CANCELLED | Milton’s Shakespeare: New Histories of the Free Library’s First Folio [OFF-SITE]

Date / Time

  • April 6, 2020
    6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Location

1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103, United States

This talk will offer context for the recent revelation that the Free Library’s copy of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (1623)—otherwise known as the First Folio—was likely owned and annotated by the poet John Milton. The book has been part of the Free Library’s collection since 1944, but it was only in September 2019 that Jason Scott-Warren (Cambridge University) identified the handwriting in its margins as belonging to the author of Paradise Lost—a discovery made possible by an illustrated essay about the book and its annotations written by Claire M. L. Bourne (Pennsylvania State University). Bourne will explain the nature of Milton’s interventions and illuminate what this new history of the book can tell us about Shakespeare, Milton, and the stewardship of book objects that preserve glimpses of an otherwise ephemeral literary past.

Free; advanced timed tickets required. Please note: if you reserve tickets but are unable to attend please email [email protected] to open your space to another visitor.

About the Speaker

Claire M. L. Bourne, Assistant Professor of English Penn State University and Lauren Shohet, Professor, Deartment of English Villanova University

Sponsored by Robert Urquhart