To generations of students from 1900 at least up to the 1960s, the name Frederick S. Boas was synonymous with the study of Renaissance dramatists and particularly Shakespeare. While his reputation was overshadowed by those of E. K. Chambers as a biographer and W. W. Greg as a textual editor, Boas shared their dedicated, professional approach to scholarship. He was also committed to taking Shakespeare into schools and making Renaissance drama accessible to the general reading public.

Frederick Samuel Boas, eldest son of Hermann, was born into a Jewish family on 24 July 1862. He went to Clifton School, the first public school to make special provision for Jewish boys by dedicating a house specially for them. He entered Balliol College, Oxford, as an exhibitioner and distinguished himself there with a first in Classical Moderations in 1882, a first in Literae Humaniores in 1885, and a first in History in 1886. About the time...