Andrew McConnell Stott on the Shakespeare Jubilee

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2019

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Garrick’s 1769 Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-on-Avon was like an 18th-century Fyre Festival. From overcrowding to pouring rain, the event was a disaster. Yet the Jubilee also revived interest in Shakespeare and put his hometown on the map. How did the Jubilee get started, how did it go wrong, and how did it end up having such an incredible impact? The University of Southern California’s Andrew McConnell Stott explores those questions and more in his new book, What Blest Genius?: The Jubilee that Made Shakespeare. Andrew McConnell Stott is a professor of English and divisional dean of undergraduate education at the University of Southern California. What Blest Genius?: The Jubilee that Made Shakespeare was published by W.W. Norton & Company in 2019. Stott was interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published July 9, 2019 © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “The Rain It Raineth Every Day,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. With technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It was a little bit like Woodstock, a little bit like Coachella, and a little too much like
0:06.2	the Fire Festival. It was pretty much a disaster, and it did more for Shakespeare's hometown
0:12.9	than anything has ever since.
0:25.6	From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore, the Fulcher's director.
0:28.6	In September of 1769, the renowned actor and theater impresario David Garrick
0:34.6	got roped into hosting an event called the Shakespeare Jubilee.
0:40.4	250 years later, the Jubilee is principally remembered for two things. The deluge of rain that
0:47.7	ruined pretty much everything and the fact that despite being a disaster, the Jubilee revolutionized the town of Stratford
0:56.2	upon Avon and made Shakespeare England's national poet.
1:01.3	In a fascinating new book, Andrew McConnell Stott, a professor of English at the University
1:06.5	of Southern California, lays out the details of Garrick's Jubilee and shows what a crazy good story
1:13.9	it is. The book is called What Blessed Genius, the Jubilee that made Shakespeare, and we invited
1:20.7	him into our studio in Los Angeles to talk about it. We call this podcast, The Rain It Raineth
1:27.4	every day. Andrew McConnell Scott is interviewed by. It. We call this podcast, The Rain It Raineth Every Day.
1:29.3	Andrew McConnell Scott is interviewed by Barbara Bogueve.
1:33.2	Before we get to Garrick, let's set the stage, or could you set the stage, please?
1:38.3	Because it's hard to imagine now that there was this time when Shakespeare was just one
1:43.7	playwright among many, many playwrights and
1:46.5	some maybe more famous than him and that his name could have died with him. But it could
1:52.3	have happened if not you write for a few accidents of history, one of them being the Jubilee. So remind
1:58.3	us, what legs did Shakespeare's reputation have after his death?
2:03.6	And how did these two men, Davenant and Killegru, end up keeping him in the public's eye?
	...

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