Exhibition looks at Shakespeare and Scotland

What does England's bard mean to Scotland? The exhibition looks at Shakespeare's reputation across four centuries through the eyes of key figures with Scottish connections, telling a little-known story of how Shakespeare has been seen from Scotland down the centuries.

Earliest surviving works

Visitors will have the rare opportunity to see some of the earliest surviving examples of Shakespeare's works. The exhibition features a world-class collection of Shakespeare related material held by the University and the National Library of Scotland.

Based at the National Library in Edinburgh, exhibits include a copy of the First Folio, a collection of 36 plays published by Shakespeare’s friends seven years after his death.

The exhibition looks at Shakespeare through the eyes of three individuals and one family from his own time when he was just one of many playwrights writing for the London stage, through to his iconic status in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Early versions of Shakespeare’s texts were published as small cheap playbooks in a format called ‘quarto.’ These quartos are at the heart of the exhibition and will include one of the rarest of all, the 1599 edition of Titus Andronicus.

Hands-on activities

Shakespeare's texts were often edited, changed and written on as they were performed.

This is reflected in the exhibition which encourages visitors to put their own stamp on Shakespeare by playing with his words in different ways.

Dr James Loxley, School of Literature, Languages and Cultures said:

This exhibition is not about the untouched book in a case. It’s about how people have engaged with Shakespeare’s words. People scribbled on texts, cut them up, edited them and made facsimile pages. All these interventions and interactions show us how people regarded Shakespeare at different points in time.

Dr James Loxley

The exhibition, which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is on from 9 December 2011 to 29 April 2012 at the National Library of Scotland, George 1V Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EW. Entry is free.