Title: Shakespeare and his contemporaries. [graphic] : Engraved for the Eclectic magazine. / Painted by John Faed. Engd. by J. Sartain Phila.

Author-Creator: Faed, John, 1819-1902,

Date: 1860

Call Number: Annuals C Ecle 1860 plate

Keywords: Annuals, Books, Dorset, Thomas Sackville, Earl of, 1536-1608 Portraits. Sylvester, Josuah, 1563-1618 Portraits. Camden, William, 1551-1623 Portraits. Selden, John, 1584-1654 Portraits. Beaumont, Francis, 1584-1616 Portraits, Fletcher, John, 1579-1625 Portraits., Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 Portraits., Jonson, Ben, 1573?-1637 Portraits., Daniel, Samuel, 1562-1619 Portraits., Donne, John, 1572-1631 Portraits. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Portraits. Raleigh, Walter, Sir, 1552?-1618 Portraits., Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, Earl of, 1573-1624 Portraits., Cotton, Robert, Sir, 1571-1631 Portraits., Dekker, Thomas, ca. 1572-1632 Portraits., Dorset, Thomas Sackville, Earl of, 1536-1608 Portraits., Literary prints., Intaglio prints., Book illustrations., Group portraits.

Notes: This plate appears preceding p. 1 in the January, 1859 issue of Eclectic magazine, issued in vol. 1 of Eclectic gift book for the holidays, New York, 1860.

Subject: Literary print depicting an imagined meeting of Elizabethan writers at the Mermaid Tavern, site of many literary gatherings in the early 1600s. The men are grouped around Shakespeare, seated in an armchair at center with his legs crossed and his finger marking a place in a book. At left, Sylvester, "Seldon" [i.e., John Selden], and Beaumont stand; Camden, Dorset, Fletcher, Bacon, Jonson, Daniel (just visible behind Donne), and Donne sit around a table strewn with books, papers, an hourglass, and an inkwell. At right, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Southampton stand together; Sir Robert Cotton sits looking over his shoulder across the back of his chair at Shakespeare; and Thomas Dekker sits holding a walking stick in one hand. "Sylvester. Selden. Beaumont. Sackville. Earl of Dorset. Camden. Fletcher. Bacon. Daniel Donne. Ben Jonson. Shakespeare. Raleigh. Earl of Southampton. Sir Robert Cotton. Dekker."

Related Names: Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver.

[left: full engraving (above) and detail (below)]