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The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century AmericaBy Nigel Cliff
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One of the bloodiest incidents in New York’s history, the so-called Astor Place Riot of May 10, 1849, was ignited by a long-simmering grudge match between the two leading Shakespearean actors of the age. Despite its unlikely origins, though, there was nothing remotely quaint about this pivotal moment in history–the unprecedented shooting by American soldiers of dozens of their fellow citizens, leading directly to the arming of American police forces.
The Shakespeare Riots recounts the story of this momentous night, its two larger-than-life protagonists, and the myriad political and cultural currents that fueled the violence. In an engrossing narrative that moves at a breakneck pace from the American frontier to the Mississippi River, to the posh theaters of London, to the hangouts of the most notorious street gangs of the day, Nigel Cliff weaves a spellbinding saga of soaring passions, huge egos, and venal corruption.
Cliff charts the course of this tragedy from its beginnings as a somewhat comical contretemps between Englishman William Charles Macready, the haughty lion of the London stage, and Edwin Forrest, the first great American star and a popular hero to millions. Equally celebrated, and equally self-centered, the two were once friends, then adversaries. Exploiting this rivalry, “nativist” agitators organized mobs of bullyboys to flex their muscle by striking a blow against the foppish Macready and the Old World’s cultural hegemony that he represented.
The moment Macready took the stage in New York, his adversaries sprang into action, first by throwing insults, then rotten eggs, then chairs. When he dared show his face again, an estimated twenty thousand packed the streets around the theater. As cobblestones from outside rained down on the audience, National Guard troops were called in to quell the riot. Finding themselves outmatched, the Guardsmen discharged their weapons at the crowd, with horrific results. When the smoke cleared, as many as thirty people lay dead, with scores more wounded.
The Shakespeare Riots is social and cultural history of the highest order. In this wondrous saga Nigel Cliff immerses readers in the bustle of mid-nineteenth-century New York, re-creating the celebrity demimonde of the day and capturing all the high drama of a violent night that robbed a nation of its innocence.
- Sales Rank: #72734 in Books
- Published on: 2007-04-17
- Released on: 2007-04-17
- Format: Deckle Edge
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.57" h x 1.12" w x 6.60" l, 1.30 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 312 pages
From Publishers Weekly
A dispute over Shakespeare resulted in a deadly riot on May 10, 1849, at New York City's Astor Place Theatre, where armed militiamen clashed with theatergoers, gangsters and bystanders. In the melee, some 50 soldiers and 50 civilians were wounded and more than 20 civilians killed. Cliff, a former theater and film critic for the London Times, sees the riot as symbolic of a young America trying to find its cultural voice and resentful of what some saw as British cultural imperialism. The fatal dispute was between two Shakespearean actors, the intellectual Englishman William Charles Macready and American working-class hero Edwin Forrest and began when Forrest hissed at Macready's performance of Hamlet in Edinburgh. This book ranges widely, from the 1809 riots at a Macbeth performance at London's Covent Garden to Shakespeare's popularity on the American frontier, where his plays helped pioneers wrestle with fundamental questions about human nature, and America's old and new money classes as immigrants flooded into the country. Nicely illustrated with contemporary photos and cartoons, Cliff's informative, engrossing if somewhat scattered debut recreates a time when the Bard inflamed passions in lower classes and gentry alike, and when America's theaters "were a crossroads of a whole society." (Apr. 17)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
During the evening of May 10, 1849, a massive riot broke out in Astor Place in New York City, involving at least 20,000rioters, causing scores of fatalities, and leading to the use of the military in quelling the violence. But this was no typical street quarrel between ethnic gangs, and it certainly wasn't a case of have-nots driven to rage by their poverty. Rather, the rival gangs were fighting on behalf of two unlikely antagonists, both of them prominent Shakespearean actors. William Macready was an aristocratic, foppish actor acclaimed by elites in New York and London; Edwin Forrest was the darling of working-class theater fans. Cliff, the former film and theater critic for The Times of London, tells their story and the story of their followers with considerable verve and a consistent sense of irony. He supplies a wonderful portrait of mid-nineteenth-century New York as an emerging metropolis, and the tale set there is an enjoyable but unsettling mixture of farce and tragedy. Both general readers and those with a special interest in the period will find much to enjoy here. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
Nigel Cliff was educated at Oxford University, where he was awarded a double First in English and the Beddington Prize for English literature. He is a former theater and film critic for the London Times and a contributor to The Economist. This is his first book.
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