Shakespeare's effect on America's intellectual and artistic life has been much discussed, but what role does he play on the American popular stage? This study changes our understanding of Shakespeare's presence in American life. The book looks at how Shakespeare came to America just before the Revolutionary War. As Americans broke with Britain, they embraced Britain's playwright. Teague re-examines P. T. Barnum's attempt to buy Shakespeare's Birthplace, the Astor Place Riot when twenty-three people died, and the way both Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth regarded Shakespeare. In the history of Broadway, more musicals have drawn on Shakespeare than any other author. Shakespeare musicals like Kiss Me, Kate and West Side Story can tell us much about America's culture, but sometimes failed musicals such as Swingin' the Dream can tell us more. With discussion of over twenty Shakespeare musicals, this study demonstrates that Shakespeare has always been present in popular shows.

From the beginning of the seventeenth century, English society started to become preoccupied with education and how people acquired it. It is all the more surprising, then, that there should be relatively few early modern texts by Englishwomen devoted to the question of how one should learn. The four texts printed here are principally concerned with language and arithemetic. One of the reasons for the paucity of such writings is that many commentators viewed women's ability to write as a threat to social stability. The education of women was at best ad hoc. A few attended dame schools, and the wealthy could afford private tutors. Among her own family and friends, however, the individual learned girl was often celebrated, and instances of formal praise act as forewords to some of the texts printed in this volume.

Shakespeare's effect on America's intellectual and artistic life has been much discussed, but what role does he play on the American popular stage? This study changes our understanding of Shakespeare"s presence in American life. The book looks at how Shakespeare came to America just before the Revolutionary War. As Americans broke with Britain, they embraced Britain"s playwright. Teague re-examines P. T. Barnum"s attempt to buy Shakespeare"s Birthplace, the Astor Place Riot when twenty-three people died, and the way both Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth regarded Shakespeare. In the history of Broadway, more musicals have drawn on Shakespeare than any other author. Shakespeare musicals like Kiss Me, Kate and West Side Story can tell us much about America"s culture, but sometimes failed musicals such as Swingin" the Dream can tell us more. With discussion of over twenty Shakespeare musicals, this study demonstrates that Shakespeare has always been present in popular shows.