1916 - EuroShakespeare and THE GREAT WAR

In the spring of 1916, one century ago, Shakespeare commemorations were popping up in honour of the 300th anniversary of the Bard’s death; remembrances in Europe, including the UK, played against the background of the first great World War. Photographs of soldiers in trenches were juxtaposed in press reports with special supplements honoring Shakespeare from February through April, 1916. Articles in the supplements made it clear that countries on both sides that were hammering each other in bloody conflicts were some of the greatest supporters of Shakespeare: England, Germany, France, Russia, and Norway.

Remarkably, in spite of wartime destruction, Europeans still remembered Shakespeare during 1916. Germany published a special issue of Simplicissimus, their weekly political humour magazine, dedicated to both Shakespeare and Cervantes, who also died in 1616. The Folger has recently acquired this issue, which features cartoons showing Sir Winston Churchill as a puffed-up Pistol – “a gull, a fool, a rogue” – from Henry V and US President Woodrow Wilson as Hamlet, saying, “The time is out of joint: O, cursed spite/ That ever I was born to set it right!” Shakespeare was especially admired in Germany, where his work had been performed since the 17th century. The English, of course, and the French, both of whom were fighting against Germany, also remembered Shakespeare. The Folger has the catalog of a special exhibition put on by the Bodleian Library at Oxford, as well as the program of a performance at Drury Lane Theatre in London “humbly offered by the players and their fellow-workers in the kindred arts of music & painting” in May 1916. Also in May, the Comédie Française held a special conference of “Hommage à Shakespeare.”

Perhaps the greatest Shakespearean tribute was organized by Sir Israel Gollancz, professor of English at King’s College, London. Gollancz wrote to many writers and Shakespeare scholars in different countries asking for their thoughts. These he edited and compiled into A Book of Homage to Shakespeare, which was published on April 23, 1916, the day Shakespeare had died 300 years earlier. The Folger Shakespeare Library is fortunate to own the archive of documents that he received, resulting in a remarkable collection in many languages, including Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, and Urdu. Gollancz’s dream was that “the world’s brotherhood… be demonstrated by its common and united commemoration of Shakespeare,” and he realized part of this goal in spite of the war.