‘“Shakspeare, s’avançant”: A Bard, the Nineteenth Century and a Tale of Two Cities’ Theatres’

While much scholarship of the nineteenth century has been justly devoted to the Romantic veneration for Shakespeare, the elaborate stagings of his works and the professionalisation of Shakespeare studies during the course of the period, this article focuses upon Shakespeare himself onstage in the theatres of London and Paris. Many theatrical productions in both capitals offered scenes of characters reading, reciting and paraphrasing Shakespearean texts in dramatic, comic and/or burlesque settings; however, a number offered the figure of the dramatist amongst the dramatis personae. Often drawing inspiration from Alexandre Duval’s Shakespeare Amoureux (1804), both French and English dramatists exploited the rising cultural capital of the Renaissance dramatist to have him directly intervene in dramatic intrigues and sometimes to assume the role of protagonist. This discussion will focus upon some of the ways in which Shakespeare was called upon to tread the boards of Parisian and London theatrical and musical stages in the period c. 1830–1870.