DOCSLIB.ORG

Modes of Memory in Virginia Woolf's Fiction and Essays

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Modes of Memory in Virginia Woolf's Fiction and Essays City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2016 "What's the Use of Trying to Read Shakespeare?": Modes of Memory in Virginia Woolf's Fiction and Essays Sara Remedios Bloom The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1584 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] “WHAT’S THE USE OF TRYING TO READ SHAKESPEARE?”: MODES OF MEMORY IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S FICTION AND ESSAYS by SARA REMEDIOS BLOOM A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 © 2016 SARA REMEDIOS BLOOM All Rights Reserved ii “What’s the Use of Trying to Read Shakespeare?”: Modes of Memory in Virginia Woolf’s Fiction and Essays by Sara Remedios Bloom This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ________________________ __________________________________________ Date Carrie Hintz Chair of Examining Committee ________________________ __________________________________________ Date Mario Di Gangi Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Mario Di Gangi Rebecca Mlynarczyk THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT “What’s the Use of Trying to Read Shakespeare?”: Modes of Memory in Virginia Woolf’s Fiction and Essays by Sara Remedios Bloom Advisor: Carrie Hintz This dissertation maps the relationship between Virginia Woolf’s fiction and essays, and William Shakespeare’s person and plays. I argue that Woolf’s writing is intended as an interactive practice of cultural memory, challenging her readers to become responders and to engage critically with the canon. I further argue that Woolf offers herself as inheritor of a literary practice that actively seeks to shape the values and social ideology of the time. The introduction defines three modes of memory operating in Woolf’s work: memory as opiate; memory as political instrument; and memory as dialectic. The first chapter shows the cultural memory of Shakespeare in Woolf’s time as both opiate and instrument, and traces Woolf’s reaction against such reduction in “A Room of One’s Own.” The second chapter examines Woolf’s use of direct allusion and quotation in her early novels, culminating with her masterful use of the dialectic memory of Shakespeare to critique the British Empire in Mrs. Dalloway. The third chapter examines The Years and Three Guineas as Woolf’s effort to engage with the memorial project of a Shakespearean history play. Finally, the last chapter considers Woolf’s masterpiece, The Waves, as her own retelling of Hamlet, an elegy for an empire that she knows must fall, and an effort to define the succeeding narrative. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the following wonderful people: Carrie Hintz, whose generous support and insightful candor has guided this project expertly. I will not forget the afternoon Carrie offered herself, in whispered tones at the back of a student conference, as supervisor; she has shown me a model of mentoring and friendship for which I am profoundly grateful, and that I hope to be able to pay forward to my own students. Mario Di Gangi, whose guidance through both the Orals and the dissertation has been invaluable. I have learned not only about Shakespeare, but about teaching, mentoring, and leading by example, from the opportunity to work with Mario and to study in a department under his leadership. Rebecca Mlynarczyk, who has been one of the warmest, kindest, and most supportive mentors I could ask for. Her willingness to step in and join the Committee late in the game is truly a gift. Jane Marcus, who is not here to see how this project has concluded, but whom I hope would be proud. Jane offered her students a model of feminist scholarship that still left room for family, a lesson in how to be an iconoclast without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Her stewardship in the early days of this project, despite failing health, defined its course – and, in many ways, my career. She is missed, and remembered. Joe Loewenstein, who told me I was good at English, guided me to my first job as a teacher, and challenged me to pursue the PhD. Marina MacKay, who accidentally called me out in her 20th Century British Literature course for not recognizing the Cymbeline in Mrs. Dalloway – in which moment, this project was born. Tony and Katie Remedios, about whom enough cannot be said. Their unwavering support and care has guided me from birth, and has taught me to seek the compassion, the complexity, and the critical assessment of the world that I have tried to uncover in Woolf. And last but not least, Jared Bloom, who has endlessly cheered, cajoled, guilted, and praised this project to the finish line. I am lucky to have him. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Writing the Nation: History, Memory, and Literature CHAPTER 1 42 Shakespeare for Girls CHAPTER 2 76 Thinking in Common: Memories of Shakespeare in Woolf’s Early Novels CHAPTER 3 110 Writing the Nation As It Is and Should Be: The Years as History Plan CHAPTER 4 135 An Elegy for Something Rotten: The Waves as Hamlet CONCLUSION 162 vi INTRODUCTION Writing the Nation: History, Memory, and Literature “From this I reach what I might call a philosophy; at any rate it is a constant idea of mine; that behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern; that we—I mean all human beings—are connected with this; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art. Hamlet or a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this vast mass that we call the world. But there is no Shakespeare, there is no Beethoven; certainly and emphatically there is no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself. And I see this when I have a shock.” “A Sketch of the Past” 72 “For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice. Jane Austen should have laid a wreath upon the grave of Fanny Burney, and George Eliot done homage to the robust shade of Eliza Carter—the valiant old woman who tied a bell to her bedstead in order that she might wake early and learn Greek. All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. It is she—shady and amorous as she was—who makes it not quite fantastic for me to say to you tonight: Earn five hundred a year by your wits.” “A Room of One’s Own” 71-72 In “A Room of One’s Own,” Woolf famously asserts that “masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice” (A Room 65). What she means is twofold. First, Woolf means to assert that masterpieces are produced within a cultural context that shapes the horizon of artistic possibilities at that time. Politics, religion, values, education, artistic traditions, social norms, means of production... all these influence the artist’s experience of the world, and in so doing, they influence what the artist produces. Moreover, to the extent that all these things—political structures, religious institutions, social conventions, education, infrastructure—are inherited from one generation to the next, the culture that influences the artist in the moment of production is itself influenced by the past, by what has been collectively thought and said and done by past societies, and actively 1 and passively brought forward into the present. The “experience of the mass” of individuals from the past who contribute to the lived experience of the artist in the present is therefore expressed by and through her art. The birth of a masterpiece is not “solitary” to the artist, but inclusive of the culture and the mass of individual voices culture contains. Second, just as the birth of a masterpiece is not "solitary" to the writer, it is also not "single." Masterpieces are reborn again and again in being made part of the canon, as each new generation engages with the art and reaffirms its value and meaning. That's to say: a masterpiece is a masterpiece not in itself, but because we continue to read it, and because each time we pick it back up, we reaffirm its importance, and thereby increase its importance for generations to come. Each time the piece is picked up, it is reborn for that generation and for generations to follow. Art is influenced by history and culture, and art influences history and culture going forward. This idea of the masterpiece as temporally complex—as evoking the life experience of many, and as being itself re-imagined and re-created over generations through the canon— anticipates a version of cultural memory that understands art as reflexive and anachronic. Woolf anticipates Frederic Jameson’s insight in The Political Unconscious (1981) that “texts come before us as the always-already-read; we apprehend them through sedimented layers of previous interpretations, or—if the text is brand-new—through the sedimented reading habits and categories developed by those inherited interpretive traditions” (Jameson 9).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Finding Refuge in King Lear: from Brexit to Shakespeare's European
    Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance vol. 19 (34), 2019; http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.19.07 ∗ Stephen O’Neill Finding Refuge in King Lear: From Brexit to Shakespeare’s European Value Abstract: This article considers how Shakespeare’s King Lear has become a Brexit play across a range of discourses and media, from theatre productions and journalism to social media. With its themes of division and disbursement, of cliff edges and tragic self- immolation, Lear is the Shakespearean play that has been turned to as metaphor and analogy for the UK’s decision following the 23 June 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. Reading this presentist application of Shakespeare, the article attends to Shakespeare as itself a discourse through which cultural ideas, both real and imaginary, about Brexit and the EU are negotiated. It asks how can we might remap Lear in this present context―what other meanings and histories are to be derived from the play, especially in Lear’s exile and search for refuge, or in Cordelia’s departure for and return from France? Moving from a consideration of a Brexit Lear to an archipelagic and even European Lear, this article argues that Shakespeare is simultaneously a site of supranational connections and of a desire for values of empathy and refuge that reverberate with debates about migration in Europe. Keywords: Shakespeare; Brexit; EU; Maps; Archipelago; Presentism; Refuge. Give me the map there. (Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1, line 35)1 This is like a Shakespearean tragedy where everyone is trying to do what is right.
    [Show full text]
  • The Eroticisation of Religious and Nationalistic Rhetoric in Early-Modern England
    A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details i ‘Harlots and Harlotry’: The Eroticisation of Religious and Nationalistic Rhetoric in Early Modern England Catherine Anne Parsons Submitted for the qualification of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature University of Sussex September 2010 ii I hereby declare that this thesis has not been, and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature iii I would like to acknowledge the help and support of my supervisor, Dr Margaret Healy in the task of researching this thesis. Thanks are also due to Dr Paul Quinn, a source of consistent help and advice, and a number of my fellow Doctoral Students at the University of Sussex, notable amongst them Barbara Kennedy and Janis Darvill. iv University of Sussex Catherine Anne Parsons Submitted for the examination for Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature ‘Harlots and Harlotry’: The Eroticisation of Religious and Nationalistic Rhetoric in Early-Modern England Summary This thesis explores gendered embodiment in early-modern England as a „semiotic field‟ onto which were transcribed anxieties about the contingent nature of individual and national „masculine‟ identity in an era of social and religious change and flux.
    [Show full text]
  • Post-Shakespeare 1900-2010 Chronology
    1 Post-Shakespeare Chronology 1900-2010 History of Shakespeare-Catholic/Protestant interpretations, with chart of significant events in Protestant/Catholic relations (small print). Including American Contexts Continental Contexts Irish Contexts Asian, South American Contexts Home Page: Shakespeare and Religion Chronology by Dennis Taylor, Boston College Unedited notes, Revised March, 2013 **1900** William Gildea, “The Religion of Shakespeare” (American Catholic Quarterly Review), cites Bowden, on grace, King John, Catholic clerics, Henry VIII, Henry V’s piety. Mrs. Humphrey Ward’s Eleanor, redoing Helbeck plot, this time Puritan Lucy marries Lord Manisty (a disbeliever who argues for Catholicism, reflecting Chateaubriand), while Eleanor, Manisty’s soul mate, performs the ultimate self-sacrifice, a Catholic Pauline equivalent, of surrendering her own claim (forecast James’s Wings of the Dove). Chateaubriand praised for “re- creating a church, and regenerating a literature.” Gasquet, The Eve of the Reformation: Erasmus regretted Lutheranism as blocking reform within Catholic church; “part of the price paid [for the Reformation] was the destruction of a sense of corporate unity and common brotherhood, which was fostered by the religious unanimity of belief and practice in every village in the country, and which, as in the mainspring of its life and the very central point of its being, centred in the Church with its rites and ceremonies” (“if it is perilous to accept Gasquet noncritically, it is foolish utterly to neglect or despise him” -- David Knowles) (“now seems remarkably prescient,” N. Tyacke 1998). Wilfrid Ward letter to wife: “I have been reading a great deal of Dante ... I feel in him that independence of thought combined with reverence for the Church which the habits fostered by post-reformation Scholasticism have done much to destroy.” Sinn Fein (Ourselves Alone) founded by Arthur Griffiths (Catholic) (in 1905 started United Irishman newspaper), replacing Home Rule movement with Independence movement, signaling nationalist revival, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Read an Excerpt
    AFull-Length Play The Other Shakespeare By LAURAANNAWYNSHAMAS THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY © The Dramatic Publishing Company, Woodstock, Illinois *** NOTICE *** TIle amateur and stock acting rights to this work are controlled exclusively by TIlE DRAMATIC PUBliSHING COMPANY without wha;e permission in writing no performance of it may be given. Royalty fees are given in our current catalogue and are subject to change without notice. Royalty mll'it be paid every time a play is performed whether or not it is presented for profit and whether or not admission is charged. A play is performed any time it is acted before an audience. All inquiries concerning amateur and stock rights should be addressed to: DRAMATIC PUBUSIllNG P. o. Box 129, Woodstock, Illinois 60098. COPYRIGHT LAW GIVES THE AUTHOR OR THE AUTHOR'S AGENT THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT W MAKE COPIES. This law provides authors with a fair return for their creative efforts. Authors earn their living fium the royalties they receive fium book sales and fium the performance of their work. Conscientious observance of oopyright law is not only ethical, it encourages authors to continue their creative work. This work is fully protected by copyright No alterations, dele­ tions or suh;titutiOllS may be made in the work without the prior written consent of the publisher. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any fonn or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, vide­ otape, film, or any information storage and retrieval system. without pennission in writing fium the publisher. It may not be performed either by professionals or amateurs without payment of royalty.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mother in the Riddle of Father-Authority in Shakespeare's Final Plays
    THE MOTHER IN THE RIDDLE OF FATHER-AUTHORITY IN SHAKESPEARE'S FINAL PLAYS By KATHLEEN BROOKFIELD, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University April, 1989 ; - MASTER OF ARTS (1989) McMASTER UNIVERSITY Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: The Mother in the Riddle of Father-Authority in Shakespeare's Final Plays AUTHOR: Kathleen Brookfield B.A. (University of Guelph) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Joan Coldwell NUMBER OF PAGES: v, 133 i i •••. , 1"" ABSTRACT Shakespeare's final plays turn from the tragic outcome of King Lear to centre on romantic resolutions to family conflict for ruling figures. Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's ~, The Tempest, and King Henry V111 restore faith in the concept of authority as a loving father of a national family. The metaphor places female identity in a patriarchical riddle: woman as mother is taken up and cast out in an alternating sequence that confirms and rejects her place in patriarchical societies. This thesis explores the alternating presence and absence of mother figures, potential and realized, in the lives of authority figures to examine the ways in which the female image is figured and disfigured to restore faith in patriarchal and monarchical authority. In each of the plays listed, continuity for the ruling family is dependent on a female heir and, with the exception of Elizabeth in King Henry Vlll, her potential motherhood. But the mothers of the heirs are alternatively acknowledged and ignored in the chronological sequence of the plays. Detailed analysis is limited to the first three plays, but the sequence continues in the final two plays where faith in a benevolent authority figure is firmly re-established.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a New Approach to Shakespeare's Sonnets
    TOWARDS A NE'ii APPROACH TO SHAKESPEARE I S SOlHmrS TOVIARDS A NEW APPROACH TO SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS BY JENNIFER HARY SHEPPARD, B.A. A Thesis Submi tted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University September, 1976 MASTER OF ARTS (1976) Hct4AS'I'ER UNIVERSITY (English) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Towards a New Approach to Shakespeare's Sonnets AUTHOR: Jennifer Hary Sheppard, B.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: B. A. W. Jackson Nut1BER m'" PAGES: i v t 127 11 . - .~, .. ~'.-~ 5 NOTES (INTRODUCTION) 1 Douglas Bush and Alfred Harbage, eds e Shakespeare's S~~ets, (1967), 7. 2 Hotson's article "Hore Light on Shakespeare's Sonnets" appeared in the ~espeare Qu~rterl~ II (1951), and Bateson's reply in Essays in ~Cr~tici8m I (1971). 3 I used two bibliographies: 1) Shakes eare (Select Bibliographical Guides), ed. Stanley Wells Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973): "Sonnets and Other Poems", J.Jv1.Nosworthy, 50-51; 2) The New Cambridge Bibliograph;t: of E~~lish Litera~ I, ed. George Watson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), 1560-1564. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE 6 CHAPTER TWO 16 CHAPTER THREE 31 CHAPTER FOUR 49 CHAPTER FIV'£ 58 CHAPTER SIX 68 CHAPTEH SEVF.:N 84 CHAPTER EIGHT 101 CHAPTER NINE 111 BIBLIOGRAPHY 123 iv INTRODUCTION There are few works of criticism about Shakespeare's sonnets that are not prefaced by the observation that, to quote Douglas Bush's appropriately metaphoric version, "Shakespeare's sonnets are an island ll 1 of poetry surrounded by a barrier of icebergs and dense fog • Such remarks generally pave the way for the writer to add to the annals of sonnet criticism the fruits of his own research which, whether merited or not, will eventually be subsumed in the next general indictment.
    [Show full text]
  • William Shakespeare a Documentary Volume
    Dictionary of Literary Biography® • Volume Two Hundred Sixty-Three William Shakespeare A Documentary Volume Edited by Catherine Loomis University of New Orleans A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book GALE" THOMSON * GALE Detroit • New York • San Diego • San Francisco • Cleveland • New Haven, Conn. • Waterville, Maine • London • Munich Contents Plan of the Series xxvii Introduction xxix A Note on the Text xxxv Acknowledgments xxxvi Short Titles of Works Cited in this Volume 3 Baptism through the "Lost Years": 1564-1591 5 1564 William Shakespeare's Birth and Name 5 Box: A Note on Dates during Shakespeare's Life Facsimile: Shakespeare's Baptismal Record 1566 " Gilbert Shakespeare's Baptismal Record 9 1569 Joan Shakespeare's Baptismal Record 10 The Queen's Players and the Earl of Worcester's Players Visit Stratford-upon-Avon 10 1571 Anne Shakespeare's Baptismal Record 10 1573 Visit of the Earl of Leicester's Players 10 1574 Richard Shakespeare's Baptismal Record 10 Box: Money in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Eras 1576 Visit of the Earl of Worcester's Players 12 1578 Visit of the Earl of Worcester's Players 12 1579 Anne Shakespeare's Burial Record 12 Visits of the Lord Strange's Players and the Countess of Essex's Players 12 XI Contents DLB 263 1580 Inquest on the Body of Katherine Hamlett 13 Edmund Shakespeare's Baptismal Record .13 Visit of the Earl of Derby's Players 13 Box: An Age of Exploration and Colonization Box: A Touring Company Performance 1581 The Will of Alexander Hoghton of Lea, Esquire 16 Visits of the Earl of Worcester's Players and Lord Berkley's Players 17 1582 Visit of the Earl of Worcester's Players ,.
    [Show full text]
  • "Goblin Damned": the Ghost of King Hamlet As a Symbol for the Religious Ambialence in England During the Religious Reformation
    Illinois Wesleyan University Digital Commons @ IWU Honors Projects English 4-14-2006 "Spirit of Health" and "Goblin Damned": The Ghost of King Hamlet as a Symbol for the Religious Ambialence in England during the Religious Reformation Bridget O'Connor '06 Illinois Wesleyan University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/eng_honproj Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation O'Connor '06, Bridget, ""Spirit of Health" and "Goblin Damned": The Ghost of King Hamlet as a Symbol for the Religious Ambialence in England during the Religious Reformation" (2006). Honors Projects. 5. https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/eng_honproj/5 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Commons @ IWU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this material in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This material has been accepted for inclusion by faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Copyright is owned by the author of this document. "Spirit ofHealth" and "Goblin Damned" The Ghost ofKing Hamlet as a Symbol for the Religious Anlbivalence in England during the Religious Reformation By: Bridget O'Connor Senior Research Honors Project . Apri114,2006 A mysterious apparition appears during the opening scene of Hamlet, paradoxically seeking revenge and eternal peace.
    [Show full text]
  • SHAKESPEARE, the WELSH, and the EARLY MODERN ENGLISH THEATER, 1590-1615 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfi
    STAGING CAMBRIA: SHAKESPEARE, THE WELSH, AND THE EARLY MODERN ENGLISH THEATER, 1590-1615 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Marisa R. Cull, M.A. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ The Ohio State University 2008 Dissertation Committee: Approved by: Professor Richard Dutton, Advisor ______________________________ Professor Christopher Highley Advisor English Graduate Program Professor Luke Wilson ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses on theatrical representation of Wales and the Welsh at a particularly pressured moment in the development of the English nation. In these twenty- five years, England strengthened its armed forces to fight wars both foreign and domestic, expanded its empire and moved toward a “British” state, and continued adapting to the changes of the Reformation. This dissertation argues that the frequent and varied representation of Wales and the Welsh on the late Tudor and early Stuart stage reveals the extent to which the English understood their national history and identity in relation to their western neighbors. Although Wales has been overshadowed by Ireland and Scotland in studies of early modern English nationalism, its impact on the formation of English national identity should not be underestimated. As the descendants of the heroic ancient Britons (including King Arthur), the Welsh had an enviable narrative of military prowess that the English often co-opted for themselves; moreover, the English annexation of Wales—culminating in the 1536 Act of Union—provided a hopeful precedent for how England might incorporate its most resistant Celtic neighbor, Ireland, and later, for how England might expand into a British empire.
    [Show full text]
  • My Uncle Shakespeare - 2
    My Uncle Shakespeare By Gad Guterman Performance Rights It is an infringement of the federal copyright law to copy this script in any way or to perform this play without royalty payment. All rights are controlled by Eldridge Publishing Co. Inc. Contact the publisher for additional scripts and further licensing information. The author’s name must appear on all programs and advertising with the notice: “Produced by special arrangement with Eldridge Publishing Co.” PUBLISHED BY ELDRIDGE PUBLISHING COMPANY www.histage.com © 2003 by Gad Guterman Download your complete script from Eldridge Publishing http://www.histage.com/playdetails.asp?PID=1670 My Uncle Shakespeare - 2 - Dedication This play is dedicated to Margot Celnik, my grandmother. STORY OF THE PLAY When William Shakespeare leads Margaret Douglas to Memory, a place where only those remembered can live, she is confused as to her whereabouts. Shakespeare eagerly tells her two stories to help her answer her questions. The first story is that of Thomas Hart, Shakespeare’s young nephew who unsuccessfully attempts to master his uncle’s craft. The second story is that of Sarah Douglas, Margaret’s hopeless granddaughter who seems incapable of completing any task or keeping any friends. As Shakespeare weaves the two tales, Margaret begins to understand that she has died and that she is in fact Thomas' distant relative. Now Shakespeare needs her help to reach Sarah, who will find the lost manuscript of Thomas’ play and restore the boy’s place in Memory. Premiere Performance This play was written for and first performed by the students at the Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, NJ on May 10, 2002.
    [Show full text]
  • Chronology of Shakespeare-Related Dates C.1530 - 1709
    Chronology of Shakespeare-related dates c.1530 - 1709 BEFORE: c1530 John Shakespeare born in the village of Snitterfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon c1555 Anne Hathaway, William’s future wife, is born c1557 John Shakespeare marries Mary Arden, a yeoman farmer’s daughter from Wilmcote, another nearby village 1558 John and Mary’s first child Joan is born c1560 Joan Shakespeare dies in infancy 1562 John and Mary’s second child Margaret is born 1563 Margaret Shakespeare dies in infancy EARLY YEARS: Apr 1564 William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-upon-Avon (date uncertain, traditionally celebrated on 23rd, St George’s Day); baptised on 26 April in Holy Trinity Church. In July, Stratford Parish Register records arrival of plague, but Shakespeare family escape 1566 William’s brother Gilbert is born 1569 William’s sister Joan is born 1571 Shakespeare begins his education at the King’s Free Grammar School (free place due to his father’s position as an alderman of Stratford-upon-Avon) 1571 William’s sister Anne is born 1574 William’s brother Richard is born 1 c1575 John Shakespeare begins to suffer financial and personal hardship, losing or remortgaging property. William’s schooling perhaps curtailed. 1579 William’s sister Anne dies 1580 William’s youngest brother Edmund is born 1582 (Nov) Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway (26 years old) at Temple Grafton 1583 (26 May) William and Anne’s first child Susanna is born (Anne 3-4 months pregnant at time of their marriage) 1585 Twins Hamnet and Judith are born (probably named after Shakespeare’s friends
    [Show full text]
  • Shakespeare Documents
    C ARTAE SHAKESPEAREANAE SHAKESPEARE DOC UMENTS A C HRONOLOGI CAL CATALOGUE OF EX TANT EV I DENCE R ELATI NG TO THE LIFE AND WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE C O LLATED AN D C H R ON OLOG I CAL LY AR R AN GED BY D . B B A H LAM RT . E , . S O L IC IT O R ; F O R M E R LY M E M BE R O F T HE N E W S HA K S PE RE S OC I E T Y ; A N D HO N O RA RY M E M B E R O F T HE N E W YO RK S HA K E S PE A RE S OC I E TY LO NDO N GEO RGE B E L L A ND S ONS 1 904 ' ‘ c u rswrc x P RESS : C HA RL ES wm m m o u m i A N D TOO KS CO URT C HANC E R LONDO N . , Y L I S T O F C O N T E NT S Baptis mal register of J oan Shakespe are B apti smal regi ster o f Margaret Shakespeare Bapti smal regi ster o f William Shakespeare Bapt ismal r egi s ter of Gilbert S hakespeare Bapt ismal regi ster of J oa n S hakespeare Bapti smal register of A n na Shakespeare B apti sm al register of Ric hard Shakespeare Fi n e levied on the purc hase of t wo h ouses i n Henley S treet 9 Fi n e levied when an Estate at Aston Can tlowe was m ortgaged to Edm u n d Lambert Bapti smal regi ster of Edm u nd S hakespeare Ext c t o m the D oc s st Wo c e st ra fr i e an regi er, r er B o d o m the D oc s n e st Marriage n fr i e a r gi er , Worc ester l Bapt ismal register of Su san na h S hakespe are U' Bapti smal regi ster o f Harrie t an d Jud it h Shakespeare Abst rac t of Bill of Co mpla i n t brough t by J o hn L t Shakespeare agai n st J ohn amber .
    [Show full text]