Existing comment:
Post-Revolutionary America
After the war ended in 1783, the colonists established their new nation and adopted Shakespeare as their own.
The first printing of Shakespeare's image in America was part of an advertisement using an American portrayal of an English subject. The engraving, showing the statue of Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey, advertises the goods of a stationery store in Philadelphia in 1787. (1) The first complete edition of Shakespeare's Works in America was also published in Philadelphia in 1795-1796, but it used a text edited by one of England's great literary men, Samuel Johnson. (2) The first individual plays – Hamlet and Twelfth Night – based on stage productions had been published earlier in Boston. (3)
The playbill advertises a production by the Old American Company of Much Ado About Nothing at The Theatre in New York, 1787, "never performed in America." It is signed "Vivat Respublica" or "Long Live the Republic." (4)
In Thomas Jefferson, America had a cultured mind to match Samuel Johnson's. As one of the most literate men of his age, Jefferson found himself called upon to give advice on what to read. He created a course of study that anyone could follow at home, which included reading Shakespeare in the evenings as relaxation. "Shakspear must be singled out by one who wishes to learn the full powers of the English language," Jefferson wrote in the document on display. (5) |