BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Folger Shakespeare Library -- Exhibit: Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity

DC -- Folger Shakespeare Library -- Exhibit: Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity:

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Description of Pictures: Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity
Aug 06 – Nov 06, 2016
Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity will take a close look at these two celebrated authors’ literary afterlives—and find some surprising parallels. For both, adaptations and parodies in different eras helped popularize their work and make it more approachable (think Shakespeare Undead and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). Milestone events also increased their fame: for Shakespeare, the much-heralded 1769 Shakespeare Jubilee, and for Austen, a burst of 1990s films and a watershed BBC production. From portraits to porcelain collectibles, branded merchandise, and gravestone rubbings, these two authors have traced intriguingly similar arcs in their posthumous fame. Explore their stories and the nature of celebrity in the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare's death and the 199th anniversary of Austen’s in 2016.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FOLWJ_160817_009.JPG: Will & Jane Shakespeare, Austen and the Cult of Celebrity
2. FOLWJ_160817_011.JPG: George Romney (1734-1802).The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions. Oil on canvas. London, 1791-92. FPa49 This painting, which reimagines the birth of Shakespeare as The Nativity, was cut down on all four sides by a previous owner. When it hung as a centerpiece in John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in the 1790s it would have been even larger. To see this painting in its original Georgian context, go to the What Jane Saw touch screen at media station 1.
3. FOLWJ_160817_019.JPG: Will & Jane Shakespeare, Austen and the Cult of Celebrity Will & Jane tracks the parallel afterlives of two of the most popular writers in English: William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Jane Austen (1775-1817). In 2016, we can consider the rise of literary celebrity in real time. This year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death and the approaching 200th anniversary of Austen's. Modern celebrity culture was born in the late 18th century when a growing entertainment industry staged popular spectacles and exhibitions that fanned the flames of Shakespeare's early reputation. Similarly, starting in the late 20th century landmark TV mini-series and a wealth of films have done for Austen as she nears her bicentenary what theater and public entertainments did for Shakespeare at his 200 mark. Two writers, acclaimed for their works, have soared in public recognition, transforming into cultural superheroes. The process of fandom leaves a trail of material objects -- from the sublime to the ridiculous. Literary celebrity, from its 18th-century beginnings, is as much about relics and souvenirs as about books and plays. Explore how today's Cult of Jane resembles the first exuberant wave of "Bardolatry" (coined from "the Bard" and "idolatry") in Will & Jane.
4. FOLWJ_160817_026.JPG: Biography Will and Jane are beloved not just for their writing, but for the people that readers imagine them to have been. The fact that we know so little about their lives or what they looked like has meant that readers have felt the need to imagine much. Our desire to know these authors intimately has led to over two centuries of trafficking in the images, lives, and loves of Will and Jane. We have stocked libraries, museums, movie theaters, and gift shops with portraits, souvenirs, forged love letters, and bio-pics that embody what we want them to have been like. Jane Austen lived through the first wave of Bardolatry. In some of her work, we see glimpses of one author's participation in the fan culture around another.
5. FOLWJ_160817_031.JPG: Jane's Shakespeare Jane Austen, born in 1775, experienced Shakespeare's early rise to celebrity status first-hand. She read and admired his work, referenced him in her fictions, and saw his plays performed on London's stage. In her novel Mansfield Park (1814), Austen's characters "all talk Shakespeare" while rehearsing amateur theatricals. (7) Three of her fictional characters in that novel, Yates and the Crawfords, share surnames with famous Shakespearean actors of the 18th century. The playbill on display announces the performance of The Merchant of Venice that Jane saw on 5 March 1814. (1) In a letter to her sister, she deftly describes that night's performance by Edmund Kean. (6) Kean's portrait on a snuff box contrasts with an engraving of him as he looked in the role of Shylock. (2& 3) A paper "pinup" of actress Mrs. Crawford and a jewelry pin of diva Mrs. Yates give further evidence of the emerging culture of celebrity in which Austen was both witness and participant. (4 & 5)
6. FOLWJ_160817_036.JPG: Playbill for Merchant of Venice. Drury Lane Theatre, March 5, 1814. Bill Box G2D84 1813-1814. No. 141. Copy 2.
7. FOLWJ_160817_045.JPG: Samuel Raven (1775-1847), artist. Circular table snuff box painted with portrait of Edmund Kean (1787-1833). Papier mâché. English, ca. 1822.
8. FOLWJ_160817_049.JPG: Henry Hoppner Meyer (1783-1847), printmaker. Edmund Kean as Shylock. Great Britain, 19th century. Mezzotint.
9. FOLWJ_160817_053.JPG: Mrs. Crawford in the Character of Cleopatra. Stipple engraving of tragedienne Ann Barry Crawford (1734-1801). Great Britain, late 18th century.
10. FOLWJ_160817_057.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817). Letter signed to her sister Cassandra Austen. March 5-8, 1814. Manuscript. MA 977.36. Loan courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Purchased by J.P. Morgan, Jr. in 1920.
11. FOLWJ_160817_064.JPG: Austen as Playwright? No manuscript of a complete Shakespeare play in his handwriting survives, but a play in Austen's hand does. 200 years later, theater and film professionals dramatize her novels, turning them into scripts for stage and screen. This lighthearted dramatization sets scenes from the 1755 novel Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson -- one of Jane Austen's favorite writers. (1) While it remains uncertain whether Austen authored this adaptation in whole or in part (family legend held that her niece Anna was author and Aunt Jane a mere amanuensis), it does give us evidence of Austen's participation in just the type of amateur theatricals that she seems to critique in her fiction. Biographers agree that the young Jane was an active participant in family theatricals throughout her youth at the Steventon rectory, where the Austens staged plays in their barn. The back-stage tomfoolery in Mansfield Park does not make Austen anti-theatrical. Just as Austen turned Richardson's novel into a play, others have realized the dramatic potential of her novels. Actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson adapted Sense and Sensibility for the silver screen in 1995 (2). Thompson scripted and starred in the film, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress.
12. FOLWJ_160817_068.JPG: Emma Thompson (b. 1959). Screenplay of Sense and Sensibility. Author's annotated typescript. 1995. Loan courtesy of Emma Thompson.
13. FOLWJ_160817_070.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817). Sir Charles Grandison, or the Happy Man. A Comedy. Manuscript in five sections, of varying sizes, pinned separately. ca. 1791, ca. 1800. 792 AUS. Loan courtesy of Chawton House Library.
14. FOLWJ_160817_084.JPG: Missing Lives and Loves The first biographies of Will and Jane prefaced editions of their works. Editor Nicholas Rowe wrote Shakespeare's earliest biography in 1709 (1), while Austen's was authored by her brother Henry for Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in December 1817 (2). In both instances, the authors' lives take up little print space relative to the bulk of their work, yet these slim accounts remain foundational. The shared myth of humble origins is literally painted onto souvenirs with images of the authors' respective birthplaces. (3 & 4) Fan culture tends to fill in biographical gaps with romance. A fake love letter from Shakespeare to Anne Hathaway, forged in the 1790s by William Henry Ireland (5), and the manuscript pages from Tom Stoppard's 1990s screenplay for Shakespeare in Love (6) are just two examples of the continuing desire to give Will the love life for which we have so little evidence. Recently, the film Becoming Jane (7) similarly conjured a romance for Jane.
15. FOLWJ_160817_087.JPG: Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718).The works of Mr. William Shakespear… with an account of the life and writing of the author. London: Jacob Tonson, 1709.
16. FOLWJ_160817_090.JPG: Pomade jar depicting Shakespeare's house. Prattware jar with lid, ceramic. England, 19th century.
17. FOLWJ_160817_096.JPG: William Henry Ireland (1775-1835). Forged letter from William Shakespeare to Anne Hathaway. Manuscript, ca. 1790s.
18. FOLWJ_160817_099.JPG: Porcelain figurine of William Shakespeare. Staffordshire, 18th century. McCall 198
19. FOLWJ_160817_103.JPG: M. Young, artist. Jane Austen. "Limited Edition of 750; No. 64". England: Frederick Warne & Co. for Rockingham China, 1994. Loan courtesy of Joan Doyle, Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Eastern Pennsylvania Region.
20. FOLWJ_160817_105.JPG: Cutting a Figure with Figurines Over the course of the 18th century, cheaper porcelain manufactured in Europe put collectibles newly in the hands of middle-class consumers, outstripping the sales of imported Asian porcelain as status symbols for the elite. Figures of Shakespeare (2), his characters (4), and popular actors (6 & 8) in Shakespearean roles were a part of this new and rapidly expanding market in souvenirs. By the 20th century, collectible porcelain was a thriving niche ready and waiting for figurines of Jane (1) and her characters. (3) These similarly resemble the actors who embody them in dramatizations, although now on film rather than the stage. (5 & 7)
21. FOLWJ_160817_112.JPG: James Quin as Sir John Falstaff. Derby porcelain England, 1765.
22. FOLWJ_160817_114.JPG: Martin Evans, artist. Emma Woodhouse. Porcelain figurine. "Limited edition of just 4,500 of which this is No. 1055". Royal Worcester, "Jane Austen Heroines" series, 1998. Loan courtesy of Joan Doyle, Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Eastern Pennsylvania Region. Othello Relates his Story. Dresden, Germany, after 1880. Tableau of Othello, Desdemona, and Brabantio based on painting by Carl Ludwig Becker, 1880. Colored pottery.
23. FOLWJ_160817_118.JPG: Thomas Parr, artist. Charlotte and Susan Cushman as Romeo and Juliet. Staffordshire porcelain, double figure. English, ca. 1852.
24. FOLWJ_160817_122.JPG: Emily Kaufman, artist. Jane Austen's Emma. Porcelain figurine resembling actress Gwyneth Paltrow. No. A5000 in "limited edition" of 9,500 Malaysia for Franklin Mint, ca. 1998. Loan courtesy of Joan Doyle, Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Eastern Pennsylvania Region.
25. FOLWJ_160817_124.JPG: Pauline Parsons, artist. Elizabeth Bennet. Bone china figurine resembling actress Jennifer Ehle. "Limited edition of just 3,500 of which this is No. 685". Royal Doulton "Literary Heroines" series, 1998. Loan courtesy of Joan Doyle, Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Eastern Pennsylvania Region.
26. FOLWJ_160817_126.JPG: Making of Literary Celebrity Will and Jane's respective celebrities were each kicked off by media extravaganzas marking, roughly, the 200th anniversaries of their lives and work. In 1769, David Garrick organized a Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon, while in 1789, in London, John Boydell opened the Shakespeare Gallery. The television "bonnet drama" is to Austen as the Jubilee and Boydell's Gallery were to Shakespeare. Assisted by Hollywood, the BBC awarded Austen, and her characters, special star status just as she approached her bicentenary. Reverence for Will and Jane has swelled into numerous expressions of devotion -- from pilgrimage routes to the collection of "relics." This exhibition would not exist without the committed collecting activities that such devotion has inspired. The claiming of Will and Jane as national (and international) icons is another offshoot of their celebrity effect. Their portraits grace money and stamps, each has been translated into a host of languages, and both marched to war as reading material for active duty military during two World Wars.
27. FOLWJ_160817_130.JPG: The Best Friend David Garrick, actor and theater manager, leans familiarly on a bust of Shakespeare, summing up the integral relationship between Shakespeare's growing fame and the cult of theatrical celebrity that emerged in the 18th century. Garrick's status in the British theater and Shakespeare's reputation as "the English Bard" proved mutually beneficial, strengthening the celebrity around both men.
28. FOLWJ_160817_139.JPG: Spectacle at 200 An advertisement for a Shakespearean horse race (2) illustrates the odd range of activities -- from fireworks to concerts -- planned for the Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford in 1769, which was ultimately rained out. The portrait of Garrick, master of ceremonies, reverently contemplating a miniature of Shakespeare's likeness, links the star status of actor and playwright. (1) The planned parade of Shakespeare's characters (3) never happened at the Jubilee, but was regularly performed at London's Drury Lane Theatre. Events that did happen, such as Garrick's recitation of his ode to Shakespeare (9), "the God of our idolatry," circulated far beyond the soggy audience at Stratford. Similarly, the paintings that John Boydell had assembled for the first-ever Shakespeare Gallery (5, 8), beginning in 1789, continued to be disseminated through engravings to an even larger audience after the museum closed in 1804. The televised "bonnet drama" functions as the modern equivalent to these Georgian spectacles. In particular, the BBC's 6-part television broadcast of Pride and Prejudice in 1995 (7) proved a watershed moment in the popular reception of Austen, as commemorated here by a bonnet (6) worn during that production's final wedding scene.
29. FOLWJ_160817_142.JPG: Joseph Saunders after Benjamin Van der Gucht. Mr. Garrick as Steward of the Stratford Jubilee, September 1769. Great Britain, 1773. Engraving.
30. FOLWJ_160817_146.JPG: Bill of advertisement for horse race. Stratford, 1769. PR2923 1769 R2 Cage.
31. FOLWJ_160817_149.JPG: Promotional image for BBC's Pride and Prejudice (1995). DVD Box. Reproduction.
32. FOLWJ_160817_151.JPG: Bonnet from 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. Worn by actress Susannah Harker as Jane Bennet London, 1995. Property of Cosprop Ltd., London.
33. FOLWJ_160817_154.JPG: John Boydell (1719-1804). Ticket for his Shakespeare Lottery. London, 1804-05. No. 320 of approximately 22,000 lottery tickets sold for the inventory of 167 paintings during the dissolution of the gallery.
34. FOLWJ_160817_158.JPG: Signed "F. Westwood" Medallions commemorating the Jubilee, 1769. Recto: "We shall not look upon his like again." Verso: "Jubilee at Stratford in honour and to the memory of Shakespeare, Sept. 1769, D.G., Steward". Coin Collection Env. 29.
35. FOLWJ_160817_160.JPG: George Romney (1734-1802).The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions. Oil on canvas. London, 1791-92. FPa49 This painting, which reimagines the birth of Shakespeare as The Nativity, was cut down on all four sides by a previous owner. When it hung as a centerpiece in John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in the 1790s it would have been even larger. To see this painting in its original Georgian context, go to the What Jane Saw touch screen at media station 1.
36. FOLWJ_160817_166.JPG: Museum Spectacle The first-ever museum dedicated to The Bard was the Shakespeare Gallery, built by London entrepreneur and publisher John Boydell in 1789. Until financial difficulties forced it to close its doors in 1804, the gallery was a popular tourist attraction and charged visitors a shilling to see life-sized paintings of famous scenes commissioned from contemporary artists. The gallery had its own shop on the ground floor and sold large engravings of the pictures (like today's museum posters) as well as subscriptions to a grand, multi-volume edition of Shakespeare's works. The whole enterprise, like the 1769 Jubilee, was a financial failure despite its significant cultural influence on Shakespeare's popular reception. The building that housed the Shakespeare Gallery was demolished in 1870 and the bulk of Boydell's paintings, sold by lottery and subsequently auctioned off in 1805, are now considered lost. A paper lottery ticket (in nearby case) and George Romney's canvas of the "Infant Shakespeare" at the exhibition entrance (also reproduced nearby) are rare survivors from the gallery's dissolution. Touch the screen and join Jane in a visit to the Shakespeare Gallery in 1796.
37. FOLWJ_160817_173.JPG: Child's Play Shakespeare's plays began their history of adaptation into child's play in the late 18th century, as we can see from the rather alarming example of The History of Shylock the Jew. (1) Will's work continues to feature in comic books (5) and even board books for babies, now alongside Austen's. (4 & 6) Jane's novels found a young adult audience through gift book series and cover art targeted at adolescents. (10) Similarly, the adaptations of Will's plays by Charles and Mary Lamb (2) are part of the larger cultural phenomenon of early children's literature. (3) But kids don't have to read to play with Will and Jane, who have been associated with games and dolls since the late 19th century. (7-9)
38. FOLWJ_160817_175.JPG: Julius Caesar/William Shakespeare. Classics Illustrated, No. 68. New York: Gilberton Co., 1969.
39. FOLWJ_160817_181.JPG: Young Albert, the Roscius. London: S. and J. Fuller, 1811.
40. FOLWJ_160817_184.JPG: Nancy Butler, author, and Hugo Petrus, illustrator. Pride and Prejudice. Marvel Comics, 2009.
41. FOLWJ_160817_190.JPG: The Shakspere Oracle or Wheel of Fortune. Cardboard game with 13 colored circular cards, ribbon, two lids. Boston: D. Lothrop Company, 1892.
42. FOLWJ_160817_197.JPG: Relics Locks of hair have long been cherished and fought over as primary relics. Each of the hair relics in this case has a contentious history. (1 & 2) Objects used by the author are of course also much coveted, especially if they have a strong provenance history to back claims to authenticity. The turquoise ring that once graced the hand that wrote Pride and Prejudice radiates value, even in the form of this gold replica. (3) Kelly Clarkson, the American pop star and Austen fan, briefly won the true ring at auction but was ultimately not allowed to take the "national treasure" out of Britain. Even ordinary, random objects found beneath the floorboards of Austen's house (5) or a bundle of old sticks (4) that may or may not have been Shakespeare's chair, become evocative of saintly relics -- preserved solely for their distant association with the "divine" Will or Jane.
43. FOLWJ_160817_200.JPG: "Shakespeare's Hair". Single auburn strand, mounted on card with inscription dated August 24, 1866. London, Before 1820. ART Inv. 1004. Luna Image The inscription states that the hair was enclosed in an undated letter sent by Samuel Ireland, presumably around 1800, to a Mr. Bindley and auctioned on 8 August 1820. It then passed into the possession of one J. E. H. Taylor, Esq., who donated it to the collector W. J. Bernhard Smith in 1866. The Folger acquired it in 1896.
44. FOLWJ_160817_209.JPG: Lock of Jane Austen's hair in a circular copper alloy frame with a ribbon bow crest. Formerly owned by Alberta Burke. CHWJA:JAH28. Loan courtesy of Jane Austen's House Museum.
45. FOLWJ_160817_210.JPG: Jane Austen's gold and turquoise ring. Briefly owned by singer Kelly Clarkson. Replica.
46. FOLWJ_160817_214.JPG: Wood from Shakespeare's Birthplace. Bundle of seven pieces of wood from a chair, molding, chest, and walking stick. Stratford, 1600-1900?
47. FOLWJ_160817_218.JPG: Selection of items found under the floorboards of Jane Austen's House. Glass bottle; iron alloy spoon, knife, and nail; copper alloy buckle; white clay pipe. Chawton, England, 18th and 19th century. CHWJA: JAH63.5, JAH360; JAH361; JAH363; JAH362; JAH364. Loan courtesy of Jane Austen's House Museum.
48. FOLWJ_160817_220.JPG: Passionate Collecting Two American couples shared parallel literary passions that led to two monumental collections: Henry and Emily Folger, who founded the Folger Shakespeare Library, and Alberta and Henry Burke, collectors of Jane Austen materials (now divided between The Morgan Library and Goucher College). The Folgers faced the challenge of collecting through the First World War while the Burkes lived through the Second. Each couple was childless, looking after their collections with parental fidelity. Both couples worked tirelessly for decades to collect books, art, decorative items, and every possible type of object that carried their author's name, image, or association. Without the Folgers and the Burkes, Will & Jane would not exist. Remarkably, the Folgers and Burkes systematized the daunting process of collecting in similar ways, using early bibliographies as virtual shopping wish-lists. (1 & 2) A 1940 telegram exchange between a London bookshop and the Burkes demonstrates how some fish got away (4 & 5), while a 1918 Folger check returning borrowed funds suggests the vast sums devoted to the enterprise. (3) Even the Burkes' bookplate is similar to one adopted early on by the Folger Library. (6)
49. FOLWJ_160817_224.JPG: Bernard Quaritch Bookshop, London, to Henry Burke, Baltimore, December 1940. RCA Radiogram and Postal Telegraph telegrams. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.
50. FOLWJ_160817_232.JPG: Henry Folger to John D. Rockefeller. Bank check for $53,000, dated January 29, 1918. Folger Collection [Folger Archives] This sum was partial repayment for a personal loan to buy more Shakespeare.
51. FOLWJ_160817_237.JPG: Bookplates from the Folger and [LOAN] Burke collections. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections. Luna Image
52. FOLWJ_160817_241.JPG: Geoffrey Keynes (1887-1982). Jane Austen: A Bibliography. London: Nonesuch Press, 1929. Z8048 .K44 1968. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections. Extra-annotated bibliography of Austen editions, handled to pieces and pasted throughout with clippings from dealer catalogues by Alberta and Henry Burke.
53. FOLWJ_160817_244.JPG: James Orchard Halliwell-Phillips (1820-89). A Calendar of the Shakespearean Rarities, 2nd edition, Ed. Ernest E. Baker. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1891. Folger Collection[Folger Archives]. Extra-annotated bibliography of coveted Shakespeare treasures, handled to pieces and marked throughout by Henry and Emily Folger.
54. FOLWJ_160817_247.JPG: Devotion Beyond Death The original of this dedicatory plaque hangs inside the adjacent Folger Reading Room, just a few feet away. Behind this plaque, the ashes of Henry and Emily Folger are interred, at their request, inside a wall of the room where scholars work with the collections. The Folgers did not want to be parted from their Shakespeareana -- not even by death. In an open letter addressed to the Jane Austen Society in 2008, a distraught Louise West, then-curator at Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton, England, asked Austen fans not to instruct relatives in legal wills to strew their ashes in the cottage's garden. The letter banning the practice identifies a similar urge among Austen fans to associate their last resting places with their beloved Jane. "While we understand many admirers of Jane Austen would love to have ashes laid here, it is something we do not allow. It is distressing for visitors to see mounds of human ash, particularly so for our gardener. Also, it is of no benefit to the garden!" -- Louise West, Jane Austen's House Museum Chawton
55. FOLWJ_160817_250.JPG: Johann Heinrich Ramberg (1763-1840). Shakspere. Drawing, watercolor. 1832.
56. FOLWJ_160817_253.JPG: Deification Fans of both Will and Jane have, at times, claimed divine status for their beloved author. The phrase "the divine Jane" was coined by American critic William Dean Howells in 1891 (4), joining existing references to Shakespeare as "the God of our idolatry" in the cultural lexicon. Devotees continue to make pilgrimages to locations associated with both authors, following routes spelled out in special guidebooks and maps. (2 & 3) In 1756, just as Stratford began to attract the first trickle of literary tourists, an old mulberry tree that Shakespeare supposedly planted was cut down, inciting nationwide lament. A local man named Thomas Sharp bought the wood and turned it into mementos for visitors, including this chalice. (5) A thriving industry ensued in an impossibly large number of relics that claimed to be made from that same tree. Fragments were even embedded in bindings of Shakespeare editions, as if pieces of an alternative True Cross. (6) More recently, acorn-shaped darning eggs (used to mend socks) were carved from the wood of an oak tree that Jane Austen is said to have planted beside the boundary wall of her Chawton cottage but which had to be felled in 1986–87. (7)
57. FOLWJ_160817_256.JPG: Janet Aylmer. In the Footsteps of Jane Austen. Bath: Copperfield Books, 2003. Loan courtesy of private collector.
58. FOLWJ_160817_261.JPG: Thomas Sharp (1725-1799). Goblet made from mulberry tree wood, trimmed with silver. Stratford, n.d. Inscription: "Made from a piece of Shakespeare's mulberry tree by Mr. Sharpe silversmith Stratford on Avon." Wood no. 12a. William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Dramatic Works. London: Sherwin and Co., 1821. Fragment of mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare embedded in binding.
59. FOLWJ_160817_263.JPG: National/Universal Reputations One big difference between Will and Jane that seems to make no difference to their fans is that while Austen's stories are set exclusively in England's southern counties, Shakespeare's plots roam from Venice and Padua, Italy, to Denmark and Scotland. The different geographical locations of their fictional settings doesn't impact these authors' perceived Britishness. Will and Jane each appear on British stamps and bank notes, with Shakespeare on a now retired 20-pound note and Austen, starting next year, on the 10-pound note. While their Britishness is unquestionable, their works have been enthusiastically translated and celebrated throughout the globe.
60. FOLWJ_160817_267.JPG: Bank of England. Twenty pound sterling note with William Shakespeare on verso. Print on cotton paper. Bank of England Printing Works, 1970-1991. No longer legal tender. Sh.Misc. 269541 Bank of England. Concept design for ten pound sterling note depicting Jane Austen. Revealed July 2013, to be released as legal tender in 2017.
61. FOLWJ_160817_270.JPG: Jane Austen stamps. Six stamps on one sheet. British Royal Mail, 2013. Image courtesy of private collector. Shakespeare stamps 1899-1902, specimens of different issues. Five stamps on one postcard. England, ca. 1911. ART File S527.3 no.26 Luna Image
62. FOLWJ_160817_273.JPG: Repetition is Celebrity Certain moments in the history of Shakespeare performance quickly became iconic. The popularity of actor David Garrick as Richard III crystalized in two poses that were then repeated in print and porcelain, and even transferred from actor to actor. Features of the next generation's players replaced Garrick's in later versions of the same figurines. (1, 2 & 3) Consumers could re-experience the thrill of these iconic performance moments every time they glanced at their mantel, wall, or cabinet. (4-8) This same pattern occurs in the reception of Austen, although in a different visual media, namely film and television. At Jane's 200th anniversary, it is the BBC's 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice, particularly the moment when a wet-shirted Colin-Firth-as- Fitzwilliam-Darcy meets our desiring gaze, that has been singled out to celebrate and duplicate. This film moment has been spoofed, imitated, and reworked in different media and visual formats -- even restaged with different actors stepping into Firth's place.
63. FOLWJ_160817_275.JPG: David Garrick (1717-1779) as Richard III. Derby porcelain. England, 1775-1780.
64. FOLWJ_160817_281.JPG: David Garrick as Richard III. Staffordshire pottery. England, ca. 1860-1870.
65. FOLWJ_160817_287.JPG: David Garrick (1717-1779) as Richard III. Derby porcelain. England, 1775-1780. ART 241076. Luna Image John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) as Richard III. Derby porcelain. England, ca. 1790. ART 241078. Luna Image Edmund Kean (1787-1833) as Richard III. Derby porcelain. England, ca. 1815.
66. FOLWJ_160817_290.JPG: Will and Jane Go to War In World War I, both Shakespeare and Austen reached troops on active duty through the American Library Association's "War Service Library" program. Copies of Shakespeare and Pride and Prejudice survive in their original publisher's bindings from the 1880s and 1890s, still bearing the bookplates that served as their passports to the front. (1 & 2, 6) For Rudyard Kipling, reading Jane on the front lines was something of a cruel joke -- as well as a universal truth. His 1924 short story "The Janeites," which describes a "mess-waiter" bonding with his fellow WWI soldiers over the reading of Austen, popularized the term "Janeite" to designate an Austen devotee. (3) In World War II, heavy shipments of used books for camp libraries gave way to lightweight paperbacks designed to fit in the pocket of a uniform. Penguin's "The Forces Book Club" published two Austen novels for British servicemen. (4) More recently, Henry V was printed as part of the new "Armed Services Editions" for American troops serving in Iraq. (5)
67. FOLWJ_160817_294.JPG: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). "The Janeites". In Hearst's International Magazine, May 1924. LOC PN4854 .J36 1924, Colt Kipling Coll. Loan courtesy of the Library of Congress.
68. FOLWJ_160817_296.JPG: William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Ed. W. G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright. Chicago: Morrill, Higgins & Co., 1892. "War Service Library" label inside.
69. FOLWJ_160817_298.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817). Persuasion. Penguin: The Forces Book Club Series, 1943. Loan courtesy of private collector. Shown closed.
70. FOLWJ_160817_300.JPG: Bookplate of the American Library Association's War Service Library. Reproduction. From Shakespeare, Complete Works, Chicago, 1892.
71. FOLWJ_160817_303.JPG: ane Austen (1775-1817). Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1880s. "War Service Library" label inside. Loan courtesy of private collector. Shown Closed
72. FOLWJ_160817_309.JPG: Gendering Audiences Although both Will and Jane share a gritty history of wartime reading during WWI and WWII, only one of them is increasingly marketed to women. Given their similar reception histories during wartime, how did the soldiering Jane of the first half of the 20th century ever become the girly "chick lit" author hyped at the century's close? A sampling of 1960s paperbacks with covers that "pinked" Austen shows the post-war gendering of her works through graphic design.
73. FOLWJ_160817_319.JPG: Hand-painted fan depicting the marriage scene from Henry V. Possibly after design by William Hamilton (1751-1801), illustrator for Boydell. Ivory and paper. England, 18th century.
74. FOLWJ_160817_322.JPG: Scarf with Austen family tree. Edging text: "Circular Family Tree Showing Jane Austen's Paternal and Maternal Ancestry Courtesy of Alwyn Austen". Silk cloth. Winchester & Chawton: JASNA AGM, 2003. Loan courtesy of private collector.
75. FOLWJ_160817_325.JPG: William Perry, artist. Carved necklace, bracelet, pendant, brooch, and earrings Oak with gold. London, mid-to-late 19th century. Wood no. 5a-e. Luna Image
76. FOLWJ_160817_328.JPG: The Shirt Actor Colin Firth wore this shirt in 1995, when he played Mr. Darcy emerging from the Pemberley pond in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice production. LOAN. Costume, regency-style man's chemise. Dinah Collin, Costume Designer London, 1995. Property of Cosprop Ltd., London.
77. FOLWJ_160817_332.JPG: The Shirt Actor Colin Firth wore this shirt in 1995, when he played Mr. Darcy emerging from the Pemberley pond in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice production. LOAN. Costume, regency-style man's chemise. Dinah Collin, Costume Designer London, 1995. Property of Cosprop Ltd., London.
78. FOLWJ_160817_354.JPG: The End? These rubbings taken from the gravestones of our celebrity authors are not just reminders of the reverence accorded them -- visiting their graves is an act of pilgrimage -- but also of their shared ability to outlive their own mortality. Fans are not merely passive worshippers of the celebrity of these authors but its creators, producing new art -- high and low, bad and good -- in continuing celebration of the art of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen.
79. FOLWJ_160817_358.JPG: Crayon rubbing from the stone over Jane Austen's grave. Taken with official permission from the Cathedral's vergers. Winchester Cathedral, 2014. Loan courtesy of private collector.
80. FOLWJ_160817_359.JPG: Rubbing from the stone slab on William Shakespeare's grave. Stratford, 1887. Penciled inscription: "This is to certify that George H. Carey removed this from the grave of Shakespeare, Aug. 8, 1887, with my permission [signed] W. Butcher, Parish Clerk, Stratford-upon-Avon."
81. FOLWJ_160817_368.JPG: Association Copies Copies of Shakespeare and Austen owned by prominent figures in history engage in yet another level of celebrity culture and fandom. Association copies allow us to imagine celebrity encountering celebrity. What occurred in Walt Whitman's mind as he read that tiny copy of Shakespeare's sonnets that he allegedly always carried in his pocket? (1) Do the coffee stains on James Joyce's cheap paperback of As You Like It betray his disrespect or just his habits of reading even during meals? (3) Does Evelyn Waugh's choice of a gilded edition of Pride and Prejudice indicate his admiration for a fellow novelist? (2) Is Cassandra Austen's copy of Emma, which Jane presumably gave to her sister, evidence of shared sisterly pride? (4) Did actor and writer Stephen Fry sharpen his comic wit on Jane Austen when reading this copy of Mansfield Park as a set text for his English A-level exams in 1977? (5)
82. FOLWJ_160817_373.JPG: William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Poems. Philadelphia: John Locken, 1847. Walt Whitman's copy.
83. FOLWJ_160817_377.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817). Pride and Prejudice. London: Allen, 1894. PR4034 P7 1894 WAU. Courtesy of the Evelyn Waugh Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. Evelyn Waugh's copy. Shown closed.
84. FOLWJ_160817_383.JPG: William Shakespeare (1564-1616). As You Like It. Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1868. PR2803 A2 D9 1868 JJT. Loan courtesy of the Joyce Trieste Library, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. James Joyce's copy. Shown closed.
85. FOLWJ_160817_386.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817). Emma. London: Murray, 1816. An Au74e 1816. Loan courtesy of the Rare Book Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. Cassandra Austen's copy. Shown closed.
86. FOLWJ_160817_389.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817). Mansfield Park. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1975. Loan courtesy of Stephen Fry. Stephen Fry's student copy, with his annotations circa 1977. Shown closed.
87. FOLWJ_160817_393.JPG: Fan Fictions The desire for more manifests in spinoffs and continuations of both Will and Jane. The 18th century saw the beginning of fan fiction in staged sequels to favorite Shakespeare plays as well as lurid romances based on his characters. (1) The Internet and fan culture of the 20th and 21st centuries have opened the floodgates to a wide range of continuations across different media that reprise familiar characters in new stories and situations. Jane's fictional characters have solved mysteries (7) and swooned their way through bodice rippers. (2) Two of the most critically successful continuations, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Longbourn, have expanded the points of view of minor characters, breathing creative life into servants who occur off-page or in the wings of the original stories. (3 & 4)
88. FOLWJ_160817_397.JPG: F. G. Waldron (1744-1818). The Virgin Queen, a drama in five acts … a sequel to Shakespeare's Tempest. London: Printed for the author, 1797.
89. FOLWJ_160817_399.JPG: Helen Fielding (1958-). Bridget Jones's Diary. New York: Viking Adult, 1998. Goucher RARE PR 4034 P74 F54 1998. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections. Shown closed.
90. FOLWJ_160817_401.JPG: W. Fitzhugh. The Murder of Duncan, king of Scotland, or, the history of Macbeth and Banquo: founded on Shakespeare's Play. London: W. Cole, ca. 1830. PR2823 A71 E5. Open to Title Page
91. FOLWJ_160817_408.JPG: Adaptations and Modernizations Fans of the Bard in the 18th century enjoyed lighthearted musical adaptations as diverse as this "ballet" and "mock opera." (1 & 2) Writer Nahum Tate radically revised King Lear in 1681 to provide audiences with an ending in which Cordelia and Edgar live happily ever after. What we perceive as a desecration of the Bard was an adaptation for audiences so moved by the original play that they considered it too painful to watch on stage. (3) Later authors have tried their hand at dramatic adaptations of Jane Austen's novels. Margaret MacNamara's inventive play I Have Five Daughters -- "a morning-room comedy in three acts" based upon Pride and Prejudice -- was published in 1936. (8) In the 20th century, box-office draws such as Laurence Olivier performed in both Austen and Shakespeare films; Olivier played Mr. Darcy in 1940 and Hamlet in 1948. (4, 5) Great affection for these authors' stories has similarly led to sweeping modernizations. In the 1990s, two films, Clueless (7) and 10 Things I Hate About You (6), reset both authors in modern American high schools. These films relocated the plots of Emma and Taming of the Shrew to settings unimaginable to their authors but which made these stories newly appealing to a generation used to encountering literary classics through movie adaptations and modernizations.
92. FOLWJ_160817_410.JPG: Clueless DVD. Paramount Studios, 1995. Loan courtesy of private collector.
93. FOLWJ_160817_412.JPG: Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy and Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet. Publicity photo for Pride and Prejudice film, 1940. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections
94. FOLWJ_160817_414.JPG: William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Pyramus and Thisbe: a mock-opera/written by Shakespeare;...set to musick by Mr. Lampe. London: H. Woodfall, 1745.
95. FOLWJ_160817_417.JPG: James Cartwright Cross (d.1809). The History, Murders, Life, and Death of Macbeth … the Ballet of music and action. London: Stevens and Co., 1809?
96. FOLWJ_160817_419.JPG: 10 Things I Hate About You. Press information folder. Burbank, California: Touchstone Pictures, 1999.
97. FOLWJ_160817_422.JPG: Nahum Tate (1652-1715). The history of King Lear, a tragedy… Reviv'd with Alterations. London: W. Feales, 1736.
98. FOLWJ_160817_430.JPG: Wanting More Sadly, literary celebrities cannot write plays or novels after their deaths. Beginning in the 18th century, fellow writers and theater professionals have taken up their own pens to feed the steady demand for variations on Shakespeare and Austen, producing new versions "in the style of" that appeal to the tastes of their contemporaries. Both Will and Jane have been adapted to performance media popular at specific times -- from puppet theaters to webcasts. Their works have been reimagined in contemporary settings, with every generation refashioning them in its own image. Since the 1940s, when megastar Laurence Olivier played Darcy, Henry V, and Hamlet in seamless succession, the cinema has helped to adjust both Will and Jane to changing tastes. And just as stage actor David Garrick augmented his own status in the 18th century by promoting the celebrity of Shakespeare, modern movie stars burn ever brighter when fanning the flames of Will's and Jane's fame. Like Olivier, many familiar faces from stage and screen alternately cycle through film and television adaptations of Shakespeare's plays and Austen's novels, doubling their own celebrity factor. Fans also get chills from imagining their favorite author's work in the hands of a film star or celebrity. Association copies, books owned by the famous, offer further opportunities to imagine how other types of celebrities engage with Will and Jane.
99. FOLWJ_160817_439.JPG: S.W. Reynolds, engraver. Garrick in the Character of Richard III. Engraving after Nathaniel Dance. Mezzotint. London: Colnaghi & Co., March 3, 1825. Folger Garrickiana Maggs 128, Folger 27.
100. FOLWJ_160817_445.JPG: Mr. Garrick in the Character of Richard the 3rd. Six prints, after William Hogarth. 18th and 19th century. D6. br portfolio 130, D6. br portfolio 131, D6. br portfolio 132, D6. br portfolio 133, D6. br portfolio 134, D6. br portfolio 135.
101. FOLWJ_160817_450.JPG: Kitsch Kitsch is perhaps most successfully promoted through mass production, which helps celebrity images migrate across the boundaries between "high" and "low" culture. At Will's 200th, hand-made production was only transitioning towards industrialism, so we see just the emergence of this playful assimilation of Will's sublime celebrity into the everyday and even silly. (4, 5 & 10) 200 years later, Jane's kitsch is instantly full-blown and Shakespeare is right there with her. (1-3 & 6-9)
102. FOLWJ_160817_453.JPG: William Shakespeare bobble-head doll. Off the Wall Toys, 2015. Jane Austen bobble-head doll. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.
103. FOLWJ_160817_460.JPG: Geoff Blower, artist. William Shakespeare. Toby jug. Staffordshire: Kevin Francis. Ceramics, ca. 1990.
104. FOLWJ_160817_463.JPG: Sun catchers of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen. Glass, lead, with suction cup. Cumbria, England: Winged Heart Decorative Glass, 2015. Loan courtesy of private collector.
105. FOLWJ_160817_467.JPG: William Shakespeare action figure. Molded plastic. Seattle: Accoutrements, 2003.
106. FOLWJ_160817_470.JPG: Jane Austen action figure. Molded plastic. Seattle: Accoutrements, 2003. Loan courtesy of private collector.
107. FOLWJ_160817_471.JPG: Shakespeare signboard. Painting on mahogany panel. Likely former tavern sign. England, Late 17th or 18th century
108. FOLWJ_160817_476.JPG: Will & Jane in Advertising The stories of Will and Jane have become giveaways in promotions for sewing machines (2) and hotel stays. (3) Brand poaching was already in full swing in the 18th century, as the large tavern sign nearby demonstrates. (Imagine meeting at "Shakespeare's Head" tavern for a pint.) The authors' portraits or names can sell staggeringly unrelated non-book products, from malted milk (1) and beer (4) to cigarettes (6) and shoes. (7) Even posthumous endorsements can create moments of so-called "public intimacy," dramatically illustrated in the slyly winking Jane selling Bath Gin. The mere presence of the literary celebrity familiarly recommends the beverage to her fans. (5)
109. FOLWJ_160817_483.JPG: C. Allan Gilbert (1873-1929), artist. Horlick's Malted Milk Shakespearean Calendar 1908. United States: Horlick's Malted Milk Co., 1907. At top: "Shakespeare's Heroines".
110. FOLWJ_160817_487.JPG: George L. Gray. Shakespeare Boiled Down. Chicago: New Home Sewing Machine Co., ca. 1890. Reproduction.
111. FOLWJ_160817_490.JPG: An Album of Celebrities of British History. Collector's album for cigarette cards. London: Carreras Limited, ca. 1935 Loan courtesy of private collector.
112. FOLWJ_160817_495.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817). Pride and Prejudice. New York: Hotel Taft, ca. 1930. Loan courtesy of private collector. This novel was offered gratis to hotel guests, as if a Gideon Jane.
113. FOLWJ_160817_497.JPG: Falstaff beer can. St. Louis, Missouri: Falstaff Brewing Corp., 1950s.
114. FOLWJ_160817_499.JPG: Bath Gin bottle. Bath: The Bath Gin Co., 2014. Loan courtesy of private collector
115. FOLWJ_160817_501.JPG: Selling Will & Jane Literary celebrity, for both Will and Jane, transforms the authors into commodities. We bring them home in the form of objects to decorate our mantelpieces, roll out our pastry, and even to wear. This phenomenon soon produces repetition, a powerful reinforcing mechanism of celebrity: the cultural value attributed to an image increases the more it is copied. Eventually, such proliferation of celebrity products risks descending into kitsch, which playfully links revered literary celebrity -- including Will and Jane -- to the mundane or the ridiculous. Celebrities sell products -- sometimes unwittingly. Will and Jane have been posthumously coopted to endorse everything from hotels and shoes, to pubs, gin, and beer. Toys and juvenile editions maintain Will and Jane's literary celebrity across generations. Audiences of children are important for growing ever-larger and more diverse bodies of readers, spectators, and consumers.
116. FOLWJ_160817_504.JPG: The best-known public images of Shakespeare and Austen are the first engravings used as author portraits to front their printed works. Both are posthumous images. Left: Martin Droeshout's portrait of Shakespeare for the title page of the First Folio (1623). Right: The engraving made for James Edward Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen (1870).
117. FOLWJ_160817_512.JPG: Anonymous.The Dexter Portrait of Shakespeare. Oil on panel. 19th century.
118. FOLWJ_160817_515.JPG: Anonymous. The Lumley Portrait of Shakespeare . Oil on canvas English, 18th century.
119. FOLWJ_160817_520.JPG: Anonymous.The Staunton Portrait of Shakespeare. Oil on canvas. English, ca. 1770.
120. FOLWJ_160817_527.JPG: Picturing the Author Author portraits and biographies play important roles in Will's and Jane's reception as literary celebrities, yet their earliest portraits (in the nearby reproductions) provide a base for imaginative depictions rather than definitive images. The portraits gathered here cluster around the first flush of their fame, 200 years after the authors' respective deaths. Even though the well-known Droeshout engraving from the First Folio in 1623 is now the most "authoritative" and widely-circulated image of Shakespeare, it was created after his death in 1616. In portraits from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Shakespeare is imagined as an aristocratic gentleman in lace collar, a more down-to-earth working artisan, and a romantically poetic dreamer. Painters exercised their imaginations -- and contemporary ideas about Shakespeare -- with artistic license that seems unconstrained by historical accuracy. Several images of Austen were made during her lifetime, but most were considered inadequate for use as a public author portrait -- too informal or too young. In 1869, Austen's family commissioned an artist to prettify a small candid sketch of Jane by her sister Cassandra (in the nearby reproductions), originally made around 1810. Re-engraved in 1870 for use as a frontispiece to a memoir by James Edward Austen-Leigh, this Victorian version has become the public face of Jane we recognize today. It will be even more widely circulated when it appears on the British ten-pound note next year. For both authors, ongoing portrait controversies continue the public's longing for intimacy with the elusive "real" author.
121. FOLWJ_160817_530.JPG: Parian bust of Shakespeare. 19th Century.
122. FOLWJ_160817_535.JPG: Anonymous. Marble bust of Austen on wooden base. Late 20th century. Loan courtesy of Joan Doyle, Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Eastern Pennsylvania Region
123. FOLWJ_160817_545.JPG: From left to right, these works represent the progression of Austen's public image, from original sketch in 1810 to engraved public portrait in 1870. 1) Cassandra Austen (1773-1845). Jane Austen drawn from life. Pencil on paper. ca. 1810. Reproduction. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London. 2) James Andrews, of Maidenhead Jane Austen. Watercolor on paper. 1869. Reproduction. Image courtesy of 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, Stevenson, Maryland. 3) Jane Austen Engraving as published in James Edward Austen-Leigh (1798-1874). A Memoir of Jane Austen. London: R. Bentley, 1870. Reproduction. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
124. FOLWJ_160817_550.JPG: Cassandra Austen (1773-1845). Jane Austen drawn from life. Pencil on paper. ca. 1810. Reproduction. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
125. FOLWJ_160817_552.JPG: James Andrews, of Maidenhead Jane Austen. Watercolor on paper. 1869. Reproduction. Image courtesy of 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, Stevenson, Maryland.
126. FOLWJ_160817_554.JPG: Jane Austen Engraving as published in James Edward Austen-Leigh (1798-1874). A Memoir of Jane Austen. London: R. Bentley, 1870. Reproduction. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
127. FOLWJ_160817_559.JPG: Will & Jane at Home Will and Jane's images and characters have been copied and repeated on domestic objects, bringing the two authors into daily household functions. The use of Will to roll out pastry (4), hold cider (1), or blow the fire (7) in the 18th century or of Jane to cut cookie dough (5), sprinkle salt at table (6), or dry dishes (8) in the 21st are acts similarly motivated by a long-standing desire to participate in celebrity culture.
128. FOLWJ_160817_563.JPG: Jane Austen silhouette cookie cutters. Metal. United States, 21st century. Loan courtesy of private collector.
129. FOLWJ_160817_568.JPG: Pride and Prejudice dish towel. Cotton. Lincolnshire: Countryside Art, 21st century. Loan courtesy of private collector.
130. FOLWJ_160817_569.JPG: Darcy and Elizabeth salt and pepper shakers. Glazed ceramic. Bas Blue, 2013. Loan courtesy of private collector.
131. FOLWJ_160817_571.JPG: Bellows with Shakespeare bas relief portrait. Wood, leather, and brass.England, 18th or 19th century.
132. FOLWJ_160817_574.JPG: Kathleen Bader Stevans, artist. Vintage ceramic platter hand-painted with Chawton cottage. Pittsburgh: Pure Hokum, 2014. Loan courtesy of private collector.
133. FOLWJ_160817_579.JPG: Travesties Once a literary celebrity's work becomes household knowledge, it is ripe for parody. Travesties of Macbeth and other plays followed hard upon the heels of Shakespeare's 18th-century popularity. (1, 2 & 5) Austen's work, at 200, has already been transformed into horror fiction (3 & 4) and erotica (6), self-consciously calling attention to the author's iconic status, even when such reverence is turned into a source for mockery.
134. FOLWJ_160817_582.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817) and Seth Grahame-Smith (1976- ). Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2009. Loan courtesy of private collector. Shown closed.
135. FOLWJ_160817_585.JPG: Arielle Eckstut and Dennis Ashton. Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen. Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2003. Loan courtesy of private collector. Shown closed.
136. FOLWJ_160817_588.JPG: Jane Austen (1775-1817) and Ben H. Winters. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2009. Loan courtesy of private collector. Shown closed.
137. FOLWJ_160817_590.JPG: John Poole (1786?-1872). Hamlet Travestie: in Three Acts. With Burlesque Annotations. London: J. M. Richardson, 1811
138. FOLWJ_160817_592.JPG: Macbeth: A Burlesque… Entertainment of the Young Folks at Merry Christmas Time. Nottingham, England: J.N. Dunn, 1866.
139. FOLWJ_160817_594.JPG: Francis Cowley Burnand (1836-1917). Richard III, or A New Front to an Old Dicky … a Richardsonian Burlesque. London: Phillips, ca. 1870.
140. FOLWJ_160817_601.JPG: William Shakespeare action figure. Molded plastic. Seattle: Accoutrements, 2003.
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