BEYOND MACBETH: SHAKESPEARE COLLECTIONS IN SCOTLAND An exhibition held at National Library of Scotland from 9 December 2011 until 29 April 2012, featuring items from the collections of NLS and the University of Edinburgh, and supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The National Library and the University wish to thank the following for their assistance: The Abbotsford Trust, Edinburgh City Libraries, London Metropolitan Archives, Lauren Pope, Ross Crombie and Mark Scott, National Galleries of Scotland, National Portrait Gallery, London, Rijksmuseum, The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Victoria Johnston, Daisy Badger, David K Barnes, The estate of Robert Lyon. The exhibition was curated by James Loxley and Helen Vincent, and designed by Studio MB. Edinburgh, 2012 Copyright the National Library of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh If you require this document in an alternative format e.g. large print, please email
[email protected] University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. Designed by The Multimedia Team, Information Services, The University of Edinburgh www.ed.ac.uk/is/graphic-design Beyond Macbeth: Shakespeare Collections in Scotland Introduction William Shakespeare is the best known writer in the world. He is generally held not only to be the greatest playwright but also the greatest writer in the English language. His plays have rarely been out of the repertory since their earliest production in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and have been available to readers in an astonishing range of printed editions for most of that time too. His characters and words have long been a part of common consciousness: phrases such as ‘star-crossed lovers’ and the ‘mind’s eye’ have become part of the fabric of the English language, and figures such as Hamlet have been taken to represent aspects of a general or universal human condition.