Creating a Commonplace Book (CPB)

(20% of the Final Grade)

This semester, you will keep your own commonplace book (CPB). What is a commonplace book?
(Figure 1)

(FIGURE 1: DR. KENNEDY’S COMMONPLACE BOOK. (TYPED TRANSCRIPTION CAN BE ACCESSED HERE.))

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During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, one of the most important tools of a reader or
writer was a commonplace book. Peter Beal, leading expert on English manuscript studies, defines a
commonplace book as “a manuscript book in which quotations or passages from reading matter,
precepts, proverbs and aphorisms, useful rhetorical figures or exemplary phrasing, words and ideas,
or other notes and memoranda are entered for ready reference under general subject headings.”

For example, here is a short poem copied into a Commonplace Book that we may file under the
heading of “Friendship” (Figure 2):

A TRUE FRIEND MUST LIKE A PRIVY*BE

TO EASE HIS FRIEND AT HIS NECESSITY.

A TRUE FRIEND MUST LIKE A CHIMNEY BE

HOTTEST IN WINTER OF ADVERSITY.

(F IG U RE 2: A N ( U N ATTRIBU TED ) EPIG RAM W RITTEN IN T H E C O M M O N PLA C E B O O K O F M A T T H E W D A Y (1574-1661, M A Y O R O F

W IN D S O R ) [ M A N U SC R IPT ], C A . 1650. (F O LG ER S H AKE S PE A R E L IB R A R Y , V. A .160, 4||5).

The Renaissance commonplace book allowed readers to actively engage with their texts, choosing
and curating passages that spoke to them, and to transcribe those passages into journals under
organized headings. Early modern readers marked up their texts, underlining favorite lines, writing
marginal notes (such as attribution tags), using asterisks and manicules (these cute little pointing
hand signs (☞)) to point out favorite passages, cross-listing page numbers, crossing out text they
did not like, writing lists, practicing their signature, drawing obscene images, etc. (Figures 3, 4, and
5)

Commonplace books were something like diaries or journals, but writers recorded favorite
quotations rather than daily events or emotions. This does not mean that they were impersonal in
any sense. We learn so much about early modern readers by their choice of organizational headings,
chosen passages, and other materials collected in their commonplace books. In addition, they were
often circulated among friends and passed down in families, demonstrating that they were semi-
public repositories of knowledge and self-improvement.

*
A PRIVY IS A TOILET.
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(F IG U RES 3 A N D 4, T IT LE P A G E A N D P . 531 O F J O H N F LO R IO ’ S 1603 TRAN SLATIO N O F M O N TA IG N E ’ S E SSA Y S . E V EN O N TH E TITLE
PA G E , W E C A N SE E A N N O T A T IO N S IN SEV ERAL D IFFER EN T H AN D S , IN C LU D IN G T H E C E N T R AL SIG N A T U R E O F A FO RM E R O W N E R E D W A R D
L U M SD O N . O N TH E TITLE PAG E , TH E READ ER ( S ) H AV E CR E A T E D T H EIR O W N H E A D IN G S A N D H A V E LIST E D T H E PA G E N U M BERS TO FIN D
M O R E O N SO M E O F TH E FO LLO W ING TO PICS : “P H Y S ICIA N S D R IN K W IN E A N D PR E S C R IB E S M A LL B E E R T O T H E IR PA T IE N TS ,” “A W O M A N
LIKE H O N E Y B E T T E R T ASTED TH AN EATEN ,” O R “T O W A LK TH E R O U N D , LIV E , LA U G H , A N D B E M E R R Y .” O N P . 532, W E SE E A M A N IC U LE
( PO IN TIN G H A N D ) PO IN TIN G TO T H E U N D ER LIN E D PA SSA G E . T H E R E A D E R H AS R E M A R K ED AT TH E TO P M ARG IN SO M E SEX AD V IC E : “I N
C O PU LA T IO N T H E M A N IS PLAIN TIFF AN D TH E W O M A N IS D E FE N D A N T YET SO M ETIM E TH ERE IS A C R O S S SU IT ” (F O LG ER S H AKE S PE A R E
L IB R A R Y , V. B .327).

(F IG U RE 5: DETAIL O F TH E A B O V E M O N TA IG N E T EXT . U N D ERLIN ED PASSAG E : IT IS A G A IN S T T H E N ATU RE O F LO V E , N O T TO BE

V IO LEN T , A N D A G A IN S T T H E C O N DIT IO N O F V IO LE N C E T O B E C O N S T A N T .
A C C O M PA N Y IN G M A N IC U LE H IG H LIG H TS H O W M U C H TH IS
R E A D E R W A N T E D T O E M PH AS IZE T H IS PA R T ICU L A R PA S S A G E . P. 532 O F TH E A B O V E C O PY O F M O N TA IG N E ’ S E SSAYS )

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Tudor schoolboys were encouraged to keep commonplace books for their spiritual and rhetorical
education, but they often practiced their handwriting skills, attempted their maths, and drew crude
figures in their books as well. Renaissance women kept commonplace books, quoting from scripture
and love poems, and adding recipes, medical cures, and more. While we will be compiling literary
commonplace books, there were legal commonplace books (Thomas Jefferson famously compiled
those, and used such writings when composing our major U.S. documents), philosophical (John
Locke), medical, theological, artistic (think of Da Vinci’s famous sketch journals), and scientific
commonplace books as well.

Adam Smyth explains, “Commonplace books are, overwhelmingly, messier texts—messier in terms
of the kinds of inclusions they present (everything from lines of Ovid to recipes to cure an ailing
horse) – and in terms of their material form” (90). He suggests instead that scholars embrace this
messiness—the actual use and (dis)organization of commonplace books as part of larger reading and
writing cultural practices, or what he terms “Commonplace Book Culture” (“the sum of
expectations, textual practices and approaches to language that the commonplace book—as theory,
process and text – created or encouraged” (94)).

The commonplace book was (and is) a way of collecting and organizing knowledge for personal
edification, improvement, and pleasure. We may think of Pinterest as a visual form of
commonplacing, as people choose and curate images (and very often inspirational quotations) that
they find motivating, educational, or idealistic (Figure 6). Whenever we choose a passage to cite
while sharing an article on Facebook or Twitter, we are creating a very public commonplace book on
social media. Every time we post favorite lyrics from a song or movie to social media or a blog, we
are nearing the concept of Renaissance commonplace book culture.

(FIGURE 6: “INSPIRATIONAL” + “QUOTES” ON PINTEREST)

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 Preparing to Commonplace

Before we begin our individual commonplace books, we will read and discuss a few essays about
Commonplace Books, discuss commonplace book culture and its effects on Q1 Hamlet, practice low
stakes commonplacing on index cards, and visit the library’s rare books holdings of early modern
English literature and commonplace book examples.

We will spend a day in the Rare Books Room (WEEK 2) to see early printed editions of Renaissance
drama, examples of the sorts of books Shakespeare and his contemporaries were reading as
schoolboys, and we will explore our libraries holdings of commonplace books. Our collections
include several early printed commonplace books, a few eighteenth century manuscript miscellanies
(a related genre we will discuss soon), and many 19th-20th century American manuscript and printed
commonplace book examples.

Q1 Hamlet is an ideal text to introduce us to the Commonplace Book Project. Not only is the play
almost infinitely quotable/commonplaceable (especially Corambis/Polonius!), but Q1 Hamlet was
also printed with commonplace markers for Polonius/Corambis' two speeches of advice for his
children (see figure 7).

Each class session on the syllabus in which

we discuss Q1 Hamlet (WEEKS 2-3), please
come to each class with two index cards
with quotations of your choosing, and with
possible headings for such a quotation. On
certain class sessions, I may give you more of
a prompt, such as: to choose a line or phrase
that is part of our everyday speech that
you encountered in Hamlet; or to cite a line
from the major avengers of the scenes we
discuss that day; etc. I will also be writing
lines on index cards; we will share these in
class, I will collect the cards, and return them
the following class session.
(FIGURE 7: CORAMBIS’ ADVICE TO LAERTES.)

We will focus on Hamlet's "Table of Memory" as his commonplace book. In Q1, Hamlet is reading
from and commenting on a book at the beginning of his "To be or not to be" speech, so we will
discuss what might be the words of the book and what were Hamlet's responses, and if he was
reading from his own commonplace book. We will also be able to discuss the uncanniness of
encountering unfamiliar variations of the major soliloquies and monologues ("To be or not to be. Ay,
there's the point!").

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We will read selections from Stallybrass and Lesser on the commonplace markers in Q1 Hamlet, and
David Summers’ essay on the epistemological crisis of Hamlet and the failure of commonplacing. As
we will see, Summmers does not consider Q1 Hamlet, so we will consider how his overall argument
changes when we read his work alongside Q1's commonplace markers and Hamlet's book for "To be."

Class Readings on Commonplace Books:

☞ (excerpts) Beal, Peter. Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology: 1450 to 2000. Oxford, GB: OUP
Oxford, 2007. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 19 December 2016.

☞ Lesser, Zachary and Peter Stallybrass. “The First Literary Hamlet and the Commonplacing of
Professional Plays.” Shakespeare Quarterly, (2008), 371–420.

☞ Smyth, Adam. “Commonplace Book Culture: A List of Sixteen Traits.” Women and Writing, c.1340-
c.1650: The Domestication of Print Culture. Manuscript Culture in the British Isles. Eds. Lawrence-
Mathers, A. and Hardman, P. Rochester, U.S.: Boydell and Brewer, 90-110.

☞ Summers, David. “—the proverb is something musty: The Commonplace and Epistemic Crisis in
Hamlet.” Hamlet Studies 20.1-2 (1998): 9-34.

YOUR Commonplace Book

Your sources can include, first and foremost, the assigned readings and supplementary materials, as
well as any other useful texts you come across.

I encourage you to supplement CPB entries with extra-curricular material: quotations from readings
for other classes, lyrics from songs, lines from movies, tweets with relevant hashtags, an occasional
quotation from a classmate during discussion, etc. These extra-curricular commonplace passages,
however, are in addition to and not in place of the required passages as described below.

Your Commonplace Book requires the following, and in roughly this order:

☞ A title page. The title page should include your name, and a title unique to your book, i.e. not
Revenge! (If you wish to make your own colophon or other embellishment, that is wonderful but not
necessary)

☞ A table of contents (at the front of your Commonplace Book). Ideally, this would be in
alphabetically order, but as you discover new areas of interest and inquiry (and reach dead ends or
exhaust old ideas) your commonplace book will grow and change. (Figure 8)

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(FIGURE 8: TABLE OF CONTENTS WITH COLUMN FLOURISHES FOR PAGE NUMBERS FOR JOSEPH BEACON’S COMMONPLACE BOOK. JOSEPH
BEACON: HIS BOOKE. MANUSCRIPT, 1689. MS AM 528. HOUGHTON LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY.)

☞ Approximately 50 or so Quotations (3-4 per week), arranged under 8-12 topical/thematic

headings, each with a brief bibliographic reference (so that you may easily find the quotation again,
in context). Make sure to number each entry.

☞ Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, the great Dutch humanist and theologian, extols the
virtues of commonplacing in his rhetorical textbook, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style.
Copia (or “abundance”) covers the concepts of imitatio, or paraphrasing; copia, or the
expansion and revision of pre-existing ideas; rhetoric, the study and use of various literary
techniques and styles; and inventio, the recording, altering, and creation of new ideas and
texts from others’ materials. A notorious exercise from the book includes 150 stylistic
variations of the phrase: "Your letter has delighted me very much" (Tuae literae me magnopere
delectarunt). Unsurprisingly, the commonplace book is central to Erasmus’ rhetorical
exercises, and he offers a helpful section on commonplacing, and how to create headings and
subheadings. (You may also consult the indices of your favorite academic books for
suggestions.)

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 Prepare for yourself a sufficient number of headings and arrange them as you please, subdivide them into the
appropriate sections, and under each section add your commonplace and maxims; and then whatever you come
across in any author, particularly if it is rather striking, you will be able to note down immediately in the proper
place, be it an anecdote or a fable or an illustrative example or a strange incident or a maxim or a witty remark
or a remark notable for some other quality or a proverb or a metaphor or a simile. This has the double
advantage of fixing what you have read more firmly in your mind, and getting you into the habit of using the
riches supplied by your reading. – Erasmus, De Ultraque Verborum ac Rerum Copia (1512)

☞ An index (the final pages of the Commonplace

Book) of at least 20 words. The index will be listed
alphabetically (or thematically, then alphabetically) by
your commonplace book headings with page numbers.
You may decide to also add cross-references to
authors, other frequently appearing terms that were
not heading chapters, etc. (Figure 9)

(FIGURE 9: FIRST INDEX PAGE OF THOMAS SHEPPEY’S “A

BOOK OF CHOICE RECEIPTS COLLECTED FROM SEVERAL
FAMOUS AUTHORS A GREAT PART IN MONASTERIES AND
OFTEN EXPERIMENTED AS TO A GREAT NUMBER OF THEM
[MANUSCRIPT], CA. 1675.” (FOLGER SHAKESPEARE
LIBRARY, V.A.452.)

☞ Remember: Be diligent! You should be

adding to your commonplace book every
week!

Further Information on your Quotations and Headings:

☞ Entries must be listed under a specific and clear heading. For example, I will be keeping my own
Commonplace Book this semester, and because of my particular research interests I may include
headings such as “Cosmetics,” “Perfume,” “Odors,” and “Cannibalism.” (These headings will all
also appear in my Table of Contents and Index.)

☞ Entries might be as small as one line (See Figure 10) or as long as a full stanza or paragraph.

☞ You should have an average of 4 entries/quotations per week from course texts (so you will have
about 50 entries by the end of the semester). However, you are strongly encouraged to add entries
from varied sources—other readings, music lyrics, witty remarks by friends, quotable graffiti, etc.

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 (FIGURE 10. DETAIL IMAGE OF THE COMMONPLACE BOOK (BEGAN C. 1605) OF SIR EDWARD DERING
(1598-1644) SHOWING PITHY LINES AND PHRASES FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, LISTED BY AUTHOR IN
THE LEFT-HAND COLUMN. FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY, M.S. X.D.530, FOLIO 29 VERSO.
ACCORDING TO THEIR CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION: LINES OF LATIN VERSE ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY
BY THE FIRST LETTER OF THE LINE. POSSIBLY STARTED WHEN A BOY. THE AUTHORS, BOTH CLASSICAL
AND MODERN, HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE LINES ENTERED IN LATER LIFE.)

☞ Please include only quotations, and a brief bibliographic reference. Do not add commentary
explaining why you like or chose a particular quotation. (e.g. Hieronimo in The Spanish Tragedy
3.2.1-15, or Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy 3.2.1-15, or even as simple as The Spanish Tragedy 3.2.1-15).

☞ Each page must be numbered. You can decide whether you wish to write on both sides of a
page—or only the verso or recto, depending on the quality or your chosen paper and ink. You may
also wish to number each entry, as that will help me determine that you are on track.

☞ Exemplars of proper commonplace books are nearly impossible to find—more often than not,
texts (literary or otherwise) appear alongside a diverse range of material, often with little or no
relation to the texts collected. You will need to find your own method in the madness. Would you
like to include a recipe for meat pasties while we are reading Titus Andronicus? Wonderful. Would you
consider “He better call Becky with the good hair” (Beyoncé, “Sorry”) a modern day aphorism that
you would include under the heading of “Adultery”? Fantastic. Exploit this potential in order to find
the practices of reading that work for you—in doing so, you will better understand the active and
practical process of early modern reading.
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☞ Indeed, you may need to expand the practice of commonplacing beyond its strict definition, in
order to make this a useful process for the work we need to accomplish this semester.

☞ As our first writing assignment is to analyze a short passage, including using The Oxford
English Dictionary and The Shakespeare Concordance to consider etymologies, usage, frequency of
use, etc. following a specific word—so you may wish to follow a major word or concept from
our course theme, such as Revenge, Vengeance, Forgiveness, Retribution, etc.

☞ Our second major writing assignment for the course will be based on your Commonplace
Book entries, so please be very aware of what you would like to focus on this semester.

☞ You will not simply choose a few topical headings of your own choice, and copy down brief and
suitable quotations. This should instead be a more thoughtful process that adapts to your own
interests and habits of thinking—so while you will want to be relatively consistent in your
methodology, you will also need to be flexible.

☞ Trial and error: You may begin a heading topic, and then discover that you are not finding as
many quotable passages as you had wished. It is fine to only have a few entries and abandon that
topic. Conversely, you may find so many quotable passages on another topic that you may need to
create a continuing entry if you run out of room in your allotted space.

e.g. “Women Scorned” (Con’t. from page 17)

☞ Commonplace Books are personal, but not private: at times—and especially at the end of the
semester—we will pass them around and let others view them.

Other criteria:

☞ Your Commonplace Books must be handwritten.

☞ Your Commonplace Book must be bound together—no looseleaf paper. The Commonplace
Book can be a composition notebook, journal, or three ring binder, with lined or unlined
paper. On the second floor of Prairie Lights Bookstore, there is a wonderful selection of
various notebooks that would be ideal for this project, or you can always just buy a cheap
marbled cover composition notebook. Others may invest in a Bullet Journal. You may also
choose to make your own notebook of blank, lined, or colored papers folded in half and
secured together with staples or stabstitch binding.

☞ You do not have to include any of the following, but may wish to add or alter in any way:

☞ A personalized bookmark.

☞ A decorative cover for your Commonplace Book. Maybe you wish to include movie posters
from your favorite revenge-themed films, a page of Hamlet as redacted poetry, a knit or cross-

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 stitched cover (Figure 11), a collage of your favorite quotations, etc.

(F IGURE 11 ( LEFT ): T HE WHOLE BOOKE OF P SALMES (1639), WITH AN EMBROIDERED BINDING FEATURING D AVID AND
G OLIATH . (F OLGER S HAKESPEARE L IBRARY . STC 2689, COPY 1) F IGURE 12 ( RIGHT ): C ONTEMPORARY C OMMONPLACE
BOOK / MISCELLANY BY “Ellina from Russia” DEMONSTRATING THE USE OF DIFFERENT COLORED INKS AS
ORGANIZATIONAL AID .)

☞ Feel free to play with your own chosen handwriting styles, color of ink (Figure 12), size of letter,
etc. I can provide early modern handwriting examples for those who wish to try their hand (all puns
intended) at early modern paleography and calligraphy

☞ Reader’s marks. Go back and re-read entries, and

underline key words or create a new heading based on
recurring subtopics you find interesting. You can add
manicules ☞ to your favorite passages.

☞ Especially for those of you who are taking classes in

the Center for the Book, you may wish to incorporate
any materials created or skills developed in those
classes.

☞ An occasional illustration. Do you wish to design a costume for Revenge? Do you feel compelled
to doodle a skull and crossbones? Would you like to try replicating the title illustration for The
Spanish Tragedy? (Figure 13)

(FIGURES 13: HENRY TIFFIN COMMONPLACE BOOK AT THE PHILLIPS LIBRARY OF THE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM. TIFFIN WAS A BRITISH SAILOR AND INCLUDED
78 WATER COLORS IN HIS COMMONPLACE BOOK, MOSTLY NOTES ON NAVAL SHIPS AND QUOTATIONS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL NAVY. YOU CAN READ
MORE ON THE MANUSCRIPT HERE AT CONVERSANT, THE BLOG FOR THE PHILLIPS LIBRARY. MSS 322, HENRY TIFFIN COMMONPLACE BOOK, 1748 – 1776.

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Grading: You will be asked to submit your Commonplace Book on the following dates:

☞ W Feb. 8: Commonplace Book Check-In #1 DUE in class (10 entries+); short reflection
DUE by 11:59 pm
☞ F. Mar. 3: Commonplace Book Check-In #2 DUE in class (20+ entries); short reflection
DUE by 11:59 pm
☞ F Mar. 31: Commonplace Book Check-In #3 DUE in class (~30 entries); short reflection
DUE by 11:59 pm
☞ M May 1: FINAL Commonplace Book DUE in class (~50 entries); short reflection DUE by
11:59 pm

Your commonplace book for the first three submissions will be marked:

☞ satisfactory (meeting the number of submissions with brief citations and adhering to the
above criteria)

☞ unsatisfactory (not meeting the above criteria),

☞ or exemplary (a new Francis Bacon or John Locke in the making!)

You will also be asked to complete several short reflections throughout the semester about your
commonplacing experience.

Overall, we are all working toward Renaissance reading, recording, rhetorical, and writing practices,
so I will be looking for your conscious choice in your entry selections, dedicated organizational
patterns and curation techniques, self-reflection and thoughtful responses in your short writing
exercises, and as a whole, your engagement with and understanding of our various texts.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

I want to thank the various Renaissance scholars who shared their Commonplace Book Assignments with me. My own prompt is beautified with
others’ feathers!: Sonya Brockman, Josh Calhoun, Joshua Eckhardt, Adam Hooks, Jennifer Higginbotham, Emily Isaacson, Elizabeth Kolkovich, Patti
Taylor, and Katie Will. In addition, I want to thank Natalie Eschenbaum and Anya Bertolet from the Shakespeare Association of America session on
“Alternatvies to the Term Paper” for their feedback and suggestions.

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