William Shakespeare has been commemorated in a number of different statues and memorials around the world, notably hisfunerary monument inStratford-upon-Avon (c. 1623); a statue inPoets' Corner inWestminster Abbey, London, designed byWilliam Kent and executed byPeter Scheemakers (1740);[1] and a statue in New York'sCentral Park byJohn Quincy Adams Ward (1872).[2][3]
Shakespeare's funerary monument is the earliest memorial to the playwright, located inside Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon,Warwickshire, UK, the same church in which he was baptised. The exact date of its construction is not known, but must have been between Shakespeare's death in 1616 and 1623, when it is mentioned in theFirst Folio of the playwright's works.
The monument, byGerard Johnson, is mounted on a wall above Shakespeare's grave. It features a bust of the poet, who holds a quill pen in one hand and a piece of paper in another. His arms are resting on a cushion. Above him is the Shakespeare family's coat of arms, on either side of which stands two allegorical figures: one, representing Labour, holds a spade, the other, representing Rest, holds a torch and a skull.
As Shakespeare's reputation rose, monuments began to be created in nationally significant locations.William Kent designed a statue for Poets' Corner inWestminster Abbey. The design was executed by the sculptorPeter Scheemakers and installed in 1740. Its creation was funded byLord Burlington andAlexander Pope, among others. At least two fundraising events were led by the efforts of theShakespeare Ladies Club: a benefit performance ofJulius Caesar on April 28, 1738 at Drury Lane and a benefit performance ofHamlet on April 10, 1739 at Covent Garden.[4][5] There are carved heads on the pedestal, which probably depict QueenElizabeth I,Henry V andRichard III. Shakespeare is depicted leaning on books and pointing to a scroll which has a slightly misquoted version ofProspero's lines fromThe Tempest about the globe dissolving to "leave not a wrack behind". A variant of Kent's design was installed in a Glasgow theatre in 1764. It is now in theTheatre Royal in Dunlop Street.[6]
In 1757 the English actorDavid Garrick commissioned a marble statue of William Shakespeare from the French sculptorLouis-François Roubiliac for hisPalladianTemple to Shakespeare atHampton. Garrick himself is thought to have posed for the statue.[7] It was bequeathed, along with Garrick's books, to theBritish Museum in 1779; in 2005 it was transferred to theBritish Library.[8] Garrick later commissioned Roubiliac to produce a bust of the poet for his Shakespeare festival in Stratford in 1769;[9] this is now in theGarrick Club in London.[2]
In 1788, in the exterior wall ofJohn Boydell'sShakespeare Gallery building, the architectGeorge Dance the Younger placedThomas Banks's sculptureShakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry, for which the artist was paid 500guineas. The sculpture depicted Shakespeare, reclining against a rock, between the Dramatic Muse and the Genius of Painting. Beneath it was a panelled pedestal inscribed with a quotation fromHamlet: "He was a Man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again".[10][11] The building was later used by theBritish Institution. After its demolition the monument was relocated to the garden ofNew Place in Stratford.
By the nineteenth century Shakespeare's reputation had advanced to the point of what came to be known asbardolatry. Statues and other memorials began to appear outside Britain, while in Britain itself Shakespeare's status as national poet was consolidated.
New York City'sCentral Park contains astatue of Shakespeare that was commissioned in 1864 as a celebration of the tricentenary of Shakespeare's birth in 1564. Funds were raised by a performance ofJulius Caesar in whichEdwin Booth took the lead role, withJohn Wilkes Booth playing Mark Antony.[12] The statue was designed byJohn Quincy Adams Ward. Following the creation of the statue, in 1873 commissioners proposed that the Mall should be a designated location for sculpture and the statue was moved there, soon to be accompanied by others[13] (in 1986, a replica of the statue was made for the State Theater inMontgomery, Alabama, which has a yearly Shakespeare Festival).[14]
In 1888, a large seated statue byWilliam Ordway Partridge was unveiled inLincoln Park, Chicago and in 1896 a bronze statue of Shakespeare byFrederick William MacMonnies was erected as part of a series representing the world's geniuses in the gallery of the reading-room of theLibrary of Congress.
With the removal of Banks's sculpture to New Place in 1871 London boasted no outdoor public memorial to the Bard, and the erection of the New York statue in 1872 made this omission particularly glaring. In 1874 the financier BaronAlbert Grant, wishing to address this situation, installed a fountain with a marble statue of Shakespeare at its centre in the gardens ofLeicester Square. Sculpted by Giovanni Fontana, this was a replica of Scheemakers's monument in Poets' Corner.[15] Another statue was erected inStratford, London, a suburb with the same name as Shakespeare's home town.
In 1877 a committee was created inStratford-upon-Avon to erect a memorial to Shakespeare. This originally comprised a theatre building, to be sited on land donated by the bank of the Avon within sight of the church where Shakespeare was buried.The Gower Monument was unveiled in 1888, the work ofLord Ronald Gower. This is situated in Stratford's Bancroft Gardens. The monument shows Shakespeare seated on a pedestal, surrounded, at ground level, by statues ofHamlet,Lady Macbeth,Prince Hal, andFalstaff. These characters were intended to be emblematic of Shakespeare's creative versatility: representing Philosophy, Tragedy, History, and Comedy.[13] Another statue is present in a niche on the exterior of the town hall building.
Though most memorials are to be found in English speaking countries, there are also monuments elsewhere. In 1888 a statue was erected on theBoulevard Haussmann in Paris, designed by Paul Fournier.[16]
Between 1970 and 1993, an image of the Poets' Corner statue of Shakespeare appeared on the reverse of Series D£20 notes issued by theBank of England. Alongside the statue was an engraving of the balcony scene fromRomeo and Juliet.[17][18]
A complex memorial to Shakespeare was created inSouthwark Cathedral, which was his parish church when he lived in London close to theGlobe Theatre. It is also the burial place of Shakespeare's brother Edmund, along with other Elizabethan actors and playwrights. A recumbent statue of Shakespeare, created by Henry McCarthy in 1912, was placed in a niche on which was carved images of Elizabethan Southwark depicting the Globe,Winchester Palace and the tower of the church. An elaborate stained glass window was also created, depicting Shakespearean characters. The original window was destroyed by a bomb blast inWorld War II but was replaced in 1954. A birthday celebration of Shakespeare is held every year in April.[19]
Despite Germany's early role in canonising Shakespeare it was not until 1904 that a statue was erected inWeimar showing him, as one critic has put it, "seated and staring into the distance with a bemused and thoughtful look".[20] It was designed byOtto Lessing.
In Denmark, a memorial statue was commissioned to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the publication ofHamlet in 1603.[21] The statue, designed byLouis Hasselriis, was funded by public subscription and erected inElsinore, along with a sculpture of Hamlet.
A memorial in Sydney, Australia was erected in 1926, designed by Australian sculptorSir Bertram MacKennal. It was commissioned by Henry Gullett (d. 4 August 1914), a former president of the Shakespeare Society of New South Wales. Paid for with a bequest from his estate, Gullett's daughterLucy Gullett ensured that the commission was carried out after her father's death. It depicts not only Shakespeare at the top, but five of his most famous characters around the base –Hamlet,Romeo andJuliet embracing,Portia andFalstaff. It is located in Shakespeare Place, between theMitchell Library (part of theState Library of New South Wales) and theRoyal Botanic Gardens. In 1959 the statue was repositioned to make way for theCahill Expressway.
Though initiated in 1889, the project to create a Shakespeare statue inBallarat was not completed until 1960. Financial problems led to repeated shelving of the project. Eventually private donations to the fund produced sufficient resources to commission a bronze sculpture from Andor Meszaros, an Australian artist originally from Hungary. The statue depicts Shakespeare bowing, as if at the end of a performance.
A memorial was created forLogan Circle section ofPhiladelphia in 1926, designed byAlexander Stirling Calder. It does not depict Shakespeare himself, but rather the figures ofTouchstone the jester fromAs You Like It, representing comedy, and Hamlet, representing tragedy. Touchstone is lounging with his head tilted laughing, his feet hanging over the top of the tall stone pedestal and his left arm resting on Hamlet's legs. Hamlet is seated, brooding, his knife dangling over Touchstone's body.[22] The opening lines of the famousAll the world's a stage speech fromAs You Like It are inscribed on the pedestal beneath the figures.
A statue made from tin was erected in the gardens outside the Festival Theatre, the principal theatre on the grounds of theStratford Shakespeare Festival, held every year from April to November inStratford, Ontario, Canada.
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