On Saturday 25th April we were very pleased to take part in the inaugural South West Shakespeare Festival. Our library volunteer Romilly Spaul researched and curated a pop-up display titled ‘Illustrating Shakespeare’, which explored Victorian visual representations of the Bard’s works in our collections. May’s Book of the Month blog showcases her research.

“Absolutely loved curating this display for the Devon and Exeter Institution as part of the South West Shakespeare Festival. It was incredibly rewarding to see visitors connecting with my research and engaging with the richness of our local collections.

Moments like these highlight why facilitating access to special collections matters — opening up new ways for people to encounter history, literature, and ideas.”

– Romilly

For this project, Romilly combed through our historic collections looking for striking images inspired by Shakespeare’s works. John Boydell’s lavish collection of engravings was a natural choice for display, and periodicals like The Art Journal and The Illustrated London News also furnished several examples. The latter reveal favourite Shakespearean subjects in the nineteenth century, artistic trends which developed around specific plays and characters, and wider social, political, and economic contexts which informed visual interpretations. Our prints collection, meanwhile, provided some unique local examples in the form of a series of satirical posters entitled “Shakespeare Illustrated”, produced for the 1868 Exeter election.

John Boydell, The Boydell Gallery: a collection of engravings illustrating the dramatic works of Shakespeare, by the artists of Great Britain (1874)

The Boydell Gallery has a somewhat complicated textual history. The original project, initiated in 1786 by John Boydell (1720-1804), was a joint endeavour between painters, engravers, and publishers. Boydell, an engraver himself, commissioned artists to create paintings based on the works of Shakespeare, which he then put on exhibition in 1789 in London, in a purpose-built building aptly named The Shakespeare Gallery. Boydell’s aim was to establish “an English School of Historical Painting” to compete with the well-established traditions of continental Europe, which suggests Shakespeare was chosen for his canonical repute as opposed to the suitability of his works. Boydell hired artists to use the paintings to create engravings to sell in a folio, and in a grand set of illustrated Shakespeare plays. Due to some particularly catastrophic financial decisions made by Boydell, costs of the project ballooned to £350,000 which is roughly the equivalent of £40 million today. The illustrated volumes took eleven years to be completed (from 1791 to 1802), and in 1804 Boydell secured permission from Parliament to dissolve his business and auction off the paintings (see Boydell’s Lottery Act 1804). Though the gallery ended in disappointment, the illustrated folio was reissued throughout the nineteenth century; the edition held by the DEI was printed in 1874. In an introduction of one such edition, it was recommended as “suitable […] for the drawing-room table” – perhaps a precursor to the modern coffee table book.

William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespear’s Plays (1817)

William Hazlitt’s (1778-1830) Characters of Shakespear’s Plays was an extremely influential book which went on to shape Shakespearean literary criticism. It was the first book to discuss all of Shakespeare’s plays, and the above edition published in 1817 sold out in just six weeks. Hazlitt’s character-led, psychological approach to the plays paved the way for later psychoanalytic literary criticism. Romantic era poets like John Keats appreciated Hazlitt’s emphasis on the role of imagination – chiefly the idea of Shakespeare’s imagination being the source of his poetic skill, as opposed to a more scholarly approach. This idea of Shakespeare as an almost unnatural genius went on to shape his reputation through the Victorian era. Keats, a great friend of Hazlitt’s, typifies this approach to Shakespeare in his poem:

Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,
Begetters of our deep eternal theme,
When through the old oak forest I am gone,
Let me not wander in a barren dream,
But when I am consumed in the fire,
Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.
– John Keats, “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again”, l. 9-14

“Hazlitt’s Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays: Review”, The Quarterly Review, Volume 18 (1818)

This review of William Hazlitt’s Characters of Shakespear’s Plays demonstrates how the idea of ‘Shakespeare’ during this period came to represent a source of national pride, and potentially a politically fraught definition of ‘Englishness’. Though the anonymous reviewer (suspected by Hazlitt to be William Gifford, editor of The Quarterly Review) has plenty of valid criticisms devoted to Hazlitt’s style of rhetoric and interpretation, after a few pages they cease critiquing his writing, and instead uses the spectre of Shakespeare to disparage his political leanings. Hazlitt was a known radical and republican, whilst Gifford and The Quarterly Review were decidedly Tory. The reviewer writes that

“In one respect Mr. Hazlitt is on very bad terms with our great poet, whose genuine English sentiments are extremely repulsive to his feelings. Shakespeare was a patriot in the old and genuine sense of the word; Mr. Hazlitt is one according to the new nomenclature, in which it signifies one who is not a friend to his country.” (464)

In this, the reviewer ceases to write about Shakespeare the poet, and starts to write about Shakespeare as a symbol of Englishness.

“Scene from ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, At the Haymarket Theatre”, The Illustrated London News, Volume 4 (1844)

This illustration of The Taming of the Shrew is tucked into a corner amidst theatre reviews, international news articles, and a short story. The Illustrated London News, founded in 1842, was the world’s first illustrated weekly newspaper, and aimed to satisfy the Victorian public’s appreciation of images and visual culture. This particular illustration is unique as it depicts a scene in a production of a Shakespeare play, as opposed to creating the scene in the world of the play itself. This allows us to glimpse how Victorian productions of Shakespeare might have looked. The surrounding illustrations and articles also help us to understand the cultural context these plays existed in. The tone of the theatre review (189) which describes Petruchio’s subjugation of Katherine contains many parallels to the article opposite on “The New Zealander” (188) which describes the colonial suppression of the Māori people. In both articles a conflict is drawn between a gentlemanly superior and a subjected – though pointedly not enslaved – inferior, and both articles conspicuously omit the violence central to their subject. Shakespeare’s increasing popularity during this period of imperial expansion is not a coincidence, but comes as the direct result of an outward-looking culture seeking to define ‘Englishness’, and its position on the world stage.

Daniel Maclise and Robert Staines, “Malvolio and the Countess”, The Art Journal, Volume 11 (1849)

This illustration depicts the infamous scene from Twelfth Night, where Malvolio is tricked into believing his mistress Olivia is wooing him by instructing him to don yellow cross-garters and appear flirtatiously before her. This scene was painted by Daniel Maclise in 1840, and engraved by Robert Staines for the edition above. Maclise has depicted Maria, the author of the artifice, on the far right. While she physically conceals herself both with her hand and with her mistress’s body, perhaps suggesting her deception, her face cannot hide her amusement. Olivia is contrastingly open with her body language, signalling her honesty, face unshielded and turned towards Malvolio. The medium of painting has an advantage over the theatre in that a scene can be perused for a sustained amount of time. Victorian artists would use this opportunity to fill their works with subtle allusions and signals, both in body language and in the composition of the piece. Notice the peacock in the background, and how the fall of its plumes parallel the curve of Malvolio’s cloak – in the original work, the plumes and the cloak are painted the exact same shade of gold, a detail understandably lost in an engraving.

Charles West Cope and Thomas Vernon, “Othello Relating His Adventures”, The Art Journal, New Series, Volume 11 (1872)

“Othello Relating His Adventures” first appeared in Charles Knight’s (1791-1873) The Pictorial Edition of the Works of Shakespeare, one of the many illustrated compendiums published during this period. It was engraved by Thomas Vernon, after a painting by Charles West Cope. Such illustrations could take on a life of their own, circulating independently of the plays and getting republished in journals and magazines. Popular subjects for Shakespeare illustrators were moments of narrative crisis, such as rites of passage. Here, Desdemona is passing from the care of her father to her husband. Adrian Poole makes the odd yet salient note that “Victorian artists were conspicuously alive to the significance of hair and hairiness […] the Victorians would have found it hard to imagine a Shakespearean father without any facial hair”. It is, therefore, an unexpected choice for Brabantio, the elder statesman, to be bare faced here. Othello is evidently not bare faced, yet Othello and Brabantio both share the shadow of the foreground whilst Desdemona alone is cast in the light of the picture. This is potentially a suggestion of Desdemona’s ultimate purity and innocence, in the face of both Othello and Brabantio’s future failure to protect her, and perhaps Brabantio’s failure as a father. Victorian visual artists introduced new ways to experience the plays, not only through frozen moments but as temporally layered constructions.

Henry Le Jeune, “Ophelia”, The Illustrated London News, Volume 14 (1849)

Ophelia is one of the most popular Shakespearean subjects for Victorian visual artists. The character is depicted in two modes, either poised on the riverbank, or supine as in John Everett Millais’ famous work, painted in 1851. The Victorian fascination with the character of Ophelia, especially through tragic and beautiful depictions of her death, coincide with shifting attitudes towards mental illnesses and social care. This is not to suggest that conditions for individuals with mental illness were in any way improved by illustrations of Shakespeare characters, but rather to explore how these illustrations can show us the ebb and flow of Victorian social discourse. During the 1800s asylum reformers such as Harriet Martinaeu and William Ellis pioneered the moral treatment system, which emphasised the importance of treating people with mental disabilities or illnesses like rational beings, and providing care as opposed to custody. The illustration below Ophelia shows the opening of the first specialised facility for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. This institution was a result of the development of the moral treatment system, and was the first of its kind in England to attempt to provide mentally disabled children with an education. Both the illustration and the article depict a sympathetic, if simplistic and paternalistic, portrait of mental illness.

George Palmer, Exeter Election 1868: “Shakespeare Illustrated” (1868)

This poster draws together a multitude of different sources and references under the label of “Shakespeare Illustrated”. In the manner of Shakespeare himself, Shakespeare illustrations have also become symbols separate from the original object. This is one in a series of ten political posters ran by the Tories against John Coleridge (1820-1894), Liberal MP for Exeter from 1865-1873, in which Coleridge is depicted as Mephistopheles from Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. The deliberate titular association to Shakespeare would perhaps have been a method to gain attention from the passersby by mimicking a form so familiar to the vast majority of Victorians. As the poster series continued, the Liberal-leaning Express and Echo noted in an article:

“The Tories are getting out a series of caricatures, which they have a perfect right to do […] But when they call these things Shakespeare illustrated they show themselves to be Philistines and Barbarians […] To travestie [sic] Shakespeare […] is to exhibit a total want of appreciation of, and reverence, for our greatest bard.”

– Express and Echo, Wednesday 16 September 1868

In the library: 

John Boydell, The Boydell Gallery: a collection of engravings illustrating the dramatic works of Shakespeare, by the artists of Great Britain (1874). Classmark: L.13. 2 Oversize

Charles West Cope and Thomas Vernon, ‘Othello Relating His Adventures’, The Art Journal, New Series, Volume 11 (1872), p. 252. Classmark: Bay 37.

“Hazlitt’s Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays: Review”, The Quarterly Review, Volume 18 (1818), p. 458. Classmark: Bay 44.

William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespear’s Plays (1817). Classmark: Bay 68 1817 HAZ

Henry Le Jeune, “Ophelia”, The Illustrated London News, Volume 14 (1849), p. 212. Classmark: Bay 46.

Daniel Maclise and Robert Staines, ‘Malvolio and the Countess’, The Art Journal, Volume 11 (1849), p. 326. Classmark: Bay 37.

George Palmer, Exeter Election 1868: “Shakespeare Illustrated” (1868). Classmark: P & D 3570.

‘Scene from “The Taming of the Shrew”, At the Haymarket Theatre’, The Illustrated London News, Volume 4 (1844), p. 189. Classmark: Bay 46.