AN AMERICAN academic, who became the first female fellow of one of Oxford’s oldest colleges, has died aged 80.

Professor Anne Barton was a leading authority on Shakespeare and English comedy who became a fellow of New College in the 1970s.

She spent a decade at Oxford where she was known for her disapproval of undergraduates who didn’t submit their essays on time, and for her daring dress sense.

Her husband was John Barton, who founded the Royal Shakespeare Company with Sir Peter Hall.

Prof Barton’s most well-known book was her first, Shakespeare and the Idea of the Play, in which she discussed the Bard’s use of devices such as “plays within plays” and his frequent references to plays.

Barbara Ann Roesen was born in New York on May 9, 1933.

She attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania before moving to Britain and studying for a PhD at Girton College, Cambridge. She married William Righter in 1957 while still a graduate student but the marriage was dissolved.

She came to Oxford and during her time at New College she lived with Mr Barton, who she married in 1969.

In 1984 she returned to Cambridge as a professor and a fellow of Trinity College, where she would live for the rest of her life.

Prof Barton died on November 11 and is survived by her husband.