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A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/93369 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Stage costume and the representation of history in Britain, 1776-1834 Anne Musset Thesis submitted for the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Warwick) and Doctorat en études anglophones (Université Paris Diderot– Paris 7) University of Warwick, History of Art Department Université Sorbonne Paris Cité/ Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7 Ecole Doctorale 131 : Langue, Littérature et Image : civilisations et sciences humaines (domaines francophone, anglophone et d'Asie orientale) LARCA : Laboratoire de recherches sur les cultures anglophones - UMR 8225 October 2016 Supervised by Prof Frédéric Ogée (Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7) and Dr Rosie Dias (University of Warwick) Jury for the viva voce examination held at Université Paris-Diderot – Paris 7, 23 March 2017: Chair: Prof Jean-Marie Fournier, Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7 Rapporteurs: Prof Shearer West, University of Sheffield and Prof Florence March, Université Paul Valéry – Montpellier 3 Examiner: Prof Jim Davis, University of Warwick 1 2 Contents Contents ................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 5 Declaration ............................................................................................................................... 7 Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 9 Table of Illustrations .............................................................................................................. 11 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 1 ‘With a large ruff, and all the costume of the times’: historical costume in the 1770s ...................................................................................................................................... 59 Stage costume in the 1770s ............................................................................................... 61 Antiquarian costume books ............................................................................................... 65 The suggestion of history in theatrical portraiture: James Roberts’s illustrations for John Bell ..................................................................................................................................... 71 Chapter 2 Negotiating anachronism .................................................................................... 91 The problems of anachronistic stage costume .................................................................. 92 Anachronism as entertaining ............................................................................................. 98 Necessary anachronism ................................................................................................... 103 Anachronism and illusion: the adverse effects of historical accuracy ............................. 106 Chapter 3 Creating chronology: visual representations of historical continuity ............... 113 Synchrony and diachrony: Jefferys’s Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations ...... 114 Juxtapositions: ancient Britons and Anglo-Saxon kings in illustrated histories of England ......................................................................................................................................... 118 Comparison: Robert Dighton’s fashionables ................................................................... 122 Learning through play: historical jigsaw puzzles and accurate costumes ....................... 124 Towards the first dress histories ...................................................................................... 128 Chapter 4 Ancient costume and the authentic representation of the past in 1818: Edmund Kean in Brutus; or, The Fall of Tarquin ................................................................................. 135 Iconography and political significance of the episode ..................................................... 141 Brutus, Kean, Northcote .................................................................................................. 144 Lethière’s Brutus Condemning his Sons to Death ............................................................ 154 Staging and historical distance ........................................................................................ 158 Oxberry’s and Cumberland’s ‘authentic’ plays ................................................................ 160 3 Chapter 5 ‘Anticising’ Britain: ancient and modern Highlanders, noble and picturesque savages: Home’s Douglas, Master Betty and the representation of historical Scottish costume ................................................................................................................................ 167 Norval and its actors ......................................................................................................... 167 Highland dress in Rob Roy and its dramatisations ........................................................... 192 Chapter 6 ‘An iron race in iron clad’: dressing the nation in the time of King John and Edward the Black Prince ....................................................................................................... 201 The Black Prince in eighteenth-century culture ............................................................... 205 The antiquarian approach: Planché’s costumes for King John ........................................ 224 Poitiers in ‘plastic marble’: a panstereomachia ............................................................... 242 Chapter 7 Beyond the stage: costumes in anecdotes, print, fabric and tinsel ................... 249 A ‘culture of anthology’: historical dress in anecdotes .................................................... 250 From fragmentation to unity: extra-illustration, tinsel prints and the theatricalisation of the past ............................................................................................................................. 260 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 279 Glossary ................................................................................................................................ 287 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 291 Illustrations ........................................................................................................................... 327 Index ..................................................................................................................................... 467 4 Acknowledgements Many thanks are due to my supervisors, Dr Rosie Dias and Professor Frédéric Ogée, for all of their help and guidance during my time as a research student. I am also indebted to all those involved in the organisation of the cotutelle agreement from which I benefited. Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7 and the University of Warwick have both provided stimulating environments, inspiring resources and pastoral care without which this thesis would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the French Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche and the History of Art Department at the University of Warwick for financial support. I am greatly indebted to Jill Sullivan at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, Beverley Cook at the Museum of London and Marcus Risdell at the Garrick Club for their help with my research on theatrical portraiture. Furthermore, I wish to acknowledge the valuable support of the following people: Sylvette Lemerle, for her enthusiasm and her steadfast support ever since my time as a Khâgneuse and throughout the four years of this project; Isabelle Baudino, for her initial advice on researching British art; Anna Bachmann and Daniel Unruh for their words of wisdom about life as a doctoral student. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues at the Laboratoire de recherches sur les cultures anglophones (LARCA) for many stimulating conversations about British art, literature and history. Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my parents for nurturing my interest in art, history and British culture; to Adam, Doug and Gloria for their psychological and logistical support, particularly in the final weeks of work on this thesis; and to my husband and both our families for all of their support and encouragement. 5 6 Declaration I hereby declare that except where specific reference is made to the work of others, the contents of this thesis are original and have not been submitted in whole or in part for consideration for any other degree