Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Early modern lives in facsimile

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09502360902760273

1470-1308

Alan Stewart,

Literature: history, themes, analysis

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes See the online catalogue for The Albin Schram Collection of Autograph Letters, sale 7411, 3 July 2007, http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfsearch_coa/SearchResults.aspx?intSaleID=20857 [accessed July 30, 2007]; and the auction results, http://www.christies.com/auction/results/results_lotlist.asp?saleno=CKS7411 [accessed July 30, 2007]. For a useful and impressive survey of the field, see James Daybell's articles, ‘Recent Studies in Sixteenth-Century Letters’, English Literary Renaissance 35 (2005), pp. 331–62, and ‘Recent Studies in Seventeenth-Century Letters’, English Literary Renaissance 36 (2006), pp. 135–70. Susan E. Whyman, Sociability and Power in Late-Stuart England: The Cultural Worlds of the Verneys 1660–1720 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), esp. her discussion of the issues facing social historians working with a letter archive (pp. 3–12); Daybell, Women letter-writers in Tudor England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). Roger Chartier et al., La Correspondance: les usages de la lettre au XIXe siècle (Paris: Fayard, 1991), only partially translated as Correspondence: models of letter-writing from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, tr. Christopher Woodall (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997); Lynne Magnusson, Shakespeare and social dialogue: Dramatic language and Elizabethan letters (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Gary Schneider, The Culture of Epistolarity: Vernacular letters and letter writing in early modern England, 1500–1700 (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2005). See Jonathan Goldberg, ‘Colin to Hobbinol: Spenser's familiar letters’, in Displacing Homophobia: Gay male perspectives in literature and culture ed. Ronald R. Butters, John M. Clum and Michael Moon (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989), pp. 107–26; David M. Bergeron, King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1999); Alan Bray, The Friend (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), esp. pp. 67–70, 159–64; Jeffrey Masten. ‘Toward a Queer Address: The Taste of Letters and Early Modern Male Friendship’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 10 (2004), pp. 367–384. James Daybell ed., Early modern women's letter writing, 1450–1700 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001); Daybell, Women letter-writers in Tudor England. See for example, Studies in the Cultural History of Letter Writing, special issues of Huntington Library Quarterly 66: 3 and 4 (2003); Letterwriting in Renaissance England ed. Alan Stewart and Heather Wolfe (Washington DC: Folger Shakespeare Library, 2004), the catalogue for the Folger exhibition of 2004–05. Lisa Jardine and Alan Stewart, Hostage to Fortune: The troubled life of Francis Bacon, 1561–1626 (London: Victor Gollancz, 1998); Alan Stewart, Philip Sidney: A double life (London: Chatto & Windus, 2000); idem, The Cradle King: A Life of James VI and I (London: Chatto & Windus, 2003). Erasmus, De conscribendis epistolis, in Collected Works of Erasmus vol. 26, Literary and Educational Writings 3 ed. J.K. Sowards (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985), p. 20. For a thorough account of the affect of Erasmus's familiar letters, see Lisa Jardine, Erasmus, Man of Letters: The construction of charisma in print (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991). Anthony Bacon to Francis Bacon, n.d. Edinburgh University Library Laing MS iii. 143, fos 142b–144b; quoted in Jardine and Stewart, Hostage to Fortune, p.103. Philip Sidney to Edmund Molyneux, 31 May 1578, the Court. Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, U1476 Z53/24, quoted in Stewart, Philip Sidney, p. 198. Thomas Venner, interviewed by Neal Conan: ‘Love Letter from Napoleon Discovered’, Talk of the Nation, 5 June 2007, National Public Radio. NPR transcript # 10736005. Venner, ‘Love Letter’. Jacques Derrida, Mal d'archive trans. Eric Prenowitz as Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). Carolyn Steedman, Dust: The Archive and Cultural History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001). James Nielson, ‘Reading Between the Lines: Manuscript Personality and Gabriel Harvey's Drafts’, Studies in English Literature 33 (1993), pp. 43–82, p.48 and passim. OED s.v. witness n. 7c. For an example of the invitation letter, see Samuel Ireland to Eva Garrick, n.d. [1795]. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC [hereafter Folger] MS Y.c.1661: ‘Mr. Ireland presents his Compliments to Mrs. Garrick and returns his best acknowledgements for the use of the picture by Hogarth. Mr. I hopes to have the honor of seeing Mrs. Garrick with Mrs Nicols & the rest of her party to morrow at 12 to view the Shakespeare Papers’. Samuel Ireland, untitled advertisement, dated 4 March 1795 (Folger shelfmark PR 2950 A22b Cage). Samuel Ireland ed., Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments under the hand and seal of William Shakspeare (London: Egerton; White; et al., 1796). James Boaden, A Letter to George Steevens, Esq. containing a critical examination of the papers of Shakespeare; published by Mr. Samuel Ireland. To which are added, Extracts from Vortigern (London: Martin and Bain, 1796). Edmond Malone, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments, published Dec. 24, M DCC XCV (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1796). Ireland accused Malone of deliberately delaying publication to ruin Vortigern's chances. After advertising his Inquiry in December 1795, Malone announced on 16 February 1796 that his ‘detection of this forgery has been unavoidably delayed by the engravings having taken more time than was expected’, hoping for a late February publication date. Following the eventual publication on 31 March, the Oracle and Morning Herald reviewed the Inquiry on 1 April. Samuel Ireland, Mr. Ireland's Vindication of his Conduct, respecting the publication of the Supposed Shakespeare MSS. (London: Faulder and Robson; Egerton; White, 1796), pp. 41–2. Peter Thomson, ‘Kemble, John Philip (1757–1823)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ireland, Mr. Ireland's Vindication; idem., An Investigation of Mr. Malone's Claim to the Character of Scholar, or Critic, Being an Examination of his Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Shakspeare Manuscripts, &c. (London: Faulder; Egerton; Payne; Whites, (1798)). W[illiam] H[enry] Ireland, An authentic account of the Shaksperian manuscripts, &c. (London: J. Debrett, 1796). John Mair, The Fourth Forger: William Ireland and the Shakespeare Papers (London: Cobden-Sanderson, 1938); Bernard Grebanier, The Great Shakespeare Forgery (New York: W.W. Norton, 1965); Jeffrey Kahan, Reforging Shakespeare: The Story of a Theatrical Scandal (Bethelem and London: Lehigh University Press/Associated University Presses, 1998); Michael Keevak, Sexual Shakespeare: Forgery, Authorship, Portraiture (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001), esp. ch. 1; Patricia Pierce, The Great Shakespeare Fraud: The Strange True Story of William-Henry Ireland (Thrupp, Glos.: Sutton, 2004). The clearest, most well-informed and readable account remains S. Schoenbaum, Shakespeare's Lives, 2nd edn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991). Jeffrey Kahan points out in his study of the Ireland scandal, ‘the imitator and the forger respond to contemporary tastes. After all, to succeed, their works must be noticed, must be relevant’. Kahan, Reforging Shakespeare, p. 20. ‘Having seen Shakspear's father's Profession of Faith, I thought I would attempt to form one for the son, and as I heard him much censured for the invocation to the Saints, and the superstitious manner in which it was composed, I resolved on writing the son's perfectly simple, wishing thereby to prove Shakspear a Protestant, that having been often a matter of doubt’. Ireland, Authentic account, p. 10. James Boaden to Samuel Ireland, 28 February 1796, as quoted in William-Henry Ireland, The Confessions of William-Henry Ireland. Containing the particulars of his fabrication of the Shakspere Manuscripts (London: Thomas Goddard, 1805), p. 280. Malone, Inquiry. ‘Mr Malones New Edition of Shakespeare’, Gentleman's Magazine (February 1795), pp. 120–1. He suggested searching for the papers once belonging to Edward Bagley, executor to Shakespeare's granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall, later Lady Barnard; those descending from the estates of her three step-daughters; and from the heirs of Ralph Hubaud and John Heminge, with whom Shakespeare had property dealings. For an account of later possible resting places of these (entirely hypothetical) papers, see Peter Milward, ‘Some Missing Shakespeare Letters’, Shakespeare Quarterly 20 (1969), pp. 84–7. Margreta de Grazia, Shakespeare Verbatim: The Reproduction of Authenticity and the 1790 Apparatus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), p. 5. Ireland, Confessions, pp. 39–40. Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 51–7 at pp. 54–5. A full view of the public transactions in the reign of Q. Elizabeth: or a particular account of all the memorable affairs of that Queen, transmitted down to us in a series of letters and other papers of state, … published … by Dr. Forbes, 2 vols (London: J. Bettenham, for G. Hawkins, 1740–41), 1:xi. Thomas Astle, The Origin and Progress of Handwriting (1784), cited in Hamilton, In Search of Shakespeare, p. 11, fig. 5. Sir John Fenn ed., Original Letters, written during the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., and Richard III., by various persons of rank and consequence, 5 vols (London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1787–1823). William Seward, Anecdotes of some distinguished persons, chiefly of the present and two preceding centuries. Adorned with sculptures, 4 vols (London: T. Cadell, jun. and W. Davies, 1795–96). Ireland ed., Miscellaneous Papers, 1st plate (unnumbered). ‘Before revising his recollection Ireland acknowledged his debt in a manuscript addressed to Albany Wallis and also in an unpublished memoir that now forms part of the Hyde collection’. Schoenbaum, Shakespeare's Lives, p. 138. A letter from Wallis to Garrick, dated 18 April 1768, is among those accompanying the deed in its current location, the Egerton Papers at the British Library. The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare, in ten volumes … ed. Edmond Malone, 10 vols (London: H. Baldwin for various, 1790), 1, pp.192–3 (the facsimile plate is inserted between pp. 192 and 193): ‘The original deed, which was found in the year 1768, among the title-deeds of the Rev. Mr. Fetherstonhaugh, of Oxted in the county of Surry, is now in the possession of Mrs. Garrick, by whom it was obligingly transmitted to me through the hands of the Hon. Mr. Horace Walpole’ (p.192). Supplemental information from Schoenbaum, Shakespeare's Lives, p. 126:When Malone started work on his Inquiry into the Ireland papers in 1795, he once again asked Walpole, now earl of Orford, to intervene with Mrs. Garrick, but this time ‘that lady, after a very careful search, was not able to find it, it having by some means or other been either mislaid or stolen from her’. The same day that he heard this news, Malone happened to visit Albany Wallis (‘with whom I am acquainted’) who, by suspicious coincidence, had just retaken possession of a number of the Fetherstonhaugh papers, including ‘the counterpart of the original deed of bargain and sale, made on the 10th of March 1612–13’, which provided Malone with another signature (this one reading ‘William Shakspere’, with the first name written in full). Malone, Inquiry, pp.119–20. Jonathan Goldberg, ‘Signatures, Letters, Secretaries: Individuals of the Hand’, in Writing Matter: From the Hands of the English Renaissance (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 1990), pp. 231–78 at p. 246; see also his ‘Hamlet's Hand’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 39 (1988), pp. 307–327. Charles Hamilton, In Search of Shakespeare: A Reconnaissance into the Poet's Life and Handwriting (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985), p. 41. Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, in Illuminations trans. Harry Zohn (1968; London: Pimlico, 1999) p. 213. Frank Weitenkampf, ‘What is a Facsimile?’, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America (1943), pp. 114–30 at p. 115. Weitenkampf, ‘What is a Facsimile?’, p. 130. Gervase Markham, The English husbandman. The first part (London: T[homas] S[nodham] for John Browne, 1613), A4v–Br. Thomas Fuller, The history of the worthies of England who for parts and learning have been eminent in the several counties (London: J.G., W.L. and W.G., 1662), 3.206 (4C3v). T.H., An account of several new inventions and improvements now necessary for England (London: James Astwood for Ralph Simpson, 1691), p. lxxxvi. Quoted, with citation, in Hamilton, In Search of Shakespeare, p. 41. Its early English translator William Caxton glossed the line as follows: ‘Thou oughtest not to truste hym that feyneth hym self to be thy frende by swete wordes / and plesaunte wythout he be thy hertely frende / Therfore thou oughtest to doo to hym lyke wyse / that is to wete in shewyng thy self fayntly to be his frende dyssymylyngly / and not hertelye And thus one arte and a falseheed is vytupered and dysceyued / by another arte and falsehede / or also hit may be exposed’. Incipit: Here begynneth the prologue or prohemye of the book callid Caton trans. William Caxton (Westminster: William Caxton, 1484), d.v.v. See, for example, A[nthony] M[unday], Zelavto. The Fovntaine of Fame. Erected in an Orcharde of Amorous Aduentures (London: John Charlewood, 1580), P.iij.v; Lancelot Andrewes, The Pattern of Catechistical Doctrine at Large (London: Roger Norton for George Badger, 1650), I3r: ‘as in Sparta it was but, Tu quoque fac simile, do thou the like’; Tho[mas] Baily, The Life & Death of that Renowned John Fisher Bishop of Rochester (London, 1655), N5v–N6r: ‘whereas a summe of money of 3001. was given by a Predecessor of the Bishop, to remaine as a Depositum for ever to the said See of Rochester, in the custody of the Bishop for the time being, against any occasion that might happen to the Bishoprick; to which this good Bishop had added one hundred pounds out of his own purse, with this inscription upon a labell which hung out at the bags mouth, Tu quoque fac simile, and notwithstanding· that there was there written, in an old character upon the inside of the Chest, Let no man offer to lay hands on this, for it is the Churches Treasure: yet they swept it all away’. Malone ed., Plays and Poems, 1:192 and engraving inserted opposite 1:192. Malone, Inquiry, p. 121. For a calendar of Bacon's correspondence, see the Francis Bacon Correspondence Project website, http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/bacon/about.html [accessed July 31, 2007].