Commonplace Book Compilationand Early Modern Reading: The Case of Hesperides, or the Muses’ Garden
Commonplace Book Compilationand Early Modern Reading: The Case of Hesperides, or the Muses’ Garden

Summary/Abstract: Hesperides, or the Muses’ Garden is a 17th-century manuscript commonplace book compiled by John Evans, now collected mainly at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. The commonplace book has been known primarily for its Shakespearean connections. Borrowing Gunnar Sorelius’s useful term “spontaneous editing,” I discuss it as a way of reading. According to Robert Darnton, the early modern segmental reading contrasts with the modern sequential reading. I maintain that the commonplace book compilation process, as can be inferred from the extant manuscripts, offers an intimate peep into a particular type of early modern reading practice. Hopefully a detailed analysis of the reading activities of John Evans can add to our understanding of the nature of early modern reading, especially commonplace reading. I argue that the defining features of commonplace reading include the fluidity of the text, the subjectivity of the reader, and the multiplicity of the authorial intention.

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