{"id":321,"date":"2022-05-01T15:14:09","date_gmt":"2022-05-01T15:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etestsite.0622b8f.netsolhost.com\/?page_id=321"},"modified":"2022-05-01T15:23:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T15:23:41","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/?page_id=321","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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History<\/strong>

Our American Cousin is a play in three acts by Tom Taylor. The play is a farcical comedy whose plot is based on the introduction of an awkward, boorish American to his aristocratic English relatives. It premiered at Laura Keene\u2019s Theatre in New York City on October 15, 1858.

The play\u2019s most famous performance came seven years later, however, at Ford\u2019s Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. Halfway through Act III, Scene 2, the character Asa Trenchard (the titular cousin), played that night by Harry Hawk, utters one of the play\u2019s funniest lines \u2014 however little sense it makes out of context:\u201cDon\u2019t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal\u2014you sockdologizing old man-trap.\u201d

During the raucous laughter that followed this line, John Wilkes Booth, an actor who received his mail at Ford\u2019s Theater but who was not in the cast of Our American Cousin, assassinated Abraham Lincoln. He chose the timing in hopes that the sound of the laughter would mask the sound of his gunshot. He then leaped from Lincoln\u2019s box to the stage, breaking his leg, and dragged himself out. As he leapt, Booth shouted \u201cSic semper tyrannis!\u201d Others in the audience heard it as: \u201cThe South is avenged!\u201dBefore its history was changed by Lincoln\u2019s assassination, the play had already made a cultural impact.

The character Lord Dundreary became popular for the absurd riddles he propounded. \u201cDundrearyisms,\u201d twisted aphorisms in the style of Lord Dundreary (e.g. \u201cbirds of a feather gather no moss\u201d), also enjoyed a brief vogue. The same character\u2019s style of beard \u2013 long, bushy sideburns \u2013 gave the English language the word \u201cdundrearies.\u201dFor the entire text:\u00a0Gutenberg.org<\/a>

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History Our American Cousin is a play in three acts by Tom Taylor. The play is a farcical comedy whose plot is based on the introduction of an awkward, boorish American to his aristocratic English relatives. It premiered at Laura Keene\u2019s Theatre in New York City on October 15, 1858. The play\u2019s most famous performance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/template-cover.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-321","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/321\/revisions\/324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}