The Shakespeare Ladies Club: The Forgotten Women Who Rescued the Bawdy Bard by Christine & Jonathan Hainsworth

Following Shakespeare's death in 1616, four women were crucial in ensuring the original work of the Bard was not forgotten. This was the Shakespeare Ladies Club. Formed in 1736, the club was a quartet of women, three from the aristocracy and one a writer, all educated and so enraptured by the plays of William Shakespeare that they met to read and discuss his genius. They used their power and influence to campaign successfully for a statue of Shakespeare to be placed in Westminster Abbey and put their considerable wealth behind lobbying for more Shakespeare plays, convincing theatre managers to put on the original versions by promising to underwrite any financial losses. They had to overcome a post-Puritan culture that believed theatre to be immoral and no place for respectable women and, after nearly 300 years, this book finally tells their remarkable story.

Published by Amberley Publishing

Hardback

ISBN 9781398127449