INTRODUCTION
Prof. Stanley Wells.
Shakespeare Birthday Trust会長
Royal Shakespeare Theatre副会長
Oxford edition of Shakespeare’s Works編集長
George (Dadie)Rylands氏は、シェイクスピア作品の研究と実演（パフォーマンス）にその生涯を捧げました。学者として、文学のそして演劇人として、２０世紀の英国シェイクスピア劇界の人々に深く感謝された指導者でした。このコレクションは、シェイクスピア研究で優れた業績を残した彼の研究資料のすべてを入手できる又と無い機会です。
この中には、幾つかの大変貴重な資料が含まれています。この目録に記載されている１点１点が、John Gielgud卿，Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Michael Redgrave卿、Ian McKellen卿などの錚々たる顔ぶれの役者、そして舞台監督のPeter Hall卿John Bartonとの交流が如何に深かったかを物語っています。ケンブリッジ大学キングス・カレッジでの、書籍で満ち溢れた部屋での研鑚により、賢明で慈悲深い教師・マーロウ ソサイティが制作したシェイクスピア作品の監督・シェイクスピアの詩と作品の朗読作品の監督として、または評論家・編集者・番組制作者・一般向け講演者・シェイクスピア作品のアンソロジーThe Ages of Manの編集者として、多岐にわたる活躍をしています。アンソロジーの成功により、多くのリサイタルを行ったJohn Gielgud卿からの親しみのこもった手書きの書簡もこのコレクションに含まれています。
彼が広範囲にわたる分野への研究を深めていったことは、この目録に明白に現れています。John Florio訳モンテーニュ「エセ―（随想録）」の極く初期の版（「エセー」は「リア王」と「テンペスト」にその影響が強く見られます）、出回る事の余り無い初期シェイクスピア研究書等々。その中にはLewis TheobaldによるAlexander Pope版への容赦ない批判の書であるShakespeare Restored, Maurice Morhannによる性格描写に纏わるフォルスタッフについての評論、オリジナルな装丁を保っているThomas Rymerによる「オセロ」についての新古典主義的評論のそれぞれの初版本が含まれています。
Boydell版の挿し絵は、１００枚のうち９７枚がオリジナルのまま良好に保たれています。
１８世紀初頭から２０世紀後半にかけての初期シェイクスピア評論のファクシミリ版（著者による書名つきのものが多数含まれています）British Academyの紀要Shakespeare Lecturesも多数含まれています。シェイクスピアと同時期の劇作家たち、Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, John Ford, Ben Jonson, John Marston, Philip Masinger, Richard Bromeなどの全集の珍しい版が製本された状態で収められています。
シェイクスピア劇の舞台製作についての歴史を研究されている方々にとっては、マーロウソサイティによる舞台を監督した際に使用された台本は極めて価値のあるものとなるでしょう。マーロウ ソサイティは学生を中心に結成されている組織で、彼の指導のもと、Derek Jacobi卿，Ian McKellen卿、Peter Hall卿，Trevor Nunn等、数多くの俳優達、そして彼の教えを世界中に拡げた若者達が養成されて来ました。コレクションには「コレオレイナス」のヴォラムニア役のための台本、またMargaret Drabbleが演じた「シンベリン」のイモジェン役についての台本が含まれています。そして何枚にもわたる「ハムレット」の舞台写真も貴重なコレクションのうちのひとつです。
コレクションには、舞台設計や立ち位置などを書き込んだ「恋の骨折り損」「トロイラストとクレシダ」の台本、そして「ヘンリー６世」３部作など、初期の歴史劇に関する覚書も含まれています。この「ヘンリー６世」などは彼によって新たにシェイクスピア劇のレパートリーとして加えられたと言っても過言ではありません。演劇史にとっては又と無い貴重なものです。
そして、彼がケンブリッジで活躍する以前に勤務していたVirginia WoolfとLeonard WoolfのHogarth Pressで発行したものが含まれています。Hogarth Press発行の珍しいものの中には、自身の詩集、著書Words and Poetry, Lytton Stracheyの署名本、Siegfried
Sassoonからの献呈本、Frances Partridgeの著書などがあり、いくつかのものには書簡も付け加えられています。友情と文学と演劇に彩られた彼の遺産は、将来のシェイクスピア研究への大いなる刺戟となるでしょう。
（訳責：文生書院）
GEORGE RYLANDS, CH, CBE,
1902 – 1999
George Humphrey Wolferstan Rylands otherwise known as ‘Dadie’, owing to his childish attempt to pronounce the word ‘baby’, had a long association with Cambridge. He spent most of his life there, in rooms at King’s College which were decorated by Dora Carrington and Douglas Davidson. He held practically every office at the college: Fellow, Dean, Steward, Assistant Bursar, Praelector, Director of Studies and University Lecturer in English. He is, however, best known for being a Shakespearean scholar and director, but his interests were far more diverse and encompassed English Literature as a whole and in particular its power to move the heart.
Born in 1902, his life spanned nearly a century. He was educated at Eton where he produced the first play in College Hall which was Twelfth Night. He took the role of Viola and it was regarded by those present as a ‘not to be forgotten’ production. He went up to Cambridge as a Classics scholar and began to establish a wide circle of friends who recall his good looks and boundless energy and enthusiasm. Frances Partridge, a life-long friend refers to ‘his genius for friendship’ and states that ‘his vitality and charm bowled me over.’ Noel Annan in his memoir remembers that he ‘sparkled with wit, allusions and amusement.’ At about this time he met and became close to Leonard and Virginia Woolf, later working for them at the Hogarth Press, Lytton Strachey and others in the Bloomsbury group as well as academics in Cambridge and Oxford, including A.C. Benson who was captivated by him and Maurice Bowra. Similarly his long involvement with the theatre and those working in it enabled him to develop close friendships with many successful actors and actresses such as Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud, Peter Hall, Michael Redgrave and Ian McKellen to name but a few.
In 1928, he began acting and producing plays for the Marlowe Society. It was here that his skills as an interpreter of Shakespearean verse and his ability to impart it to others became renowned. Peter Hall describes his direction: ‘he taught us how to breathe… above all he taught us that speaking Shakespeare is about preserving the balance and beauty of the entire line rather than emphasising words as though they were in italics.’ Noel Annan suggests that Rylands gave to performers ‘a discipline that after the war was to transform for three decades the speaking of verse at Stratford and on the London stage.’
The Marlowe Society acquired a reputation as a testing ground for aspiring actors. So, in 1957, when the entire Shakespeare Canon was recorded, some of those who took part originated from there, while many of the professional actors hailed from Cambridge. It was finally completed in 1964, the year of Shakespeare’s quartercentenary. His most notable Shakespearean production was Hamlet which took place in 1945 with John Gielgud giving what was said to be his most outstanding performance in that role. Rylands as director ‘unravelled the play rather than imposing himself upon it.’ It was followed by The Duchess of Malfi with Peggy Ashcroft in the lead role and it too was widely acclaimed.
He was Governor of the Old Vic, Chairman of the Apollo Society, which meant arranging and taking part in recitals all over the country and also Chairman of the Arts Theatre which he tirelessly supported by fund raising, and at one time he even contributed to it from his personal finances. From 1948 to 1972 he sat on the Advisory Board of Shakespeare Survey and he wrote many articles for this publication.
Rylands wrote verse of his own and several books on Shakespeare, and compiled many anthologies, the most popular being his collection The Ages of Man – A Shakespeare Anthology in 1939. He had previously written Shakespeare the Poet in A Companion to Shakespeare Studies. In 1951, he gave the British Academy lecture on Shakespeare’s Poetic Energy. Frances Partridge describes hearing a lecture given by Rylands, ‘He read his quotations in a voice of intense vitality and emotion… Nothing of the don, nothing arid about him – just this splendid infectious enthusiasm.’
George Rylands died on 16th January 1999. Noel Annan says he was regarded by his friends as Plato thought of Socrates, ‘a man of whom we may say that of all whom we met at that time, he was the wisest, justest and best.’