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Forsyth, Jennifer
2017.
The Encyclopedia of English Renaissance Literature.
Article contents
Beaumont and Fletcher on The London Stage 1776–1833
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Although the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher had been revived in great numbers after the reopening of the London theaters in 1660, their popularity declined so steadily during the eighteenth century that by the time of Garrick's retirement from the stage in June, 1776, only two plays, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife and The Chances, both comedies, were still being presented as stock pieces at Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Haymarket. Shortly after Garrick's retirement, however, several of the neglected plays were revived, and, in spite of the competition of intensified Shakespearean revival and the unquestioned predominance of assorted spectacle and melodrama, a varying degree of interest in the Elizabethan twin playwrights continued until the retirement of Edmund Kean from the stage in March, 1833. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to determine the extent to which the neglect of Beaumont and Fletcher was amended during the years 1776–1833 and to ascertain the significance of the revivals as related to various contemporary interests as well as to the generally favorable or unfavorable circumstances for production.
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References
1 Beaumont and Fletcher on the Restoration Stage (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1926), pp. 122,120–121,111.
2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938).
3 Fletcher, Beaumont & Company (New York: King's Crown Press, 1947), pp. 243–247.
4 Rule a Wife and Have a Wife was performed steadily through 1776; The Chances ran a close second with performances through December, 1774; The Beggars' Bush as The Royal Mercliant was presented through 1761; The Pilgrim held the stage until 1753; Wit without Money was presented very irregularly until about 1750, though after 1737 only at Covent Garden; The Scornful Lady continued steadily through October, 1747; The Humorous Lieutenant survived at Drury Lane through 1730 but was briefly revived at Covent Garden in 1756; The Maid's Tragedy ceased to appear after 1744; The Island Princess survived through the 1730's in operatic form; and Valenlinian did not last longer than 1715. A King and No King is noted but once, on March 26,1727, at Lincoln's Inn Fields; the last performance of The Maid in the Mill appears to have been on March 23, 1710, at Drury Lane; The Bloody Brother and The Sea Voyage did not appear after 1710.
4 Philaster was altered by George Coman the Elder in 1763 and was successfully revived after irregular appearances during the earlier years of the century; Colman's version held the stage through 1774. The Little French Lawyer was unsuccessfully revived at Drury Lane in 1749 as an anonymous one-act farce after a brief appearance at the beginning of the century. Bonduca was apparently abandoned after one performance at Drury Lane on June 9, 1731. The Prophetess in Betterton's popular operatic version was very successfully revived at Lincoln's Inn Fields on December 28,1724.
5 Alkrdyce Nicoll, A History of Early Eighteenth Century Drama 1700–1750 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1925), pp. 68–69; G. C. D. Odell, Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving (New York: Scribner's, 1920), I, 261–262.
7 Odell, i, 228,260.
8 Robert D. Williams, “Antiquarian Interest in Elizabethan Drama before Lamb”, PMLA,Lin (1938), 437.
9 George Colman (the Elder), Prose on Several Occasions; Accompanied with Some Pieces in Verse (London: T. Cadel, 1787), i, x.
10 John Monck Mason, ed., The Dramatic Works of Philip Massinger (London : T. Da vies, 1776), i, xix. Also quoted by Robert H. Ball, The Amazing Career of Sir Giles Overreach (Princeton Univ. Press, 1939), p. 37, and by Wallis, op cit., p. 246.
11 Dramatick Works of George Colman (London: T. Becket, 1777), iii.
12 The Dramatick Works of Beaumont and Fletcher (London: T. Evans and P. Elmsley, 1778), i, viii-ix.
13 Westminster Magazine, vi (1778), 276.
14 Town and Country Magazine, x (1778), 398; Whitehall Evening Post, July 30-Aug. 1, 1778.
15 Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons. Interspersed with Anecdotes of Authors and Actors, 2d ed. (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831), i,161.
16 New ed. (Dublin: W. and H. Whitestone, et al., 1782), ii, 280.
17 Boaden, op. cit., i, 371; London Chronicle, Jan. 16–18, 1783; Lloyd's Evening Post, Jan. 17–20,1783.
18 Lloyd's Evening Post, May 9–12, 1783.
19 James Boaden, Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble, Esq. Including a History of the Stage, from the Time of Garrick to the Present Period (Philadelphia: Robert H. Small; New York : Wilder and Campbell, 1825), p. 136.
20 James Boaden, The Life of Mrs. Jordan; Including Original Correspondence, and Numerous Anecdotes of Her Contemporaries (London: Edward Bull, 1831), i, 113.
21 English Review of Literature, Science, Etc., xi (1788), 146.
22 Boaden, Life of John Philip Kemble, p. 211.
23 London Chronicle, Oct. 25–27, 1787.
24 Town and Country Magazine, xxi (1789), 519.
25 Jan. 12–15,1788.
26 Odell, ii, 50–51.
27 January, iii (1797), 53–54.
28 European Magazine, Lin (1808), 382.
29 Sun, May 4,1808.
30 Morning Chronicle, May 6, 1808.
31 Nov. 1, 1811.
32 Reflector, no. iv, ii (1811),430.
33 Nov. 1,1811.
34 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who had controlled Drury Lane since the retirement of Garrick, managed his theatrical and personal affairs so badly after the opening of the new theater in 1812 that he was arrested for debt in August, 1813, and he died three years later. After Sheridan's arrest, Samuel Whitbread, the statesman and financier who had steered the affairs of the theater through the rebuilding, became manager, but he committed suicide in July, 1815. At this time the managing committee appointed a sub-committee to supervise production. On this board the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird was chairman, the other members being Lord Essex and Lord Byron, Peter Moore, M. P., and George Lamb. DNB;Percy H. Fitzgerald, A New History of the English Stage from the Restoration to the Liberty of the Theatres (London: Tinsley Brothers, 1882), ii, 384.
35 The 4-volume edition of the combined Works of Jonson and Beaumont and Fletcher by Peter Whalley and George Colman, 1811; Henry Weber's 14-volume edition of Beaumont and Fletcher in 1812; William Gifford's second edition of Massinger in 1813; C. W. Dilke's Old English Plays, in 6 volumes, 1814–15; Gifford's 9-volume edition of Jonson in 1816; and Dilke's 6-volume issue of Dodsley's Select Collection in 1816.
36 Although the Theatrical Inquisitor, vii (1815), 187, ascribes the piece to William Dimond, Nicoll lists it under unknown authors—History of Early Nineteenth Century Drama 1800–1850 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1930), ii, 502.
37 London Chronicle, Dec. 16–18,1815.
38 Dec. 15,1815.
39 Dec. 24,1815.
40 Dec. 15,1815.
41 Examiner, Dec. 17, 1815. For an identification of Hazlitt as dramatic critic for the Examiner 1815–1817, vide P. P. Howe, Life of William Hazlitt, rev. ed. (London: Martin Becker, 1928), pp. 180,194.
42 Examiner, Jan. 26,1817.
43 Jan. 20, 1817.
44 Cornucopia; or Literary and Dramatic Mirror, i (1821), 66.
45 Feb. 21,1821.
46 A. H. Bullen, general ed., Works of Beaumont and Fletcher (London: George Bell and Sons, 1904–12), iii, 366; Arthur Murphy, Life of David Garrick, Esq. (London: J. Wright, 1801), i, 293; Baker, op. cit., i, 183; Thomas Da vies, Memoirs of tlte Life of David Garrick, Esq., ed. Stephen Jones (London: Longman, Hurst, et. al., 1808), n, 474. Stephen Jones, re-editing Baker's Biographia Dramatica in 1812, states that he saw “an express and positive disavowal of it [the alteration] under his [Garrick's] hand, in a letter dated Aug. 19, 1776.” The editor of the play in the Variorum Beaumont and Fletcher, R. Warwick Bond, is of the opinion, however, that when Garrick disavowed the alteration in the letter, he was referring to the 1776 revision of the play as it appeared in The New English Theatre and that “he probably merely meant to deny the actual authorship of these insertions. That they had his concurrence cannot be doubted.”
47 … and now first published as It Is Acted at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden (London: Printed for the Theatre, 1811). Allardyce Nicoll in A History of Late Eighteenth Century Drama, 1750–1800 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1927), p. 283, lists the play under Love's works and gives the date of production as Drury Lane, Feb. 14, 1776, and of publication 1811, while the DNBgives the play under Love's works with the date 1771. Love died in 1774.
48 Arthur Murphy, op. cit., i, 2Q4; London Chronicle, Jan. 5–8,1802.
49 Morning Chronicle, Jan. 6, 1802. For an identification of Campbell as dramatic critic for the Morning Chronicle 1800–05, vide Mrs. Mary S. Hardcastle, Life of Lord Campbell, 2d ed. (London: John Murray, 1881), i, 110, 178.
50 The Stage, i (1814), 107.
51 July 18–20,1818.
52 Morning Chronicle, Sept. 27,1804.
53 Bell's British Theatre, Consisting of the Most Esteemed British Plays (London: G. Caw-thorn, 1797), “Remarks”, Vol. viii.
54 Whitehall Evening Post, July 15–17, 1777.
55 Westminster Magazine, v (1777), 398.
56 Monthly Mirror, ix (1800), 115.
57 John Adolphus, Memoirs of John Bannister, Comedian (London : Richard Bentley, 1839) ii, 45.
58 March 20,1801.
59 Jan. 4,1808.
60 Times, Oct. 26,1825.
61 Examiner, July 2,1815.
62 Times, June 21, 1815.
63 June, 1815 (vi, 460).
64 British Lady's Magazine, and Monthly Miscellany, ii (1815), 55.
65 Feb. 14,1808.
66 xxv (1808), 126.
67 Whitehall Evening Post, Aug. 19–21, 1777.
68 “Remarks” to The Chances, The British Theatre (London: Longman, Hurst,et. al., 1808), Vol. vi.
69 Examiner, Feb. 14, 1808.
70 Dec. 15,1815.
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