David Garrick: saints, temples and jubilees

Abstract

I begin with Shakespeare's birthdays, precisely and perversely because they will prove not to be relevant to what follows, neither the anniversary of the date of Shakespeare's birth nor the group of references to birthdays in Shakespeare 1. Of the latter there are four in all: Cassius tells Messala before the battle at Philippi, "This is my birthday" (Julius Caesar, 5.1.71); Cleopatra lets Antony know "It is my birthday" (Antony and Cleopatra, 3.13.187); one of the fishermen informs Pericles that Simonides has "a fair daughter, and tomorrow is her birthday" (Pericles, 5.150-1); and Pirithous thanks Arcite because "You have honoured her fair birthday with your virtues" (Two Noble Kinsmen, 2.5.36). 2 Three of the birthdays are women's: Cleopatra, Thaisa and Emilia. Cassius uses a strange collocation to mention his birthday, going on to explain to Messala, "…as this very day / Was Cassius born" (71-2), as if the first statement needed a gloss. Strikingly, all four of the references to birthdays in Shakespeare are in classical plays. No-one in a play set in England or Britain is noted for having a birthday. 2 The tendency in early modern Europe was to celebrate not birthdays but name-days, the day of the saint with whom one shared a first name, something more pronounced in Catholic countries than in Protestant ones. I shall have more to explore on Shakespeare's link to saints' days later. For now, let me just note that neither Garrick's Jubilee in 1769 nor the Shakespeare day that Goethe celebrated two years later with the speech for the Strasbourg commemoration had anything to do with Shakespeare's birthday. And let me also note for now that passage in Goethe's "Zum Shakespeares-Tag" where classical religion makes its appearance: "Shakespeare, mein freund", "Shakespeare, my friend, if you were still with us, I could live nowhere but with you; how gladly I should play the supporting role of a Pylades to your Orestes, rather than the dignified character of a high priest at the temple at Delphi", "eines Oberpriesters im Tempel zu Delphos". 3 Whatever else may have been happening in the classical allusions that were part of celebrating and commemorating Shakespeare for Garrick and Goethe, no-one seems to have connected the event either with Shakespeare's own David Garrick: Saints, Temples and Jubilees Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare, 33 | 2015 David Garrick: Saints, Temples and Jubilees Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare, 33 | 2015 10 I mentioned Walpole's description of the temple as a sign of Garrick's being "grateful" to Shakespeare. Walpole, indeed, wrote for Garrick a motto to ornament the building: "Quod spiro et placeo, si placeo tuum est". In a letter, Walpole offered a translation: That I spirit have, and nature, That sense breathes in every feature,