Trevelyan, historian with a liberal bias

G.M. Trevelyan

It is the birthday of British historian G.M. Trevelyan (1876), whose passionate trilogy on the Italian leader Garibaldi and biography of Earl Gray are among his best known works. Trevelyan wrote with an admittedly partisan bias, celebrating the Whig/Liberal viewpoint. "Without bias," Trevelyan wrote of his Garibaldi works, "I should never have written them at all." Trevelyan also wrote of English philosopher and reformer John Wycliffe, liberal statesman John Bright, England under the House of Stuart (when the arts flourished), and Italian reformer and statesman Daniele Manin. Earl Gray supported constitutional reform in British government and pushed through an act to abolish slave trade.

Actor, playwright, theater owner, author

Henry Siddons, National Portrait Gallery

Henry Siddons was the oldest son of the celebrated late-18th century/early-19th century British stage actress Sarah Siddons. He was an actor, theater owner, playwright and author.

His mother had wanted him to become a clergyman instead of following her in the theater but she allowed him to act in her plays and to accompany her on tour. In 1782, at the age of eight, Henry appeared with is mother in the popular drama Isabella or The Fatal Marriage, with Sarah in the title role and Henry as The Child.

Perhaps it was inevitable that Henry would pursue a career in theater. In addition to his mother's well-known stage presence, Henry's uncle, John Philip Kemble, was also prominent in British theater. Henry's grandfather ran a theater company and his father, though separated from Sarah while Henry was young, was also an actor.

In 1801, Henry made his adult debut in a play called Integrity at the Covent Garden Theatre. The cast also included a young actress, Harriet Murray. That same month Henry appeared as Hamlet, receiving generally favorable reviews.

Henry and Sarah in Isabella

Henry married Harriet in 1802 and performed with her in numerous productions, many of which he wrote. He also produced a book on acting, Practical Illustration of Rhetorical Gesture and Action which was published in 1807. A copy of the first edition is in the collection of rare and unusual books at Lighthouse Books, ABAA. It is based on a similar book by J.J. Engel, the director of the National Theatre in Berlin.

Henry undertook to make the project his own, though some say he lifted liberally from Engle's work in the translation. Henry believed that the images in Engel's original were too small and too German. Many of the images in Henry's own version depict his mother and uncle, and some historians say the project was undertaken largely to promote their acting styles, perhaps with good reason. Sarah and her brother were well-known in Great Britain and the United States. To this day, a Sarah Siddons Award is presented in Chicago to a prominent actress.

In 1809, largely through the influence of his mother and Sir Walter Scott, a family friend, Henry and Harriet obtained the patent to the Edinburgh Theatre. He was said to be a capable and efficient theater manager. He and his wife performed there and three of his plays were introduced in Edinburgh. Henry regularly took his company on tour to Dundee and Perth.

Henry died of tuberculosis in 1815 at the age of 40.

On eve of a Royal wedding ...

As the world anticipates the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at the end of the week, we pause to consider the biography of another royal, Queen Elizabeth I, who was the last monach of the House of Tudor. William is of the House of Windsor.

William Camden's The History of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princess Elizabeth, Late Queen of England was published in 1675. A copy of the third edition is in the collection of rare and unusual books at Lighthouse Books, ABAA.

William Camden, historian

Camden was already well known throughout the United Kingdom as an authority on British antiquity when Lord William Cecil, the treasurer of England, suggested that Camden write a definitive history of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Camden had already published Britannia, an exhaustive survey of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1856. Cecil, who was known as Lord Burghley, had an abiding interest in a history of Elizabeth. He had been a close adviser to the queen, and would figure prominently in the story of her rule.

The book is a collection of separate entries of the events of each year of Elizabeth’s 44-year reign. It is considered an important work that has had great influence on how the Elizabethan age is perceived today.

Camden writes in The Author to the Reader section of the volume that he had access to “great Piles and Heaps of Papers and Writings of all sorts …” that seemed to a bit daunting at the beginning. Nevertheless, his desire to preserve the memory of the queen, to keep from disappointing Lord Burghley, and to seek “the real Truth of Passages lodged, as it were, in so many Repositories” spurred him to undertake the project.

The volume contains four books, the first three originally published in 1615. Camden finished the fourth book in 1617 but asked that it be published after his death. He died in 1623. The final book was pubished two years later.

Camden was headmaster of Westminster School and was later an officer of arms at the College of Arms in London, a center for genealogical and antiquarian study. The position allowed him freedom to pursue his antiquarian research.

Queen Elizabeth I

Among his students was Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, who became Camden’s close friend. Cotton amassed possibly the most important private collection of antiquarian manuscripts in Britain and it apparently fell to Cotton to publish the final book of Camden’s history of Queen Elizabeth I.

Camden also gave a copy of his manuscript to author and statesman Sir Francis Bacon. Some scholars suggest that Bacon’s ideas and suggestions for revision are incorporated into later versions of Camden’s work.

In this edition, before Camden’s note to the reader, there is a section titled To the Reader written in first person. It is not clear who the writer is but it is clearly not Camden because it refers to him: “I Shall not trouble thee with any large Account of the Author of this History, whose Learned Writings sufficiently set forth his singular Worth …” The note goes on to say that this edition has been greatly revised from the orginal to correct errors, put historical periods in their proper order and rewrite or edit the text to be “more consonant of the mind of the Author.”

This revised edition cleaned up and modernized the phrasing in order to make it more appealing to a newer audience, some 80 to 90 years after it had first appeared.  English is an ever evolving language. The phrasing likely to be used by Prince William and his new bride is a far cry from the language used even in this revision, published in 1675!

Where the Bard found his stories

William Shakespeare

Every great writer needs good, solid source material. Harper Lee had her childhood, Truman Capote had a sensational murder case in a small town and Shakespeare had Holinshed’s Chronycles.

This ambitious history of England, Scotland and Ireland was published in 1577. A copy of it in two thick volumes is in the collection of rare and unusual books at Lighthouse Books, ABAA. It will be on display at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in March.

There isn’t a whole lot known about Raphael Holinshed, except that he, along with other contributors, created this massive history of Great Britain. The late historian Vernon Snow has declared that Holinshed was a Cambridge-educated translator but no one has found any other work by him and nothing is known of what else he might have done.

What is known is that Holinshed went to work for a London printer who had a grand vision to create a comprehensive history of the known world from the Great Flood to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The printer, Reginald Wolfe, conceived his massive project in 1548 and worked on it by himself for a time. Eventually he realized that he needed help and hired Holinshed and a clergyman named William Harrison. But Wolfe died in 1548 and the book still wasn’t finished.

Wolfe left the project under the direction of three associates in the printing business. They hired Holinshed who in turn hired Harrison, Richard Stanyhurst, an Irish poet and historian; Edmund Campion, a Jesuit priest who eventually became a saint; and John Hooker, a writer and antiquarian. The scope of the work was reduced to focus only on Great Britain.

Finally, in 1577, the book was published as The Chronycles of Englande, Scotlande and Irelande. There were several subsequent editions of the book, including some without passages on Ireland censored by the British Privy Council. Apparently the council took exception to some of Stanyhurst’s contributions. It was not until 1758 that the work acquired the name Holinshed’s Chronycles.

The first volume contains the histories of England, Scotland and Ireland. The second focuses specifically on the lives of some of the English royalty, including Queen Mary, several of the Henrys, Edwards and Richards.

Scholars say Shakespeare relied heavily on the book as he wrote his histories, as well as MacBeth and King Lear, though it is unlikely that the book was his only source. Academic authorities think he probably used the writings of  Sir Thomas More and the Italian historian Virgil as well.

What is clear is that Shakespeare used Holinshed’s Chronycles not only to plot his various works but also to add texture to characters. For instance, in Richard II, a superstitious Welch Captain worries about withered bay trees being the sign of doom. Holinshed reports that in 1399, “old bay trees withered and, afterward, contrary to all men’s thinking, grew green again: a strange sight, and supposed to import some unknown event.”

In another instance, Shakespeare appears to have borrowed directly from Holinshed, using dialogue found in the earlier work with but little change. Holinshed wrote: "The proclamation ended, another herald cried: "Behold here Henry of Lancaster Duke of Hereford, appellant, which is entered into the lists royal to do his devoir against Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk, defendant, upon pain to be found false and recreant!"

Shakespeare wrote:

Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself,
On pain to be found false and recreant,
To prove the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
A traitor to his God, his king, and him,
And dares him to set forward to the fight.
(Richard II 1.3.104-9)

Some scholars caution that the massive history may be suspect in its accuracy, noting that some of Holinshed’s sources may have been less than objective accounts. But aside from the historical content, the books offer an interesting glimpse into the world of Elizabethan publishing, a period apparently marked by the great love for blackletter typography.

The title pages and some incidental typography use a more readable font that may be an ancestor of Times Roman. But most of the narrative is set in the sort of font you associate with the word “Christmas” in Merry Olde Englande. It is a typeface most designers today would agree should be used sparingly.

The volumes are filled with copious black and white illustrations depicting wars, beheadings, stake burnings, weddings, coronations and other manner of activities that kept the royals and their subjects entertained and occupied over the centuries.

William Shakespeare must have drooled.