An earlier version of Chapter 1 appeared in Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation 9.1 (2014).
Librarians are essential to any academic project, but when much of a book is written during a pandemic the work they do is even more valuable. I am enormously grateful to Dean Taras Pavlovsky and the entire staff of The College of New Jersey Library, and especially Dina Carmy, Bethany Sewall, and David Murray for their efforts in ensuring we all had the resources we needed for our scholarship and our teaching in this challenging year. Thank you also to the accommodating and cheerful staff at the Hopewell branch of the Mercer County Library.
Thank you to the wonderful TCNJ students who were willing to “talk back” and help me work through many of these ideas in our seminars: Paige Barmakian, Nicole Beagin, Shannon Cassaro, Jaime Corrigan, Daniel Hitchen, Rachel Howanich, Britta Koep, Angela Lengner, Cassidy Mansmann, Ally McHugh, Lauren Muccilli, Erin Murray, Catie Nadler, Carlie Pressler, Sarah Reynolds, Amanda Riccitelli, Angelica Rocco, Princy Shah, Courtney Shein, Destiny Valerio, Kattlyn Vasquez, and Made­ leine Zurcher. I hope you will recognize traces of our vigorous discussions and healthy disagreements in these pages.