Women and Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century

This book establishes the significance of actresses, female playgoers and women critics in shaping Shakespeare's burgeoning reputation in the eighteenth century.

Fiona Ritchie (Author)

9781107694002, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 July 2017

260 pages, 6 b/w illus. 5 tables
23 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

'This is an important intervention in studies of Shakespeare in the eighteenth century, and we are indebted to Ritchie for turning the spotlight on women. … Women and Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century is hopefully just the beginning of a much needed conversation that problematizes all three categories: women, Shakespeare, and the eighteenth century. It raises a series of fascinating questions for future scholarship: were these radical adaptations really presented as and considered to be Shakespeare? How does women's engagement with Shakespeare - as actresses, as critics, as audiences - change over the course of the eighteenth century? And how did their engagement with Shakespeare differ from other canonical authors?' Elaine McGirr, The Review of English Studies

Fiona Ritchie analyses the significant role played by women in the construction of Shakespeare's reputation which took place in the eighteenth century. The period's perception of Shakespeare as unlearned allowed many women to identify with him and in doing so they seized an opportunity to enter public life by writing about and performing his works. Actresses (such as Hannah Pritchard, Kitty Clive, Susannah Cibber, Dorothy Jordan and Sarah Siddons), female playgoers (including the Shakespeare Ladies Club) and women critics (like Charlotte Lennox, Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Griffith and Elizabeth Inchbald), had a profound effect on Shakespeare's reception. Interdisciplinary in approach and employing a broad range of sources, this book's analysis of criticism, performance and audience response shows that in constructing Shakespeare's significance for themselves and for society, women were instrumental in the establishment of Shakespeare at the forefront of English literature, theatre, culture and society in the eighteenth century and beyond.

Introduction: women and Shakespeare in the Restoration
1. Actresses in the age of Garrick
2. Female critics in the age of Johnson
3. Theatrical women respond to Shakespeare
4. Jordan and Siddons: beyond Thalia and Melpomene
5. Women playgoers: historical repertory and sentimental response
Conclusion: part of an Englishwoman's constitution
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Cultural studies [JFC], Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: general [DSB]