Shakespeare Ladies Club

"[1] Known members of the Shakespeare Ladies Club include Susanna Ashley-Cooper, Elizabeth Boyd, and Mary Cowper.

Shakespearean scholar Michael Dobson points out that this is "a record which even during Garrick’s professedly Bardolatrous management of Drury Lane was never challenged.

[11] For the premiere of The Universal Passion, an adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing by James Miller, the prologue included an "ecstatic eulogy of the Shakespeare Ladies Club":[12] Britannia thus, with Folly’s Gloom overcast, Has slumb’ring lain near half a Cent’ry past, But now what Joy!

To see the Lamp of Science shine once more; To see the Reign of Farce and Dulness end, And Albion’s noble Fair to Shakespear’s Sense attend.

‘Twas this gave Birth to our Attempt to-night, Fond to bring more of his rich Scenes to light: But conscious how unequal to the Task, Our Bard scarce dares your Clemency to ask: .

To You, ye Fair, for Refuge now he flies And as you smile or frown, he lives or dies: You are the ablest Judges of this Play, Since Love’s almighty Pow’r’s his Theme today: To your Protection Shakespear’s Offspring take,

[14] The benefit performance of Julius Caesar on 28 April 1738 included an epilogue from James Noel which echoed "Miller's metaphor of the Ladies' Club as mothers" responsible for the birth of Shakespeare as the nation's poet:[15] But here what humble thanks, what praise is due, Ow'd to such gen'rous virtue, ow'd to you!

[17] The next day, 4 March 1737, the Daily Advertiser published a letter from Shakespeare's ghost "to the Fair Supporters of Wit and Sense, the Ladies of Great Britain.

[20] In the speech Garrick said "It was You Ladies that restor’d Shakespeare to the Stage you form’d yourselves into a Society to protect his Fame, and Erected a Monument to his and your own honour in Westminster Abbey.

"[21] From April 1744 to May 1746 Eliza Haywood anonymously published The Female Spectator, a monthly periodical which was the first magazine by and for women.

"[31] The play takes place in an Oxford College garden where Don Sancho conjures Shakespeare's ghost.