Shakespeare in Providence

Abstract

HIS is not a bibliographical paper. It will not deal with the collection of Shakespeariana purchased in England for the Brown University Library in i845, of which I hope to write later; nor with Mr. Marsden J. Perry's library, the nucleus of which was the Halliwell-Phillipps collection, and much of which is now in the Folger. I am concerned with the public and private reading and production of the plays, telling mainly the story of the last sixty years, with most of which I had some personal contact. There is a Shakespearian side, however, to the history of the first century of the drama in Providence, and I can add a little to what has already been made known.' The drama came to Providence in 1762, when David Douglass, who had brought his company to Newport from Williamsburg, Virginia, gave some of his moral dialogues or dissertations at his Histrionic Academy, a probably makeshift theatre, on Meeting Street, east of where about i769 John Carter erected his printing house, the Shakespeare's Head. No playbills from this visit have survived, but the Newport Mercury of August io contains the notice reproduced on this page. There are no other notices of plays or concerts in the Mercury. The Providence series here announced would have run through August 20. It is not improbable that some Shakespeare was in