Shakespeare, William. Part books for a production of King Lear

Folger bibliographic ID: 222436
Folger call number: S.a.50-64
Folger holdings ID: 252510
Accession Number: cs70

The fifteen books comprise the whole cast, some minor parts being doubled or trebled. Each book is titled and signed in Roberts's autograph. Other names appearing on covers or inside of some books may be those of actors to whom the parts were assigned. Among these Mollie Williams (the Fool) and George Radcliffe (Oswald) can be traced on the New York stage in the 1860's in G.C.D. Odell, Annals of the New York Stage (15 vols., Columbia University Press, 1927-49), vol. VII, passim. S.a.51, 58, and 64 bear signed inscriptions by Owen S. Fawcett as copyist

General notes

The date assigned is inferred from the records of the several identifiable persons named. There is nothing to connect these manuscripts with a recorded production of Lear in which Roberts had a part in 1863 (Odell, op. cit., VII, 192) or with a prompt book (in Folger) signed and dated by Roberts in 1849 and 1851, the text of which differs materially from that of these manuscripts. S.a.57 contains an inscription of a J. Wesley Hill, possibly an actor, dated at Indianapolis December 1863. For Roberts's full name, see T. Allston Brown, A history of the New York stage, III, 666 Original brown paper wrappers, stitched (boxed, Folger 1953)

Uniform title: King Lear
Extended title: Part books for a production of King Lear ca. 1863

author: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
associated with: Roberts, James Booth, -1901
transcriber: Fawcett, Owen, 1838-1904