The Good Booth

April 23, 2012April 17, 2023 ~ duane ~ Leave a comment

While in Washington D.C. we of course visited Ford’s Theatre (see post on the subject, possibly coming soon) so of course I spent most of the time talking about the Booths and their Shakespeare connection.

What I did not realize is that Edwin, the good one, is buried right here in Massachusetts. What do you think, does the picture of him look anything like the engraving on his tomb? I don’t see it. Then again the tomb version I’m sure was of him as an older man. Bonus history geek points if you already knew the ironic (?) story about Edwin saving the life of Lincoln’s son when he pulled him out of the way of an oncoming train.

If you ever get the chance, don’t miss Prince of Players – starring Richard Burton as Edwin himself. An absolutely fascinating movie that has a surprising amount of Shakespeare in it, and manages to tell the story of the man who shot Lincoln as nothing but a subplot. I loved it.

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we’ll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe. If you’ve not yet seen how you can show your support, now’s a great opportunity. If you’ve already done so, thanks very much!

Lincoln, on Shakespeare

April 23, 2012April 17, 2023 ~ duane ~ 2 Comments

We’ve certainly covered the relationship between President Abraham Lincoln and William Shakespeare previously. So when I went to visit Ford’s Theatre, I wasn’t sure how much Shakespeare I’d find. Who am I kidding, if I’d spotted any Shakespeare at all I would have considered it a win.

Win!

I wish I could read Lincoln’s writing to learn more about the argument. Who is this James Hackett person, and why is Lincoln having correspondence with him about Hamlet analysis? It’s one thing to hear about presidents who were in the habit of reading or quoting Shakespeare (there were a lot of them). Here we’ve got an example of the president in active discussion about the play. Not only that, he’s making a case not typically made (from my own personal experience). I wonder why the President of the United States of America is making the case that King Claudius’ private admission of how heavily the guilt for his crimes weighs upon him is greater than “To be or not to be,” widely regarded as one of the greatest soliloquies in our language?

Shakespeare at Ford’s Theatre

April 23, 2012April 17, 2023 ~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Heading down the stairs into the Ford’s Theatre Museum I was wondering how much Shakespeare I’d see. Turns out, quite a bit! They have a whole kiosk (if you can call it that) dedicated to the subject.

First up we have Miss Charlotte Cushman, performing “3 of her most artistic impressions”, including Hamlet! This is curious to me. I’m sure I’ve heard the name Charlotte Cushman before. In fact, I heard it just today in the same story where I read about Edwin Booth’s grave (in a separate post). Somebody tell us more about her? I thought Sarah Bernhardt (late 1800’s) was the first great female Hamlet? Or, rather, that’s what I always assumed, I suppose.

If you want Hamlet at this time period, though, I’m thinking you wanted the master himself – here is the card for an Edwin Booth performance.

We know the story of Edwin already, so there’s not too much I can say here (especially given the next card). There’s a curiosity on this poster, though – does anybody know who S.K. Chester might have been? I find that name curious because he’s playing Claudius, while “Mrs. S.K. Chester” is listed as well, playing “An Actress.” So it sounds like Mr. Chester was important enough to request a role for his wife. They each have a page on the Internet Broadway Database, but it provides no information that’s not already on this poster.

But, I’ve got one more very cool poster to show….

Look at that. The whole Booth family, starring in Julius Caesar. Junius Brutus Booth, the father, as Julius Caesar. Edwin as Brutus. John Wilkes as Marc Antony. Insert some sort of clever observation here about how maybe “the bad one” should have played Brutus? Also of note, there’s a “Mr. C.K. Chester” in the credits – I wonder the relation to S K Chester above?

The poster clearly shows this performance as some sort of special occasion. I’ll bet it was! Does this show mark a historic event of some sort? That is, do we know more about it? When was the date relative to Lincoln’s assassination? Was it a travelling show, or a one time event? Were Edwin and his brother rotating parts?

I have one more picture of the Shakespeare booth (ha! get it? booth?) from Ford’s Theatre, but I’m saving that for another post…

Just Some Old Friends

April 23, 2012April 17, 2023 ~ duane ~ 6 Comments

I don’t really have a good place to put these pictures, but I can’t resist posting them. These are what greeted me a I first approached the Folger building. I didn’t get a wide shot of any of them, mostly because I was deathly afraid of being seen walking on the grass, but I’ll bet that you can figure out who they’re supposed to be!

My trip continues …

An Alphabet of History

April 23, 2012July 22, 2024 ~ duane ~ Leave a comment

First spotted on Reddit, this 1905 Alphabet of History has more than just the page on “Shakspeare” that the original commenter spotted.

First of all, you have to love a children’s ABC book that uses a Shakespearean villain as one of the letters. Does that mean that kids would have read Othello and known who this was? The actual verse for Iago doesn’t seem very good, but I like how it suggests that he doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves.

A page on Ben Jonson? Really? No schoolchildren today would know Jonson or his works, certainly. I wonder when he fell out of popular study?

And, of course, our star. This verse has all kinds of great stuff going for it, starting with the spelling of his name. Was that the most common spelling 100 years ago? There’s part of the verse that deals with people bidding on his rare signatures, I wonder if we could pin the 1905 date to some special event in the history of the known signatures, that would have been a newsworthy item right around this time.

And then of course there’s the Bacon reference, although I think the author put that in there entirely for the “ham” joke. Mark Twain, noted Baconian, died in 1910. And Helen Keller was get getting started. So the Bacon theory seems to have been in full swing.