The Shakespeare ladies club : the forgotten women who rescued the bawdy bard / Christine & Jonathan Hainsworth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hainsworth, Christine, author.

Hainsworth, Jonathan, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Stage history--1625-1800.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Societies, etc.

Physical Description:

288 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm

Other Title:

Forgotten women who rescued the bawdy bard

Place of Publication:

Gloucestershire : Amberley Publishing, 2025.

Summary:

"Following Shakespeare's death in 1616, four women were crucial in ensuring the original work of the Bard was not forgotten. This was the Shakespeare Ladies Club. Formed in 1736, the club was a quartet of 'Women of Quality'; three from the aristocracy and one a writer who ran a stationery shop, all educated and so enraptured by the plays of William Shakespeare that they met to read and discuss his transcendent genius. Not content with this, they used their power and influence to campaign successfully for a statue of their literary idol to be placed in Westminster Abbey - shamefully, to this day their efforts remain overlooked, as credit for the statue is still given to a group of men. These women put their considerable wealth behind their lobbying for more Shakespeare plays; they convinced theatre managers to put on the original versions by promising to underwrite any financial losses. They had to overcome a post-Puritan culture that believed theatre to be immoral and no place for respectable women. After nearly 300 years, this book finally tells their remarkable story."--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Forgotten heroines

Thanks for all the hit plays, Will, but you're fired

Susanna Ashley-Cooper - 'The queen of common sense'

Mary Montagu - out of favour with 'the favourite'

Elizabeth Boyd - 'roused by a woman's pen'

Mary Cowper - a glimpse of 'femtopia'

Launching the SLC - 'to prevail over all obstacles'

The SLC bespeaks = 'reviv'd ... the forsaken Shakespear'

Was 'Sophia' a quartet? - 'Woman not inferior to man'

'Elegance of attitude' - Garrick hogs the limelight

The ladies' legacy - 'speak me fair in death'

Other Shakespeare ladies - 'metamorphosed from a man to a woman'

'This poet lies' - the authorship non-mystery

Cancelling the bard, again - 'misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism and misogynoir'

Shakespeare unplugged - 'not without mustard'.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-278) and index.

Description based on publisher data; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9781398127449

1398127442

OCLC:

1522532102