During the nineteenth century the performance of Shakespeare’s plays contributed to the creation of a sense of British nationhood at home and overseas. British actors travelled the world to perform Shakespeare’s plays, while foreign actors regarded success in London as the ultimate seal of approval. In this book Richard Foulkes explores the political and social uses of Shakespeare through the nineteenth and into the twentieth century and the movement from the business of Shakespeare as an enterprise to that of enshrinement as a cultural icon. An examination of leading Shakespearean actors, managers and directors, from Britain and abroad, is also included in the study.