John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - garden detail on title page

Move your pointing device over the image to zoom to detail. If using a mouse click on the image to toggle zoom.
When in zoom mode use + or - keys to adjust level of image zoom.

Date:1597

Description:Shakespeare set scenes in gardens such as this

Many scenes in Shakespeare’s plays are set in gardens. The formal lay-out of beds and hedges seen on this title-page engraving were familiar to Elizabethans and gardens like this inspired scenes in Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Richard II, and Iden’s garden in Henry VI, Part 2..

See:‘Get you all three into the box tree: Malvolio’s coming down this walk’. (Twelfth Night, 2,5, line 13) Lord, who would live turmoiled in the court, and may enjoy such quiet walks as these? (Henry VI, Part 2, 4,10, lines 16-17).


Full Title: John Gerarde, The Herball, [colophon: Edm. Bollifant for Bonham and John Norton], 1597.


Timeline

The timeline shows resources around this location over a number of years.

1570s
Henri Estienne, A mervaylous discourse upon... Katherine de Medici…, 1575 - title page
Henri Estienne, A mervaylous discourse upon... Katherine de Medici…, 1575 - title page

Shakespeare may have owned this book. Shakespeare purchased New Place, the largest ...

1590s
William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, 1594, leaf F4v.
William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, 1594, leaf F4v.

Shakespeare’s first published works. The long poem, Venus and Adonis, was ...

1610s
George Tuberville, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, 1611 -  A royal picnic, p.91.
George Tuberville, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, 1611 - A royal picnic, p.91.

A picnic for Shakespeare's royal patron. Among the many engravings of huntsmen ...

1630s
William Shakespeare, Quartos, Love's Labour's Lost, 1631 - title page
William Shakespeare, Quartos, Love's Labour's Lost, 1631 - title page

A play for the Blackfriars Theatre: Shakespeare's Love’s Labour’s Lost. The ...

Share:


Donor ref:SR/OS 97.3 [827] (32/10602)

Source: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - Library

Copyright information: Copyrights to all resources are retained by the individual rights holders. They have kindly made their collections available for non-commercial private study & educational use. Re-distribution of resources in any form is only permitted subject to strict adherence to the usage guidelines.