April updates

After a couple of days of marathon gap-filling, I now have just 13.4 % left to find across all companies.  That's 87% complete - and a whole 6% better than this time last week.  Scouring the pages of The Stage on the British Newspaper Archive has really filled in a lot of gaps, although, frustratingly, some of it is really badly scanned and in places it is illegible.

A pretty good week new book-wise as well, as I've finally managed to track down a copy of Walter Shaw Sparrow's 'Memories of Life and Art' which has a couple of chapters concerning  his time with the Benson Company in the 1880s and 90s.   Sparrow married actress Ada Ferrar, who was also a member of the Company, playing leading roles, and his chapters emphasise some of the specific difficulties and extra expenses facing touring actresses at that time.  He also makes some interesting points about the London critical reception of the Globe season of A Midsummer Night's Dream and some insights into the problems of 'fit-up' touring, including collapsing scenery!  

The following story (mentioned briefly by Trewin, who used Sparrow as a source) seems particularly appropriate for the week following the Shakespeare Birthday commemorations in Stratford:

" It was during a Birthday Celebration at Stratford-on-Avon. (Beerbohm) Tree had come down in state to be a planet. On the morning of the great day, after breakfast, he and Mrs Benson stood together outside the Shakespeare Hotel.  The town was festooned and beflagged. Tree gazed at the decorations, waved a long right arm with elegant approval and in a voice modulating from a coo into a caressing purr, said: "Ah! is all of this ...for... me?"   "A little of it is intended for Shakespeare, I think," said Mrs Benson.  And Tree stared hard at a Union Jack; but no inspiration came to him. His impromptus needed hours of patient cogitation."

Finally, my trip to see the Durham First Folio was amazing.  Because of its damaged condition, the decision has been made not to rebind it for the time being and so, as well as the main book block, several loose pages are on display in double sided Perspex cases, allowing visitors to see far more of the 'real' book than is usually the case.  I must admit to goosebumps, looking at the page that listed the actors in the Company.  The exhibition is on until November and is completely free to visit: I will definitely be back - probably more than once!

Discover secrets of stolen Shakespeare First Folio - Durham University