The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-08-19
BUST OF SHAKESPEARE.
The Interesting History of the Davenani
Head of the Poet.

When Lincoln's Inn Fields was still
a rural suburb, where aristocratic and
wealthy people lived, says the st. James
Budget, there stood on the southern
slde, or "on the back side Of Portugal
ROW" close by an old inn called the
Grange, a famous tennis court, together
with n OF those great and stately
inns OF court from which the name
or thai locality was obtained. Early in
the year 1860, or late in 1859, Sir Will.
lam Davenant obtained possession OF
the tennis court-then called Gibson's-
converted it into a handsome and roomy
theater, which a contemporary, Pepys.
said was the "the finest playhouse that
ever was in England" Over it's two
chief entrances recesses were made tc
accommodate busts, and these, appa-
rently, were those of the managers
godfather, n his predecessor as poet
laureate, Ben Jonson. Al thai time
many of Shakespeare's younger friends
We're still alive, and so were old actors
who a been the poets fellow players,
and 50 was Shakespeare's youngest
daughter, n his granddaughter, and
OLD piaygoers who had seen the poet
play. To all Of these Shakespeare's
1850 "OuAo NC dIIIdCllVG, anu ldny OF
them doubtless often paused on their
way past, into or out of the theater to
look up at it. Presently came the reign
OF opera In the italian style and come
dies IN the French style, and Shakes
peare was again neglected. The men
VINO remembered the mighty poet were
booming very few, the stories that were
told OF him were being fast forgotten,
and the busts owe the theaters were
no longer the objects of interest they
had been. In 1868 Sir William Davenant
died. Sir William had looked his last
upon the beloved bust above the thea
ter door, and after his death we grad
ually hear less and less of Shakespeare
and his works n more Of dancing and
singing and coarse buffoonery. If, then,
Shakespeare's plays were contemptu-
ously neglected, what wonder is it to
ind his personal relics equally disre-
garded? When in lila the Dukes
theater ceased to be a playhouse and
became a barrack, the busts over the
entrance remained. They were portraits
OF men unknown; and when %(probably
about that time) the entrances were
prlcked up, they were lost to sight al
together. When the building was de-
serted by the military it became an auc-
tion-room and warehouse, and after
ward, in 1871, Messrs. Copeland and
spode converyted it into a pottery ware
house. In 1845 the old building was re-
moved for the erection Of the College
OF Surgeons, n in 1848, when its last
remains were also removed, the long
forgotten terra Gotta busts once more
saw daylight. Before their real value
and importance were discovered the
workmen had thrown down the bust Of
Jonsons and utterly destroyed it. From
this fate the Shakespearean bust was
preserved by Mr.. Cliff, whose daughter
afterward became the wife Of the late
Sir Richard Owen, to whom it was be-
q~ueathed, and from whom, thanks to
the kindness of his son. Rev. MI. Owen
of Richmond, and Sir William Flower,
it has now become the most valuable
Of the many valuable Shakespearean
relics in the library of the Shakespeare
Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon. There
we may hope its continued existence
will never again be endangered by tina
ignorance and careless Indifference
through which we had so narrow an
escape OF losing it altogether.