This year marks the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeareâs death. Two shows at the Boston Public Library observe the occasion. âShakespeareâs Here and Everywhereâ runs through Feb. 26 at the Leventhal Map Center at the BPL. âShakespeare Unauthorizedâ runs through March 31 in the libraryâs McKim Exhibition Hall.
The maps show happily reminds us of an often-overlooked aspect of Shakespeareâs work. Heâs most commonly associated with the enduring characters he created: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Juliet, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar. To the extent we think of Shakespeare geographically, itâs in terms of England â or, as enumerated by John of Gaunt, in âRichard IIâ: âThis blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this Englandâ (one guess how he would have voted on Brexit). Yet each of those characters is inextricably associated with a a no-less-enduring â and not-English â place: Denmark, Scotland, Cyprus, Verona, Egypt, Rome. Some Shakespeare plays even have places in their title, âThe Merry Wives of Windsorâ (all right, thatâs English), âThe Merchant of Venice,â âTimon of Athens.â Athens and environs also provide the setting for âA Midsummer Nightâs Dream.â The Bard got around.
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Lest we forget, the theater where his plays were staged was named the Globe. Coleridge famously referred to âmyriad-minded Shakespeare.â He could as justly have called him map-minded Shakespeare â even if, in âThe Winterâs Tale,â he did, ahem, refer to âthe coast of Bohemia.â Truly, he is our supreme geographer of the imagination.
Shakespeareâs life coincided with the Age of Discovery and its explosion of geographical knowledge. âO brave new world,â Miranda declares in âThe Tempest.â She could have been speaking for all of Western Europe. A few years after Shakespeareâs birth, Abraham Ortelius published what is now considered the first modern world atlas, âTheatrum Orbis Terrarumâ (1570). Itâs on display here â and a massive, majestic thing it is â along with other vintage maps.
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The 16th century predominates, but Bernard Sleighâs âAnciente Mappe of Fairyland Newly Discovered and Set Forthâ is as recent as 1917. Some of the maps bear a general relation to Shakespeare, such as Robert Mordenâs 1687 view of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Others are more specific: a 1629 map of Denmark, a 1582 view of Verona.
Visually splendid, the maps convey a sense of wonder that reproaches our own GPS-narrowed perspective. More than that, they underscore the miracle of Shakespeare being able to take a specific location and render it universal. Anyone who knows âAs You Like Itâ has been to a Forest of Arden far more real than the one in England.
âShakespeare Unauthorizedâ draws on the BPLâs holdings, with almost all the items from its Thomas Pennant Barton Shakespeare Collection. Its 15,000 volumes form one of the largest Shakespeare holdings of any public institution. The library purchased the collection in 1873 for $34,000. That was half the appraised value then. In constant dollars it would be $646,000. An excellent deal at the time, it looks even better now.
There are sections on stagecraft, conspiracies (the longstanding speculation over who âreallyâ wrote the works of Shakespeare), music, poetry, publication history, playwriting contemporaries (Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, etc.). We see a facsimile of Shakespeareâs will â Willâs will, as it were.

The show concludes with a coup de theatre: a display case containing one First Folio (the first authoritative gathering of the plays), one Second Folio, two Thirds, and a Fourth. Digital displays allow visitors to call up any page to compare and contrast and, of course, savor. The volumes are mighty objects, impressive in scale, and all the more impressive seen in such an array, if nowhere near as impressive as whatâs inside them.
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SHAKESPEAREâS HERE AND EVERYWHERE
At Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, Copley Square, through Feb. 26. 617-859-2387, maps.bpl.org
SHAKESPEARE UNAUTHORIZED
At McKim Exhibition Hall, Boston Public Library, Copley Square, through March 31, 617-536-5400, www.bpl.org/exhibitions/shakespeare-unauthorized
Mark Feeney can be reached at mfeeney@globe.com.