Reginald Cholmondeley of Condover Hall in Shropshire, England. Top to bottom: Left to right: The Tempest is one of the plays in the First Folio David Faulds, curator of rare books and literary manuscripts for The Bancroft Library, at right, and Doran chat about the folios and their origins.īancroft’s folio first emerges in the historical record in the late-19th century as a possession of Rev. “As far as English literature is concerned, (the folio) is Bancroft’s greatest treasure,” Faulds said. Faulds was delighted to speak more about the library’s copy. Doran, who spent 35 years with the RSC before retiring this past April, spoke excitedly about the tales he’s gathered, including one famed folio copy read by King Charles I as he awaited execution.Īt Bancroft, Doran interviewed David Faulds, curator of rare books and literary manuscripts, for the podcast project. That journey has taken him across the United Kingdom, and to parts of the United States and Germany, where he has seen 47 volumes (and counting). I’m going to go and see these folios, and try to tell their stories.” “I’d been invited to a couple of places to see them anyway, and I thought … I’m going to make this a pilgrimage. “There are such human stories that kind of collect around the volumes that I just find very moving,” he said. He came to learn more about the volume for a podcast he’s producing that will mark the folio’s 400th anniversary in 2023.įor Doran, who has been hailed as “one of the great Shakespearians of his generation,” copies of the folio have much to reveal about history, theater, and the human experience. Gregory Doran, the artistic director emeritus of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), visited The Bancroft Library last week to see an original edition of the First Folio. Without the folio, half of Shakespeare’s dramatic work - and its extraordinary influence on Western literature and culture - might have been lost to time. We might not have those legendary works or words if not for Shakespeare’s First Folio, the earliest printed edition of the Bard’s collected plays, published in 1623. And all the men and women merely players.”? (Photos by Jami Smith for the UC Berkeley Library)Ĭan you imagine the Western literary canon without Macbeth or Julius Caesar? Or never hearing the immortal lines “All the world’s a stage. Gregory Doran, former artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, looks over an edition of the First Folio (on right), the earliest printed edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays, published in 1623, at The Bancroft Library.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |