prompt books, and collections on the the rise of Shakespeare’s reputation from playwright to national hero. He begins by discussing the Shakespearean actors David Garrick and John Philip Kemble. 10 unsuccessful call to move the body of the Bard from the church in Stratford-upon-Avon to Since Mr. and Mrs. Folger’s deaths, the collection has grown to over three hundred thousand Westminster Abbey, where it could be placed volumes of printed books and sixty thousand pages of manuscripts. Collections of modern materials beside the remains of Chaucer, Spenser, and ronically, the information that documenting the performance of Shakespeare’s plays over three centuries continue to be added to the Beaumont. As consolation, a sculpted likeness foundations the Folgers built. The library has also expanded its holdings to include many books of Shakespeare by Peter Scheemaker was Lee supplied in his censuses published on the Continent in Italian, French, German, Dutch, and Spanish. Especially notable are installed in its place. Lee recounts the revival became road maps for Folger as he the German Reformation, Italian drama, emblem book, herbal, and festival book collections. 11 of constructing faithful texts of the plays by executed his plans to purchase as many contemporary editors, the rise of Garrick, the “Jubilee of 1769,” and the recognition by copies of the First Folio as possible. European writers that Shakespeare was not Sir Sidney Lee’s essay, “A National Hero: Tributes of Three Centuries,” 12 which appears in the only a national icon for the British, but also a Sangorski manuscript, is by a scholar whose interest in Shakespeare began at an early age. Lee’s first universal icon for readers on the Continent. He quotes Carlyle’s famous accolade, “Here, I say, is an essay on Shakespeare, published in 1880 at the age of twenty-one in the Gentleman’s Magazine, was English King, whom no time or chance, Parliament or combinations of Parliaments, can dethrone.” 15 titled “The Original Shylock.” This was quickly followed a few months later by a second essay Lee concludes his tribute by discussing how the people of the English-speaking world, from North printed in the same periodical, titled “Love’s Labor America to Australia, have embraced Shakespeare and incorporated him into their own national e also amassed scores of Lost.” These articles caught the attention of English pantheon of great men. It is a fitting tribute, written in the dark years of World War I, when national editions of the sonnets and scholars, and very quickly, Lee joined the ranks of heroes were being sacrificed every day and the British nation looked to its past for strength and trust editors who represented the most important groups of in their future. poems, and nearly every collected literary critics in English society. Lee’s editorial ability edition of Shakespeare’s works. led him to the position of sub-editor of the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) under the leadership of Leslie Stephen, and then of editor when Stephen In all probability, Sidney Lee played no part in the production of Sangorski’s Songs and Sonnets and stepped down in 1890. Lee wrote eight hundred twenty biographical articles for the DNB and had nothing to do with the fact that his essay appeared as part of Sangorski’s manuscript. Lee managed volumes 27–63 through the press, as well as a reprint edition that was published in 1908-09. originally prepared this essay in 1916 to commemorate the tercentenary of Shakespeare’s death; he During this time he became one of Britain’s most notable Shakespeare scholars, gaining national died in March 1926 before the Songs and Sonnets was completed and offered to Henry Folger. recognition in 1897 for his biographical essay on Shakespeare that appeared in volume 51 of the Yet for us today, the addition by Sangorski of Lee’s text brings together two of the great players in DNB . Expanding on this essay, in 1898 Lee published his Life of Shakespeare , which was so Shakespeare studies during the first decades of the twentieth century. Lee and Folger are forever enthusiastically received that it went through four editions in two months. 13 linked, one in the quest for pure scholarship and the other for the material object of the First Folio, In addition to his biographical work, Lee edited a number of facsimile editions of Shakespeare’s the Sonnets, and Shakespeare’s England. It was only natural that when Robson & Co. offered works and provided important editorial commentary. As a supplement to the facsimile edition of the Sangorski’s manuscript to Mr. Folger, he purchased it for his collection. Chatsworth copy of the First Folio that the Clarendon Press published in 1902, Lee produced a Census of Extant Copies of the First Folio. He revised it in 1906 and published it separately as Notes and Additions to the Census of Copies of the Shakespeare First Folio. 14 More relevant to Sangorski’s manuscript was Lee’s 1905 facsimile of the 1609 edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, which in addition to 1 Stephen Ratcliffe, Alberto Sangorski: Bibliography with Illustrations , a self-published bibliography that his analysis and bibliography contains a census of copies and list of owners in both Great Britain and contains bibliographical descriptions of 130 works by Sangorski, a list of references by previous compilers, auction catalogs listing A. Sangorski’s works, and a short biographical introduction, some of which is based America. These two censuses were important, for they established the ownership of these significant on an interview with Rick Felix, Sangorski’s great nephew ([email protected]). See also Stanley Bray, xii xiii William Shakespeare

Chevalier Collection of English Twentieth Century Bookbindings, Christie’s catalogue 7156 (New York, 1990), p. 67. 2 Ratcliffe, p. 8. 3 Folger mss. W.b.260. http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=218869. 4 Frederick A. Bearman, Fine and Historic Bookbindings from the Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, D.C.: 1992), p. 208, n. 13.1. 5 Lisa Small, “Gilbert, Sir John (1817–1897),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004); http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10693, accessed 25 July 2015. [ODNB] 6 John Buchanan-Brown, Early Victorian Illustrated Books: Britain, France and Germany 1820-1860 (London: British Library and New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press), 2005. 7 ODNB, loc. cit.; http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10693, accessed 31 August 2015. 8 “Notes on Sales,” Times Literary Supplement , 23 December 1926. 9 For a detailed biography of Henry Folger and his wife, Emily Jordan Folger, see Stephen Grant, Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014). Grant’s biography relies heavily on the Folger Archives. In addition to documenting the formation of the Library, he covers Folger’s early life, education, the oil business, his courtship and marriage with Emily, his relationship with John D. Rockefeller, and the building of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D. C. 10 Andrea Mays’s book The Millionaire and the Bard (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015) is a close examination of how Henry Folger built his library of Shakespeare and Shakespeariana, with an emphasis on the purchases of the eighty-two copies of the First Folio. The author used the Folger Archives extensively and has created an excellent source for future mining of the archival material. 11 To better understand the Folger Shakespeare Library today, see Esther Ferrington , ed., Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library (Seattle: University of Washington Press), 2002. 12 The source of Lee’s essay is unknown. It was undoubtedly published during the anniversary year, but it does not appear in Marvin Spevack’s biography, Sidney Lee: Biographer, Shakespearean, Comparatist, Educator (Hidersheim: Gerog Olms Verlag, 2009). For more biographical information on Lee, see C. H. Firth’s article in Proceedings of the British Academy 15 (1929): 445-62; Alan Bell and Katherine Duncan-Jones, “Lee, Sir Sidney (1859–1926),” ODNB; and ODNB October 2009 online edition, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34470, accessed 25 July 2015. 13 ODNB, p. 116. 14 The copy in the Folger Shakespeare Library is fully annotated by Mr. Folger; see call number PR 2753.L4 1902 ShxColl, copy 1. 15 Folger mss. W.b.260, p. 74.

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