Retelling

Abstract

The second major tradition of nineteenth-century remediation—deletion—is under analysis here. I consider the remediations by Charles and Mary Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare, the first prose retellings of Shakespeare’s plays in the language. The discussion begins with a reading of Charles Lamb’s account of his encounter with another kind of monument: the David Garrick Memorial in Westminster Abbey and the commendatory verses engraved upon it. “To paint fair nature” was written by the novelist and poet Samuel Jackson Pratt and praises the “Actor’s genius” that causes Shakespeare’s work to “breathe anew.” Pratt’s celebration of Garrick stands in stark contrast to Lamb’s understanding of the nature of Shakespeare’s works, especially the tragedies, as well as his understanding of the nature of the theatrical experience more generally. Lamb’s well-known anti-theatricalism functions as one pole for this discussion of his relationship to Shakespeare; the second is Lamb’s flirtation with the counterfeit in the form of Falstaff’s Letters that he produced in collaboration with his longtime friend James (Jem) White in 1796. Lamb’s work as Shakespeare remediator, written in collaboration with his sister, emerges from the uneasy point of contact between his anti-theatricalism and his interest and skill in literary counterfeiting.