Новое Шекспировское общество в викторианской Англии

Abstract

The article analyzes the aims and achievements of two important Victorian Shakespearean associations: The New Shakespeare Society (1873–1894) and its predecessor — The Shakespeare Society (1840–1853), which are practically unknown in Russian Shakespeare’s studies. Our analysis is focused on the comparison of the societies’ basic principles, Furnivall’s goals, Fleay’s test classification and on the paradoxes of the Victorian mindset which led to the discrepancies in the outcomes of the two societies’ work. We believe that the analysis of the Victorian Shakespeare phenomenon based solely on the works of the famous British writers of the second half of the 19th century will not be complete if we do not take into account these societies that had hundreds of members and thousands of subscribers throughout the Empire. The societies’ “ultra-scientism” did not prevent them from becoming major Shakespearean forums of their time, as well as from publishing important documents or creating the first working Shakespeare chronology (although it had serious flaws). Indeed, the positive contribution of both societies outweighs all of their weaknesses.