Bottom Transformed by the Sketching Society

Abstract

SCATTERED THROUGH THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY'S COLLECTION of prints and drawings are eight sepia drawings, each 17?/2 X 123/4 inches on a mount 23/2 X 18 inches, depicting the moment in A Midsummer Night's Dream when the translated Bottom confronts his fellow mechanicals. During the rehearsal of the most lamentable comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, Bottom exits into the brake, returning ass-headed with the memorable line If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine (3.1.104).' mechanicals react with startled terror, to the delight of Puck and the disgusted puzzlement of Bottom. Various lines from this scene were chosen as titles for illustrations by eight artists living in London in the first half of the nineteenth century: Robert Trewick Bone, Alfred Edward Chalon, John James Chalon, Charles Robert Leslie, John Partridge, Clarkson Stanfield, Samuel John Stump, and John Masey Wright.2 Each mount is dated Feby 5th 1831, and in the bottom right-hand corner is written Fourth night J. Partridge. This set of drawings is part of the output of The Society for the Study of Epic and Pastoral Design, better known as 'The Sketching Society'.3 Founded on 6 January 1808 by the Chalon brothers and Francis Stevens and disbanded on 25 April 1851, this group was one of the longest lasting of the societies that brought artists together, combining social intercourse with the cultivation of their Art.4 Membership was limited to eight, though one or two visitors were allowed; meetings were held weekly from November through April. Members took turns serving as host and president at meetings, providing materials and hospitality and, in return, keeping possession of that evening's sketches. sketches were not for sale-not even to Queen Victoria.