STC 3189, title page
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Creator: John Bodenham
Title: Bel-vedére or The garden of the Muses.
Date: Imprinted at London : by F[elix]. K[ingston]. for Hugh Astley, dwelling at Saint Magnus corner, 1600.
Repository: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, USA
Call number and opening: STC 3189, title page, signatures A4v-A5v, pages: 5, 14, 17, 18, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 35, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 49, 51, 57, 58, 59, 60, 66, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 84, 85, 89, 102, 104, 105, 106, 109, 111, 112, 114, 120, 121, 122, 124, 133, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 146, 150, 151, 158, 161, 162, 170, 171, 177, 178, 179, 182, 183, 185, 189, 191, 195, 199, 202, 203, 205, 207, 208, 216, 217, 220, 222, 223, 224, 227, 231, 232
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STC 3189, signatures A4 verso and A5 recto
Terms of use
Images that are under Folger copyright are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This allows you to use our images without additional permission provided that you cite the Folger Shakespeare Library as the source and you license anything you create using the images under the same or equivalent license. For more information, including permissions beyond the scope of this license, see Permissions. The Folger waives permission fees for non-commercial publication by registered non-profits, including university presses, regardless of the license they use. For images copyrighted by an entity other than the Folger, please contact the copyright holder for permission information.
Copy-specific information
Creator: John Bodenham
Title: Bel-vedére or The garden of the Muses.
Date: Imprinted at London : by F[elix]. K[ingston]. for Hugh Astley, dwelling at Saint Magnus corner, 1600.
Repository: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, USA
Call number and opening: STC 3189, title page, signatures A4v-A5v, pages: 5, 14, 17, 18, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 35, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 49, 51, 57, 58, 59, 60, 66, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 84, 85, 89, 102, 104, 105, 106, 109, 111, 112, 114, 120, 121, 122, 124, 133, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 146, 150, 151, 158, 161, 162, 170, 171, 177, 178, 179, 182, 183, 185, 189, 191, 195, 199, 202, 203, 205, 207, 208, 216, 217, 220, 222, 223, 224, 227, 231, 232
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STC 3189, signatures A5 verso and A6 recto
Terms of use
Images that are under Folger copyright are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This allows you to use our images without additional permission provided that you cite the Folger Shakespeare Library as the source and you license anything you create using the images under the same or equivalent license. For more information, including permissions beyond the scope of this license, see Permissions. The Folger waives permission fees for non-commercial publication by registered non-profits, including university presses, regardless of the license they use. For images copyrighted by an entity other than the Folger, please contact the copyright holder for permission information.
Copy-specific information
Creator: John Bodenham
Title: Bel-vedére or The garden of the Muses.
Date: Imprinted at London : by F[elix]. K[ingston]. for Hugh Astley, dwelling at Saint Magnus corner, 1600.
Repository: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, USA
Call number and opening: STC 3189, title page, signatures A4v-A5v, pages: 5, 14, 17, 18, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 35, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 49, 51, 57, 58, 59, 60, 66, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 84, 85, 89, 102, 104, 105, 106, 109, 111, 112, 114, 120, 121, 122, 124, 133, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 146, 150, 151, 158, 161, 162, 170, 171, 177, 178, 179, 182, 183, 185, 189, 191, 195, 199, 202, 203, 205, 207, 208, 216, 217, 220, 222, 223, 224, 227, 231, 232
View online bibliographic record
Terms of use
Images that are under Folger copyright are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This allows you to use our images without additional permission provided that you cite the Folger Shakespeare Library as the source and you license anything you create using the images under the same or equivalent license. For more information, including permissions beyond the scope of this license, see Permissions. The Folger waives permission fees for non-commercial publication by registered non-profits, including university presses, regardless of the license they use. For images copyrighted by an entity other than the Folger, please contact the copyright holder for permission information.
Copy-specific information
Creator: John Bodenham
Title: Bel-vedére or The garden of the Muses.
Date: Imprinted at London : by F[elix]. K[ingston]. for Hugh Astley, dwelling at Saint Magnus corner, 1600.
Repository: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, USA
Call number and opening: STC 3189, title page, signatures A4v-A5v, pages: 5, 14, 17, 18, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 35, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 49, 51, 57, 58, 59, 60, 66, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 84, 85, 89, 102, 104, 105, 106, 109, 111, 112, 114, 120, 121, 122, 124, 133, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 146, 150, 151, 158, 161, 162, 170, 171, 177, 178, 179, 182, 183, 185, 189, 191, 195, 199, 202, 203, 205, 207, 208, 216, 217, 220, 222, 223, 224, 227, 231, 232
View online bibliographic record
Heather Wolfe, "Shakespeare anthologized: Bel-vedére or The garden of the Muses," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/165.
Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 3189. See Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/165.
Like other plays from the period, Shakespeare's plays were meant to be read both as stories and as sources for sententiae, or memorable aphorisms. Beginning in 1600, a group of editors and publishers, headed by John Bodenham, elevated English plays to a more respectable status by excerpting them in printed literary anthologies. Bel-vedere is the first printed commonplace book devoted entirely to extracts from (mostly) living English writers. Bodenham collected the extracts, which were then arranged by the editor, Anthony Munday. Bel-vedere includes 89 play extracts from six Shakespeare plays and 125 extracts from Shakespeare’s poems Lucrece and Venus and Adonis. Shakespeare’s lines are silently mingled with lines from other writers and appear under thematic headings such as Truth, Love, and Jealousy. The prefatory letter “To the Reader” lists Shakespeare among the writers anthologized.
Lucrece is the most cited of Shakespeare's works in Bel-vedere, followed by Richard II, Venus and Adonis, Richard III, Henry VI Part 2, Romeo and Juliet, Love's Labor's Lost, and Henry IV Part 1.
Written by Heather Wolfe
Sources
F.J. Furnivall, C.M. Ingleby, and L. Toulmin Smith, comps. The Shakspere Allusion-Book: a Collection of Allusions to Shakspere from 1591 to 1700. Edited by John Munro. (London: Oxford University Press, 1932): 2:489-518.
Roger Chartier and Peter Stallybrass, “Reading and Authorship: The Circulation of Shakespeare 1590–1619,” in A Concise Companion to Shakespeare and the Text, ed. Andrew Murphy (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007), 35–56.
Zachary Lesser and Peter Stallybrass, "The First Literary Hamlet and the Commonplacing of Professional Plays," Shakespeare Quarterly, Volume 59, Number 4, Winter 2008, pp. 371-420.
Last updated May 17, 2020
