A recent encounter with a gorgeously illustrated compilation of Shakespeare forgeries, housed in IU’s Lilly Library, prompts MacKay’s strange tale of falsified beauty. In the years following the “discovery” (around 1795) of William Henry Ireland’s forged manuscripts, their presence played a surprising role in the construction of an idealized vision of Shakespeare that is still embraced today.
Falsified Beauty
Photos: Courtesy Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
Meet Ellen MacKay
Ellen MacKay is a scholar of early modern English drama and public culture, and Western theatre and performance, from the Greeks to the present. She is an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of English and the director of the Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities at IU Bloomington.
A Thing of Beauty was made possible by:
Faculty guests: Roger Hangarter, Jason Jackson, Ellen MacKay, Catherine Pilachowski, Kate Rowold, Eric Sandweiss and Betsy Stirratt; host Claire Repsholdt; editor and producer Jon Pieczynski; John Lucaites, associate dean for Arts and Humanities and Undergraduate Education; Tracy Bee, director of Academic Initiatives, College of Arts and Sciences; Themester 2016 Faculty Advisory Committee; The College of Arts + Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington.
The College of Arts