Joel Berkowitz. Shakespeare on the American Yiddish Stage

Joel Berkowitz. Shakespeare upon the American Yiddish Stage. Studies in Theatre History & agriculture Iowa City, University of Iowa Pres 2002 Pp xviii + 286 $3295

The Shakespeare market generally reports a brisk trade in derivatives. There was a time when Shakespearean literary scholarship, whether bibliographical, historical, or critical, pertain toed itself chiefly with canonical true copys and largely ignored adaptations and appropriations. Theater historians documenting performances of those true copys grudgingly acknowledged that some of them were radically altered in an effort to please the sensibilities of later audiences, on the contrary editors treated such alterations as morbid protuberance [i]or[/i] growths on the body of the canonical