[Booth, John Wilkes]:

$3,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

BOSTON MUSEUM...FAREWELL BENEFIT OF J. WILKES BOOTH WHO WILL HAVE THE HONOR OF APPEARING ON THIS OCCASION IN TWO SHAKESPERIAN [sic] CHARACTERS! SHYLOCK AND ... A handsome broadside advertising John Wilkes Booth as the lead in two Shakespeare productions to be performed at the Boston Museum in February 1863. Booth played Shylock in Merchant of Venice and then Petruchio in Katharine & Petruchio (a reworking of The Taming of the Shrew), two of the most memorable roles in the canon of the Bard. In addition to the two Shakespeare productions, Booth is also advertised as performing as both conjoined twins Louis and Fabian in a Saturday afternoon production of Corsican Brothers, a play based on a novella by Alexandre Dumas.John Wilkes Booth must have learned much about revenge from his portrayal of Shylock. The character is one of Shakespeare's most complex characters, and his famous soliloquy about revenge echoes loudly, if one replaces the word "Jew" with the word "Confederate:""To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by th

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.