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40:
31:, and Mary Cowper. The Shakespeare Ladies Club was responsible for getting the highest percentage of Shakespeare plays produced in London during a single season in the eighteenth century; as a result they were celebrated by their contemporaries as being responsible for making Shakespeare popular again.
262:
Some ladies indeed have shewn a truly public Spirit in rescuing the admirable, yet almost forgotten
Shakespear, from being totally sunk in oblivion:—they have generously contributed to raise a monument to his memory, and frequently honoured his works with their presence on the stage:—an action, which
97:
for the Prince and
Princess of Wales) was done "At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality." While such a heading was not unusual in the early eighteenth century, it is significant that it occurred for every performance that month. As the Ladies’ gained influence over Drury Lane their popularity and
309:
was never performed it was given a reading in the green room of Drury Lane
Theatre. In the play Boyd also expresses the Ladies’ Club's goal of seeing Shakespeare's plays replace Restoration comedies with inappropriate content: "And once again let Shakespear bless the Stage; / Soul-Soothing Shade,
52:
and the
Italian operas that were dominating the London stage at the time. Within four years the Ladies’ Club had succeeded: one in every four performances in London during the 1740–41 season was a Shakespeare play. Shakespearean scholar Michael Dobson points out that this is "a record which even
47:
The
Shakespeare Ladies Club was organized in late 1736 with the expressed goal of persuading "London’s theatrical managers to give Shakespeare a greater share in their repertoires." The Ladies wanted to see more Shakespeare on stage because they preferred his plays to the inappropriate libertine
204:
to the theatre going public praising the
Shakespeare Ladies Club for encouraging common sense and setting a good example for the gentlemen. The next day, 4 March 1737, the Daily Advertiser published a letter from Shakespeare's ghost "to the Fair Supporters of Wit and Sense, the Ladies of Great
154:
On 4 March 1737 the manager of the New
Haymarket Theater added "a New Prologue in the Characters of Shakespear’s Ghost, the Squire, Mr. Student, and Mr. Bays, concluding with an address to the Ladies of the Shakespear’s Club" to a performance of Shakespeare's
216:, the famous actor and theatre manager of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, is often cited as the man responsible for Shakespeare's popularity in the eighteenth century. Garrick himself acknowledged the importance of the Ladies’ Club in a speech delivered at the
65:. Fundraising for the memorial statue began in 1738 and the statue was placed in Westminster Abbey in 1741. There were at least two benefit performances of Shakespeare plays done as part of the Ladies' Club's fundraising efforts. One was a performance of
27:'s plays during the 1730s. In the 1700s they were referred to as "the Ladies of the Shakespear’s Club," or even more simply as "Ladies of Quality," or "the Ladies." Known members of the Shakespeare Ladies Club include Susanna Ashley-Cooper,
305:(1739), references the Ladies’ Club's plans "to erect Shakespeare’s statue as a bid to capture Shakespeare’s ghost." The play takes place in an Oxford College garden where Don Sancho conjures Shakespeare's ghost. Although
56:
In addition to being responsible for the highest percentage of
Shakespeare's plays performed in a single season during the eighteenth century, the Ladies’ Club was also responsible for Shakespeare's memorial statue in
263:
deserves the highest encomiums, and will be attended with an adequate reward; since, in the preserving the fame of the dead bard, they add a brightness to their own, which will shine to late posterity.
258:, Haywood references the Shakespeare Ladies’ Club's efforts to raise money for Shakespeare's memorial statue in Westminster Abbey as well as their work to see more of Shakespeare's plays produced:
192:
In addition to prologues the
Shakespeare Ladies Club was also recognized in the daily newspapers. On 3 March 1737 the Grub Street Journal printed a letter from the ghosts of Shakespeare,
330:
in 1743. Mary Cowper recorded her involvement with the
Shakespeare Ladies’ Club in a poem titled "On the Revival of Shakespear’s Plays by the Ladies in 1738," which was preserved in the
205:
Britain." In this letter Shakespeare's ghosts praises the Ladies Club for their good taste and thanks them for forming the club and reviving "the Memory of the forsaken Shakespear."
166:
on 28 April 1738 included an epilogue from James Noel which echoed "Miller's metaphor of the Ladies' Club as mothers" responsible for the birth of Shakespeare as the nation's poet:
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In the eighteenth century Shakespeare's name was often written without the final "e"; quotations from the eighteenth century retain the original spelling in this article.
224:
that restor’d Shakespeare to the Stage you form’d yourselves into a Society to protect his Fame, and Erected a Monument to his and your own honour in Westminster Abbey."
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Susanna Ashley-Cooper, The Countess of Shaftesbury, was "a well-known and highly regarded figure in London society." She was active in artistic circles and supported
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872:
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254:, a monthly periodical which was the first magazine by and for women. While discussing the arguments for and against attending theatre in
857:
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success began to be recognized in prologues to performances of new plays and new adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. For the premiere of
23:(or Shakespeare Ladies' Club) refers to a group of upper class and aristocratic women who petitioned the London theatres to produce
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327:
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An Epistle to the Right Honourable The Countess of Shaftesbury, with a Prologue and Epilogue on Shakespeare and his Writings
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and the daughter of Baptiste Noel, Earl of Gainsborough. Ashley-Cooper was identified as the leader of the Ladies’ Club by
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Poets' Corner in Westminster abbey, showing Scheemaker's statue of Shakespeare, paid for by the Shakespeare Ladies Club
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631:"An Epistle to the Right Honourable the Countess of Shaftesbury :: :: University of Virginia Library"
617:"An Epistle to the Right Honourable the Countess of Shaftesbury :: :: University of Virginia Library"
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Elizabeth Boyd (1727–1745) was an active writer during the first half of the eighteenth century. Her play,
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293:. The prologue to the epistle was also performed by David Garrick at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
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by James Miller, the prologue included an "ecstatic eulogy of the Shakespeare Ladies Club":
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during Garrick’s professedly Bardolatrous management of Drury Lane was never challenged."
8:
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24:
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The Mary Cowper who was a member of the Shakespeare Ladies’ Club was the daughter of
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62:
800:
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The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660–1769
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656:"Boyd, Elizabeth [pseud. Louisa] (Fl. 1727–1745), poet and novelist"
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rouz’d by a Woman’s Pen, To Check the impious Rage of lawless Men."
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on 10 April 1739 at Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (also known as the
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Don Sancho: or, The students whim…with Minerva’s triumph, a masque
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73:
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on 28 April 1738 at Drury Lane. The other was a performance of
39:
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In January 1737 every performance of a Shakespeare play at
756:
Avery, Emmett L. (1956). "The Shakespeare Ladies Club".
334:. The poem was reprinted in full in Michael Dobson's
180:
With grief you saw your Shakespeare's slighted state,
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And Albion’s noble Fair to Shakespear’s Sense attend.
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273:Susanna Ashley-Cooper, The Countess of Shaftesbury
289:in a poem published in 1743. The poem was titled
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170:But here what humble thanks, what praise is due,
84:
146:To your Protection Shakespear’s Offspring take,
130:Fond to bring more of his rich Scenes to light:
283:Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury
182:And call'd forth merit from the grave of fate.
144:Since Love’s almighty Pow’r’s his Theme today:
128:‘Twas this gave Birth to our Attempt to-night,
561:(5th edn., 4 vols.; London, 1755), i. 265–66.
118:Has slumb’ring lain near half a Cent’ry past,
799:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
665:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
184:Let others boast they smile on living worth;
140:And as you smile or frown, he lives or dies:
120:But now what Joy! to find the Night is o’er!
114:Britannia thus, with Folly’s Gloom overcast,
134:Our Bard scarce dares your Clemency to ask:
122:To see the Lamp of Science shine once more;
178:Whom towring genius living raised so high.
174:Ow'd to such gen'rous virtue, ow'd to you!
150:And save the Orphan for the Father’s Sake.
124:To see the Reign of Farce and Dulness end,
322:, and an elder cousin of the famous poet
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188:You give a buried bard a brighter birth.
176:With grief you saw a bard neglected lie,
138:To You, ye Fair, for Refuge now he flies
38:
16:London group lobbying for plays in 1730s
796:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
782:
662:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
652:
557:qtd. in Dobson, p. 147; Eliza Haywood,
142:You are the ablest Judges of this Play,
93:(except for one command performance of
873:History of women in the United Kingdom
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132:But conscious how unequal to the Task,
328:William de Grey, 1st Baron Walsingham
220:in 1769. In the speech Garrick said "
768:, Oxford, England: Clarendon Press,
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281:. She was the first wife of
244:From April 1744 to May 1746
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489:qtd. in Dobson, pp. 159–160
162:The benefit performance of
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853:18th-century English poets
843:18th-century British women
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91:Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
790:Louisa] (1727-1745)"
764:Dobson, Michael (1992),
408:Dobson, pp. 137–138, 159
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783:Fullard, Joyce (2004).
653:Fullard, Joyce (2004).
332:Cowper Family Miscelany
21:Shakespeare Ladies Club
805:10.1093/ref:odnb/45835
786:"Boyd, Elizabeth [
671:10.1093/ref:odnb/45835
545:"The Female Spectator"
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248:anonymously published
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107:Much Ado About Nothing
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758:Shakespeare Quarterly
287:Thomas Cooke (author)
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101:The Universal Passion
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868:Reception of writers
559:The Female Spectator
256:The Female Spectator
251:The Female Spectator
238:The Female Spectator
50:Restoration comedies
863:English women poets
838:William Shakespeare
727:Dobson, pp. 150–151
390:Dobson, pp. 146–147
218:Shakespeare Jubilee
136:. . . .
104:, an adaptation of
25:William Shakespeare
462:Avery, pp. 154–155
354:Avery, pp. 153–155
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818:(Subscription or
677:(Subscription or
222:It was You Ladies
79:Royal Opera House
63:Westminster Abbey
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326:. She married
324:William Cowper
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246:Eliza Haywood
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209:David Garrick
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808:. Retrieved
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314:Mary Cowper
198:John Dryden
48:content in
832:Categories
822:required.)
775:0198183232
750:References
681:required.)
307:Don Sancho
194:Ben Jonson
810:28 April
240:, Vol. 1
35:History
816:
788:pseud.
772:
675:
279:Handel
200:, and
95:Hamlet
74:Hamlet
342:Notes
812:2016
770:ISBN
19:The
801:doi
667:doi
81:).
61:in
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