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Title	Book Plate of Edwin Forrest, ' Richard III';
Date	n.d.
Date era	Mid C19
Creator	Johnson, Fry, & Co.
Production	Richard III
Character roles	Edwin Forrest (Richard III)
Artistic roles	Edwin Forrest (Actor)
Genre	Shakespeare history
Theme	Shakespeare
Item description	Book plate of American tragic actor Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) in the role of Richard III, possibly from ' The Complete Works'; by William Shakespeare published by Johnson, Fry &; Co. in New York in 1858.
Object narrative	Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) was the first internationally known and acclaimed American actor. Born to Scottish and German descendants, he made his stage debut in 1820. Touring at first as an actor in the West (Ohio and Kentucky), within six years he was performing in New York and building his reputation as the most powerful physical and vocal actor America had ever seen. He was popular for heroic and physical tragic roles such as Othello, King Lear, Virginius, and Metamora, and often brought audiences to their feet with his passionate, energetic, and frenetic portrayals. He reached his zenith in the late 1830s and 1840s as he toured to England and France, developing a professional rivalry with British actor William Macready, who played the same roles. Both men were known for jealousy and having virile tempers, however, and the feud became personal in the 1840s leading up to Forrest'; s second tour to England in 1845. Friends in the press and other supporters of both men criticized the other'; s performances in print, especially after Forrest publicly hissed Macready'; s performance of Hamlet in Edinburgh in February of that year, leading to public interest and charged opinions on both sides. Tensions eventually led to the Astor Place Riot in New York City on May 10, 1849, in which Americans rioted in the streets during a Macready performance and the militia tragically fired into the crowds. This item is a former book plate of an engraving of Forrest in the role of ' Richard III.'; Macready'; s newspaper friend John Forster said that Forrest: ' looked like a savage newly caught from out of the American backwoods,'; particularly in the fight between Richard and Richmond when the heavy strips of black hair that he had pasted on his head fell down over his face (qtd. in Moody 157). The quote at the bottom of the plate is from Act 5, Sc. 2: A Horse A Horse My Kingdom For A Horse
Original format	Book Plate
Repository	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/)
Collection	MSS255 Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection
Series	10.2.3 Photographs, Cards, Caricatures/Satire and Other Pictoral Materials -- Postcards -- Theatres
Finding aid link	http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/mss255.xml
Preferred citation	[Identification of item], Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection, 1753-2006 (MSS255), Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
Copyright	http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/copyright
Object ID	MSS255_B92_017
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304
Digital collection homepage	http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/Hansen

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Book Plate of Edwin Forrest, 'Richard III'

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