William Shakespeare: A Popular Life

The late Myron Matlaw was one of the foremost historians of the American stage, with a particular predilection for those amazing, phenomenal successes which criss-crossed the country in touring productions, bringing crowds back season after season with the devotion of theatergoers who imagine that a visit to New YOrk is incomplete without Cats. The plays in this volume include many such smash hits of the 19th century: Anna Cora MOwatt's FASHION (1845), a satirical condemnation of American nouveaux riches eagerly aping continental savoir-fair; Dion Boucicoult's THE OCTOROON (1859), the tale of a forbidden love between a beautiful octoroon slave and the white man who adores her but cannot marry her; Joseph Jefferson's RIP VAN WINKLE (1865), a re-telling of the Washington Irving story which Irving would hardly have recognized, but a glorious vehicle for a character actor; the play made Jefferson famous and kept him rich, as his audiences returned year after year to see him slyly rationalize each drink he takes after he has sworn it off forever. "I won't count this one," he explains each time, unable to resist the familiar pleasure. This book is a treasure house of pleasures which were once as familiar to their audiences as Andrew Lloyd Webber is to us today.