Frederick Samuel Boas was a scholar of English Literature, best known in Shakespeare Studies for his classification of the “problem plays”. He was born on July 26, 1862 in Belfast, the eldest son of Hermann Boas, who was originally from Lübeck, in northern Germany, and the family were part of a thriving Jewish community.

Though Irish and of European Jewish heritage, Boas education was distinctly Anglocentric. He entered Brown’s House at Clifton School in Bristol in 1877. Many commentators have pointed out that Clifton was the first public school to have a House dedicated to Jews, thus implying that Boas’s attendance there was due to this facility. However, Polack’s House was founded the year after Boas’s entry into Clifton and he was already settled in Brown’s. He appears to

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Citation: Owens, Rebekah . "F. S. Boas". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 August 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13385, accessed 28 March 2024.]

13385 F. S. Boas 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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