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Related Exhibition:
A Monument to Shakespeare: The Architecture of the Folger Shakespeare Library
(Apr 13, 2019 – Jan 5, 2020)
The Folger Shakespeare Library is filled with inscriptions of quotations by and about Shakespeare. See the text of inscriptions, to whom they are attributed, and their location outside or inside the Folger Shakespeare Library building.
Exterior Inscriptions
On the front of the building
This therefore is the praise of Shakespeare
That his drama is the mirrour of life.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
His wit can no more lie hid,
Then it could be lost.
Reade hime, therefore; and againe, and againe.
JOHN HEMINGE : HENRIE CONDELL
Thou art a monument, without a tombe,
And art alive still, while thy books doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
BEN JONSON
On the west side of the building
For Wisdomes sake, a word that all men love.
LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST
On the fountain
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
A MIDSOMMER NIGHTS DREAME
Interior Inscriptions
West vestibule, over the door to the Great Hall
I shower a welcome on ye; welcome all.
SHAKESPEARE, Henry VIII, Act 1, Sc. 4
West vestibule, over the entrance to the west corridor
What needs my Shakespeare for his honor’d bones
The labor of an age in piled stones?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thyself a live-long monument.
JOHN MILTON
Over the door, west end of Great Hall
There is not anything of human trial
That ever love deplored or sorrow knew,
No glad fulfilment and no sad denial,
Beyond the pictured truth that Shakespeare drew.
WILLIAM WINTER
Over the door, east end of Great Hall
Thrice happy the nation that Shakespeare has charm’d
More happy the bosoms his genius has warm’d!
Ye children of nature, of fashion, and whim,
He painted you all, all join to praise him.
DAVID GARRICK
In the Reading Room, at the west end
I do not remember
That any book or
Person or event ever
Produced so great
An effect on me as
Shakespeare’s plays.
GOETHE
Shakespeare is fertility,
Force, exuberance, no
Reticence, no binding,
No economy, the
Inordinate and tranquil
Prodigality of the creator.
HUGO
In the Reading Room, over the fireplace
England’s genius filled all measure
Of heart and soul, of strength and pleasure,
Gave to the mind its emperor,
And life was larger than before:
Nor sequent centuries could hit
Orbit and sum of Shakespeare’s wit.
The men who lived with him became
Poets, for the air was fame.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
At the east end of the Reading Room
There is a replica of the Memorial to Shakespeare in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. The inscription on the tablet below the bust, as in the original at Stratford, reads:
Indicio Pylium, genio Socraten, arto Maronem,
Terra tegit, populus maeret, Olympus habet.
(translation)
Pylius for his judgement, Socrates for his intellects, Maro for his poetry--
The earth covers him, the people mourn him, Olympus holds him.
Stay, Passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
Read if thou canst, whom envious death hast plast,
Within this monument: Shakespeare: with whome,
Quick Nature dide: whose name, doth deck ys Tombe,
Far more, than cost: sich all yt He hast writt,
Leaves living art, but page, to serve his witt.
Obiit ano Doi 1616
A tatis. 53 Die 23 Aps.
Related Exhibition:
A Monument to Shakespeare: The Architecture of the Folger Shakespeare Library
(Apr 13, 2019 – Jan 5, 2020)