The history of Shakespeare scholarship in the nineteenth century has not been written. But there can be no doubt that its sustaining force was an irrepressible and burgeoning national consciousness. England boomed. It celebrated its heroes and venerated the greatest of them all, Shakespeare. Shakespeare scholarship flourished across the nation. Editions of the complete works abounded. There were ambitious Shakespeare societies and scores of local clubs. Stratford-upon-Avon was resurrected, refitted, and consecrated. Much of the activity is evident from the perspective of James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, whose fifty-year literary career may be said to constitute the bookends of Shakespearean scholarship in the nineteenth century. He was a center around which many satellites revolved and intercommunicated, revealing personalities of individuals, the nature of the relationships, their critical dispositions and politics, and in effect constituting in nuce the dimension and surge of Shakespeare scholarship of the age. It is the purpose of this archival research to make available detail and color for the comprehensive narrative that remains to be written.