Shakespeare in Steel: exploring links between Edward Dowden’s ‘Shakespeare Scenes & Characters’ and the ‘Gallerie Shakespeare’ portfolio of engravings. Part I.

On the 15th July 2016, the University of Melbourne’s highly anticipated After Shakespeare exhibition was officially opened, in the Noel Shaw Gallery of the Baillieu Library. Marking the 400th anniversary of the year of the Bard’s death, the exhibition plays host to a number of artefacts and ephemera that highlight Shakespeare’s lasting legacy throughout the centuries, with particular focus on his reception in Australia.

Amongst the intriguing stories contained in the cases is a puzzling connection between an 1876 English book of Shakespearian commentaries and engravings, and a separately issued portfolio of 22 engravings with a French title. Helen Kesarios, a student volunteer in the Cultural Collections Projects Program, has been investigating possible connections between the two works, drawing on original correspondence located at the British Library.

The first instalment in this three-part story begins at Case 6…

Part I – The English book: Shakespeare Scenes & Characters selected and arranged by Edward Dowden

Case 6 of the After Shakespeare exhibition houses several extraordinary artefacts from the 19th century, one of which is Edward Dowden’s Shakespeare Scenes & Characters (London: Macmillan, 1876) from the Baillieu Library’s Rare Books Collection.

Edward Dowden (1873-1913) was an Irish literary scholar and poet, Professor of Oratory and English Literature, Dublin University, and recognised for his contributions to the study of Shakespeare, Shelley and Browning, among other notable English writers. Despite his nationality, ‘Dowden disclaimed any desire to be thought of as an Irish writer, stating “I confess that I am not ambitious of intensifying my intellectual or spiritual brogue”’. [i]

In addition to his …Scenes & Characters, Dowden’s other principal works on Shakespeare include Shakspere: a Critical Study of his Mind and Art (1875) [Dowden used both spellings, Shakspere and Shakespeare][ii] together with a Shakspere Primer (1877) and an Introduction to Shakespeare (1893).  Dowden’s literary contributions, particularly his Shakespearean studies, were the topic of praise. An example of this can be found in correspondence from the poet and critic Aubrey de Vere (1814-1902) to Dowden, in which he writes with respect to Mind and Art:

‘I did not like to write and thank you for the great pleasure I have had in reading your book on Shakespeare, until I had time to go over nearly all of it a second time; and I shall certainly before long give it a third perusal. I do not exaggerate in saying that it seems to me the best book I have ever read on Shakespeare’ (March 17th, 1875).[iii]

Shakespeare Scenes & Characters is a large and ornate text, comprising Shakespearean criticism ‘from the best English, American, French and German critics’,[iv] carefully selected and arranged by Dowden himself, and complemented by a series of 36 steel engraved prints by distinguished Munich artists and engravers.  Dowden hoped that readers would appreciate the criticism as more than mere ‘padding’ for the illustrations,[v] as outlined in a letter to his publisher Macmillan:

‘I thought the general mass of readers might also find it pleasant and useful to have this choice body of English and foreign criticism – and that it would really add value to the valuable illustrations’ (July 24th, 1875).

And in the Preface to his book:

‘In selecting the extracts the editor has been guided by the desire, first to illustrate the engraving, with special reference to the principal persons of the play there represented; secondly, to offer some general views of importance suggested by the play; and thirdly, to give examples of the different schools of Shakespearean criticism’.[vi]

Each print within the book depicts an engraved scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays. W. Schmidt’s and August Friedrich Spiess’s Act 5/Scene 2 depiction of Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra and Johann Lindner’s and Max Adamo’s Act 5/Scene 1 print of Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, are just two of the many scenes provided. Referring to his finished product, Dowden writes, somewhat lamentably, to his brother John Dowden:

My Sh. Picture-book is out. It is a handsome book, with some things I don’t like, but for which I am not responsible, and my part of it – the selection of the text – is, I think, well enough done. King undertakes to advertise my book well in the autumn. I have got about £30 from him, and am to get about as much more in July. About 160 copies of 2nd edition have sold, which I think is as many as could be expected in the time, with no advertising. I hope it will go off faster in autumn, and prove a small annuity to me for a year or two’ (9th June, 1876).[vii]

The Spectator was certainly a lot more enthusiastic about Dowden’s work:

‘This handsome volume has a character of sterling worth which books meant to lie on drawing-room tables do not commonly possess. The illustrations will be new to most readers…There are thirty-six illustrations, engraved on steel. Of these, Herr Adamo, whose name many will recognise as belonging to the Munich school, has contributed a third part, and Herr Pecht a fourth. The other names are Hofmann, Makart, Schwoerer, and Spiess…The “explanatory text” is as important a feature as the illustrations which it subserves. Professor Dowden’s study of Shakespeare and his commentaries and critics has been a very wide one…Not one of the more conspicuous names is absent from his table of contents. Altogether he has made up an excellent volume’.[viii]

Helen Kesarios

Research Assistant, After Shakespeare exhibition

Cultural Collections Project Program, University of Melbourne

Helen Kesarios will continue the story of the engravings contained within the Dowden volume in her blog instalment next week.

Watch this space for Part II – The German engravings: Shakespeare Scenes & Characters selected and arranged by Edward Dowden!

[i] E.J. Gwynn & rev. Arthur Sherbo, ‘Edward Dowden (1843-1913)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [website], 2004; online edn, Sept 2013, para. 6, <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32882>, accessed 9 May 2016.

[ii] Gwynn & Sherbo, para. 2.

[iii] Dowden, Letters of Edward Dowden and his Correspondents, p. 73.

[iv] Edward Dowden, letter to Macmillan & Co., 24 July 1875.

[v] Edward Dowden, ‘Preface’, in Edward Dowden ed., Shakespeare Scenes and Characters, Macmillan & Co., London, 1876, p. viii.

[vi] ibid.

[vii] Dowden, Letters of Edward Dowden and his Correspondents, p. 98.

[viii] ‘Shakespeare Scenes and Characters’, The Spectator, Current Literature, 12 August 1876, p. 1018, < http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/12th-august-1876/22/shakespeare-scenes-and-characters-a-series-of-illu>, accessed 9 May 2016.