This easily overlooked passage within a somewhat obscure volume describes what may very well be the first private shrine to Shakespeare, an indication of the long-departed playwright’s elevated status in this particular household.

The household in question was that of the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury and his wife, the Countess, Susanna Ashley-Cooper, foundress and leader of the Shakespeare Ladies Club. This group of women, in the late 1730s and through the turn of the decade, was responsible for petitioning and persuading London theatre managers to stage Shakespeare’s plays more frequently and revive many of his dramatic works that had not been performed since the Restoration. Now that the theatre was a commercial venture, no longer sustained by royal patronage, it was common for influential aristocratic persons to request (or ‘bespeak’) performances of particular plays.