Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state;
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.

– A Midsummer Night’s Dream, III.i

Bruce R. Smith, a Shakespeare scholar with a global reach, died June 18, 2024, at the age of 78, at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is survived by his husband of 38 years, Gordon Davis, his brother, Kendall Smith, two nieces, and their children. Dr. Smith’s students, colleagues, and friends mourn a spirit of no common rate.

Raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Smith graduated magna cum laude at Tulane University in 1968. Study abroad at the University of Birmingham, England heralded a transatlantic career. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester, New York, in 1973, then accepted a faculty post at Georgetown University, where he taught for thirty years. In 2003, the University of Southern California recruited him west. In 2024, he retired there as Dean’s Professor of English and Theatre.

In nine books and critical editions, plus hundreds of articles, interviews, and talks, Smith’s vivid voice beguiled wide audiences. An ardent foodie who relished music of all kinds – known to pair a cheesesteak with a fine Zinfandel – he wrote for Shakespeare fans, students, high school teachers, theater professionals, and fellow scholars. His gift for unexpected insights welcomed them to works old and new, heightening their understanding and savor.

Across half a century of writings on Renaissance culture, Smith fetched us jewels from the deep. His landmark studies share an abiding interest in embodied experience. In Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare’s England (Chicago, 1991), he explored the power of fiction and poetics to convey amorous life. The Acoustic World of Early Modern England (Chicago, 1999) opened modern ears to the soundscape of playgoing in the Globe and other contemporary theaters. Mining the rich sensations indexed to a single color, The Key of Green (Chicago, 2009) contemplated emotion and pleasure in Renaissance life. Smith’s dazzling work earned laurels from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Bruce Smith’s life as a scholar was distinguished by intellectual generosity, fellowship, and warm wit. He bridged generations and geographies. While serving as general editor for the award-winning Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare (2016), he gathered hundreds of practitioners from five continents to survey the life and afterlife of Shakespeare’s works over four centuries. His network grew out of decades spent in residencies, fellowships, and visiting lectures from Canada to Italy, Hawaii to the UK. In teaching and research stints at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and as president of the Shakespeare Association of America, he opened doors for many younger colleagues. Fearless in play as in scholarship, he cheerfully joined in an amateur masque to honor a friend stepping down as Executive Director of the SAA.

Smith’s insights grew through partnerships with actors, directors, and theater professionals around the world. This made him a natural choice as the first invited holder of the International Globe Fellowship, in 1997. In London, he flexed his ability to connect: giving public lectures, leading actor’s workshops, and convening undergraduate seminars. He charted new courses for editorial boards – including PMLA, Shakespeare Quarterly, Borrowers and Lenders – as well as to the Modern Language Association and the American Historical Association, where he served on the Committee for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender History.

Among the professional roles Smith most valued were his summers leading master classes for high school teachers at Bread Loaf School of English, which he did periodically for over 25 years. That work introduced him to Santa Fe: a city of creative, rebellious spirits that became his heart’s home. In New Mexico’s airy sky and high desert, he affirmed the power of extraordinary teachers to free young minds from constraining circumstances. Those wishing to make a gift in his honor are invited to donate to NMDP/Be The Match, The Ali Forney Center, or Cancer Support Community.

A complete human being, Bruce Smith wore his brilliance lightly. He helped us hear the world differently. Though he sleeps, his memory sings.