1 The Duchess of Malti, ed. John Russell Brown (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964), pp. lv–lix and Moore, Don D., John Webster and His Critics 1617–1964 (Baton Rouge, 1966), p. 43.Google Scholar Cf. Leech, Clifford, John Webster, A Critical Study (London, 1951), pp. 25–6Google Scholar, who implies that Phelps' production was a failure, and Nicoli, Allardyce, A History of English Drama 1660–1900, vol. V (Cambridge, 1959), p. 426CrossRefGoogle Scholar, whose practice of supplying only the date of the first performance supports this view.

2 See Brown loc. cit. and Leech pp. 11–27, also The White Devil, ed. John Russell Brown (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1960), pp. lviii–lxii. The White Devil does not seem to have been performed between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. Apparently the closest it came to the stage was to furnish a few lines for Richard Duke of York, Edmund Kean's hybrid version of Henry VI. See Odeli, George C. D., Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving (New York, 1920), II, 129–130.Google Scholar

3 Odell, Shakespeare, II, 250.

4 Unless otherwise noted, date and place of performance arc based upon newspaper announcements, published reviews, and playbills in the Theatre Collection, Harvard University Library, and in the Gabrielle Enthoven Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Whenever possible I have cross-checked information; however, a promised performance was not always performed, and there may be minor inaccuracies. If so, they should not distort the basic pattern of the revivals, or the conclusions drawn from them.

5 See The Illustrated London News (January 4, 1851); Tallis's Dramatic Magazine (January, March, 1851); the Athenaeum (March 15, 1851). A rarer accolade was that of a gentleman signing himself “Dyson Main,” whose sonnet to Miss Glyn was published in Tallis's Dramatic Magazine (April, 1851).

6 The Duchess of Malfi; A Tragedy in Five Acts. By John Webster. 1612. Reconstructed for Stage Representation, By R. H. Horne, Esq…. As Produced At The Theatre Royal, Sadler's Wells, November 20, 1850. The text was published by Tallis & Co. and reviewed in the Athenaeum for December 7, 1850. Editions of the acting text proliferated confusingly in the next few years, and space does not permit a full listing of them here. Tallis reissued the play in 1851 as the first work in a new series of acting drama, “a selection of the most popular plays which have from' time to time been produced in the principal theatres in England, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States;” this edition has a picture of Miss Glyn and a memoir by J. A. H[eraud]. Clifford Leech (John Webster, p. 26, n.l) mentions a Tallis edition that I have not seen. Davidson published an acting version of the Duchess, under the title The Duchess of Malfi: A Tragedy, In Five Acts, Adapted From John Webster, Printed From The Acting Copy, With Remarks, Biographical and Critical, by D.-G. [George Daniel]. There is no publication date, but the play is described as being “As performed at the Theatres Royal, London,” and the cast of the 1850 production (and of the 1640 one) is given, along with a description of Costumes, Entrances, Exits, and various bits of stage business. The copy I have examined is a re-issue of an earlier edition, which may have been the one Leech mentions (p. 26, n.l) as number 379 in the series. The Davidson edition attempts to give the impression that it represents the acting copy used in the Phelps production at Sadler's Wells; actually it does not. The adaptation is a much different revision of Webster's play, and while the name of the adapter is nowhere mentioned, it differs so strikingly from Home's version that it seems safe to assume that he had nothing to do with it. On the whole this second adaptation is much closer to Webster's original, both in the matter of faithfulness to the original dialogue and in its retention of the general structural outline of the Jacobean tragedy. It was apparently a popular version, for there seem to have been at least two other editions published by Davidson under the general title of Cumberland's British Theatre. These are listed in the Library of Congress catalogue and supplements, but are erroneously ascribed to R. H. Home.

7 Letter in the Folger Shakespeare Library. Odell (Shakespeare, II, 250) is not quite accurate when he writes that Miss Glyn left Phelps in the autumn of 1851. The cause of the quarrel, according to May Phelps, W. and Forbes-Robertson, John, The Life and Life-Work of Samuel Phelps (London, 1886), p. 121Google Scholar, was her refusal to play Gertrude in Hamlet. The quarrel was not easily healed, for Phelps and Miss Glyn did not appear together again until June 1859, when they played the Standard in Macbeth, The Bridal, Henry VIII, and The Merchant of Venice. They did not, it appears, act Hamlet.

8 There were certainly other performances, for my search has not been thorough and I have made no attempt to follow Miss Glyn's career closely.

9 April 25, 1868.

10 Illustrated London News (January 30, 1864).

11 An unidentified obituary in the British Museum states that Miss Marriott played the Duchess in the United States but I have found no evidence that she did. See John Malcolm Bulloch, Plays I Have Seen, vol. I of a British Museum miscellany listed as A Collection of London and Aberdeen Theatre Programmes.

12 The Edinburgh Courant (February 5, 1857).

13 The company, which at the time included young Edwin Booth, was “snowed in” at the town of Nevada, California during the winter of 1852–3. See Leman, Walter, Memories of An Old Actor (San Francisco, 1886), p. 246.Google Scholar Booth and the Wallers were reunited many years later when Mrs. Waller played at, and Mr. Waller managed, Booth's Theatre at various times in the early 1870's.

14 They were entertained, along the way, by the royal family of Hawaii, and they returned not only laden with Australian dollars but with a “MAGNIFICENT HARP” presented to Mrs. Waller by her admirers and valued at 120 pounds. See A Comprehensive Resumé of The Talents of Emma Waller (London, [1856]), a copy of which is in the British Museum.

15 See Resumé. The Resumé, prepared to gain Mrs. Waller an entré to the London theatre, has a picture of her in the role of the Duchess. The Wallers seem to have waited until reaching Australia before trying Webster's tragedy; there is no indication that they performed it in the mining towns they played prior to their trip down-under.

16 She had previously appeared there briefly, and in minor parts, with Madame Vestris. See Resumé.

17 August 23, 1857. Just how unfamiliar Webster's tragedy was to American audiences at this time is suggested by the Morning Call's announcements (August 22) which speak of “John Taylor's splendid tragedy of the Duchess of Maifi” on one page, and of “the rare and sterling tragedy of ‘Duchess de Maifi’ “on another.

18 Morning Call (August 23); see also the Golden Era (August 23).

19 There may have been other performances in New Orleans. See Kendall, John S., The Golden Age of the New Orleans Theatre (Baton Rouge, 1952), p. 311.Google Scholar

20 As the prompt-book dates from before the Waller's first American performance, it is almost certain that Stark's knowledge of Waller's business came from his Australian tour.

21 See the New York Herald (April 6, 1858). There was less critical unanimity about the merits of the production and performers than accorded Phelps and Miss Glyn. Nevertheless, the Wallers found general critical support. The Evening Post (April 6), The Spirit of the Times (April 10), the Evening Express (April 8) and the Herald (April 6) spoke well of the performances, particularly Mrs. Waller's, although The Spirit of the Times did feel that the Wallers were inclined towards rant. The Daily Tribune (April 6) found Mr. Waller stagey and his wife artificial, but admitted that with proper training Mrs. Waller would be good indeed. Most critical were the Times (April 7) and the Morning Courier (April 10)—the former merely labelled Mrs. Waller old-fashioned, but the latter noted that the stars were “worthy of the play” which was “at once puerile and revolting.”

22 Among the rival attractions that week were Booth and Lola Montez.

23 At the New Montgomery Theatre. See O'Brien, Frank, “Passing of the Old Montgomery Theatre,” Alabama Historic-Quarterly (Spring 1941), p. 13.Google Scholar

24 Opinions of the Press of Emma Waller Acknowledged the Greatest Tragic Actress of the Day [c. 1876]. Theatre Collection, Harvard University Library.

25 Theatre Collection, Harvard University Library.

26 Theatre Collection, Harvard University Library.

27 The production, their benefit, played to a full house, but otherwise caused little excitement and does not seem to have been repeated. See the Boston Daily Courier (January 5, 1861). Apparently she and her husband Sam were trying to undercut the Wallers who were scheduled to make their Boston debut in the Duchess. It is interesting that Kate Denin had been in Australia at the same time as the Wallers and Starks (see Paul McGuire, The Australian Theatre, London and Melbourne, 1948, p. 106), and it appears that they, like the Starks, were trying to steal a march on the Wallers with their proprietary rights to Webster's tragedy. There is some reason to believe that Sidney Wilkins, a minor nineteenth-century actor, may also have produced the Duchess, for his elaborately annotated promptbook, now in the possession of the New York Public Library, was obviously prepared for professional performance.

28 Although Towse, John Ranken, Sixty Years of the Theater (New York, 1916), pp. 36–7Google Scholar, does call her “a trained actor of the first class.”

29 See Wadsworth, Frank W., “Hamlet and Iago: Nineteenth-Century Breeches Parts,” Shakespeare Quarterly (Spring 1966), pp. 129–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Shakespeare, II, 250.

31 London Illustrated News (August 22, 1857).

32 Odell, , Shakespeare, II, 250Google Scholar; Towse, , Sixty Years, p. 48.Google Scholar

33 See Dramatic Essays by John Forster and George Henry Lewes, ed. William Archer and Robert W. Lowe (London, 1896), p. 122, and “R.W.T.B.” in The Literary Review and Stage Manager (May 12, 1849). During its brief life The Literary Review and Stage Manager missed few opportunities to criticize Miss Glyn.

34 “Memoir” in Tallis' Acting Edition of the Duchess [1851]. See ako Heraud in Tallis’ Dramatic Magazine (December, 1950). Joseph, Bertram, The Tragic Actor (London, 1959), pp. 327–32Google Scholar, has done something to correct the inaccurate views of Knight and Odell.

35 Quoted from an unidentified clipping in the Enthoven Collection (under Standard Theatre), with the date, March 3, 1855, added in pencil. See also the Athenaeum (May 9, 1868) and the Times (April 14, 1868). A typical debate over whether Miss Glyn was or was not the greatest actress of the day—or since Mrs. Siddons—may be found in the Manchester Guardian (April 19, 22, 1854), Manchester Examiner and Times (April 19, 1854), Manchester Courier (April 22, 1854), Manchester Weekly Adviser (April 22, 1854).

36 Illustrated London News (April 19, 1856), and Aris's Birmingham Gazette (October 27, 1856).

37 London Times (November 21, 1850), Athenaeum (November 23, 1850) and the Dublin Freeman's Journal (November 24, 27, 1858). See also Marston, Westland, Our Recent Actors (Boston, 1888), 11–41.Google Scholar That Miss Glyn herself viewed her art in a manner consistent with natural acting is shown by her own comments in a letter to the actor, Frank Archer. See Archer, Frank, An Actor's Notebooks, London, [1912], p. 272.Google Scholar Finally, she was a comedienne of no mean ability, achieving considerable success as Beatrice, and as Katherine.(in the Shrew) among other roles.

38 The Wallet of Time (New York, 1913), I, 194.

39 A History of the New York Stage (New York, 1903), I, 409. Of. Winter, Wallet of Time, I: 196–7, whose admiration for Mrs. Waller's Meg is as great as Brown's. Odell, George C. D., Annals of the New York Stage (New York, 1927–1949), VIII, 562Google Scholar has a picture of her in the role; it is mislabelled “Bella Waller.”

40 See, for example, the Philadelphia Inquirer (Feb. 12, 1866) and Philadelphia Press (May 31, 1867), also The Pittsburgh Post (December 6, 1859), quoted in Fletcher, Edward Garland, Records and History of Theatrical Activities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania… (Harvard Ph.D. Thesis, 1931), I, 308.Google Scholar

41 See pamphlet in Harvard Theatre Collection and Wadsworth, op. cit. Of the other actresses, little need be said. Sarah, Kirby Stark was a versatile performer, experienced in melodrama, whose formal training appears to have been limited; Kate Denin Ryan, an actress whose talents were most at home in the lighter forms of drama.

42 “Remarks” in Davidson ed. and Tallis' Dramatic Magazine (May, 1951). Even the determinedly negative Lewes agreed that Bennett “suited [Bosola] to a nicety” (Dramatic Essays, p. 122). See also Marston, Our Recent Actors, II, 61–2, who particularly praised Bennett's acting in the murder scene.

43 As usual Lewes was even more uncharitable: “Phelps was ill at ease in the first four acts, as if the nonsense of his part baffled him, and he could not grasp it.” But even Lewes was impressed by Phelps' display of lycanthropy, as “towards the close of the fourth act, however, he made a clutch at it” until “his madness in the fifth act was terribly real” (Dramatic Essays, p. 122).

44 Illustrated London News (January 30, 1864).

45 Ibid.

46 Material pertaining to Stark's career may be found scattered through the following: MacMinn, George R., The Theater of the Golden Era in California (Caldwell, Idaho, 1941)Google Scholar; Cagey, Edmond M., The San Francisco Stage (New York, 1950)Google Scholar; Allston Brown, T., A History of the New York Stage (New York, 1903)Google Scholar; Odeli, George C. D., Annals of the Nexu York Stage (New York, 1927–1949)Google Scholar; Sawyer, Eugene T., History of Santa Clara County, California (Los Angeles, 1922)Google Scholar, Chapter IX; Cain, Ella M., The Story of Bodie (San Francisco, 1956), pp. 10–11Google Scholar; “The Starks” in San Francisco Theatre Research (San Francisco, 1938) Vol. 3, 1st series.

47 The Golden Era (August 23, 1857) and California Spirit of the Times (August 15, 1857).

48 See MacMinn, , Theater of the Golden Era, pp. 88–9.Google Scholar

49 Curiously Home too was in Australia, from 1852–1869. See The Dictionary of National Biography.

50 See, for example, The Lady's Newspaper (November 23, 1850) and the New York Herald (April 6, 1858). Prompt-book peculiarities, including some striking differences between English and American productions, will be discussed in a subsequent article.

51 John Webster, pp. 25–6.