An Early History of the Shakespeare Sermon (1769–1830): From Garrick's Jubilee to the Reverend Arthur Savage Wade's Stratford Festival Shakespeare Sermons. (2nd October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cerezo, Marta
• Is Part Of: Shakespeare. Volume 17:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 428
• Page End: 450
• Publication Date: 2021-10-02
• Subjects: Shakespeare sermon -- Stratford -- commemoration -- Reverend Arthur Savage Wade -- Jewish emancipation; Periodicals; 822.33
• DOI: 10.1080/17450918.2021.1968022
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-0918

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article addresses crucial landmarks in the origins of the tradition of the Shakespeare sermon. First, it focuses on two significant dates: Garrick's 1769 Jubilee and 1810, when the relationship between Shakespeare, commemoration and sermonic discourse is first established. The composition of probably the earliest Shakespeare sermon took place in 1810. This sermon, which must be read as part of a campaign against Methodism, proves the flexibility of the homiletic genre at the time, which serves to support this article's argument that, according to nineteenth-century sermon genre conventions, the Reverend Arthur Savage Wade's speeches during the 1827 and 1830 Shakespeare celebrations in Stratford should be catalogued as the earliest recorded Stratford Shakespeare sermons. Wade's speeches–unexplored events in the critical history of the Shakespeare sermon tradition–deserve academic attention for three important reasons: Wade participated in the controversial debate within the Church of England at the time about the morality of the stage; his radicalism opposed the Reverend James Davenport's, Vicar of Holy Trinity, conservative stance during the 1827 Shakespeare celebrations; and in 1830 the preacher sacralised The Merchant of Venice to argue for religious liberties in the midst of the social debate about Jewish emancipation in England.