1451500 1944 Shakespeare. Richard Burton's marked-up copies of twelve Shakespeare plays.s.

 

BURTON (RICHARD)  Burton's copies of twelve Shakespeare plays, kept when an undergraduate at Oxford and early in his career at the Old Vic and the New Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (later the Royal Shakespeare Company), comprising: King John, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V (two copies), Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, Othello, King Lear, Coriolanus, The Tempest and the Poems, five signed by Burton, many ruled with cuts by the prompter; Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 marked up in ink by Burton for the part of Prince Hal, The Tempest for the part of Ferdinand; one copy of Henry V inscribed "Richard Burton/ Oxford 1946", the other marked as property of the Stratford Festival Company and "Mr [Anthony] Quayle"; Twelfth Night with the Old Vic stamp; King Lear, with ownership inscription of Rosemary Evans, Goneril's understudy, and marked up by her; both copies of Henry VI in the Temple Shakespeare edition, all the rest New Temple Shakespeare, usual signs of wear, 16mo, c.1944-1950s,  RICHARD BURTON'S PERFORMING TEXTS OF SHAKESPEARE PLAYS, including Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, marked up by him for the part of Prince Hal, the role that perhaps more than any other established his reputation: 'After his Prince Hal in the Stratford upon Avon history cycle in 1951, his future was assured. Kenneth Tynan wrote of him "Burton is a still, brimming pool, running disturbingly deep; at twenty-five he commands repose and can make silence garrulous"' (ODNB). His copy of the Poems has 'The Rape of Lucrece' marked up recitation, with alterations, excisions and notes such as "restraint" followed the next stanza by "Wailing". These volumes were originally sold by Sally Burton on behalf of the Shakespeare Globe Trust.