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The Collation

"What manner o' thing is your crocodile?": November 2014

Perhaps the question for this month’s mystery is less about crocodiles and more about elephants:

What manner of thing is this and what is it doing at the Folger Shakespeare Library?

What manner of thing is this and what is it doing at the Folger Shakespeare Library?

It’s been a while since we’ve done a mystery along these lines, so enjoy letting your imagination run free: What is this and what’s it doing in the collections of the Folger Shakespeare Library?

As always, leave your comments, questions, and brainstorming below and come back next week for the reveal!

Update (November 4, 2014): All is revealed in “Dalí as you like him“!

Comments

It’s a design set by Salvador Dali for As You Like It. Since the Folger has recently acquired designs for Romeo and Juliet by him, he must be flavour of the month

David Pinto — October 30, 2014

Reply

What a wonderfully imaginative creature, a sort of cross between daddy-long-legs and an elephant, and such a rich background! This must have been a stunning production.

Jan Kellett — October 30, 2014

Reply

That instantly reminded me of Slavador Dali’s “Temptation of St Anthony” I first saw during my art school days.

http://www.wikiart.org/en/salvador-dali/the-temptation-of-st-anthony

Tom Reedy — October 30, 2014

Reply

It is indeed an image from the set and costume designs Salvador Dalí did for As You Like It in 1948—so very close in period to “The Temptation of St Anthony.” I love the exaggerated quality of this and thinking about what sort of AYLI it might create. More soon on the production, but in the meantime, you can peruse some costume designs: http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/s/2c280g

Sarah Werner — October 30, 2014

Reply

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