Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-11-2018 Illuminating the Eighteenth-Century British Stage: Perfecting Performance through Education Bethany Csomay Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Part of the Acting Commons, Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Theatre History Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Csomay, B. (2018). Illuminating the Eighteenth-Century British Stage: Perfecting Performance through Education (Master's thesis, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1455 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ILLUMINATING THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH STAGE: PERFECTING PERFORMANCE THROUGH EDUCATION A Thesis Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts By Bethany Jean Csomay May 2018 Copyright by Bethany Csomay 2018 ILLUMINATING THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH STAGE: PERFECTING PERFORMANCE THROUGH EDUCATION By Bethany Jean Csomay Approved March 15, 2018 ________________________________ ________________________________ Laura Engel Susan Howard Professor of English Professor of English (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) ________________________________ John Lane Assistant Professor of Theater Arts (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ James C. Swindal Greg Barnhisel Dean, McAnulty Graduate School Chair, English Professor of Philosophy Professor of English iii ABSTRACT ILLUMINATING THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH STAGE: PERFECTING PERFORMANCE THROUGH EDUCATION By Bethany Csomay May 2018 Thesis supervised by Laura Engel Actress studies has become “a truly interdisciplinary field” that “intersect[s] with art, music, literature, history, economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and fashion” (Engel 752). While much scholarship has been conducted on the actress’ life, interaction with material culture, public spectacle, authority, femininity, and writings, the role of an actress’ education in her success has yet to be explored adequately or examined beyond biography. My project seeks to examine the educational beginnings of actresses and I assert there are three modes of education that eighteenth-century actresses often undertook. This project examines the advantages an actress gained through her theatrical education, which participates in the conversation of “thinking about the complexities of actress’ experiences and the variety of strategies they employ to manage their personal and professional lives” (Engel 756). iv DEDICATION I dedicate this project to the dreamers, the first-generation college students that are discovering how far they can fly; the pursuit of knowledge is an invaluable skill, one that betters the world. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank my thesis committee—Drs. Engel, Howard, and Lane—for their steadfast support and guidance as I embarked into the world of independent scholarship. I would like to thank Gumberg Library and the British Library for helping me uncover sources around the globe and ensuring that they arrived safely and soundly. I would like to thank my friends, especially Shannon Small, Emily Keith, Caroline Combemale, and Haley Barger, for their support and excellent listening skills. I thank family for supporting me in this endeavor. Your support and enthusiasm has been unwavering. To my mother: thank you for listening to countless drafts of material and believing in me. To my father: thank you for cheering me on and listening to iteration after iteration. To my grandfather: thank you for teaching me to go to college and supporting my writing. I’ll write that novel one day. To my grandmother, thank you for being my inspiration in pursuing a creative lifestyle; your guidance and support has been invaluable. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Dedication .......................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgement ...............................................................................................................x Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Inheritance............................................................................................................................4 Discovery ...........................................................................................................................10 Trial and Error & Self-Study .............................................................................................15 Charlotte Charke: A Case Study of Inheritance .................................................................20 Margaret Woffington: A Case Study of Discovery ...........................................................37 Mary Robinson: A Case Study of Discovery and Intellectualism .....................................60 Sarah Siddons: A Case Study of Trial and Error ...............................................................76 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................92 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................96 vii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1. Hogarth. Margaret (“Peg”) Woffington as Sir Harry Wildair in “The Constant Couple, 1740.......................................................................................................48 FIGURE 2. M. Moore. The Female Volunteer or, an Attempt to make our Men STAND, 1746....................................................................................................................................51 FIGURE 3. John Faber Jr. Mrs. Margaret Woffington in the character of Mrs. Ford in the Merry Wives of Windsor, 1754 ..........................................................................................53 FIGURE 4. Hogarth. Margaret (“Peg”) Woffington as Sir Harry Wildair in “The Constant Couple, 1740.......................................................................................................53 FIGURE 5. John Lewis. Peg Woffington, 1753. ................................................................53 FIGURE 6. Seven attitudes by Mrs. Siddons, the first attitude being a man. From left to right in the upper row: Calista, Euphrasia, Constance. From left to right in the lower row, Calista, Imogen, Lady Randolph, Belvidera. Gilbert Austin, Chironomia, 1806......85 FIGURE 7. Sarah Siddons. A Plaster Bust of Sarah Siddons, Early 19th C. ....................90 FIGURE 8. Gainsborough, Mrs. Sarah Siddons, 1785 ......................................................91 viii Within the last two decades, according to Laura Engel, “attention to the significance of eighteenth-century British actresses [has] blossomed into an emerging interdisciplinary field of study” (751). Leading scholars such as Sandra Richards, Robyn Aselon, Cheryl Wanko, Felicity Nussbaum, and Joseph Roach have employed and theorized methodologies to categorize, re- examine, and draw attention to the position of the actress through various approaches, particularly through the lenses of cultural materialism, new historicism, and feminism. But the realm of the actress extends beyond literary methodology as, Engel posits, “actress studies is a truly interdisciplinary field;” it “intersect[s] with art, music, literature, history, economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and fashion,” giving way to a multitude of opportunities for scholarship (752). While much scholarship has been conducted on the actress’ life1, interaction with material culture, public spectacle, authority, femininity, and writings, the role of an actress’ education in her success has yet to be explored adequately or examined beyond biography. My project seeks to examine the educational beginnings of actresses and I assert there are three modes of education that eighteenth-century actresses often undertook. This project examines the advantages an actress gained through her theatrical education, which participates in the conversation of “thinking about the complexities of actress’ experiences and the variety of strategies they employ to manage their personal and professional lives” (Engel 756). Unlike the structured models of education2 found within schools and conduct literature, actresses did not share a set model of education where each woman had a mostly standardized 1 See Sandra Richards The Rise of the English Actress or Cheryl Wanko’s The Roles of Authority for further reading. 2 The rigor of education women could access within the eighteenth century was largely determined by class status. According to Felicity Nussbaum, the lower classes had few opportunities to go to school and, if educated, knew how to read and memorize (Nussbaum 37). The middle-class had a more elaborate education, often studying in boarding schools