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The Theatre of Shelley Jacqueline Mulhallen The Theatre of Shelley OpenBook Publishers To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/27 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. Jacqueline Mulhallen has studied and worked as an actor and writer in both England and Australia and won a scholarship to study drama in Finland. She worked as performer and writer with Lynx Theatre and Poetry and her plays Sylvia and Rebels and Friends toured England and Ireland (1987-1997). Publications include ‘Focus on Finland’, Theatre Australia, 1979; (with David Wright) ‘Samuel Johnson: Amateur Physician’, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1982; ‘Sylvia Pankhurst’s Northern Tour’, www.sylviapankhurst. com, 2008; ‘Sylvia Pankhurst’s Paintings: A Missing Link’, Women’s History Magazine, 2009 and she is a contributor to the Oxford Handbook of the Georgian Playhouse 1737-1832 (forthcoming). Jacqueline Mulhallen The Theatre of Shelley Cambridge 2010 Open Book Publishers CIC Ltd., 40 Devonshire Road, Cambridge, CB1 2BL, United Kingdom http://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2010 Jacqueline Mulhallen. Some rights are reserved. This book is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. This license allows for copying any part of the work for personal and non-commercial use, providing author attribution is clearly stated. Details of allowances and restrictions are available at: http://www.openbookpublishers.com As with all Open Book Publishers titles, digital material and resources associated with this volume are available from our website: http://www.openbookpublishers.com ISBN Hardback: 978-1-906924-31-7 ISBN Paperback: 978-1-906924-30-0 ISBN Digital (pdf): 978-1-906924-32-4 Acknowledgment is made to the The Jessica E. Smith and Kevin R. Brine Charitable Trust for their generous contribution towards the preparation of this volume. All paper used by Open Book Publishers is SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) Certified. Printed in the United Kingdom and United States by Lightning Source for Open Book Publishers To William Alderson Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgements xi Note on the Text xiii List of Abbreviations xv Introduction 1 Chapter One: The Theatrical Context – the Georgian Theatre in England 21 Chapter Two: Shelley’s Theatregoing, Playreading and Criticism 53 Chapter Three: Practical Technique – The Cenci 85 Chapter Four: Turning History into Art – Charles the First 115 Chapter Five: Ideal Drama – Prometheus Unbound 147 Chapter Six: Drama for a Purpose – Hellas & Fragments of an Unfinished Drama 177 Chapter Seven: Satirical Comedy – Swellfoot the Tyrant 209 Conclusion 235 Appendix I: List of Performances Seen by Shelley 243 Appendix II: The Programme of Songs with the Performance of Douglas 257 Select Bibliography 259 Index 275 List of Illustrations page Front cover: ‘Drury Lane’ (detail) by Edward Dayes (1792). Courtesy of the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botani- cal Gardens, San Marino, California. 1 ‘Richard III’, engraving by John White from a drawing taken in 28 the theatre by Mr. R. Cruikshank, c. 1824, from Cumberland’s British Theatre, private collection. 2 ‘Macbeth’, engraving by John White from a drawing taken in the 30 theatre by Mr. R. Cruikshank, c. 1824, from Cumberland’s British Theatre, private collection. 3 ‘Bernard Blackmantle reading his Play in the Green Room of 32 Covent Garden Theatre’, drawn and engraved by R. Cruikshank, 10 June 1824, from The English Spy (1825). Private collection. 4 Scenes from ‘La Sylphide’: 4.1 Engraving by T. Williams; 4.2: 49 lithograph from a drawing by A. Laederich, c. 1832. Kind per- mission of Ivor Guest and Dance Books. 5 Covent Garden, 1828, unknown artist, from Fanny Kemble by 57 Dorothie de Bear Bobbé, private collection. 6 ‘Henry IV Pt I’, engraving by John White from a drawing taken 58 in the theatre by Mr. R. Cruikshank, c. 1824, from Cumberland’s British Theatre, private collection. 7 ‘Cut wood with bay and mountains’, watercolour, artist 63 uncknown. Grieve Family Collection. Courtesy of Senate House Library, University of London, MS1007/10. Set Design for ‘Winter’s Tale’, undated. 8 ‘The School for Scandal’, wood engraving by Mr. Bonner from a 64 drawing taken in the theatre by Mr. R. Cruikshank, c. 1824, from Cumberland’s British Theatre, private collection. 9 ‘Eliza O’Neill as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, 86 Act II, Scene ii’, lithograph after George Dawe (1781-1829) by F.C. Lewis. By kind permission of The Art Archive/Garrick Club. x The Theatre of Shelley 10 ‘Beatrice Cenci, an etching by W.B. Scott adapted from the paint- 89 ing that in Shelley’s day was commonly attributed to Guido Reni’, from The Cenci, edited by Alfred Forman and H. Buxton Forman (Shelley Society Publications 1886). 11 ‘Charles Kemble as Giraldi Fazio’ by Thomas Sully, 1833. Cour- 106 tesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of Mrs. John Ford. 12 ‘Elliston as George IV’, toy theatre illustration, c. 1820. From 126 David Powell, The Toy Theatres of William West (London: Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2004), p. 54. 13 ‘Interior of Westminster Abbey’, toy theatre illustration, c. 1820. 128 From The Toy Theatres of William West, p. 54. 14 ‘Mountains’, set design undated. Grieve Family Collection. Cour- 164 tesy of Senate House Library, University of London, MS1007/409. 15 ‘Auguste Vestris’, contemporary print (artist unknown). From 171 Ethel L. Urlin, Dancing, Ancient and Modern (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1914), p. 140. 16 ‘Eastern Palace’, watercolour, set design undated. Grieve Fam- 192 ily Collection. Courtesy of Senate House Library, University of London, MS1007/349. 17 ‘View out to sea through colonnade’, watercolour, set design 194 undated. Grieve Family Collection. Courtesy of Senate House Library, University of London, MS1007/398. 18 T.P. Cooke, toy theatre illustration, c. 1829, unknown artist, pri- 196 vate collection. 19 ‘Sea Battle and sailing ships’, watercolour, set design undated. 198 Grieve Family Collection. Courtesy of Senate House Library, University of London, MS1007/350. 20 ‘Arlecchino’, 17th century print. From Pierre Duchartre, The Ital- 221 ian Comedy (New York: Dover Publications, 1966), p. 131. 21 ‘Punch and Joan’, 18th century woodcuts (artist unknown). 224 From George Speaight Punch and Judy, A History (London: Stu- dio Vista, 1970), p. 67. Acknowledgements This study started life as a Ph.D. thesis for the English Department of Anglia Ruskin University. I would like to thank the staff of the English Department for their warm academic support and also for awarding me a major research bursary and further bursaries to attend conferences and to study in Italy. I owe a great debt to Professor Nora Crook, not only for her meticulous supervision of my thesis but also to both her and Dr. Keith Crook for all their encouragement, generosity and hospitality. I am most grateful to the staff of Anglia Ruskin University Library, the British Library, Cambridge University Library, Eton College Library, Horsham Museum. I am especially grateful to the London Library, which granted me membership under the Carlyle Scheme. I had a great deal of help from the staff of Archivio Storico del Teatro La Fenice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Biblioteca Casa Goldoni, Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, Gabinetto Vieusseux, Teatro della Pergola and Museo della Scala who encouraged and advised me and tolerated my inadequate Italian. The Committee of the British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS) granted me the Stephen Copley Award (2006) for travel to Italy. I would like to thank the following organisations and individuals for kindly allowing me to reproduce their material as illustrations: the Garrick Club, Senate House Library Special Collections, the Huntington Library, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Ivor Guest and Dance Books and Anthony Speaight. David McGowan, BBC Written Archives Centre, helped me locate Shelley’s Hellas (1976), which the British Library Sound Archive allowed me to hear. Dr. Hilary Porriss, University of Cincinnati, Dr. Kai Merten, University of Giessen, Professor Jacky Bratton and Dr. Gilli Bush-Bailey, University of London and Professor Angela Esterhammer, University of Western Ontario, all gave me generous advice. I am particularly grateful to Professor Marcello de Angelis, Università di Firenze for his help in tracing a performance which Shelley might have seen. Many thanks to Colin Blumenau, Director xii The Theatre of Shelley of the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, for inviting me to become voluntary researcher for the ‘Restoring the Repertoire’ project (2004-2006). All my friends and family have been very supportive, but I would not have completed the work without the optimism and enthusiasm of my husband, William Alderson. I benefited in a practical way from his knowledge of Greek and Greek drama, his passion for secondhand bookshops, his computer literacy and our discussions, but of course I owe him far more than this. Hope Stallybrass found me many out-of-print books on the theatre which proved invaluable, David Bookallil sent me, from Australia, a score of the overture to Thomas Dibdin’s The Cabinet and Stephanie Shaw read chapters with the eagle eye of a professional sub- editor. I especially thank Jane and Felix Blunt for their wonderful hospitality while I was in Italy, Jane in particular. She not only took me to see places which Shelley knew, but without her help in contacting Italian libraries by phone before my visit, I could not have accomplished anything there in the two weeks available. Last but not least, my thanks to Rupert Gatti, William St. Clair, Alessandra Tosi and Corin Throsby of Open Book Publishers, who have all been sympathetic and very generous with their time.
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