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Questions about Memorials to William Shakespeare

Short answers, pulled from the story.

Where is the oldest memorial to William Shakespeare?

The oldest memorial to William Shakespeare is his funerary monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, the same church where he was baptised. It was created by sculptor Gerard Johnson and must have been completed between Shakespeare's death in 1616 and 1623, when it is mentioned in the First Folio.

Who funded the William Shakespeare statue in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey?

The Poets' Corner statue of Shakespeare, designed by William Kent and sculpted by Peter Scheemakers, was funded by Lord Burlington and Alexander Pope, among others. The Shakespeare Ladies Club also organised benefit performances of Julius Caesar at Drury Lane in 1738 and Hamlet at Covent Garden in 1739 to raise money for the monument, which was installed in 1740.

Who designed the Shakespeare statue in New York's Central Park?

The Shakespeare statue in Central Park was designed by John Quincy Adams Ward. It was commissioned in 1864 to celebrate the tricentenary of Shakespeare's birth in 1564 and erected in 1872. Funds were raised by a performance of Julius Caesar in which Edwin Booth played the lead role and John Wilkes Booth played Mark Antony.

What is the Gower Monument in Stratford-upon-Avon?

The Gower Monument is a memorial to Shakespeare unveiled in 1888 in Stratford's Bancroft Gardens, created by Lord Ronald Gower. It shows Shakespeare seated on a pedestal surrounded at ground level by four characters: Hamlet representing Philosophy, Lady Macbeth representing Tragedy, Prince Hal representing History, and Falstaff representing Comedy.

Why was a Shakespeare memorial erected in Leicester Square in 1874?

The Leicester Square memorial was installed by financier Baron Albert Grant in 1874 in response to an embarrassing gap: London had no outdoor public memorial to Shakespeare, while New York's Central Park had erected a statue in 1872. Sculpted by Giovanni Fontana, the marble figure in the fountain was modelled on the Scheemakers statue in Poets' Corner.

What happened to the original stained glass window in the Shakespeare memorial at Southwark Cathedral?

The original stained glass window depicting Shakespearean characters in Southwark Cathedral was destroyed by a bomb blast during World War II. It was replaced in 1954. The cathedral's memorial also includes a recumbent statue of Shakespeare created by Henry McCarthy in 1912.