From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.

I'm Farah Kareem Cooper, the Folger director.

A century after Shakespeare's death, his reputation was beginning to evolve.

18th century critics saw his plays as needing a makeover.

They censored and reworked the plays to fit the tastes of the time, while using the works

to build the myth of the bard. Starting in the 1730s, a group of influential women began lobbying to bring back Shakespeare's originals.

Led by Susanna Ashley Cooper, the Countess of Shaftesbury, the Shakespeare Ladies' Club met to read and discuss the plays as printed in the first folio.

To give Shakespeare even more prominence,

the club provided financial backing

for so-called faithful productions.

And to promote Shakespeare as a national poet,

they worked hard to get his statue installed

in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey.

But they worked behind the scenes, and their efforts were mostly forgotten.

The authors Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth have excavated this hidden history in their new book,

The Shakespeare Ladies Club, The Forgotten Women who rescued the Body Bard.

With scholars Genevieve Kirk and Michael Dobson, the Haynesworth successfully petitioned

Westminster Abbey last year to recognize the club's role in the statue.

But the ladies' contributions didn't end there.

Here are Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth in conversation with Barbara Bogue.

Christine and Jonathan, really lovely to have you on the podcast.

Thank you for having us.

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