Chapter 3 examines the fighting over Shakespeare that takes place during the French Revolutionary-Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815). This period of prolonged conflict is characterized by an obsessive interest in position-takings and labelling, such as revolutionary/loyalist and Jacobin/anti-Jacobin; but, as this chapter demonstrates, these wartime binaries are protean. By deploying them we are at risk of under-interpreting the conflict. The performance of Shakespeare at the major and minor theatres in London reveals this distinctive political malleability. The chapter begins by considering pressure points in the conflict when Shakespeare seems to have been loudly mobilized in support of the British war effort – such as the resumption of conflict in 1803 – but concentrates for the most part on the contested political valence of Shakespeare. It examines the opposing political sympathies and theatrical interests of John Philip Kemble and Richard Brinsley Sheridan who were both connected to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as well as the operations of the minor theatres that position Shakespeare within a battle over the democratization of culture and politics that strongly resonates with the period’s domestic and foreign conflicts. The chapter concludes by proposing that ‘conflicting Shakespeares’ become united through the vagaries of patriotism, a powerful and uncertain concept during this period and beyond.

This chapter focuses on David Garrick as the most important catalyst for acoustic change in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. His naturalistic style of acting has often been discussed within the wider context of the Enlightment. Largely overlooked, though, is the impact of his voice, which was notoriously marked by regional inflections, and of his debut as Richard III in one of London's illegitimate theatres, on two important movements, led by two men, both called John Palmer. These two movements aimed to widen access to Shakespeare by obtaining licences for regional theatres and by encouraging non-professional actors, amateurs and enthusiasts from lower-status social groups to perform Shakespeare in non-conventional venues, ranging from minor or private theatres, to smaller performance houses and song and supper clubs.