Bardolatry that whimsical term referring to Shakespeares rise to canonical status as well as to his worshippers adulation solidified within the theatrical discourses of the eighteenth century and the British Romantic era. Celestine Woo examines the eras four most celebrated Shakespeare performers in London David Garrick John Philip Kemble Sarah Siddons and Edmund Kean arguing that they broadened and altered the boundaries of Shakespearean discourse in specific ways offering and modeling novel paradigms by which to apprehend Shakespeare and thus contributing to the growth of bardolatry as a discursive phenomenon. Using Pierre Bourdieu as a model Woo traces the development of Shakespearean discourse as a field of cultural production shaped by these actors.