Our American Cousin

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

The play's most famous performance came seven years later, however, at
Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. Halfway through Act
III, Scene 2, the character Asa Trenchard (the titular cousin) utters one of
the play's funniest lines -- however little sense it makes out of context:

     Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough
     to turn you inside out, old gal -- you sockdologizing old man-trap.

During the raucous laughter that followed this line, John Wilkes Booth, an
actor who received his mail at Ford's 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.

Before its history was changed by Lincoln's assassination, the play had
already made a cultural impact. The character Lord Dundreary became popular
for the absurd riddles he propounded. "Dundrearyisms," twisted aphorisms in
the style of Lord Dundreary (e.g. "birds of a feather gather no moss"), also
enjoyed a brief vogue.

How to - Physics - History - Companies - Internet - Video Games - List of Phobias - September 11, 2001
Radio - Timelines - Chemistry - Genealogy - Family - Film - SARS - Cancer - Medicine - DVD - Calendar
Countries - Disease - Health Science - Dentistry - Economics - AIDS - Law - Autism - Statistics - Bible
Recipes - Architecture - Computers - History of the Internet - Personal computer - Apple Macintosh
War - Presidents of the United States - United States Constitution - Universe - Philosophy - Animals
Biology - United States Constitution - Marketing Topics - Sports - Television - History of Computing

Debt Help - Free Credit Report - Mortgages - Loans - Cheap Flights