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.ARNLR, Frederick Elliott, 1935- THE BUF.LETTA IN LONDON ' 0 MINOR THEATRES DURINO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY WITH A HANDLIST OF BURLETTAS. "A KIND OF POOP RELATION TO All OPERA".

The Ohio State Uriversitv, Ph.D., 1972 Soeech-Theater

University Microfilms,A XEROX Company , Ann Arbor, Michigan

© 1973

FREDERICK ELLIOTT WARNER

a l l Riarrs r e s e r v e d

THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. THE BURLETTA IN LONDON'S MINOR THEATRES

DURINO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

WITH A HANDLIST OF BURLET1AS

"A Kind of Poor Relation to an Opera”

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Hie Ohio State University

Sy

Frederick Elliott Warner, B.A.

The Ohio State University 1972

Approved by PLEASE NOTE:

Some pages may have

indistinct print.

Filmed as received.

iversity Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The vriter wishes to express his gratitude to Professor

John H. McDowell for hie invaluable training in theatre liistory and the methods of historical research, without which this study would not have been possible. It is regrettable that Professor

McDowell was on leave at the time that this study was completed and could not take part in its final preparation. The writer also wishes to thank Professor John C. Morrow for his encouragement and assistance in the preparation of this study; and Miss Mary-Jane

Evans for her assistance in proofreading and her helpful suggestions on matters of form.

»

ii VITA

December 16, 1935 Born, Dayton, Ohio

195*1 - 1957 German Linguist, U.S. Army Security Agency i960 B.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio i 960 - 196^ Research Assistant, OSU Theatre Collection Department of Speech, The Ohio State University

I 96U Scene Designer - Technical Director, Berea Summer Theatre, Baldwin - Wallace College, Berea, Ohio

1965 - 1967 Instructor - Lighting Designer, Department of Speech, Wisconsin State University, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

1 967 - 1966 Assistant to the Curator of Rare Books, OSU libraries, The Ohio State University

1 9 68 - 1969 Chief Review Bxaminer, Bureau of Support, The Ohio Youth Commission, Columbus, Ohio

1 9 6 9 - 1972 Lecturer - Curator, OSU Theatre Resrarch Institute, Department of Theatre, The Ohio State University

PUBLICATIONS

"The Ottoboni Theatre," The Ohio State University Theatre Collection Bulletin, XI, 195IT

The OSU Theatre Collection 03assifjcation Manual. Columbus, Ohio: Tuc Ohio State University, j"9oo".

Review of "Scene Design at the Comedie Frangeise 1901-1920," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation by John Edward Bielepberg. Theatre Studies, XVIII, 1971-72.

iii FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Theatre

Studies in Theatre History and Criticism. Professor John H. McDowell

Studies in Modern Drama and Stage Direction. Professor Roy H. Bowen

Studies in Dramatic Literature. Professor Charles C. Ritter

Studies in Scenic and Costume Design. Professor George P. Crepeau

Studies in Technical Theatre and Stage Lighting Design. Professor Valter S. Dewey

Minor Field: English Literature

Studies in Dramatic Literature. Professors John H* Wilson and Julian H. Markets

Minor Field: Television

Studies in Television Programming and Program Writing. Professors Harold B. Summers and Richard M. Mall

iv TABLE OP CONTENTS

Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... ii

VITA ...... * ...... iii

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Chapter

I. THE ORIGIN OF THE BURLETEA...... 10

II. THE BURLETTA AND THE L A W ...... 26

III. THE BURLETTA IN THE MINOR REPERTORY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ...... 52

IV. CONCLUSION...... 61

APPENDIX: A HANDLIST OF BURLETTAS

Introduction ...... 92

A Handlist of Burlettas ...... 95

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 159

V INTRODUCTION

The Burletta is. the dramatic genre most closely associated with London's minor theatres of the nineteenth century. From about

1 8 0 0, when these theatres were first commonly licensed to perform burlettas, until 181+3 , when the practice of restricting theatrical licenses to certain kinds of performances was terminated, the minor houses and the genre were inseparable: the burletta was the drama of the minor theatres; the minors were theatres that performed burlettas.

These basic facts can be deduced easily by sampling the theatrical writings of nineteenth-century Englishmen or from nearly any of the modern scholarly works that deal with the era. An attempt to learn very much about the burletta from these sources, however, Is likely to prove more confusing than enlightening. Nineteenth-century writers offer such a wealth of divergent and. conflicting descriptions of the burletta that little emerges clearly except its association with the minor playhouses. Fany complain that the term is impossible to define, as docs George Colman the Younger in his widely quoted remark, "ask now, what is a Burletta, and you will be told it Is one thing, at one theatre, and another, at another."^ Colman should have been as clear on the matter as anyone of his age: when he penned this comment In 1830, he was the British government's Licenser of Flays.

^George Column the Younger, Random Records, I (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1 8 3 0 ), p. 50.

1 2

Modern scholarship has shed little light on the matter of the burletta* In spite of its significance in British theatre history, the burletta has received scant attention from theatre scholars.

Although many studies of the English stage mention the genre in passing, fev attempt to deal with it in any detail, or to define it more closely than as the drama of the minor theatres. Only three studies stand out as offering more than a passing glance at the burletta, and their coverage of the subject is far from complete. 2 Watson Nicholson*b The Struggle for a Free Stage in London is the most comprehensive treatment of the legal history of London's minor theatres. Nicholson details the efforts of the minors to break the great metropolitan theatres' monopoly on spoken drama during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, culminating in the general rewriting of England's theatrical lavs in I8U3 . Nicholson discusses fully the role of the burletta in the struggle between London's two theatrical classes: by gradually altering the legal definition of their "burlettas,” the minors were able to make them so nearly resemble the legitimate drama of the patent theatres that the letters' exclusive right to perform spoken drama became meaningless. Nicholson, however, gives no attention to the burletta as a dramatic genre; he is only concerned with the legal ramifications of the term in the operating licenses of the minor theatres.

He tends to use the word "burletta" as a synonym for minor or

"illegitimate" drama generally.

2 Watson Nicholson, The Struggle for a Free Stage in London (London: Archibald Constable « Co., Ltd.; Boston and Kev fork: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 19^6). 3

In hie Sheridan to Robertson! A Study of the Nlncteenth- 3 Century London Stage, Ernest Bradlee Watson offers a more complete discussion of the "illegitimate" drama as veil as summarizing the legal controversy betveen the majors and the minors* In hie comments on the burletta, however, he uses the terra even more casually than does

Nicholson. He treats the burletta as little more than a legal subterfuge, a name given by the minor playhouses to their works that encroached on the legitimate drama. Rather than attempting to define the burletta as a genre, Watson applies the word to nineteenth- century plays and dramatic commentary which make no such association themselves. In one instance, he quotes a lengthy 1828 description I* of a dumb-show as an example of an early burletta: the original makes no mention of the term, nor does any known nineteenth-century writer equate burlettas with dumb-shows.

A more careful and thoughtful treatment of the burletta is found in Allardyce Nicoll's A History of English Drama, l660-1900»^

His hand-lists of English plays in the History contain many examples of the genre, often with useful information on productions, authorship, literary sources and other aspects of the plays. Nicoll at least attempts

3 Ernest Bradlee Watson, Sheridan to Robertson: A Study of the Nineteenth-Century London Stage (Cambridge ^Massachusetty: Harvard TJHIversity—ft:ess7—192^7^ li. Ibid., pp. 3^-35f quoting the editorial preface to William Thomas Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry; or. Life in London (London: Thomas Richardson, Cl62837^ Watson ascribes the passage to Moncrieff.

^Allardyce Nicoll, A History of English Drama, 1660-1900 (6 vols.; Cambridge: At the University Press, 1952-1959)* k to define the burletta ub a dramatic type, although, after quoting

Colman and some of his contemporaries to shov the nineteenth century's confusion on the subject, he finally concludes that "we can with no certainty give the title burletta to any particular species of dramatic composition," except to note that "it signified most frequently the operatic farce which was so popular a form.

None of the foregoing works is primarily concerned with the burletta, and none offers a fully satisfactory treatment of the subject. All three, however, show clearly the importance of this dramatic genre to the history of London's minor theatres and the need for a more detailed investigation to establish the burletta's contribution to that history. The present study will attempt that investigation.

This study is concerned chiefly vith the burletta as a dramatic type rather than its secondary identity as a legal issue.

Attention is directed mainly to the period after 1000, when the burletta was associated with London's minor theatres, until about I85O, when it ceased to occupy a significant place in the repertory of London's theatres. In addition to a textual discussion of the burletta, a major feature of the study Is an annotated hand-list of known burlettas, summarizing the facts that can be determined about the authorship, production history, literary and dramatic sources, and other aspects of each work listed.

-

Ibid., Vol. IV: Early Nineteenth Century Drama, 1800-1850 (2nd ed.; Cambridge: At the University Tress, 1 P* i V l . " 5

Source materials for the study may be grouped in several categories for convenience:

A primary resource for the study is three extensive collections of playbills, advertisements and press clippings for three of the more important minor theatres of London. These are: for the Regency

Theatre (also knovn as the Nev Theatre, Queen's, Tottenham Street, etc.): the Heal Collection of the Highgate Branch Library, London.

For the Sadler's Wells Theatre: the collection of that name at the Finsbury Public Library, London; for the Royal CircuB and Surrey

Theatre: the appropriate files of documents in the Enthoven Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. All of these materials have been studied from microfilm copies in the holdings of the Ohio

State University Theatre Research Institute. These materials have provided the primary basis for a survey and analysis of the burletta,

Its dramatic characteristics, and its position in the repertory of the minor theatres. The playbills and advertisements are also the basis for the Handlist of Burlettas in the Appendix.

Another important resource for the study is a large number of nineteenth-century play scripts of burlettas and related dramatic types. Many of these have been studied from microfilm copies in the

Ohio Slate University Theatre Research Institute; the microfilmed scripts come from numerous American and European libraries. A large number of scripts have been examined for this study in the Reading

Room and Worth Library of the British Museum, vhile others have been inspected in the Ohio State University Libraries. In addition to the obvious uses of such playscripts, the prefaces of several have furnished valuable information on the accompanying plays and on the

burletta generally. It should be noted that scripts are available

for only a small percentage of the burlettas that Iondon's theatres produced; the great majority of these plays were never printed, and

fewer still have survived in public collections.

A third source of information lies in the biographies, diaries, memoirs and other writings by and about nineteenth-century men of the theatre. Among the most useful of these for the present

study are The Reminiscences of Thomas Dlbdin, which discusses many of the burlettas he wrote and the minor theatres he managed; and

George Colman's Random Records, which deals at some length with legal and critical aspects of the burletta.

A fourth class of sources is the theatrical Journals of the era under study, such as the Literary Gazette, the New Monthly

Magazine, the Theatrical Inquisitor, etc. These furnish both reviews of specific burlettas and more general commentary on theatrical issues of importance to this study.

Another valuable group of resources consists of bibliographies, catalogues and handlists of plays that supply informtion of particular

Interest for this study's Handlist of Burlettas. First among these sources are Allardyce Nicoll's handlists of plays in his A History of

English Drama; others include the nineteenth-century Biographia

Dramatics, the "Bepertorio" volume of the Bnciclopedla dello Spettacolo, and the printed card catalogues of the Library of Congress and the 7

British Museum. For the Patent house burlettas of the eighteenth century, the recent The London Stage, 1660-1600 is a valuable resource.

A primary document that deserves separate listing as a resource is the I832 Report from the Select Committee on Dramatic

Literature of Parliament, which contains much vital information on the burletta and on English theatre of the early nineteenth century.

The testimony of prominent actors, playwrights, theatre managers and others before the committee, reproduced in the report, supplies first-hand information and opinion on these subjects from the men most directly concerned with them. The report’s appendices reproduce several useful documents, including the Covent Garden and I>rury lane Patents Royal, and several minor theatre licenses.

The final class of source material for this study consists of modern scholarly books and articles on English theatre and related subjects, to furnish both background information and specific material on the burletta. The most valuable of these were discussed earlier in this Introduction.

The organization of the present study drawn from this material has been determined by two essential facts about the burletta: firstly, until 180 0 , it was chiefly associated with London's major theatres, only after that date becoming a mainstay of the minor drama; secondly, during its nineteenth-century career in the minor houses, both the form of the burletta and its role in the minor repertory were vitally affected by the long legal war between majors and minors over dramatic freedom.

Reflecting these facts, the study will be organized as follows: 8

Chapter I establishes the theatrical setting in vhich the

burletta was produced. It then discusses the origin of the dramatic

genre; the derivation of its curious name; and the early career of

the burletta in the groat theatres of Dublin and London before 1800.

Chapter II deals vith the development of London's minor

theatres during the first half of the nineteenth century and their

long struggle for dramatic freedom against the monopoly of the patent

theatres. This chapter deals vith the legal history of the burletta,

including a discussion of England's theatrical laws, the licensing

of minor theatres for burlettas and the varying legal interpretations

of the term "burletta." An. important aim of this chapter is to

clarify the distinction bctvceu the "legal." and "dramatic" guises

of the burletta, vhich most previous writers have confused.

Chapter III describes the development of the minor drama in

general, and the burletta in particular, in the nineteenth century.

This chapter is primarily concerned vith the dramatic aspects of the

burletta, including its characteristics as a genre, its formal evolution,

and its position in the repertory of the minor theatres. Finally,

the chapter traces the burletta's fall from popularity and its disappearance

from the London theatrical repertory after I85O.

Chapter IV concludes the textual portion of the study with a summary of the main points and the findings of the previous

chapters.

The Appendix presents the annotated Handlist of Burlettas

that is an important feature of this study. The Appendix begins 9 with an introductory discussion of the source materials, organization, methodology and limitations of the Handlist, followed by the

burletta listings themselves.

i CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF THE BURLETTA

Introduction

Few dramatic genres have created as much confusion as an apparently harmless and Inconsequential little entertainment called the burletta. From its introduction to London Just before 1750 until its disappearance from the English theatrical repertory a century later, no one seemed able to define the type satisfactorily. In

1750, Mrs. Clive played a character in one of her own farces vho thought a burletta was "a kind of poor Relation to an Opera:In I82L,

England's Lord Chamberlain could come no closer than: "surely a Burletta must be interspersed throughout with songs at least, whatever may be 2 the other characteristics of a Burletta." In 1Q6 9, Saint Pauls magazine recalled a court trial involving a burletta performance In which

"the whole tribe of artists was put into the box In succession; but not

3 one could logically define a burletta."

^Catherine] Clive, The Rehearsal; or, Toys in Petticoats. A Comedy in two Acts. As it is Perform’d at the Tneatre Royal In Drury- Lane. (London: Printed for R. Dodslcy, 1753)* PP* 13_1^' p From an original letter in the lord Chamberlain' s Collection of plays, bound vith the plays for lS2^; quoted in Allardyee Nicoll, A History of English Drama, 1660-1900, Vol. TV: Early Nineteenth Century Drava, iCOO-lnaO (And ed.; Cambridge: At the University Press, 1935 )> P* 1J7-

^"Burlesque, New end Old," Snint Pauls, Sept. l869> p. 6 9 6.

10 11

Much of the confusion arises from the fact that the burletta

vas not one kind of dramatic work but several quite different ones

during its century of popularity on the English stage. In 1750j

it vas nothing more or lees than the Italian comic opera, then a

recently-introduced novelty on the English stage. The "burletta"

name vas an Italian slang term for these operas that the English

adopted as a formal title.

Fourteen yearB later, an Irish vit named Kane O'Hara penned

o burlesque of the Italian operas that he called "an English Burletta."

This burlesque oper.^ Ml vas so successful on the stage that it

inspired a new genre; by the end of the eighteenth century, native

burlettas were a fixture of the English theatrical repertory.

Up to this time, the burletta had belonged to London's

"legitimate" theatres, those that English lav allowed to produce

spoaen or "legitimate" drama. At the turn of the century, the burletta vas "handed down" to the "Illegitimate" or "minor" London theatres,

that had been licensed only for music, dancing and dumb show before.

In the hands of "the minors," the burletta gradually underwent another set of changes, lOeing its operatic character for an increasing

resemblance to the spoken drama of the "major" theatres. By 1620, a

burletta was a musical play in one to three acts--with Just enough music to satisfy the law that it was not an illegal "legitimate" drama.

By this time, melodrama and other genres were coming to dominate the "minor" repertory at the burletta's expense. Legally,

these plays were cornjjered ira-lettas" too, if they contained a 12 certain amount of music, so the "minor" theatres were no longer restricted to the genre named in their operating licenses. Within the decade of the eighteen twenties, genuine burlettas were reduced to the status of farcical afterpieces, now with prose dialogue and only a legal minimum of music.

The transformation into an afterpiece was the final stage in the burletta's evolution. After 1830, the genre gradually fell from popularity. Burlettas were seldom performed any more in l8^3> when spoken drama vas legalized for all of London's theatres. Shortly after mid-century, the burletta disappeared altogether from the repertory.

During its century of popularity on the London stage, the burletta was four distinct kinds of drama: an operatic import, a native operatic burlesque or farce, a musical adaptation of spoken drama, and, finally, a farcical afterpiece. It began its career in London's ’'major" theatres, transferred to the "minors," and out­ lived the legal distinction between the two. It was the focus of a great legal controversy between the "majors" and the "minors," the subject of decades of argument as to its lawful characteristics.

But while the "burletta" grew in court to shield a vide range of

"illegitimate" dramatic fare, the real burletta shrank in the nmino„ " repertory to a mere afterpiece--then shrank again, out of sight.

This brief outline marks the course for the following pages, vhich will trace the history of the burletta in some detail. That history begins in eighteenth-century Italy. 13

The Origin of the Burletta Name

The burletta did not begin as a formal dramatic type. The

term was first U3 ed in seventeenth and eighteenth century Italy

as a elang name for various kinds of comic works, both dramatic and

musical.

The word Itself derives from the still current Italian verb

burlare, "to jest;" the corresponding noun is burla, "a joke," with

its two diminutives, burletta, "a little joke" and burlcttl na, "a very

small joke." All three of these nouns were used informally, in Italy,

to d' scribe dramatic and musical comedy; there appears to have been

no more than a casual distinction made among them, according to the

length of the piece described. The Italian musicologist Nino Pirrotta

cites several documents that use these terms in eighteenth-century

t|_ Italy. They appear in several letters of Francesco Belisani, a comic

singer, indicating comic intermezzi inserted between the acts of

serious operas; B. Marcello, about wrote a polyphonic burlesque

of ca strati, ringing that he termed a bur la, "No, che lassu nei cori."

Pirrotta states, however, that no Italian opera of the period was

formally designated by any of these terms, although it was chiefly

associated vith the comic opera of Italy.^

Apart from the musical works mentioned above, at least one

published dramatic piece of the period uses the term burletta as a

U Nino Pirrotta, "Burla," Enclclopedia delio Spettacolo, 1951*, II, 1366.

'’ibid. Ik

formal type-name: this is the Burletta capricclosa, e rldicola tra

11 Dot,tor Furbcson, e pngolino, published anonymously in lucca in 1693*

This "whimsical and laughable burletta'1 is a brief dialogue sketch for

tvo characters, Doctor Furbecon, a Bolognese scholar, and Bagolino,

a zanno or comic servant. The content of the pi«ee is a mock-

philosophical discourse on the nature of man. The piece appears to

be a commedla dell'arte sketch in printed form: the characters are

known comnedia figures and the dialogue is in all respects typical

of the genre. ^ As for the use of the term burletta to designate

the work, it appears unlikely that this represents any organized tradition,

for no other printed burletta nor any reference to one has come to

light. It probably reflects nothing more than the variety of works

to vhich the informal name of burletta was applied in seventeenth-

and eighteenth-century Italy.

The Italian Burletta in London

In England, however, the teim vas chiefly associated with

the Italian comic opera. This is most readily seen in the fact that,

Allardyce Kicoll cites the usage of these character names commedja net j 1 n r te actors in M:rV Mines and I-'trades (iiew York: Cooper .Square troll stars, Inc., It.-3): a F a r m troupe contained a Bagolino in lb'vl (pp. 3,f~’“3b); one of the t!ni_ti concanies featured Pietro Ba.-liano ar. Pol mr Grariar.o } <;rbi?.one on Francolino ca. l6P3 (pp. 259"^'0). Further aiseussion cf these tvo characters appears in the sane author’s f; h e t.-orld o/_ It* rlcfa (Cambridge : At the University Press,

1 S^3 ), pp. bb, 1Y, '(k, Pit, c t tv .. - q especially noteworthy is the following: "hike Pantolone and t he ftottore, harlequin sometimes appeared under names ether than his own . . . to judge from un illustration of 1618, BaguLtino, vith lu.r variants Bngazzo and Bagolino, belonged to the same Qi.c. the ]laricquit£J tradition." (p. 7 3 )* 15

when these Italian operas were introduced in London in 17*48, the two names were used interchangeably; in fact, "burletta" immediately became, for the English, the usual name for these works. On November

0, 17*48, the audience at the King's Theatre saw a newly-arrived

Italian company perform Rinaldo da Capua's La Ccraedin in ComeAla 7 "the first of this Species of Musical Drama ever exhibited in England;"

lees than a month later, on December 2nd, Horace Walpole wrote in a Q letter to Horace Maun, "The burlettas are begun."

Some indication of the English reaction to the new "burlettas" is given by Mrs. Clive's comedy, The Rehearsal; or, Bays in Petticoats, presented at the Theatre Royal, Drury I*ne In 175®* The chief character in the play, a literary amateur named Mrs. Hazard (played by Mrs. Clive) discusses the new dramatic piece that she lias written for the Drury lane Theatre:

Mrs. Hazard: • • • I’m about a new Thing, which I shall call a Burletto, which I take from some incidents in Don Quixote, that I believe will be as high Humour as was ever brought upon the stage. But then I shall want Actors; oh.1 if that dear Garrick cou'd but sing, what a Don Quixote he'd make I . . .

Witling: But pray Madam, you say you are to call your new Thing, a Burletto; what is a Burletto?

7 General Advertiser, November 8, 17*^8, quoted in Sybil Rosenfeld, > ere J rn t ii P* 32- g Horace Walpole, The Letters of Horace Walpole, ed. by Paget Toynbee, II (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1 9 0 3 ), P* 3 **9 - 16

Mrs. Hazard: What Is a Burletto? Why havn’t you seen one at the Hay-market.

Witling: Yes; but I don't know what it Is for all that.

Mrs. Hazard: Don't you*, why then, let me die if I can tell you, but I it's a kind of poor Relation to an Opera.

Hie "poor relation11 vas to cnuse a great deal more confusion and no small amount of controversy in the years to come.

In Hie Rehearsal, Mrs- Olive had fun with the fact that the

"burletta," or Italian comic opera, was new and unfamiliar to London audiences. The native operas to which the English were accustomed were essentially five-act plays in verse vith the addition of music and songs by composers like Purcell, or, in the case of ballad-opera, with songs set +o familiar airs. The Italian opera, on the other hand, was entirely musical, the libretti written in arias and recitative, vith none of the spoken dialogue that the English expected.

As Edmond Gagey puts it, "the successes and quarrels of Italian opera, along with its grandiose pretensions, made it a favorite butt for the ridicule of the native [English] writers. ”'*'0

Perhaps because of the unfamiliar form, the Italian opera had a mixed reception in London. In the letter to Horace Mann cited above,

Walpole commented that the burlettas were "not decisively liked or condemned as yet: their success is certainly not rupid.""^ In another

9 Clive, loc. cit.

Edmond MeAdoo Gagey, Ballad Opera (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937), P- 10-

^Valpcle, loc. cit. 17

letter of March 23, 17^9/ after the Italians had played roost of

their season at the King's Theatre, Walpole told Mann that "The 12 burlettas don't much succeed." The following season was more

successful for the Italians but, according to Charles Burney, their

1750 production of "a burletta, called Madams Ciana, composed by

Latilla, in 17^> vas ro coldly received on our {YondonJ stage, that 113 it vas withdrawn after the second representation."

Despite this uneven record, the Italian comic opera became * a fixture of the London stage, as did the "burletta" name for these

works. Once established in London, both the operas and the name

proceeded to gain acceptance in the provincial theatres as well. The

most important of these provincial conquests, from the standpoint

of dramatic history, was that of Dublin in 1 7 6 1.

The Italian DorJotta in Dublin

The introduction of the Italian burletta to Dublin was the work of Henry Mossop, then manager of the Smock-Alley Theatre, who was

engaged in fierce competition vith tpranger Barry and his Crow-Street playhouse. The outcome of this struggle was vital to both managers,

for the meagre Dublin audience could not support tvo such theatres

profitably. The tvo showmen had embarked on a policy of topping one another's expensive novelties, a policy that was to ruin both of them

12Ibld., p. 3 6 7. 13 Charles Burney, A General History of Music, IV (London: Printed for the Author, 17^9), p. ^59* 18

within a few years. Tn 1 7 61, however, the Italian opera troupe

that Moosop imported gave Smock-Alley the advantage at Barry's

expense. As the actor Tate Wilkinson reported:

Mr. Mossop that year £l76l-62[] had an Italian opera company, which was of infinite service to him, hut astonishingly hurt his own consequence: for what with parties and other diversions . . * and opposed by the forces of Woodward and £his co-manager] Barry (for they still maintained their fashion and good report) the great box nights were chiefly confined to those of the burlettas. . . . These Italian comic operas were all the rage . . . Dublin was then torn to pieces by the perpetual application for one ^ theatre or the other; it was reduced quite to a party matter.

The English Burletta

Barry'n response to the success of Mossop's opera company was

to produce, later in the season, a highly successful burlesque of

the Italian performers and their "burlettas." This piece, the work of a local wit and musical amateur, had already found favor in private performance. The work was Kane O'Hara's Midas, "an English Burletta," which opened at the Crov-Street Theatre on January 22, 1 7 6 2. A preface

to the 176^ London edition of the play gives some of the details:

Tate Wilkinson, Memoirs of His Own Life, III (fork: Printed for the Author, 1790)> pp. 62-6 3 . It is interesting to compare John Genect’s version of these remarks by Wilkinson in Some Account of the English Stage, from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830 , X (Bath: H. E. Carrington, loj-?), p. Genest appears to clarify the sense of the passage, somewhat at the cost of accuracy:

Mossop had this season an Italian Opera ccmpany which was of Infinite service to him as to profit, but very astonishingly hurt his own consequence as a performer, for the great box nights were chiefly confined to those of the Burlettas.

The discrepancies should be borne in mind when reading Genest*s version Of Hitchcock's commentary on the premiere production of Mldas, infra. 19

. . . the first idea of fMldasl was conceived, and the plan in some measure executed by a gentleman in Dublin, for the private entertainment of some persons of distinction in that kingdom, at a time, when Italian Burlettas were blended with the exhibitions of the Theatre, and almost triumphed over the best productions in our language. The public spirit of those, for whom it was originally intended, prevailed upon the author to enlarge his design. Accordingly, Midas adventured on the.,. stage, and met with uncommon success for a series of nights.

Considering Barry's plight, one might question the assertion that

"public spirit" was the chief motivation for the Dublin premiere

of O'Hara's piece, but its "uncommon success" is a matter of record.

Midas enjoyed another successful production In London two

seasons later, opening at the Covent Garden Theatre on February 22,

176^ for a run of nine performances. The run would apparently have been extended, but the piece was "oblig'd to be deferr'd on Account of the Indisposition of a Principal Performer. The playbook was IT selling well, and appeared in its second edition on March l6th, although the piece vas not revived at Covent Garden until the 1765-66

season. Thereafter, Midas saw production throughout Britain, with frequent revivals in London for more than a half-century.

The initial success of O'Hara's piece was probably attributable, in part, to the burlesques of specific Italian performers that were

15 Kane O'Hara, Midas; an English Burletta. As it is performed, at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden. (London: G. Kearsly, et a l .), 176^. Unnumbered leaf following title page.

^Unidentified announcement by the Covent Garden Theatre, quoted in George Winchester Stone, Jr., ed., The London Stage, 1660- l800, Fart IV, II (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962), p. 1C&3*

Stone, op. cit-, p. 10^5* 20

a feature of the production as well as its spoofing of the

Italian comic operas in general. An example of the lengths to which Barry carried the burlesque is given in Hitchcock's history of the Irish stage: "Midas . . . was ludicrously announced as being brought forward under the conduct of Signior Josephi Vernoni 18 (honest Joe Vernon). . . " The historical importance of Midas, however, lies in the fact that It established the English burletta aB a formal dramatic type— with the assistance, of course, of Its many subsequent imitators--rather than a mere slang name for a kind of opera. Although the burletta was to undergo a long process of evolution, Midas established its initial characteristics, and the piece remained the favorite example of a "model" burletta for many years.

The chief formal novelty in O'Hara's "English Burletta1' was that it was written entirely in songs and recitative, in the

Italian manner, omitting the spoken dialogue that was a feature of virtually every English dramatic work, musical or otherwise. On the other hand, Midas followed the Ihglish tradition established by Gay's

Beggar's Opera of having its songs set to old airs as in the ballad- operas. O'Hara combined these characteristics with a Classical subject, broadly farcical treatment and the rhymed couplets of the heroic drama to produce an unlikely but effective new dramatic form.

The play does not, as one might expect, deal with the Midas legend, although the old king appears as an important character.

18 , ^ Genest, op. cit., X, h62, quoting Pobert Hitchcock, An Kictoricn.1 View of the Irish Stage (2 vole; Dublin: I7 8 8-9M • £1 Rather, the plot Is concerned mainly vith the rivalry between

Apollo, in morta3. disguise, and Pan, as himself, for the attentions

of assorted rural maidens. Midas figures in the plot as a thwarted

suitor and fellov-conspirator, vith Pan, against the disguised god.

As to the comic treatment of the material, a brief extract from the

play will serve to illustrate this as veil as the formal characteristics

of Midas. The following exchange, reminiscent of the Bermia-Helena

squabble in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, takes place between two maidens

vho are rivals for a shepherd named ”Fol," who is actually the

disguised Apollo:

Nysa; Marry come up, forsooth, Ts’t me, you forward viven, You choose to piny your tricks on; And could your liquorish tooth Find none b n _ my sweetheart to fix on?

Daphne: Marry come up again Indeed, my dirty cousin*. Have you a right to every svair?

Nysa: Ay, tho* a dozen.

Air XV

Daphne: My Minikin miss, ao you fancy that Pol Can ever be caught by an infant1s dol?

Nysa; Can you, Miss Maypole, suppose he will fall In love with the giuntess of Guild-hall?

Daphne: Pigmy elf,

Nysa: Colossus itself, 19 Beth: You will lie 1 you're mouldy upon the shelf.

19. Kane O'Hara, f-tidns; an English Burletta. As it is performed, at the Then t.re- i'oyal, in tcr/ent Garden. (6th ed.; London: G. Kearsly, et al., 1771)* pf* 1 6-1 9. This is the slightly condensed, two-act 22

The air continues In the same vein through three more verses to close Act X of the play.

Interestingly, the burlesque of Mossop*s Italian performers is nowhere evident In the published versions of Midas; the above quotation is typical in that respect, both of the first edition, published for Covent Garden Theatre, and of the later ones. It la not clear whether the Italians were burlesqued in the early London productions, or only in Dublin.

The success of O'Hara's new burletta Inspired numerous

Imitations in the next years: most notable among these were O'Hara's own The Golden Pippin, first produced at the Covent Garden Theatre on February 6, 1773, &nd Charles Dibdin's Poor Vulcan, performed at the same theatre on February 4, 1778. The former is quite similar to the author's Midas, presenting a farcical version of the Judgment of Paris. A week after its premiere, The Golden Pippin was, In the words of the Biographia Dramatics, "... reduced to an afterpiece

* £0 [of two acts}, and was received with universal approbation." XTius O'Hara’s second burletta shared the fate of Midas, as did his April- version of the play which the Covent Garden Theatre used for the 1766 and later revivals. The quoted passage, vith the remainder of the air, forms Act I, Scene xiii of the condensed play. 20 "The Golden Pippin," Biographla Dramatica, ed. by David Erskine Baker, Isaac Reed and Stephen Jones, II (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, et al., 1812), p. £6 7 . Article no. G. 101*. 23 21 Day, another burletta produced at the Haymarket Theatre in 1777*~

Poor VuJ can, by Cliarles Dibdin, also resembles Midas closely

in its general characteristics. This burletta, of which the

Biogranhja Dramatica says, "the Idea of this piece is taken from 22 The I/>vcs of Mars and Venus, by Motteux," concerns the antics of

a number of Olympian gods during a visit to an English town; "poor

Vulcan" is the victim of the other deities1 practical jokes. This

piece is not of the came dramatic quality as Mi das; its recitative

is mere doggerel and the play shows little of O'Hara's keen wit.

Nevertheless, Poor Vulcan, became a "burletta classic" and enjoyed

numerous revivals on the English stage.

The Classical theme was not a universal characteristic of these early English burlettas. This fact is best illustrated by

two more of Pane O'Hara's work", Apr 11 -Day and Tom Thumb. April-Pay,

performed at the JIaymarket Theatre beginning August 22, 1777* has

21 Ironically, April-Day had been written in a shorter form to please the London maria per s. In a letter printed with the first edition of the play, apparently addressed to the management of the Haymarket Theatre, O'Hara wrote:

I adopt the laconic Dialogue of Italian Burletta ^for this playj, in order to comprise my table within the narrow limits of late prescribed by the.1 taste of your audiences. This is short enough to admit their being indulged vith some popular Petite Piece after it.

(Kane O ’HarEi, AprII-Day; a Burletta, in three acta. Ac it is performed, at the Theatre-Hoy;, i., in the Iiay-Market. ([London: G. Hear sly, 17771/ pp. vi-viii.) The greater irony is that it was as a "popular Petite afterpiece that Apil t-Day found success.

22 * "Poor Vulcan," Blographia Dramtica, III, pp. 17^-75* Article no. P. 209* an Italian setting and a love-triangle theme reminiscent of much

of that nation's comedy. Tom Thumb, first presented at Covent

Garden on October 2, 17^0 > is a musical version of Henry Fielding's

Tom Thumb the Croat. Other features distinguish Tom Thumb from

O'Hara's previous burlettas: it vas written from the first as a

two-act afterpiece; and it contains some prose dialogue in addition

to the usual recitative. Having seen his three previous plays

shortened from three acts to two, the Irishman had apparently learned

his lesson. Dibdin’s Poor Vulcan was also written in the shorter form

this vas to become typical of the eighteenth-century burletta. The

prose passages undoubtedly result from the fact that Tom Thumb, unlike

O'Hara’s earlier works, was an adaptation of an existing play.

This departure from the "burletta norm" will be discussed further

in Chapter II.

From 1770 until the end of the century, the burletta

underwent no further substantial changes. It remained the pastiche

of Anglo-Italian characteristics that Kane O'Hara had created, vith

a bit of prodding by the London managers as to its customary length:

a short, operatic farce, Italian in form but English in its use

of familiar airs among the music, often vith a Classical theme.

Conclusion

During the Eighteenth Century, then, the Italian slang term, burletta, was introduced to the British Isles in connection vith the

Italian comic opera. From the first appearance of these foreign works £ 5 in london just prior to the middle of the century, until the end of the 1750's, the term ’'burletta" was, in British minds, synonymous vith the popular Italian operas. With the introduction of Midas to the public stage in 17^1 , however, the word assumed a new meaning; the English burletta, or plain burletta, vas a new, native dramatic form that, during the decade of the 1760's, established firmly both its characteristics in EngliEh minds, and its place as a popular kind of afterpiece in the English theatrical repertory.

During this period, as the examples already given illustrate, the burletta was a diversion chiefly associated vith the major theatres in london: those, including the Haymarket Theatre, that were entitled to present the legitimate drama. When, at the end of the century, the burletta become primarily an entertainment of London's minor theatres, its evolution re stilted in important changes to the form, as we shall see in the following Chapters. CHAPTER II

THE BURLETTA AND THE LAW

Introduction

In London the "burletta entered a theatrical world dominated

by the awesome fact of "the monopoly." The spoken drama was "by

law the exclusive property of London's two great theatres, Covent

Garden and Drury Lane. The city's other playhouses were confined

to music, dumb-show pantomime and other non-dramatic entertainments.

The two "major" theatres guarded their privileges jealously against

encroachments by their "minor1' brethren, rattling--and sometimes

unsheathing--their legal sabers at the least hint of spoken dialogue

or other marks of the regular drama in the performances of the smaller

theatres. Despite such watchfulness, the minors, from the late

eighteenth century onwards, slowly succeeded In Invading the territory

of the great houses, establishing the right to perform works that

increasingly resembled the ''legitimate" plays of the majors. By the

eighteen thirties, little enough difference remained between the

legitimate and the so-called "illegitimate’1 drama that the great

houses no longer enjoyed any significant competitive advantage over

the smaller theatres. Finally, in 18^3, England’s theatrical laws were rewritten to eliminate the differences between the two theatrical classes and the kinds of drama each was permitted to perform.

The course of this theutrical war was, to a large extent,

2 6 the history of the burletta in London. The trifling entertainments

that Kane O'Hara had created became major weapons in the arsenal

of the minor playhouses, arming them for a "war of encroachments"

on the dramatic territory of the majors. Initially, the burletta

provided a vehicle for the minors' dramatic experiments; they varied

its characteristics to test--and expand--the limits of their dramatic

province. later, the little theatres found that a vide range of

other dramatic penres could be made to qualify as "burlettas” under

the law, for the "burletta clause" in their licenses was nearly

impossible to define. In time, the "burletta clause" came to shelter

an "illegitimate1' repertory that rivaled the scope and popularity

of the patent house productions.

The dramatic characteristics of this minor repertory, and

of the nineteenth-century burletta in particular, will be discussed

in the next chapter. First, however, it is necessary to discuss

the legal history of the minor theatres and their drama; for legal

events determined the lines of development that the burletta and

its ''illegitimate" brethren followed.

The Dasis for the Monopoly - - —- — v

The theatrical monopoly of Covent Garden and Drury Lane vas founded on tv,ro hoyal charters or "patents" that dated from the time of Omrles II. In 1660, these documents had. restored the drama to London after the Puritans' eighteen-year ban on playing during

the Interregnum. The patents, which gave their owners the exclusive right no perform plays in the London area, had been granted originally 28 to two loyal supporters of the Crown, Sir William Davenant and

Thomas Killigrew. Later, the Royal charters and the privileges

they created were inherited by the proprietors of Covent Garden

and Drury Lane.

The following passage from the Davenant patent, later the

property of Covent Garden, shows how much power over the drama the

"Patentee" held:

We * . . d o give and grant unto the said Sir William Davenant, his heirs, exjecutjors, adm£inistra+]ors and assigns, full power, license and authority, that he, they and every of them . . . shall and may lawfully . . . new build and set up in any place v.ithin Our cities of London and Westminster, or the suburbs thereof . . . one theatre or playhouse . . . wherein tragedies, comedies, plays, operas, r.iusich, scenes and all other entertainments of the stage whatsoever, may be shown and presented . . . and to gather together . . . and keep such and so many nlayern and persons to exercise and act . . . plays £etc within the house to be built as aforesaid . . . We do . . . will and grant that only the said company . . . and other cormnv . . . to be erected and set up, by Thomas Killigrew, his heirs and assigns, and none other, shall from henceforth act or represent comedies, trajediec £sicj , plays or entcr-taln- ments of the stage within Our said cities of London and West­ minster, or the suburbs thereof . . .

Killigrew's patent, handed down to the Drury Lane enterprise, contained similar language. Ry virtue of these Royal charters, the two "patent houses" claimed not only the authority to act the spoken drama, but the right to exclude any other metropolitan theatre from

These passages are from DavenanL's patent as reproduced in Great Dritain, lurl Lament, -Parliamentsrv laprrs (House of Commons & Command), 1831-3-* Vol. VII, (hind. W ’y, A w . d, 1332, "Report from the Select Ccr-id tt ee on Dramatic Literature," Irish University Press Eerier of Pritirh TPri Parent.a ry Pipers, "Etago and. jueatre, Vol. I, fiiha.nno.ri, Ireland: irisa University JTess, CI9 6 8 ), Appendix ho. 1, pp. 2E7"3^* Purl her references to this volume will be simplified uc Report from the E *lcct Co:rmlttee. 29 doing so. Until the early nineteenth century, the government supported both claims with a zeal exceeded only by that of the Patentees.

The monopolistic conditions described here pertained only in the london area. Numerous provincial theatres were authorized to play the regular drama: some, like the great metropolitan theatres, held Royal patents to do so; others were licensed for 2 the purpose under an act of Parliament. These provincial theatres and their privileges did not influence the course of events in London.

Even in London, two important exceptions were made to the two-theatre monopoly. In 1776, the Patentees gave their consent to a proposal that would allow the Haymarket Theatre to present the legitimate drama during the summer months when the patent houses were closed. From that time on, the Haymarket held a special "Summer

License” from the Lord Chamberlain that allowed regular drama; previously, this theatre had been licensed on the same terms as the other minors. In l8lO, Samuel Arnold was granted a similar license for his English Opera House. Neither of these exceptional caseB affected the status of the other minors in their battles for dramatic freedom.

It must also be noted that the Drury Lane Theatre was, in fact, not in possession of its patent during the greater part of the eighteenth century; the playhouse vas kept open for many years on no authority whatever. As a consequence of a brief merger of the two patent companies in the late seventeenth century, both Royal charters

2 Discussed infra, pp. 30-3 2 . 30

had become the property of the Covent Garden management and

remained Eruch until Richard Brinsley Sheridan repurchased the

"dormant" patent for his Drury Lane playhouse in 1792* The privileges

of the great theatres vere, however, so much more a matter of

tradition than of legal nicety by this time that the technical

offense was ignored by the authorities, being regarded more as a 3 curiosity than as a matter of any legal significance. Although

this matter was frequently mentioned in arguments against the monopoly during the nineteenth century, it had no effect on privileges of the

legitimate houses until the final dissolution of the monopoly in

18*43 . Then, ranked vith much other evidence, it helped to prove

the need for new legislation.

Laws Governing the Minor Theatres

Returning now to broader matters of theatrical law, it remains to describe the regulations governing the minor theatres.

In contrast to the Royal charters of the legitimate houses, these minor playhouses were licensed under the provisions of three

Parliamentary laws, the Licensing Acts of 1737 (10 George II), 1752

(25 George II) and 1788 (28 George III).

The first of these acts give the Crown and the Lord Chamberlain unlimited powers of theatrical license and censorship within the city

3 For an enlightening discussion of this matter, see Watson Nicholson, The Mtru f:le for a T'rcc Place in Torlon (London: Archibald Constable & to. i.’.u.; Boston ana Lev York: hougnton, Mifflin & Co., 1906), pp. 1^2-^-i and p. 172. It arrears that Gheridun planned to establish, or to threaten to establish, a third theatre with the patent, while operating Drury lame under u Chamberlain'c license. 31

of Westminster, its liberties, and at other places of Royal residence

such as Windsor. No language in the act would have prevented the

Lord Chamberlain from issuing licenses for the regular dram a ! he

used his powers in this manner in authorizing •* ne Haymarket to act

legitimate plays during the summer season, beginning in 1 7 6 6. Out of

respect for the traditionaJL privileges of the patent houses, however,

the Chamberlain restricted the smaller theatres to lesser entertainments

such as "music and dancing, with spectacle and pantomime, or

"English operas, ballets of action and musical entertainments' or

a similar array of theatrical fare. After the introduction of the

burletta to london, this class of "musical entertainments" came to be allowed the minor theatres as well.

The second act of Parliament regulating the minor theatres was the "Act , . . for regulating Places of public Amusement, and punishing Persons keeping disorderly Houses" of 1752. This law required all places of public entertainment within twenty mileB of

London and Westminster (or within those cities) to be licensed; the licensing povor was vested in the local magistrates. Again, this law provided no definition of the entertainments that might be

sanctioned; technically the magistrates were given the power to

k Extract from the Lord Chn.Trberla.in1 s license for the Adelphi Theatre, as its post-ii^J form is given in the Report from the Select Coramitt.ee, Appendix No. Y» P* 2t6. The term "burlettas also appears in the .license, omitted here to show only entertainments allowed in the eighteenth century. 5 Extract from the Lord Chamberlain's license for the lyceum Theatre, ibi<1. , p. . The Lyceum did not have a "burletta clause" in its license. 32

authorize spoken drama if they chose to do so. This law also

created a duplicate licensing authority in Westminster, where the

Lord Chamberlain held identical, powers under the enactment of 1737*

The 1752 law vas initially limited to three years' duration, being

then renewed and made perpetual.

The third act of Parliament, "An Act to Enable Justices of

the Peace to license Theatrical Representations occasionally . . . ,"

failed to correct the earlier errors when it vas passed in 17&8> it merely confirmed the earlier legislation and extended the scheme of magistrates' licenses to the rest of the kingdom. This enactment

completed England's basic theatrical lavs as they were to remain until 181*3 .

With these three Acts, Parliament created a fabric of theatrical regulations of which Ernest Bradlee Watson cays, "a more illogical and baffling array of legislation io hardly conceivable."

The creation of overlapping Jurisdictions, the failure to define the entertainments to be licensed by any authority and the lack of guidance or limitation in the censorship of plays: these faults made virtually inevitable the half-century of strife between majors and minors that vas to follow the completion of this legal labyrinth.

As Watson Nicholson describes the situation:

No more complicated or cumbrous legislation regulating the theatres of England (or anywhere) could be imagined . . . All these discrepancies and contradictions were the result of the

Ernest Bradlee Watson, Sheridan to Robertson: A Study of the N1 nete,‘nth-Ccrit':'r~" T.ondon Stare (Cambridge- ^Eassachusetts} : harvard bniversi'y ilv cc, 1^2 0 ), p. 2/. 33 attempt, to keep inviolable the rights of the patent theatres, and when the readjustment io a rational basis should come, it must necessarily bo at the sacrifice of the monopoly.^

The Administration of the Licensing laws

The governmental patronage of the majors to which Nicholson referB in the above passage vas as evident in the administration of the licensing lavs as in their language, Watson notes that the

Act of 1737 was, until the early nineteenth century, interpreted by the government as "an enforcement of the traditional patents" that "vas intended, and had been used, merely as a warrant to supress 8 minor theatres." As to the magistrates 1 ill-defined licensing powers under the enactment of 1752, Watson states that "only by a vague understanding between the chamberlain1c office and these magistrates wore such £minor] theatres to be restricted to the

’illegitimate* drama . . .

An early example of the administration of the latter lav occurred in 1787* when John Powers attempted to inaugurate his new

Royalty Theatre, under the authority of a magistrate's license, vith a performance of Shakespeare's comedy, As You Like It. "Plausible

Jack" Powerc was promptly notified by the government that his license was good only for dancing, dumb pantomime and music, although these restrictions were nowhere made specific in the lav, and that he must limit his theatre to such performances in the future. After one night

7 Nicholson, op. cit., pp. 139*^0. 8 Watson, op * cit., pp. 22-23* o "'Ibid. 3 ^

of glory, Powers' Royalty audiences had to content themselves

vith the usual "illegitimate" fare. Nor did the matter rest there:

when, two months later, tvo of Powers' performers spoke a few words

on the stage during a pantomime, they vere brought to court on

complaint of having played the regular drama and convicted as

vagrants for the offence."^

The "Burletta Clause"

During the same year, however, while "Plausible Jack" was

losing his battle with the monopoly, Philip Astley struck a blow

for the minors by obtaining a clause in the license of hie Royal

Grove theatre that allowed the performance of burlett&s as well

as the usual "illegitimate1* entertainments. This vas to become a

common feature of the minors' licenses, although it vaB never

universal. The addition of the "burletta clause" was acceptable

to the Lord Chamberlain, and presumably to the Patentees, because

it appeared to add little or nothing to the licenses, except to

specify one of the types of "musical entertainments" that the lesser

theatres were already permitted to perform. Astley's approach

to the Lord Chamberlain vas probably similar to that of the manager

of the Sans Pareil theatre some years later, when the latter applied

for the same privilege with equal success. The incident ie recorded

in a letter to Lord Dartmouth, then Chamberlain, from his Deputy

10 The stormy history of the Royalty is treated at length by Nicholson, eit., pp. 98-123* ho argues that Powers’ defeat vas a legal cer.- Inty, Regarding the conviction of the Royalty performers, Mc- . lron describes a sequence of appeals under which the actors vere fire t freed, then fined, subsequent to the original hearing. 35 on August 29, 38071

Mr. Scott £manager of the Sans PareilJ has Just called to solicit a renewal of his license, and humbly hopes your Lordship will sec no objection to the introduction of the word "Burletta:;," which are strict musical pieces without dialogue, and which have hitherto been performed under his present license for music, dancing, song recitative, recitation, and pantomime with optical and mechanical exhibition, but which is not, like Mr. Astley, sufficient to authorise him to continue such representation, and it is therefore only desirous that the word "Burletta" should be inserted, merely for the sake of security, without the smallest intention of extending his performance in the least.H

Despite Mr. Scott's careful disclaimer, he may well have had a small

"intention of extending his performance" by means of the "burletta clause," for this was one of the minor theatres' chief means of enlarging the range of their repertory at the expense of the patent houses. The general process by which this was done is described by George Colman

(the Younger) in his Random Records, beginning with his definition of vhat a burletta had been, and, in his opinion, ought to have remained:

For my own part,--the rooted notions of an old theatrical Stager make it difficult for me to consider a Burletta otherwise than as a drrct in rhyr.e, nr 1 which is entirely n.n;;ical;-- a short coraick pi.tee, consisting of recite., Ivc ana r a Log, wholly accompanied, more or less, by the orchestra. . . . That the? Minor Theatres supposed a Burletla to be what I conceive it, is pretty evident from their practice, since they were allow'd to exhibit this kind of entertainment They first perform'd it according to the definition I have Just given;--they then cade their Recitative appear like Prose, by the actor running one line into another, and slurring over the rhyme;--£1}oon after, a harpsichord was touch'd now and then, as an accompaniment to the actor;--at last--not at all;--till,

11 ^ Quoted by TMrnoIson, op. clt., pp. 2 8 3 -0^* In the process of time, musical and rhyming dialogue has been abandon'd; and a Burletta now, if it be one, is certainly an old friend with quite a new face.I2

In this often-quoted passage, Colman exaggerates the case slightly in that a token musical accompaniment to the minor drama remained common, and legally necessary, until the dissolution of the monopoly. The effect, however, was of spoken draira interspersed vith songs, as

Colman claims (although he fails to note the retention of song in the later "illegitimate" drama).

The Dramatic Burletta vs. the Leral Burletta

A more serious fault in Colman's remarks is his failure to distinguish between two very different kinds of "burletta:"

"dramatic" and "legal." Colman's definition at the beginning of the passage refers to the dramatic burletta: works like Midas and its nineteenth-century descendants. The latter part of the quotation speaks of the "legal burletta:" the whole class of dramas authorized by a "burletta clause" in a minor theatre's license. This class included not only burlettas but melodramas, domestic dramas, comedietta and a wide range of other dramatic types.

This distinction between the dramatic type and the purely legal entity is vital to an understanding of the nineteenth-century burletta; but Colman repeats his error and further confuses the matter in another frequently cited passage:

. . . ask now what is a Burletta, and you will be told it is

12 George- Colman the Younger, Random Records, I (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Eontiey, 1^3'C) pp* 51-53■ one thing, at one theatre, and another, at another. This disagreement arises from the Minor Theatres, which are restricted in the nature of their entertainments, having made it, gradatim, a different kind of drama from what it was when first perform'd in this country . . .-13

The burletta was indeed a different kind of drama in 1630, when

Colman wrote this passage, than it had been in the eighteenth century; but the disagreement arose over the legal terms of the minor theatres' licenses, not over the characteristics of a dramatic type.

Furthermore, the argument was not always over the ''burletta clause" as such. Some minor theatres--the Iyceum, for one--did 1^ not include the term "burletta" in their licenses. These theatres justified their dramatic performances by other clauses in their licenses--a "musical entertainments" clause, for example. In practice, this served as well as a "burletta clause."

The real issue vas the extent to which London's minor theatres were "restricted in the nature of their entertainments." Although the controversy often centered on the "burletta" as a licensing term, the focus on this or other language in a license was a matter of legal technicalities having little to do vith any dramatic genre.

Definitions of the Legal Burletta

It must be said on Colman's behalf that he vas far from alone in abusing the term "burletta" in the manner described; most of the writers of his era who deal vith the burletta exhibit the same 3 8 confusion. In testimony before a Select Committee of Parliament

on Dramatic Literature in 1832, for example, the playwright John

Poole opined:

It ic a difficult thing to define; but the common understanding of burletta, is a short piece vith songs and dances. . . . It is a term that is very often evaded., but . . . there are pieces which are perfectly veil known and understood to be burletta: Midas is burletta.15>

Another witness before the Select Committee was Charles Mathews,

then "half proprietor" of the Adelphi Theatre. At the Adelphi,

he stated:

We call any pieces burletta vith a certain number of pieces of music, which constitute, in the opinion of the Loruc Chamberlain, for the last twenty or thirty years, a bur-i.etta.

David Edvard Morris, manager of the Haymarket, offered an interesting

comment on George Colman1s treatment of the burletta in his capacity

as Licenser of Plays for the Lord Chamberlain, an office Colman held

from 182^ until his death:

. . . I believe that Mr. Colman, the licenser, has established what is to constitute burletta; it ic, I believe, five or six songs [in each act of a dramatic piece].17

Colman1s own testimony explained this discrepancy between his private opinion and his official acts as follows, partly quoting a deposition he had submitted to the Select Committee:

I have not the power to license or prohibit anything; I am the Examiner of plays. . . . 'The Examiner is a very subordinate

15 Report from the Select Committee, p. 192.

1 6Ibid., p. 1 6 7.

p. 139- Morris only implies the interpolated phrase, which v u; ’common linowledye and is mentioned by many writers of the time. 39 person, and no further Interferes directly from himself vith the managers than by recommending them to omit any passage palpably exceptionable, and all oaths . . . the Lord Ch?ur.berlain is the licenser, to vhom the Examiner forwards an outline, and his opinion, cf the entertainments which he has officially perused, and then the lord Chamberlain signs, or does not sign the form of license, as he may think proper.'lb

Thus Colman disclaimed responsibility for the loose definition of

the "legal burletta", with some Justice, by "passing the buck" to

the Lord Chamberlain. He had already done this historically in

Handout Records:

. . • the Lord Chamberlain of the ^unspecified former} day was left in a dilemma;--but as Burlettas had been allow’d, in the first instance, to the minor theatres, and as he could not obtain any proof, or professional opinion, that the performances in question vere r.ot burlettas, he continued to licence them. His present successor j\-he Duke of Eontrose] has modified this matter which vas done to his hands, by now granting licenses for what is ‘call’d by the manager a Urrlettu, 1 and ‘provided it be, in leg--.! acceptance, a Burletta. 1-*-9

Con sc quo peer, of the hurjetta Clause

By 1 6 3 0 , so much confusion had arisen over the terms of

the minor theatres' licenses that very few restrictions could be

placed on their performances. Most of the "illegitimate" houses were

licensed for "burletta," a kind of drama, that vas impossible to define.

This left the theatres free to perform nearly any drama, so long as

l6Tbid., p. 5 9-

'^Colman, random records, I, 55-56. It is not clear which former Chamberlain Col:..an is referring to; the pasture does r.ot connect well vith any date or person previously mentioned. The next lines make it likely, however, that he means the time, and the Chamberlain in office, when the minors were fir3 t licensed for b\irlettas. Colman supplies the mime of the Duke of Montrose in a footnote to the passage, which, he explains, was actually written in April, 1627, three years before publication. 2 0 a few songs and some token musical accompaniment were included.

Any such piece could he claimed to he a "burletta;" the Patentees could not prove otherwise.

Those minor theatres without a ''burletta clause1' henefltted from the confusion, for English justice was evenhanded enough to allow them to play the undefinable ''burlettas" under their licenses for "musical entertainments," or "music and dancing." Burlettas were, after all, musical works, as the l&tentees themselves insisted; all of the licensed theatres were allowed musical works; and the minor drama contained enough music to meet the letter of the law.

Even the Lord Chamberlain had abandoned the effort to restrict 21 the minor drama, as Colman tells us: by 1827 at least, Lord Montrose was licensing any play that a minor manager chose to call a "burletta," leaving it to the Patentees to prove otherwise in court. The importance of this policy should not be overlooked: once a play had the author! ty of a government license to support it, legal challenge vas a virtually hopeless undertaking.

The "burletta" vas now, in legal parlance, synonymous with

" 1 illegitimate' drama" or "minor drama" generally: the term vas used without regard to q\jestions of dramatic type. It is in this sense that the word is used in most of the foregoing quotations on definition

20 One other restriction remained: the traditional five-act form was still reserved for the refmiar drama. "Burletta," or "illegitimate" drama, was normally restricted to pieces of three acts or leas.

^unro > P* 39 £- n. 19* Ill of the type, although they reflect some confusion vith the dramatic genre, as has been noted in connection vith Colman's remarks.

The burletta still existed as a dramatic type as veil, in the minor theatres; neither the proprietors of these establielunents nor the dramatic critics who wrote of them seem to have had any difficulty in distinguishing these descendants of Midas from the other dramatic genres in the "illegitimate" repertory, or from the

"legal burletta." These dramatic burlettas, which will be the subject of the following Chapter, no longer bore much resemblance to the

"legal burletta," apart from meeting the few remaining restrictions imposed on all minor drama by the legal definition of "burletta."

The Status of the Minor Theatres in I83 O

With eo few restrictions remaining on the minor theatres, the patents no longer afforded their owners any significant degree of protection from the competition of their smaller rivals. The minors vere able to produce, in only slightly modified form, the very plays that drew audiences to the great houses, using standards of production that, at their best, equalled the representations in the legitimate theatres. At times, press reports even pronounced the minor theatres to offer the superior class of entertaiiuiient, as did the Pew ?'onthlv Magas ine on April 1, 1831:

The only theatres which now offer anything like a certainty of entertainment, on whatever occasion you may visit them, are the minors. If you would compass an evening's 'rational' amusement, (that being confined, by prescription, to the great houses,) you must lay your plans Jiviieiously beforehand, and must be prepared for the task by a universal knowledge of what you desire not to know but to avoid; whereas, at the best of 1*2

the minors, you are sure of meeting with something worth seeing, if not worth taking measures to oee.22

The chief distinction remaining between the two theatrical classes

was that the "illegitimate" houses were forced to "doctor" their

plays with music and awkward formal alterations in order to meet the

letter of the law. This served no practical purpose for the minors,

the patent houses or the public of london: it had only a nuisance value.

This state of affairs having been reached, the time was ripe for

a general review of English theatrical law. In 1832, Parliament

appointed a Select Committee on Dramatic Literature to accomplish

this task.

Parliament's Hearings on the Drama, 1832

The Select Committee began its hearings on June 13, 1 8 3 2 ,

continuing until July 12th- Moot of the sessions vere chaired by

the M. P. for St. Ives, Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton. Bulwer was

already a noted young Journalist and novelist; he was later to gain

fame as a playwright. During the hearings, testimony was taken from many of England's leading theatrical figures, including George Colman,

William Macready, J. R. Planche7 and Edmund Kean. Dome of this

testimony has been cited earlier in the present chapter.

The Committee1s inquiries covered nearly every matter affecting

England's theatrical establishment; some of the chief topics vere theatre licensing, copyright protection, the financial Etnte of the

£2 "The Drama," The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, April 1, iSjl, p. 1 6 6. *3

patent houses and censorship of the drama. The testimony of

greatest interest here, however, concerned the distinctions between

the legitimate and the "illegitimate" drama, and the restrictions

on licensing for the former. The opinions of the witnesses on these

subjects were as varied as one could imagine. Thomas Morton,

dramatist and play reader for the Drury lane Theatre, presented

the strict "patent house view:"

Would it not be sufficient to ascertain what burlettas were when this Act [of 1752 J was passeu jiving C^he Minorsj permission? . . . We know at that time the Act allowed them to play these burlettas, they were invariably pieces in verse, sung in recitative . . . that is my idea of burletta, and I think that is what the Legislature intended to license, and nothing else.23

Just the opposite view was taken by Morton's colleague, William

Macready, then a leading performer in the company of the same theatre, responding to questions placed by Lord Iytton, in the Chair:

I/)rd Iytton: Would you allow the minor theatres to purchase new pieces, either tragedies, or comedies, even if they were in five acts?

Mr. Macready: Yes, I think so, because if you retain Shakespeare as the property of the large theatres . . . it would prevent that competition for the actors . . .

Lord Iytton: Then you do not see any objection to allowing the minor theBtres to have the power of purchasing any new plays that may be produced, of whatever kind they may be?

Mr. *facready: I think not. I think it is an injustice to

23 Report from the Select Committee, p. 220. kk

authors that they should not have an open market - . . ^

Mr. James Winston, the Dniry Lane stage-manager, carried the "patent house view" to such an extreme that Lord lytton found it difficult to make him admit that any species of performance might be allowed in the minor theatres. The following exchange ensued when Mr.

Winston stated that it would be an infringement of the patent rights

. . . to allow the regular drama to be performed at a minor theatre.

Lord Iff tt.on: What do you consider is meant by the regular drama?

Mr- Winston: The regular drama 1' consider to be tragedy and comedy, and everything on the stage.

Lord Iytton: Eurletta; do you consider that to be the regular drama?

Mr. Winston: Yes, because Tom Thumb was played in the regular theatres, and is printed and called a burletta.

Lord lytton: Do you consider pantomime the regular drama?

Mr. Winston: Under those circumstances it must be considered so, because it come out at the regular theatres.

Lord Lytton: Is Astley's the regular drama; is horsemanship the regular drama, or lions?

Mr. Winston: No, I should consider not; not lions, certainly. 25

Thus of three witnesses representing the Drury lane theatre, two

2k Ibid., p. 13*4* In this and the following quotations of toGtimony, the speakers' remarks have been rearranged in format and the names added to each question and answer, for the sake of clarity.

2 5Ibid., p. 2 0 . 1+5 defended the patent privileges with the utmost vigor, while the third, who was later to manage Drury Lane himself, was a model of liberality

in hie defense of the interests of actors and playwrights against

those of the legitimate houses. It should be noted that Macready had a personal interest in the artistic classes that he supported in his testimony, being both an actor and a writer of plays at this time, while his management of the great theatres lay some years in the future.

As for the two defenders of the patentees' cause, Mr. Morton's knowledge of the law was somewhat faulty: mere custom, rather tlian the licensing acts, limited the minor houses to "burletta" entertainments.

Mr. Winston's remarks can only be described as obtuse. Certainly

Lord Lytlon appeared to think so: the impatience in his last question to the stage-manager is evident.

The most startling testimony at these hearings, however, came from David Osbaldison, the proprietor of the Surrey Theatre:

Lord lytton: What performances have been lately performing £at the Surrey} ; have you been gi ving the regular drama lately?

Ocbaldison: Yes, ve have.

Lord Iytton: Did you find that drew good houses?

Osbaldison: Mixed up with what ve call the minor drama, it does; if we played it solely, I do not think it would be continually attractive.

Lord Lyttcn: Mixed up you mean with other pieces?

Osbuldison: With melo-dramatic pieces which we have written for ourselves; original pieces.

Further questioning revealed, however, that Osbaldison's definition of K6

"•the regular drama" was as eccentric as some of the "burletta" definitions that the Select Committee had heard:

Lord Iytton: Have you ever brought forward things which may be strictly within the definitions of the regular drama, not burlettas?

Osbaldison: I do not know that the pieces we produce are such.

Lord Iytton: You never brought forward a coat-and-waistcoat comedy or a regular tragedy?

Osbaldison: Yes, we did, a piece called Thomas a Beckett . . . £by Douglas JerrolcQ .

Lord Iytton: What was that? 26 Osbaldison: A three act tragedy; an historical tragedy.

Thus the Surrey manager’s "regular dramas'* were legally "burlettas" after all: three-act pieces, undoubtedly containing the legal number of songs. From this and other testimony, it appears that Osbaldison made his distinction between "burletta versions" of legitimate plays, as opposed to the typical minor melo-dramas and burlettas that his

"house playwrights" created: the altered plays were his "regular dramas." It should be mentioned, however, that the Surrey playbills of this era boldly advertised five-act plays with some regularity, as well as such Shakespearean works as Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet ana

The Merchant of Venice, seldom mentioning the inclusion or nature of any alterations made to forestall the wrath of the Patentees. 27 After hearing the foregoing and other interesting evidence,

£6Ibid■, pp. 9b & 9 6. 27 Among the more interesting remarks are some that were 47

the Select Committee on Dramatic Literature formulated its conclusions

in a report issued in late July, 1 8 3 2 . Among the most important

of the Committee's findings related to the present discussion were

the following:

In examining the state of the Laws affecting the interests and exhibition of the Drama, Your Committee find that a considerable decline, both in the Literature of the Stage, and the taste of the Public for Theatrical Performances, is generally conceded. . . . Your Committee are of opinion, that the uncertain admin­ istration of the Laws, the slender encouragement afforded to Literary Talent . . . and the want of a better legal regulation as regards the number and distribution of Theatres, are to be mainly considered.

Your Committee are also of opinion, partly from the difficulty of defining, by clear and legal distinctions, "the Legitimate Drama," and principally from the propriety of giving a full Opening as well to the higher as to the more humble orders of Dramatic Talent, that the Proprietors and Managers of the said Theatres should be allowed to exhibit, at their option, the Legitimate Drama, and all such plays as have received or Bhall receive the sanction of the Censor.

In respect to the exclusive privileges claimed by the two Metropolitan Theatres of Drury Lane and Covent Garden, it appears manifest that such privileges have neither preserved the dignity of the Drama, nor, by the present administration of the Laws, been of much advantage to the Proprietors of the Theatres themselves. . .

The Committee recognized that the poorly-drafted legislation of the

eighteenth century, coupled with capricious administration, had

created many of the drama's problems. The monopoly placed annoying

apparently not heard by the Committee, although Watson (on* cit., p. 35) attributes them to these hearings: he states that "Sir William Brougham testified . . . that to his knowledge Othello had been performed as a 'burletta* ..." Brougham was a member of the Committee, not a witness, and chaired none of the sessions. Nothing he may have said appears In xhe Report to which Watson refers his quotation.

Report from the Select Committee, pp. 3~5« H8 restrictions on the minor theatres without benefitting the patent

houses. Ro effective control existed on the number of theatres or

their location; the resulting intense competition was thought to

have damaged both the financial state of the theatres and the

quality of their drama. In addition, poor pay and the lack of copyright

protection discouraged the creation of quality dramatic fare.

To solve these problems, the Select Committee recommended a

number of legal changes. The power to license all theatres in the

London area should be centralized in the hands of the Lord Chamberlain

to eliminate conflicting jurisdictions. Ho new theatre should be

built without the approval of the residents of the area that it was

to serve. Plfiyrlghtc should be given copyright protection. Most

important of all, the monopoly should be terminated and legitimate

drama allowed in all licensed theatres.

The Dramatic performances Bill of 1833

The recommendations of the Select Committee were incorporated

in a bill "for licensing theatres, and for the better regulation of

dramatic performances in London and Westminster, and within twenty

miles thereof," that Lord lytton introduced to Parliament on March 12,

I8 3 3 . After extended debate in Commons, a slightly altered ; do n

of Jiulver1s bill passed the lower house by a large majority. The more

tradition-minded House of Lords, however, rejected the measure by a

narrow margin on its second reading. Despite the glaring faults in

England's theatrical laws and xheir administration, ten more years were to pass before new regulations would be legislated to replace them. 1»9

The victory of the patent houses was a hollov one. If

they had hoped to obtain relief from the competition of the minor

theatres through legislation resulting from the Select Committee's

hearings, none was forthcoming. The defeat of Bulver's hill meant

only that the great houses vore spared the embaracsment of the opposite

result. The "illegitimate" houses continued to occupy so much of

the Patentees' former domain that, in 1833* & few months after

the rejection of the Dramatic Performances Bill, the Morning Chronicle vas inspired to claim, if somewhat facetiously:

The question of what is or is not a burletta, has now, in practice tit least, been settled; it means a drama, with amusing plot, sprightly dialogue, and light sketchy characters, without any music.

A Kew Interpretation of the Licensing lavs

The major theatres were by now in grave financial difficulty, a circumstance only in part attributable to the rivalry of their smaller counterparts, for a long-standing competition between the two majors had led both to grow in physical size, lavishness of display and, generally, cost of operation until neither house could be operated with much hope of profit. Consequently, both playhouses had turned increasingly to melodrama and spectacle--ironically, to the "irregular" drama-in the effort to remain solvent. It vas not enough.

At a time, then, when the beleaguered patent houses least

29 'Morning Chronicle, Nov. 29, 1833. Quoted in Nicholson, o p . cit■, pp. 269-co. 50 wanted another kind of difficulty, one appeared in the guise of the new Lord Chamberlain, the Marquis of Conyngham, who succeeded to the office in 1 8 36. He not only continued the indulgent policies of hie predecessors toward the minor playhouses, hut delivered a crippling blow to the great theatres by insisting that their exclusive privilege of performing the legitimate drama carried with it the obligation to confine themselves to that species of representation. The wheel had come full circle: deprived of the more remunerative part of their repertory, the Patentees were forced to realize, in Nicholson's words, that "the Licensing Act (so much praised by Cibber and the friends of theatrical monopoly at the time of its enactment) might operate against, as well as fur, the patent ,,30 houses.

The Theatres Act of 1&K3

When a new Theatre Regulation Bill of the same general, character as Bulver's earlier proposal was introduced to Parliament on July 26, 18^3, the proprietors of the patent xlieatres were among its supporters. It met little opposition from any quarter, and, after some adjustment of its terms, was passed by the House of Lords on

August l^th and signed by Queen Victoria on August 22, 18^3*

The new Theatres Act repealed the previous theatrical legislation and created new regulations under which any theatre might be authorized to perform stage-plays, this terra being "taken to include

30 ~ Nicholson, ojd. clt., p. 390* 5 1 every tragedy, comedy, farce, opera, burletta, interlude, melodrama, 31 pantomime, or other entertainment of the stage, or any part thereof."

The authorization to represent plays could be granted by Royal patent; by a license from the Lord Chamberlain, whose jurisdiction in the matter was extended to the London suburbs; or by a magistrate's license in parts of the kingdom outside the Chamberlain's jurisdiction.

The Lord Chamberlain's power to license and censor plays throughout the kingdom was defined mere clearly than in the previous enactments, but not acv-ially restricted.

Conclusion

With the passage of the Act of I8L3 , "the monopoly was ended.

No legal distinction existed now between major and minor, between the regular drama and the "burletta." In the smaller theatres, J. R.

Planche'' later recalled,

It vas no longer requisite in order to avoid prosecution, for a piano to be kept tinkling in the orchestra throughout the representation of a tragedy or comedy, nor compulsory that there should be at least five pieces of vocal music in each act of a drama . . . ~>c-

The legal "burletta" was dead. Its distant cousin, the dramatic burletta, lingered on in the London theatres, although its day too had passed; but that is matter for the following chapter.

31 This language of the Act ib given as quoted in Frank Fovell and Frank Fulmer, Censorship In Fnglund (London: Frank Palmer, 1913)* P* 293*

32 * James Robinson Planche, Recol]ectlons and Reflections, II (London: Tinsley Brothers, 18Y2), p. 10Q. CHAPTER i n

THE BURLETTA IN THE MINOR REPERTORY

IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Introduction

When the burletta entered the repertory of London's minor

theatres near the end of the eighteenth century, these establishments

were strictly confined to musical entertainments, dumb-shovs and

circus acts of various kinds. The only spoken pieces heard on the

"illegitimate" stage were recitations of poetry (in solo, of course)

and the speeches of the proprietors. Even the usual run of English

opera was denied the little houses; the native opera of the period

contained spoken dialogue, then the exclusive and, "Plausible Jack"

Powers excepted, virtually uncontested property of the patent houses.

The introduction of the "burletta clause" represented a

considerable advance for the minors, for it gave them access to a more satisfactory kind of dramatic performance than they had been

able to present before. It must be remembered that until Kane

O'Hara created the English burletta, stage pieces that were both

fully developed dramatically ard wholly musical were curious foreign

novelties; there was no such native tradition. Thus Midas and its

copies opened a new world of dramatic possibilities for the little

theatres to explore.

Seen in this light, it is not surprising that the "illegitimate"

52 theatres were slow to press their claims further. The heated controversy between majors and minors was delayed until the second and third decades of the nineteenth century. Until then the little playhouses were preoccupied with the exploitation of the musical drama, whose possibilities satisfied their dramatic needs for some time. The precedent of O'Hara's Tom Thumb, with its spoken dialogue, vas not put to immediate use; in fact, it seems never to have had the legal influence that Colman implies it had, when, speaking of this burletta, he writes:

In this piece there is partly dialogue without musick; and I have been recently inform'd, from good authority, that it was inadvertently announced by the trinagers of Covent Garden Theatre (who thus produced it) as a Burletta; and that they repent of having afforded this precedent, and a greater argument for latitude, to their minor rivals . . .1

So strong were the Patentees' claims on spoken dialogue at this time, however, that, had Tom Thumb led the minors' legal assault on the regular drama, the government probably would have tarnished the reputation of the "Little General" by rejecting the precedent. Ey the time that the example might have carried sufficient weight with the Chamberlain's office to be useful, the "illegitimate" faction had chosen the course of making "their Recitative appear like Prose" to accomplish the same end-

The Early Minor Runletta ^ . ■ - . - - -

During the first two decades of its career on the minor stage

^Colman, Random Records, I, p. 52. 5*t

the burletta remained a strictly musical kind of drama, performed

In recitative and songs. It might be of any length, up to three

acts; burlettas of this era were often the main Items on an evening's

playbill, only gradually reverting to the status of afterpieces.

Especially after the turn of the century, burlettas were often

adaptations of works that had been performed at the major theatres:

"burletta versions" of operas, the shorter operatic farces, and,

increasingly, spoken dramatic works.

Little remains of most of these early burlettas but their titles

In the playbills and advertisements of the period. The great

majority are, to us, anonymous works, about which we can learn no

more than that, for example, Marriage by Comely: or, Fashionable

Flayfolks was a "New Comic Burletta, (translated from the French),"

or that The Catawba Travellers vas either a "Burletta Pantomime" or

a "Comic, Pantomimic Burletta" and that both graced the stage of the 2 Sadler’s Veils Theatre in. the late seventeen nineties. The minor

playhouses seldom published playbooks, even later in the nineteenth

century; books cf songs from popular burlettas were somewhat more

common, but these were printed for only a small minority cf the

"illegitimate" representations, and shed little light on the character

of the productions that they were prepared from in any case.

2 Playbills for the Sadler's Wells Theatre, April 10, 1796 and August 15, 175*7. Itrom "Collections Relating to Sadler's Wells," III, a scrapbook in the Heading Room of the British Museum, London (Crneh. I, Tab. k b. V3 ) - The Early Minor Repertory

The playbills alone would make it clear, however, that

the burletta did not oust the more traditional representations of

dumb show, dramatic ballet and circus acts from the minor stage.

Thomas Dibdin, recalling the 1793 season at his then-new Royal

Circus (later the Surrey Theatre), wrote that "our genuine burlettas,

and comic dances and pantomimes (at that period the only species of entertuimr.on I. permitted in a minor theatre) were performed by

the very best burletta and pantomime performers from London ..." and that "our horsemanship vas better than" Philip Astley's rival entertainments, even though Astley's house was then wholly devoted to circus acts and "had no stage-representation,” despite his earlier receipt of a burletta license.^

Ten years later, tho playbills for the Royal Circus still displayed an array of fare much like that described by Dibdin. The bill for June 1+, l£<>3, for exon pie, offered the auditor "A grand

Display of Horeeir-unship;" a tightrope performance; a "Grand, Vocal, and Fantomimical Tale of Enchantment . .. . called Kumber Nip, or

The Elfin King of the Giant Mountains" by John Cross and the same author's Touim of Lombardy; or, The Secret Nuptials, termed a "Grand

Serious Spectacle;" and to conclude this theatrical feast, a "Grand

Display of Fire Works." Cross's works were legally "burlettas:" the

' Thomas Di.ndin, The Reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin, I (London Henry Colburn, 1337), pp. iby-7 0.

^Playbill for the Royal Circus, June 1603* From the 56

minors had already begun to use the license clause for works,

both original and adapted from the regular theatres, that were not

precisely burlettas in the dramatic sense.

Something of the character of these early musical dramas

was conveyed in the testimony of Charles Kemble before the Select

Committee in 1 6 3 2 . Recalling hie childhood visits to the minor

theatres, Kemble reminisced:

When I was a boy, they \ieed at Sadler’s Wells and Astley's, and Hughes’s {[Royal Circus] , which is now the Surrey, to give a certain entertainment which they designated burlettas, and these entertainments ♦ . . were written in a sort of doggerel verse, and were accompanied by a piano-forte . . . it was entirely recitative and airs, there was no dialogue in it whatever.5

Kemble vas speaking on the matter of licensing restrictions, and used

"burletta" in the broader legal sense. The two chief characteristics

of the minor drama that he mentions, verse and piano accompaniment,

are those that seem to have been foremost in the minds of his

contemporaries when they spoke of the early nineteenth-century productions of the "illegitimate" houses. These two hallmarks of

the early minor plays were mentioned again and again by writers of

the period, as for example in a letter from a reader to the Theatrical

Inquisitor, printed in the October, 1812 issue of that Journal. The

Inquisitor's correspondent, praising Elliston's productions at the

Enthoven Collection, Victoria and Albert. Museum, London; reproduced on microfilm in the Ohio State University Theatre Research Institute in OSUTRI Film no. F. 1^6?*. All subsequent references to Royal Circus and Ourr<. y Theatre playbills in this chapter are to this microfilm copy of the F.nthoven Collection materials.

^Report from the Select Committee, p. 52. 57 Surrey Theatre, claimed that "so close is he upon the heels of the

legitimate stage, that in spite of the tinkling of the piano and

the jingle of the rhyme, I can often fancy myself sitting in one

of the ^legitimate} vinter theatres."^

Dumb Show in the Mi nor Repertory

As mentioned earlier, the dramatic efforts of the smaller

theatres still included dumb-show pantomime and other silent

entertainments as well as the more dramatically developed burlettas

and the expanding class of other musical playc of the same general

character. These speechless representations, which Watson and

other scholars have mistakenly treated as burlettas, are described

in a preface to the l6f8 Richardson edition of W. T. Koncrieff's

Tom end .Terry:

All that could not be rendered clear by action, was toxd by means of what were called 'scrolls--pieces of linen on which whatever the Pr uni t is Fe r ? • o n rt e wished to communicate to each other, for the bettor understanding of the audience, vas expressed in writing, painted on the cloth, and which the Performers alternately fetched from the different sides of the stage, and presented to the full view of the Public, who might then literally have betn called the reading, and not unfrequently the spelling Public'. (

Representations using the scrolls in lieu of speech ranged from reusing melodramatic adventures to pantoniimes--duinb harlequinades that otherwise resembled the major theatres' "speaking pantomimes."

The Theatrical Inquisitor, Oct., 1G'12, p. 6 9 . As printed by the Try t! /■ ■ to r. the passage contains several spelling errors, with the journal's corrections. These have been omitted here for clarity.

^VJ {Viliam} TjVonar} Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry; or, Life in London (2nd - d.; London; Thomas Rienardson, j[VJ2tSj77 pp. v-vi. 58

The former, however, were gradually replaced by otherwise similar musical dramas in the early nineteenth century, eliminating much

of the use of scrolls. The mute works that remained in the “illegitimate" repertory were chiefly those that lent themselves to silent representation with musical accompaniment: harlequinades and the frequently-advertised "dramatic ballets," that were presented as well by the patent theatres as by the smaller houses.

The Growth of the Minor Repertory

By the second decade of the nineteenth century, the minor playhouses had begun to test the limits of their licenses with productions that approached those of the great theatres as nearly as they dared to do. In lBlO, the New Theatre, later the Regency, was Inaugurated with the production of "A New Pastoral Burletta" called The Village F£te, which was repeated daily from the April ?3rd opening until May 7th, then played intermittently until the season ended in July. This production is described In Raymond's memoirs of Elliston as "a burletta founded on 'Love in a Village, ' which was In fact jjtsaac Bickerstaf f e 1 s[] opera itself . . . word for word, with the interruption only of a discordant note occasionally, on Q the pianoforte." The same season saw performances of Bickerstaffe's

The Padlock, William Shield's Bosina and Thomas Knight's The Turnpike

Pate at the New Theatre, all comic operas from the repertory of the patent houses. The last-named of these vas copied from an earlier

D George Raymond, Memoirs of Robert William Elliston (London: John Mortimer, lS^), p. ffb". 5?

"burletta version" at the Royalty Theatre. If Raymond's characterization

°** Thg Vi Hare Fete can be taken as a guide, the extent of

adaptation of these works was minimal. It should be noted, however,

that the playbills for these productions recorded The Padlock as a

"Ballet," while Rosina wns claimed to be a "Burletta founded on the

Plot, Incidents and Diction of" that opera. 9

The proprietor of the Royal Circus, Robert William Elliston,

was somewhat more cautious in approaching the regular drama when,

in 1809, his production of a Ballet of Macbeth reverted to the older

formula of a dumb-show with songs in adapting Shakespeare's tragedy to

the "illegitimate" stage. Elliston'a prologue to this piece conveys

the nature of the adaptation;

Though not indulged with fullest powers of speech The poet's object we aspire to reach; The emphatic gesture, eloquence of eye, Scenes, music, every energy we wry,-- To prove ve keep our duties full in view, And vhat we must not say, resolved to do . . .

Elliston's relative conservatism here may be explained by the fact

that he was dealing with one of Shakespeare's works; these were perhaps the most jealously guarded of the legitimate theatres' dramatic possessions- Despite Elliston's caution, the ballet Macbeth occasioned

some discussion in the Privy Council, as was noted in a letter from that

q Playbills for the New Theatre, April 23, June 11, July 16 and July 1 9, 1910, From the Heal Collection, Kighgate branch Library, Iondon; reproduced on microfilm in the Ohio State University Tneatre Research Institute in ODUTRI Film no. F. 2200*. Further references to playbills for this theatre (Lew Theatre, Regency, Queen's, etc.) are to this microfilm of the Heal Collection.

10 , Raymond, 0£. pit., p. V03. 6o body to the Surrey manager in 1810;

Much was taid about the illegality of your Circus Macbeth, when finer id an nlily observed, the greatest violation vas to the Bari, in your attempting the impersonation'.!^-

That it vas Shakespeare, rather than the regular drama per se, that occasioned both Elliston’e caution and the Privy Council’s concern, is evident from the fact that Elliston had already put both The Beaux Stratagem and A Bold Stroke for a Wife into a somewhat more vocal ”irregular" form for his lfi09 season: these adaptations did not cause the same negative response as the

Shakespearean representation.

By lCl3, the illegitimate houses had developed their repertory of musical dramas to a level that made the older dumb-

6hows nearly obsolete. In November of that year, the Theatrical

Inquisitor found "the rage for pantomime and buffoonery declining, and the preference evidently inclining to dramatic dialogue." This, said the Inqui sitor,

is obvious from a view of all the minor theatres, from many of which dumb action is entirely banished, where performances are to be witnessed little inferior to some of the regular theatres . . . thus agreeing with the reader whose letter the Journal had printed a year before. 13 A variety of indisputably "minor"1 entertainments

^Ibid., p. 1+37- The letter vac. in reply to a petition by Flliston, hie third to various government agencies, for a license to play the regular drama. 12 '"Thoughts on the Present State and Moral Effect of the Drama," The Theatrical Inquisitor, Nov., 1813, p* 198*

1:>Sunra, P* 57* 61

remained on the playbills of the smaller theatres— including

songs, dancer, circus acts and some silent pantomimes and dramatic

ballets-~but for the most part these had been relegated to lower

positions on the list of an evening's entertainments, as "curtain-

raisers" and afterpieces. The leading offerings were most often

vocal dramatic pieces in song and increasingly un-musical recitative.

The Surrey Theatre, for example, on June 28, 1 8 1 3, offered a bill

of three vocal works, omitting the lesser entertainments altogether.

These were: The Siberian Exile; or, Heroic laughter, a "New Grand

Helo-dramatic Romance . . . founded on and taken from Mr. [VredericJ0

Reynolds' Favorite Opera" of The Exile; The Benevolent Tar,

apparently John Cross's one-act me.lo-drama, The Purse; or The

go novo lent r;:rj and an adaptation of The Tuning of the Shrew, a

"New Serio-Comic Dramatic Piece, altered from the celebrated play lh of Shakespeare, called The Wife of Padua." With caution, the

minors were now able to represent Shakespearean drama safely, and

did so with increasing frequency.

The foregoing list of entertainments signals another important

change in the practices of the smaller theatres. More certain of

their rights in the matter, they were abandoning the practice of

applying the "burletta" name to dramatic works that obviously did

not. fit that classification. Their playbills and advertising now began to bristle with "melo-dramas," "domestic dramas," "serious dramatic pieces" ami r. vide range of other type-names. Often, as in the Surrey

^FJnybiil fot the Surrey Theatre, June 28, l8l3- 62

playbill Just cited, the dramatic type required a descriptive phrase of some length to characterize a piece to the satisfaction of a "minor" proprietor. The only type-names that were systematically avoided by the "illegitimate" houses, until the later eighteen twenties or after, were the ones most closely associated with spoken drama: tragedy, comedy and farce. The adjectives "tragical,"

"comical" etc., were common in the minor playbills' descriptions, however.

The Minors and the Me lo- drama

The most important of the new dramatic genres being produced at this time by Lhe smaller theatres, and named in their advertising, was the melo-drama or, more authentically, "raelo-drame." These plays, of French origin, had first been imported by the patent houses Just after the turn of the century. They differed from the serious native drama of the day in their freer form, more natural dialogue and clever, unobtrusive plotting; foreshadowing, to some extent, the realistic movement later in the century. The most obvious distinguishing feature of the me lo-drama, however, and the one most important to the minor theatres, was implied by its name: it used music to underscore the mood of the action in the manner later adopted by the silent film. Thomas Holcroft's 1802 A Tale of Mystery, generally considered to be the first Fnglish melo-drama, shows this use of music in the following passage:

(Music plays alarmingly, but piano when he enters and while he says) . . . j. beg pardon, good sir, but--~[fcusle loud and 6 3

discordant at the moment the eye of Montano catches the figure of honaldi. . , JT5

The adaptability of the melo-drama to the dramatic and legal needs

of the minor stage is obvious: all that vas required to "illegitimize"

the genre vas a certain degree of versification, and completion

of the already extensive musical accompaniment with a few songs.

Furthermore, the required musical underscoring of the dialogue

that vas becoming a burden to the mincr3 , could now serve a useful

dramatic purpose. As to the legal suitability of the melo-drama, the

smaller theatres traditionally had fcund themselves on safer ground

in their borrowings when the works involved were musical: operas,

operatic farces and other such entertainments had proven less

likely to be questioned vhen adapted for the "illegitimate" s to

than were the minor houses1 altered regular dramas. The melo-drama

fell into the "safe" category, and the minors felt free both to

borrow these works from the patent houses and to use the "melo-drama"

name on their playbills. Tuts term also began to replace "burletta"

on the minors' adaptations of legitimate plays.

Once adopted by the little theatres, the melo-drama

became, during the eighteen twenties, their most popular form of

dramatic work, far outranking the burletta in that respect. It

vas actually the melo-draim, rather than the older type cf musical

drama, that became the "backbone" of the minor drama; only the fact

that the legal term "burletta" vas crucial to the licensing of all

^Thom-j' holc-oft, A Tale of Mystery (3rd. e d .; London: J. Roach, 13.13), pp. lC-19. ~ 64 minor drama gave the burletta its continued prominence in the

minds and the writings of nineteenth-century Englishmen. How the

dramatic burletta was affected by this change in status will be

discussed later.

It was in the hands of the minor theatres that the melo-drama

became the unhyphenated "melodrama," with the characteristics that

the word brings to mind today: plays in vhich characters of super­

human virtue are beset by other characters with a plentiful lack

of that quality, all of them emerging, after many turns of plot and

several narrowly-averted disasters, with the variety of reward or

punishment that a simplistic Justice would decree. An early example

of the type is Thomas Dibdin's The Vicar of Wakefield, a "Melo-dramatic

Burletta” taken from Oliver Goldsmith'c novel, first performed at the

Surrey Theatre in 1617. The plot follovrs the main outlines of the

novel, from a point after the bankrupt Vicar has come into the

power of the villainous Squire Thornhill, through the seduction of

the Vicar's daughter and his own imprisonment for debt, to the

resolution when the seedy "Mr. Burchell" reveals himself to be the

Squire's wealthy uncle and sets all right again. On its appearance at the Surrey, the Theatrical Inquisitor praised the piece, regretting only that "the good old Vicar is forced to sing in order to evade the watchfulness of the Proprietors of 'the two patent theatres.'"1^ A revival of Dibdin's play at the Haymarket in 1823* however, was

^ T h e Theatrical Inquisitor, Oct., lCl7, p. 287* 65 described by the Literary Gazette as PA very tiresome Drama" 17 vith "a superabundance of singing."

The Minors Adopt Prose Pialorrue

An "advertisement" in the Surrey acting edition of The

Vicar of Wakefield notes that "The following trifle was originally

intended for an opera, (jointly written by C. and T. Dibdin), and

presented to the Winter Theatres," who had rejected it some fifteen

years before "T. Dibdin" adapted it for his Surrey house--a precedent

that the Haymarket proprietors might have heeded. The passage

prefaced to the script goes on to comment on a fairly small amount

of prose dialogue in the play vith the following explanation:

"The irregularity of the verse, with the occasional mixture of prose,

is occasioned by musical arrangement for recitative, &e." l8 One must wonder vhat motives for the prose are hidden in the intriguing

"&c.," for the statement signals the next stage in the development of the "illegitimate" drama. Whatever their motives may have been,

the minor theatres now rapidly abandoned rhymed recitative for ordinary prose dialogue, retaining only a meagre piano accompaniment

to satisfy the letter of the lav. The little theatres had long

"slurred over the rhyme" until the average auditor probably had to

^ ^Tho Litempy Case tic and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Science s, Ac ■ „ Oct. U, lct'3, p. 63d. lfl Thorns Dibdin, The Vicar of Wakefield: A Melo-Dramatic burletta, in Three Acts; first Performed at the Hoyal Circus and Surrey Theatre, Monday, August 1617 (London: John Miller, 1 8 1 7), unnumbered verso of title page. 66 follow a playbook in order lo be aware that he was hearing anything

other than an awkward form of prose; now even the pretense of

poetic dialogue vas abandoned.

It seems likeJy that, the melo-drama was at least partly

responsible for this innovation, for it provided the precedent

of a musical accompaniment that was meshed with the mood and pace

of action rather than with the cadences of language. Once music

and dialogue were separated in this respect, the reversion to prose

vas both natural and more readily defensible, for the presence of

two independent rhytlimic lines would be an obvious absurdity.

Only a year after the appearance of Dibdin's The Vicar

of Wakefield, a piece written entirely in prose, songs excepted, was

produced at the newly rebuilt Olympic Theatre under Elliston's

management. This vas William Thomas Moncrieff's Rochester; or

King Charles the Second's Merry Days, which appeared on November l6,

l8l8. The significance of this production, and Its success, are discussed in the preface of Richardson's 1&?8 edition of the play:

Rochester is remarkable not only as being the first original piece produced on the Minor Stage, claiming any pretentions to the rank of a regular drama, but also, for the extra­ ordinary popularity attending its production.--a popularity that for nearly one hundred successive nights, attracted almost all the rank and fashion of London . . .

After remarking that the play was "uncommonly well got up" at the

Olympic and that Elliston's portrayal of Rochester vas "matchless," the passage comments again on the play's offering "the novelty of a regular Drama.'’ This is contrasted vith the usual "irregular" fare of the era, including an amusing, if unverifiable, example of the little theatres' efforts at recitative. "Before Rochester vas

brought out," Richardson's preface claims,

the Dramas of the Minor Stage had been chiefly Burlettas in doggerel rhyrce, played to the tinkling accompaniment of a Piano-Forto. Old Play goers will perfectly well remember the quality of these precious productions. In one of Astley’s pieces the Fitter clearly recollects one of the characters exclaiming most pompously to the hero,—

You, Thomas must go, (A tinkle on the Piano. To Con-otan-ti-no- (Another tinkle. -pie, and kill the Turks by twenties, (Another tir.kle. Like a valiant Apprentice’. (Grand flooci.ii.

Some of the foregoing is overstated. Moncrieffs "regular

drama" is an amusing but slight comedy, not particularly memorable

on its dramatic merits. Prose dialogue apart, it hews to the "legal

burletta" line closely, with its three-act form and numerous scngs.

As for the unnamed editor's example of recitative, it be assumed

that most minor doggerel plays would not furnish quite g o clumsy a piece of versification as this, although writers of the nineteenth century frequently mentioned the bad poetry of the smaller houses' productions.

The Effect of Prose Drama on the Minor Rrepertory

After Rochester, prose pieces became increasingly common on the "illegitimate" stage. By 1828, as the foregoing exampje shows it war- necessary to explain to all but "old Play goers" what drama in recitative had been like in the minor theatres. The year that

£lIlium] TDiomasU Moncrieff, Rochester; or, King Charles the Second's Merry Days (London: Thomas Richardson, T ^ J T , pp. v-vi. Richardson's preface vas written, Elliston was at the Surrey

producing a veritable festival of Shakespearean plays, while other

minor houses were performing a full range of the popular dramatic

types and titles in the repertory of the patent theatres.

In the decade following the introduction of Rochester, then,

the "irregular" drama ceased to exist in the sense that it had

"existed" before. With the introduction of spoken dialogue--token

piano accompaniment notwithstanding— the essential distinctions

between legitimate and "illegitimate" plays were lost, and any

theatre might perform any type of play. All that remained to

separate the minor drama from that of the patent houses were the

purely legal requirements of a three-act (maximum) form and the

inclusion of a few songs— requirements that any dramatic piece,

of whatever type, could be made to meet without great difficulty.

As the New Monthly Magazine commented, "'Hamlet* might be a burletta

[in the legal sense], and, with a little amplification--a little 20 beating of the ingot— 'Jonathan Bradford' might be legitimized."

Hamlet, of course, had seen numerous minor productions by this time,

20 "The Playhouses and Their Prospects: Haymarket Theatre," The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, 1836, Part III, pp. 172-73* Jonathan Bradford, by Edvard Fitzball, vas an 1833 Surrey melo-drama whose chief distinction was the display of stage action in four separate rooms at the same time. The production inspired one ,1ournalist to imagine a sequel "called Jonathan Radford, in which there is to be a scene showing twenty rooms at once, with a different tragedy acting in ten of them, operas in five, and the remaining five representing as many perfect comedies." (From an unlabeled press clipping in the Sadler's Wells Theatre Collection, Finsbury Public Library, London.) 6 9 and the great theatres were regularly borrowing the minors'

successes for their "legitimate" stages. From this point onward,

English dramatic history vas essentially a single course of evolution,

not two parallel courses any longer, major and minor.

The Later Burletta

The long course of evolution that had brought the "illegitimate"

drama to this point of near-identity with the productions of the

legitimate stage had also affected the burletta profoundly. The

later descendants of Midas would have been difficult for Kane O'Hara to

recognize as belonging to the lineage of his creations, and, no

doubt, rather a disappointment to him if he had survived to see them.

In truth, the burletta of the eighteen thirties and after was not

a very distinguished or important dramatic type: it vas a short musical farce, usually not original but adapted or translated from

some other small comic piece; it vas seldom performed except as an afterpiece to another featured work; and it vas fading from popularity even in this subsidiary role.

The Effect of Legal Controversy on the Burletta

The developments that had brought the burletta to this state were chiefly connected with the legal controversy over licensing termn and with the evolution of the minor drama generally. In a sense, the burletta was a victim of its own fame as a legal issue: in the long struggle between the majors and the minors, the term had been so much bandied about, and ro variously defined, that it 70

lost its original meaning, and its drawing power as a respectable

dramatic type.

Accordingly, "burletta" came to have two distinctly different

meanings. On the one hand, it simply referred to the "illegitimate"

drama in general, with the connotations of dubious legality and

lack of dramatic merit. The term was used in this sense by the

little theatres themselves, when they called various of their

productions "burlettas11 with little regard for dramatic type. It

was the less respectable minor houses that most often used the word

in this careless way. The other, specific sense of the term named

the little afterpieces that dramatic burlettas had become. This definition is most clearly deduced from the playbills and advertisements of the "illegitimate" theatres, which increasingly confined the term to such afterpieces from the early eighteen twenties onward, calling their more important offerings "melo-dramas," "domestic dramas" and other names that were both more descriptive of the plays that they characterized and more fashionable. This shift in emphasis had numerous causes, but the relegation of the dramatic burletta to a subsidiary position was doubtless partly due to the somewhat disreputable connotations of its name.

The Effect of Dramatic Freedom on the Burletta

At least as important in the evolution of the dramatic burletta was the increasing freedom that the minor playhouses enjoyed during the nineteenth century. As vas discussed earlier, the burletta 7 1 was itself an Important addition to the "illegitimate" repertory

when the performance of these works was first alloved the little

theatres. Until about l8l0, the minors seemed content with these

dramas in recitative and song, most of which followed the pattern

of Midas rather closely. During the second decade of the century,

however, the "Irregular" houses expanded their repertory with

doggerel versifications of the dramatic types performed at the

patent theatres, including tragedies, operas, and comedies.

These adapted plays were really not burlettas, although they were

often termed such on the playbills. During this period, no clear

distinction was maintained between works that might reasonably

qualify as burlettas (o;her than in court) end those that would

not, making it virtually impossible to follow the evolution of the

dramatic type for a time.

By about lG20, the dramatic burletta had begun to re-emerge

from this confusion with its nineteenth-century characteristics in

evidence. The minor theatres had by this time established their claim

on the molo-drama and their right to present prose dialogue, in the presence of the ubiquitous "tinkling pianoforte," without serious legal challenge. Burlettas were now most frequently afterpieces, although the name vas still sore times applied to longer comic and melo-dramaLie works. In 1819, for example, the Surrey Theatre presented such burletta afterpieces as Thomas Dibdin's Rather Too Tad and The

Regatta, condensed from Charles Dlbdin's ballad opera, The Waterman, along with the former playwright's three-act The Vicar of Wakefield, a "full-length" burletta. The Sadler's Veils Theatre produced

few burlettas that year, those being short afterpieces such as a

one-act version of ELckerstaffe*s The Padlock and love's Stratagem,

adapted from George Colman’s farce of hove Laughs at Locksmiths.

The Regency Theatre applied the "burletta" name more lavishly and

loosely to its 1819 offerings, which included not only Love Laughs

at Locksmiths under its own name and other burletta afterpieces, but

a"Burletta founded on the Tragedy of King Richard the Third" and

the "Serious Burletta," George Barnwell, evidently a revival of the

doggerel version of Lillo’s tragedy that the theatre had staged in 10lU.

The Regency, along with the other minor playhouses, however, had

been giving most of its leading works type-names other than "burletta"

for some time.2 1

A decade later, the Surrey vas presenting few burlettas even

as afterpieces, and the few were usually revivals of older musical

farces such as The Irish Tutor, taken from the Earl of Glengall's

farce written for Oovent Garden in 1822, and The Spoil'd Child, which

Thomas Dibdin had created for his benefit at the Surrey ten years

before under the similar title of Spoil'd Children. Burlettas were

somewhat more common at Sadler's Wells at this time; almost all

of them were farcical afterpieces, although the Spring of 1831 saw

a "Burletta founaed on and called Richard TIT; or, The Battle of

21 The foregoing examples and others to follow are drawn from three playbill collections: those for the Surrey and Regency theatres, noted earlier (supra, n. ^ and n. 9) s-nd one relating to the Sadler's Veils Theatre in the Finsbury Public Library, London, reproduced on microfilm in the Ohio State University Theatre Research Institute, in OSUTRI Film no. F- 1522*. 73 Bosworth FJ e 1 d. ” This was unusual; such plays rarely bothered

to masquerade as "burlettas" any longer. More typical vas the same

theatre's l8?9 A Race for a Dinner, borrowed from the previous

season's repertory at Covent Garden. The patent house had no grounds

for complaint, however, for J. Thomas Rodvell's little farce had

originally belonged to the Adelphi Theatre, having been produced

there in 10C3 under the title No Dinner Yet; or, Sponge Out of Town.

A Late Attack on Dramatic Freedom

At the Regency theatre, burlettas held a similar low position in the repertory unti l late in l8po, when, "burlettas, ” along vith all of the other usual type-names, disappeared almost entirely from the playbills for that house. Plays that had been "melo-dramas,"

"romances," "burlettas” end the like earlier in the year were now

"musical entertainments" in the vast, majority of cases, or occasionally, "melo-dramatic entertainments" or "operas." This situation held until 1 8 31 ? when the theatre was opened under new management and vith a new name, the Queen's Theatre. Normal titling then returned, with burlettas as afterpieces again.

The curious anomaly in the Regency playbills reflected the fact that John Chapman's theatre had been under attack from the

Patentees, who had decided to punish that house to discourage the othei minors from taking so many dramatic liberties. The attack culminated in a series of trials, described by the New Monthly Magazine, in which Charojn was charged "with representing stage entertainments without license" rather than the "singing, dancing and dumb show 7*+ which his license permits him to exhibit." Although the truth of

the Patentees' charge wae "as notorious as Mr. Chapman's playbills

could cake it," the charge vas twice dismissed on technicalities

before the great houses succeeded in obtaining the Judgment that

caused Chapman to lose his theatre. Even then, public sympathy

was so much vrith the minors that Charles Kemble of Covent Garden

-,ds loudly Jeered by the auditors at his court victory, and the

incident helped to bring about the IG32 Parliamentary hearings on the

drama.

As the foregoing example illustrates in extreme form, the practices of the minor playhouses with regard to the burletta differed

somewhat from theatre to theatre, and from one manager to another.

In general, the suburban houses, licensed by the magistrates, enjoyed greater latitude and freedom from persecution by the patent houses than did the Westminster minors; the latter, including the Regency, were in more direct competition vith the great houses and consequently more likely to incur their vrath. Nevertheless, nearly every successful dramatic innovation that vas introduced at one "illegitimate" theatre quickly became normal practice for all. The differences were chiefly in timing and relative emphasis of new features in the repertory. This was as true of developments in the burletta as of other events in the evolution of the minor drama.

22 "The brama: Informations Against the Tottenham Theatre," The New Monthly I'.n-izire and Literary Journal, Aug. 1, l6>30, p. 332* 23 For a more detailed account of these court actions, see Nicholson, ££. cit. , pp. 309 -3 H* 75

Characteristics of the Later Burletta

John Chapman13 troubles notwithstanding, the burletta of

about I83O was a far cry from Midas. During the eighteen twenties,

while the type vas losing its commanding position on the playbills,

it had gained spoken dialogue with the rest of its "irregular"

brethren. It va3 musical only in the cense that all minor drama

was musical: the text contained several songs, not always appropriate

to the action.; and the performance vas accompanied to come extent

by a piano. In other re3 pects, the burletta hardly differed from

the "legitimate" farce; indeed, the same pieces, if successful, passed

freely from the regular stage to that of the minors,--and with equal

freedom in the opposite direction, as in the case of A Race for a

Dinner. Another example of such reverse borrowing is found in

Charles Westmneott's Maids and Hitchclors; or, Nettlewig Hall, first produced at the Surrey in 182^ as a "broad farcical burletta." When the play appeared at Drury Lane in 1C3 I as a farce witli the title of

Nettlewig H.-Il, the New Monthly Magazine noted that the author had been "accused of having produced it some years ago, at a minor theatre," vith the comment that "if it had been acted before, it has been 2k produced twice too often." The (former) Regency Theatre made it

"thrice" in 1 8 3 6.

Although the examples just given are of borrowed ourlettas, the type should not be singled out as unusual in this regard. It was

2k The liew Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, May 1, 1831* pp. 2 1 5-1 8. 7 6 typical of the age that the successful plays of every type made the rounds of London's theatres. Any "hit" was certain to be imitated in rival productions that ranged from outright piracy of the original to near-copies, sequels, burlesques and other variations on the successful theme. Any or all of the resulting works would then be revived periodically as long as they could ccar/Land an audience.

Nor was this the only respect in which the English drama lacked originality: perhaps more plays than not--the burlettas included-- were translations of foreign, particularly French, pieces, or dramatizations of popular novels. Allardyce Nicoll estimates that

"fully one-half of the ^EnglishJ plays written between 1600 and

1650 must have been suggested by Parisian models, and many were literally adapted by English authors."* In regard to the novel,

Nicoll comments that from Sir Walter Scott's time onward, "the whole field of fiction was eagerly and systematically ransacked" by England's playwrights, including "almoGt all novelists . . . from old favorites such as Smollett, down to the latest favorites of the „26 ho u r .

A glance at the "Handlist of Burlettas" in the Appendix will show how derivative that class of works was. Among burlettas beginning vith the letter "D" for example, are D?vs of Yore, one of several adaptations o.' George Colman' s 17^9 The Battle of Hexham:

The Dcsorted Village, a burletta "founded on Goldsmith’s . . . poem,"

25 Allardvce Nicoll, A History of English Drama, Vol. IV, p. 79*

g^Ibtd■, pp. 9 1 -9 2 and 9 6. 77

according to the playbill; The Dinner of Madelon, John Kerr's translation of Desaugiers' he diner de Madelon (Paris, 1813);

Dick Turnin'n Ride to York, one of a number of dramatizations of

Harrison Ainsworth's novella, "Rookvood;" and a copy of Kr6.

Kemble's farce, A Pay After the Wedding, itself drawn from a

French piece called la Jcune femme colere. The pieces borrowed from one minor theatre by another are even more numerous as an examination of the Appendix will chow. Again, the burlettas mentioned here are no less often original than works of other dramatic genres from the same period of Fnglich theatre.

The Decline of the Burletta

By I63O, then, the typical burletta was a farcical prose afterpiece containing a few songs, performed with a rather token musical accompaniment. It was seldom an original piece, being borrowed most often from another minor theatre's similar afterpiece, from a patent-house farce, or possibly adapted from a French play or a non-dramatic work. The type had developed from the older recitative burlettas, some of which remained in the minor repertory.

While gaining prose dialogue along with the other genres of

"illegitimate" drama, the burletta-afterpiece had lost the prominence of the older recitative pieces, supplanted chiefly by melodramas as the featured works on the minor stage. From this time forward, the burletta war +0 retain the same characteristics, and to slip gradually from popularity unuil, by about li&O, it vas seldom performed. Burlettas were still seen occasionally in the minor houses 7 8 during the eighteen forties and eighteen fifties, long after

the dissolution of the monopoly had ended the legal importance

of the genre; but the popularity of these works had ended during the

decade of the eighteen thirties, and the termination of the legal

distinctions between the great and email theatres had no significance

for the dramatic burletta.

The decline of the burletta can be traced in the playbills of

the "illegitimate" playhouses. Those of the Regency Theatre (in its

various guises as the New Theatre, Regency, Queen's, etc.) are

typical: from the opening of the theatre in 1810 until about the mid-

eighteen twenties, the great majority of performances included a

burletta and some had two or more; on average, approximately one burletta was played for each night of opening. During the next ten years, the number of burlettas gradually fell to an average of one in every other performance or less; a week or more sometimes passed without a burletta in the program, even discounting John

Chapman's flirtation with "musical entertainments" in 1&?9 and I83 O.

With some fluetuations, the decline continued until, by about 18^0, burlettas were seen, on average, about once in two weeks. Thereafter, the little pieces were an occasional feature of the theatre 1 s playbills. The occasions grew rarer until, sometime during the eighteen sixties, burlettas ceased to be performed at all.

The records of the Surrey Theatre show much the same pattern: great popularity during the first quarter of the century; gradual decline during the next quarter; disappearance not long after mid- 79

century. The Surrey playbills also furnish the final irony: in

that theatre represented Midas, the original English burletta,

as a "Comic Opera."

Conclusion

The burletta, once the mainstay of the minor drama, simply

faded away when its usefulness had passed. During the early years of

the nineteenth century, it had given London's "illegitimate"

theatres their first opportunity to represent fully-developed

dramatic works, albeit in musical recitative, instead of the mere

dumb-shovs that they had been confined to before. Soon, however,

the minor playhouses had begun pressing for greater latitude and

distorting the burletta in the effort. On the one hand, their

burlettae came to include adaptations of such a wide variety of legitimate dramatic works that the original character of the burletta was lost; on the other, the theatres' chafing at the restrictions of recitative and song gradually destroyed the burletta's musical form, making the recitative into a de facto prose and then replacing it with actual prose.

These distortions resulted from the minors' license restrictions, which limited them to burlettas, forcing the theatres to make the burletta into the kinds of drama that they wanted to perform. As the legal definition was loosened, however, so was the requirement that

"irregular" dramas bear the "burletta" name: the name could then be reserved for the specific dramatic type again.

By this time, however, the dramatic type had changed. It had 80 become a prose afterpiece, farcical in character but otherwise shorn of its former qualities, and, in the face of melo-drama's popularity, shorn of its former importance as well.

Thereafter, two factors conspired to complete the extinction of the burletta. With little or nothing left to distinguish the type from common farce, the latter increasingly replaced it. At the same time, the character of London's theatrical repertory vas changing, placing more emphasis on featured works and gradually eliminating the embellishment of the playbills with lesser entertainments like the burletta. In the trap of these tendencies, the burletta expired. CHAPTER XV

CONCLUSION

The career of the burletta on the London, stage spanned

a turbulent century of English theatrical history. During these

one hundred years, London's minor playhouses fought a long var

for dramatic freedom against the monopoly of the patent theatres.

When the burletta first appeared in London in the middle of the

eighteenth century, the great metropolitan theatres dominated the

drama in London. The city's minor theatres were then little more

than neighborhood music halls and circuses. England's theatrical

laws gave the Lord Chamberlain and the magistrates a great deal

of latitude in licensing theatres, but the lavs were interpreted entirely to the advantage of the patent houses; the minors were

strictly confined to non-dramatic entertainments. Vhen, in 1770,

John Powers attempted to operate his new Royalty Theatre in competition with the legitimate houses, he was immediately forced to abandon the venture and return his efforts to music, dancing and dumb show.

The status of the minor theatres began to change when, beginning in the same year that the Royalty lost its battle, the little playhouses were licensed to perform burlettas. By this time, Midas and its successors had established the burletta as a native dramatic genre. The burletta gave the minors their first

81 82

opportunity to perform a fully developed vocal drama and to

offer real competition to the patent theatres. It vas during this

period, from the late eighteenth century until the second decade of

the nineteenth, that -the burletta vac actually most important: the

burletta was then the one and only type of vocal drama that the

"illegitimate" playhouses were allowed to perform. Consequently, the

burletta wos the vehicle for the minorj ' dramatic development during

the crucial period when they were transformed from music halls

and circuses into true playhouses.

The further development of the minor theatres, and of the minor drama, had less to do with the burletta than with a gradual

re-interpretation of Kngland1s theatrical lavs to grant more

dramatic freedom to the little houses. Although the burletta appeared

to figure prominently in this liberalizing process, its role was

chiefly legal rather than dramatic. As a dramatic genre, the burletta rapidly lost its importance to the minors during the second and third decades of the nineteenth century. Ey the end of that period, it vas a rather inconsequential afterpiece, not a leading dramatic type in the minor repertory.

The transition of the burletta from a dramatic mainstay to a legal tool occurred primarily during the second decade of the century.

Then, under the protection of the burletta name, the minors experimented vith aielo-droma and other dramatic genres, gradually creating a body of "illegitimate" dramas that bore only a token resemblance to the earlier burletLas of the Midas type. Legally, these works were still 83

"burlettas," the species of drama that the little theatres were

licensed to perform; the minors' constant testing of the limits of

their licenses, however, had loosened the legal definition of

"burletta" until it lost all resemblance to the dramatic genre.

So complete vas the dichotomy between the legal concept of

"burletta" and any reasonable dramatic definition of the genre,

that most of the plays licensed as "burlettas" by the Lord Chamberlain

were never actually called by that name in the theatres. The

playbills and advertisements of the minor playhouses boldly

announced the production of inelo-dramas, serious dramatic pieces,

tragic dramas, and a vide variety of other types. Especially after

1 8 2 0, the works actually performed as burlettas were usually small farcical afterpieces, although the practice of mis-naming seme longer works as "burlettas" did not disappear completely until after the end of the monopoly.

By 18?0 , the former commanding position of the burletta in the minor repertory had ended. Thv burletta had been replaced by other genres, chiefly the raelo-drama, in the featured positions of the "illegitimate" playbills. Ety this time, the minors had established their claim to prose dialogue with such pioneering works as Moncrieff's Rochester, produced in l8l8. From this time on, the little theatres continued to expand their repertory until it included all of the dramatic genres produced by the patent theatres.

Hy I83O, the minors were able to compete with the great metropolitan play-houses on a nearly equal basis. Although the eh "illegitimate" theatres were a till nominally restricted to "burlettas,"

the legal interpretation of that term had become so broad that, with

minor modifications, virtually any play could be licensed and

performed as a burletta. The only real distinctions between

legitimate plays and "illegitimate" works were that the latter were

limited to three acts (maximum), in contrast to the usual five-

act form of the regular drama, and that the "illegitimate" plays

were required to contain five songs in each act, together with a minimal musical accompaniment during the performance. The enforcement

of even these restrictions was lax.

Ironically, it was during this period, from perhaps 1S?0 until the end of the eighteen forties, that the burletta was most prominent in English minds and writings. The importance of the legal term in the controversy between London's two theatrical classes caused a great deal to be said and written about "burlettas" at a time when actual burlettas were no longer very important. The discussion, of course, concerned the legal concept, not the dramatic type, but the many conflicting statements made about "burlettas" during this era created the false impression that the genre itself was the focus of all the controversy.

In part, the confusion stems from the fact that the Patentees and their supporters deliberately ignored the distir between the two guises of the burletta, as a dramatic type anu as a legal concept embodying the whole of the minor drama. Still hoping to restrict their small rivals to musical entertainments of the Midas 85 type, they insisted on equating the minors' license clause vith

the older musical genre. This attitude can be seen clearly in the writings of (dolman, and in the testimony of the patent house witnesses at the 1832 hearings on the drama.

Technically rhe view of the patent-house faction vas correct: the "burletta clause" had been granted to the little theatres with the intention of licensing nothing but musical burlettas in songs and recitative. The subsequent distortion of the clause to cover a wider range of dramatic fare vac an obvious distortion of the government's original, purpose as well. However, this strict view of the matter vas totally unrealistic in I83 O.

It vas hardly likely that the government would reverse its policies toward the minor theatres and undo the work of years of liberal administration. Even if a reactionary Lord Chamberlain had wished to follow vuch a course, he would have been prevented from doing so by the legal impossibility of defining the burletta in such a strict manner; English law had been unable to define the burletta at all. Finally, public sentiment was so much with the miners at this time--as the reaction to the Patentees' small victory over

John Chapman's Regency Theatre shoved--that a general repression of the "illegitimate" houses would not have been allowed to succeed.

The supporters of the monopoly were not solely responsible for the confusion regarding the nature of the burletta, however.

If their contribution to the problem is the most evident, it is chiefly because their remarks on the burletta vere so often preserved 66 in print, In the memoirs, journals and Government reports of the

era. The proprietors of the minor theatres were the originators

of the uncertainty, and it served their purposes to continue

to fuel the confusion in 1 6 30 . The managers of the little houses

had created the problem by experimenting vith the burletta early

in the century, varying its characteristics until it lost its identity as a dramatic genre. They were the ones vbo had pushed and tugged at the legal definition of "burletta" until it lost all reference to dramatic reality. Furthermore, the minor proprietors b3d added

to the eonfu'-jon by capriciously applying the burletta name to works of widely varying characteristics in their repertory, even after they had been freed of the obligation to use the term on their playbills.

England's Lords Chamberlain of the nineteenth century also played a large part in the distortion of the burletta, by allowing the liberal interpretations of the term that the minor managers requested. As Colman tells us, Lord Montrose simply abandoned the effort to define the burletta when, iu the mid-eighteen twenties, he began accepting, as a burletta, any Work that a minor theatre chose to label with that term. Thus the government officer who vas charged vith the responsibility of defining licensing terms failed to exercise any control over the burletta.

Perhaps the ultimate responsibility for the "burletta problem," however, should be assigned to the framers of England's vague and contradictory theatrical lavs. These enactments gave the 67

Lord Chamberlain's office broad powers and responsibilities regarding

the drama, some of which directly contradicted the terms of the

Covent Garden and Drury Lane Patents. The Chamberlain was given

no guidance in resolving these contradictions: he had to decide

for himself which of his powers he could legally exercise. Furthermore,

other provisions of the lavs duplicated the Chamberlain's authority

in Westminster giving identical powers to the magistrates. These

provisions also confronted the magistrates with a conflict between

the legal statement of their powers and the limits imposed by the

patents. Under these circumstances, it was inevitable that England's

theatrical government would be uncertain and problematic, leading

to such illogical decisions as the ones creating the "legal

burletta."

Vhatever the chief causes of the confusion may have been,

its effects were of enormous importance to London1s minor theatres.

These enterprises were placed in the enviable position of being

"limited" to a dramatic species that the government could net

define: consequently, no effective limits could be imposed on the minor drama at all- The Chamberlain's token requirements of music and a thrce-act form for the "illegitimate" arama maintained the appearance of control, but they did nothing to confine the repertory of the little houses or to protect the patent theatres from competition.

The limitation of the minor playhouses to "burlettas" was nothing more than a nuisance. Although the patent house faction still claimed that the minors should be confined to that dramatic genre, the 88

government did not even pretend that its regulations had that

effect: it was freely admitted that the "legal burletta" did not

refer to a specific dramatic species.

A secondary effect of the "burletta problem" has been

to lead modern scholars to misunderstand and undervalue the burletta

as a dramatic genre. Mont of the nineteenth-century source material

on the subject is both confusing and misleading. Colored by the

legal conflict over the "burletta" license term, most printed

discussions of the burletta give the impression that the term was

a mere subterfuge, referring to no actual dramatic genre, or that

the burletta vas an amorphous species with no fixed characteristics.

Accordingly, modern scholarship has failed to recognize the importance

of the bur.letta to the minors1 dramatic development in the early

nineteenth century; scholarly writers have a]so failed to identify

the later burletta afterpiece as a genre.

The basic method of the present study is probably the only

one that could lead to a clear understanding of the nineteenth-

ccntury burletta. Approaching the subject by a careful survey

of minor playbills and advertisements, it has been possible to

distinguish patterns in the use of the burletta name that indicate

the characteristics of the genre and the course of its evolution.

This knowledge, in turn, lias allowed a reinterpretation of nineteenth-

century writings, playccripts and such other resources as the

testimony from the lGlf dramatic hearings to provide a clear portrait of the "poor relation to an opera." 69 Finally, then, the generic history of the burletta may

be Eicmarized as follows:

During its century on the London stage, the burletta evolved

through four formal phases. At its first appearance, it was a kind

of conic opera new to London, brought there by troupes of Italian

performers. The chief formal novelty of these Italian burlettas vas

that they were entirely musical, in contrast to the spoken dramas

vith music that the English called operas.

The second, type of burletta vas created to burlesque the

Italian comic operas. Kane O'Hara's Midas fathered a new genre of

English burlettas that combined Italian and English characteristics.

Like the Italian comic opera, these native operatic burlesques were

written entirely in airs and musical recitative; in other respects,

they borrowed from the ballad-opera and other English models. Their

Classjcal foolery, their use of familiar ballads among the music, and

their spirit followed popular native traditions.

These eighteenth-century burlettas, Italian and English, shared two other characteristics: they were usually original works;- and they were performed chiefly in London's great metropolitan theatres. The nineteenth-century burletta differed in both of these respects.

After the turn of the century, the burletta belonged to

London’s minor theatres. Kane O'Hara and his eighteenth-century imitators had introduced variations on the genre1s nominal form; the little pluyboasea expanded on these precedents. In their hands 90

the burletta became a kind of doggerel opera vith few fixed

characteristics. In this third stage of its evolution, the burletta

was usually an adaptation--a "burletta vers ion11--of a legitimate

play or a patent house opera. A wide range of dramatic genres were

adapted as burlettas, including both one-act afterpieces and full-

length plays, both serious drams and comic works. These adaptations

were often "burlettas" only in a legal sense: works that a minor

theatre vas allowed to perform under the "burletta clause" in its

license. No clear distinction vas maintained by the minors between

dramatic burlettas and merely "legal burlettas" in the early

nineteenth century.

As the minor playhouses gained more dramatic freedom, they

began to distinguish more clearly between burlettas and the rest

of the "illegitimate11 repertory. The burletta then emerged, in its

fourth and final form, as a farcical afterpiece vith music- No

fixed date can be assigned to the creation of this fourth and final

kind of burletta; its emergence was a gradual process. Ey the

early eighteen twenties, however, the burletta afterpiece was

clearly established in the minor repertory.

This final form of the burletta differed from its predecessors

in having spoken dialogue, a characteristic it shared with most of

the minor drama after 1820. The musical content of the burletta afterpiece now reached the legal minimum for "illegitimate" plays: five songs per act vas the nominal figure demanded by the Lords

Chamberlain. Little but this musical content remained to distinguish 91 the burletta from ordinary farce; vith the continued "legitimization"

of minor drama during the eighteen thirties, farce and other short

comic types gradually replaced the burletta afterpiece. This

substitution of other dramatic types, together vith a general

decline in the use of afterpieces, led. to the burletta's demise

shortly after mid-century. Occasional burletta performances are

recorded in the minor theatres' playbills as late as the eighteen

sixtiec--a fev scattered productions vith several seasons passing between them. Perhaps even later burletta performances could be found, but these would be mere curiosities: after 1 8 5 0, the "poor relation to an opera" vas history. APPENDIX

A HANDLIST OF BURLETTAS

Introduction

The following Handlist of Burlettas is an annotated catalog

of plays performed as burlettas by several of London's more important

minor theatres. It offers a representative sampling of these

"illegitimate" works, together with information on their production,

their authorship, their literary and dramatic sources, and other such

matters.

The handlist is intended primarily as a bibliographical tool,

to be used in identifying burletta productions and in locating

information about these plays. However, a reading of typical entries

can lend insight into the dramatic practices of London's minor

theatres, including their choice of subject matter and treatment,

the sources of their plays and the nature of their adaptations.

Tne entries in the handlist are based on collections of play­ bills for three minor playhouses, the Regency Theatre, Sadler's Wells and the Surrey. The specific playbill collections involved have been discussed in the text of this study. It should be noted that none of the runs of playbills is complete. The handlist therefore contains a representative but not exhaustive listing of burlettas for the three theatres.

In addition to the information provided by the playbills,

92 93

the handlist makes use of data from a number of other sources.

An especially useful resource has been Professor Nicoll's History

of English Drama, vhlch has helped to determine the authorship and

other facte concerning many of the burlettas listed here. Similar

but less extensive contributions have been made by such bibliographies

as the Biograph!a Dramatlea, the "Repertorio" volume of the

Bnciclopedia dello Spettacolo and the printed catalogues of the British

Museum and the Library of Congress. Other facts have been drawn

from such literary and theatrical journals as the Literary Gazette,

the Hew Monthly Magazine and the European Magazine, especially from

their reviews of dramatic productions. Playscripts of many burlettas

and works adapted as burlettas have contributed to the listings, as

have a variety of nineteenth-century biographies, dramatic histories

and other published materials. Thomas Dibdin's Reminiscenses have

been particularly useful.

The selection of burlettas for this handlist is based on the

playbills' indications of genre; no attempt has been made to

eliminate "generic misfits." Too little is known about many of the

plays to allow an intelligent decision as to their actual generic

type. In any case, "legal burlettas" are so characteristic of the

minor repertory that their inclusion is valuable.

The arrangement of the handlist is alphabetical by play title, ac given in the playbills. Subtitles are entered separately and

cross-referenced to the main title. The title order is dictated by the fact that tbe majority of these plays are anonymous. 9h

Each entry is arranged as follows: title (and subtitle,

If any); producing theatre; production date; playbill data (quoted) including the generic designation and any facts regarding authorship,

Bource of an adaptation, etc.; any further information, arranged to eult the individual case. The names of the producing theatres have been simplified by using only the most common name for each.

Thus the Regency, which was also called the New Theatre, Queen’s,

Tottenham St., etc. is always listed as "Regency;" Royal Circus productions are given that theatre's more familiar name, "Surrey."

The following abbreviations are used in the handlist:

Anon...... anonymous BC...... Biographia Pramatica d i t t o ...... the play title just given L 1 C ...... The (London) Literal"/ Gazette NMM ...... The New Monthly Ka.tazine Nicoll...... Allardyce Nicoll, A History of English Drama. (usually his handlists). R e p ...... The "Repertorio" of the Enciclopedla dello Spettacolo. SW ...... The Sadler's Wells Theatre.

In addition, play titles repeated in an entry may be abbreviated as in the following examples:

Tom and Jerry . . . T. & J. The Bag of Gold . - The B. of G . 95

A Handlist of Burlettas

The Abbey Ruins. See Arden of Fevcrshara.

Abon Hassan. Regency, IO/13/3 6 * "Burletta." Possibly based on William Dimond's Abou Hassan (Drury Lane, 1825)* noted by LLG on V 9/25 &s "a new melo-dramatic romance . . . taken from the latter half of 'The Sleeper Awakened' [in the Arabian Nights^-" Nicoll liste other Abou Hassan plays at the Royal Saloon (later Astley's), 1793 and Pavilion (later Olympic) Theatre, l8l0, etc. Dimond's opera, based on F. K. Helmer's German opera of the same name, was the most popular of these works.

Actors by Gas-Light. See Behind the Scenes.

The Actress of All Work. Sadler's Wells, IO/2/2 6 ; Regency, k/2kf2rJ. "Favorite burletta'1 (SW); "Burletta" (Regency). Based on William Henry Oxberry's farce of this title (Olympic, 1819), which Nicoll equates with an "almost identical" play by "the elder Oxberry" (Larpent MS for Drury lane, 1 8 1 7 ). LLG reviews the Olympic production (2/27/1 9 ) and one at the English Opera House (7/6/22).

Adrian and Orilla; or, A Mother's Vengance. Regency, 2/l/l9- 1IMelo-dramatic Burletta." From Willirm Dimond, ditto, Covent Garden, 1806: published in 1806 as The Mountains of Saxony, or A. & 0 .

The Adventures of Peregrine Proteus. See The Life of an Actor.

The Adventures of Roderick Random. Surrey, 7/20/1 8 . "Burletta." Efy Thomas Dibdin, based on Tobias Smollett's 17^8 novel, "Roderick Random.” Favorable notice in LLG, 7/25/l®-

The Adventurers; or, London Manners at a Country Mansion. Regency, 2/15/25* "Comic Burletta." Not in Nicoll; may be related to his listing of an anon, burletta, London Manners at a Country Mansion (Royalty Theatre, 3/3/23 ) *

Advertisements; or, Mistakes on All Sides. Regency, 9/20/2^. Burletta. Unknown; not in Nicoll.

An Affair of Honour. See Major Linkey.

The Agreeable Surprise. Regency, k/b/\2 & 7/3/2^. "Burletta founded on O'Keeffe's favorite farce" (1812); "Burletta, not acted these four years"(182^). Based on John O'Keeffe, ditto, "A Comic Opera," Haymarket, 1771- A popular piece staged by numerous London theatres for more than a half-century. 96

The Air Balloon; or, All In the Clouds. Sadler's Wells, 7/l6/21. 11 New Comic Burletta. Not in Nicoll.

All Her Own Way; or, The Romp Reclaimed. Sadler's Wells, h/io/26. Comic Burletta." On 5/22/2&, styled a "new musical piece." This burletta is Thomas Dibdin's rewriting of his own Rather Too Bad (^. v.).

All in the Clouds. See The Air Balloon.

All in One Night; or, The House upon the Heath. Sadler's Wells, 12/26/25; Regency, 3/2/29, with a~different subtitle, The Charter of the Forest. "New Burletta in 3 Acts Founded on Dibdin's Five Miles Off; or, The Finger Post " (q. v.;SW). "Mr. T. Dibdin's Comic Burletta" (Regency), ihomas Dibdin's rewriting of his Five Miles Off.

All in the Dumps. See Black-Ryed Sukey.

All Sorts of Life in London. See Tom and Jerry.

All the World's a Stage; or. The Spouting Butler. Regency, 5/15/2 7 . Burletta in IVo Acts. Isaac Jackman wrote a satire of amateur theatricals called All the World's a Stage (jrury Lane, 1777); probably not related. No 6uch minor piece in Nicoll.

Amanthis. Surrey, ll/lo/21. "Melo-dramatic Burletta translated from the French." Nicoll lists thie as Amanthis; or, The Child of Nature, anon, burletta, Surrey, 10/l6/l0.

Amateurs and Actors. See The Manager's Room.

Animal Magnetism. Regency, l/lh/23* "Comic Burletta." May be based on Elizabeth Inchbald'a farce of this title (Covent Garden, 1788).

Arden of Feversham; or, The Abbey Ruins. Surrey, I/3/2O. "Melo­ dramatic Burletta. ' Based on George Lillo'e tragedy of this title (Drury Lane, 1759)* Nicoll lists an anon, melo-drama "apparently based on Lillo" called The Abbey Lands; Or A. of F. at the Coburg, 11/30/2k.

The Army and the Navy. See The Watchman.

Army Without Reserve. See The British Amazons.

The Artful Dodge. Sadler's Wells, 9/21/1*2. "Admired Burletta;" billed on 97l9/^t3 as "E. L. Blanchard's successful Burletta." By Edward Leman Blanchard; first given at the Olympic, 2/21/1*2.

As You I.ike It. Regency, j/2k/\6. "Burletta founded on Shakespeare's comedy." No burletta version in Nicoll. 97

Ask No Questions. Regency, 7 /II/U6 . "Burletta in two acts O y ] "Charles Selby." First produced at the Olympic, 1838. Based on a French play, Mathias l'Invalide, by Bayard and Pickard (Paris, 1837).

Asleep or Awake, Who Am I? Surrey, 10/l6/23* "Comic Burletta in 2 acts. Nicoll lists this anon, burletta as A . or A.; or, Who Am I, with the Surrey production date of 10/6/23* He also notes-!* possibly related anon. Who Am I? or, Adventures in Madrid at the Royalty Theatre, II/3/1 9 .

Azim; or, Wants and Superfluities. Surrey, 12/26/19* "New Burletta Apectacle in Three Acts.' Thomas Dibdin mentions writing "the spectacle of 'Azim'" for the Surrey's opening on the above date in his Reminiscences.

A Bailiff's Bet. See Hookey Walker.

Hie Banditti of the Forest. Surrey, 5/IO/1 9 . "Comic Burletta in 2 Acts." Hot"in Nicoll.

Barbara Allen. Sadler's Wells, '{/8/03 A after. "Musical Romance written by Mr. ^Charles! Dibdin, Jr." (7/8/0 3 )* "Burletta Spectacle [with] new music by Mr. Reeve" (7/H/O 3 ). The British Museum has the book of songs for this production, which includes a speech labeled "spoken."

The Barber lawyer; or, Wbat's to Pay* Surrey, 2/1U/2 8 . "Farcical Burletta interspersed with music. Hot in Nicoll.

The Barber of Bagdad. Regency, 3/3O/2U, k/s/2b, etc. "Burletta in Two Acts. Possibly based on Edward Fitzball's comic opera, The Barber; or, The Mill of Bagdad, Surrey, 1822. Nicoll lists an anon. E* of B.; or, Pay Me for Being Shaved" at the Coburg, 1826.

Barnaby Brittle. Regency, 12/26/1^. "Burletta." Probably based on an anon. Covent Garden farce of this title (1781), which was itself an adaptation of Thomas Betterton's The Amorous Widow (1670). The play was also done at the Royalty in l8ll as B. B*; or, A Wife at Her Wit's End. The subtitle is the same as the 1761 Covent Garden production.

Hie Barrack Room. Regency, 2f?kfyj and 3/13/39- "Burletta in TVo Acts'"' (I0 3 7 ); "Burletta by T. Haines Bayly” (1839). By Thomas Haynes Bayly, first produced at the Olympic in 1 8 3 6 .

The Bath Road. Sadler's Wells, 7/13/21; Regency, ^/l9/25* "Petite Burletta in One Act" (SW); "Burletta" (Regency). NMM on ll/l/30 notes a "sprightly interlude" of this title at Drury lane: Nicoll 98

credits this I63O play to John Poole, vho wrote such pieces for both majors and minors from about 1810 on. All 3 “ay be the same piece.

The Battle of Bosvorth Field. See Richard ITI.

The Beadle of Barbican. Sadler*s Wells, ll/20/35* “laughable Burletta." Unknown; not in Nicoll.

The Bear and the Bashaw; or, The Eastern Menagerie. Regency, 16/23/2 1 . 11 New Burletta- in Two Acte." Apparently by John Saville Faucitt; published in the Oxberry series as Bears, not Beasts; or The Bruin and the Bashaw. Also see the following entry.

Bears, Not Beasts. Regency, 10/31/22. “Burletta in One Act.“ Apparently a condensation of The Bear and the Bashaw (|l*v-)* But Nicoll lists a farce by H. M. Milner with this title and the subtitle or; Four Legs Better than Two at the Coburg in 1S21.

The Beggar*s Opera. Surrey, 2/12/21. "Burletta founded on . . ." A version of John Gay's ballad-opera; in June l809> the European Magazine noted a burletta adaptation by Elliston at the same theatre.

Behind the Scenes; or, Actors by Gas-light. Regency, j/2k/^0. '^Serio-comic Burlesque Burletta by C. Selby." By Charles Selby; first produced at the Strand in 1839 with the slightly different subtitle, Actors by Lamplight.

The Belle's Stratagem. Regency, 11/7/22. "Burletta in Three Acts founded on Mrs. Cowley's . . . Comedy." Based on Hannah Cowley's play, written for Oovent Garden in 17QO. Nicoll notes no minor drama version.

The Benefit Wight. Surrey, 9/16/2 2 . "Farcical Burletta written by E . Ball7” By"Edvard Fitzball, also known as Edward Ball. Not in Nicoll.

The Benefit of Hanging. See The Smoaked Miser.

The Benevolent Hebrew. Regency, 5/8/15* "Burletta in Three Acts founded on Cumberland's comedy of The Jew." A version of Richard Cumberland's The Jew (Drury Lane, 179^)* No minor version in Nicoll.

The Benevolent Jew. See The Ring.

The Benevolent Tar. Regency, ll/l6/26; Surrey, 11/2^/23* "Musical Burletta in One Act" (Regency); "Burletta" (Surrey), The same play ac The Purse (c^. v . ). 99

The Beulah Spa. Regency, 3/18/35 and 2/15/39, etc. "Burletta” (1835 )> ''Mr. Charles Dance's Burletta" (1839), later that year termed a "Favorite Burletta in Two Acts." By Charles Dance, first given at the Olympic in 1833*

Birds of a Feather. Sadler's Wells, 9/26/1797* "A Favorite Burletta." Advertised in 17 (no date on clipping) as a "nev comic piece" vith music ty "Mr. Moorhead." Nicoll gives the production date of 7/^5/ 1796, adding the subtitle: or, Buz and Mum.

Birds of Paradise. Regency, 3/5/35* "New Burletta in One Act." Written for the Regency by Douglas Jerrold.

The Biter Bit? or, Cut Your Coat According to Your Cloth. Sadler's Wells, 12/26/27; Regency, l/l9/29* "Comic Burletta "(First Time)" (SW); "Burletta" (Regency; later listed as "Farcical Burletta"). Nicoll notes the SW production. Author unknown.

Black-eyed Sukey; or, All in the Dumps. Regency, 10/7/33* "The celebrated seriously-affecting, pathetically heart-breaking, extrava- ganzical Burlesque Burletta (borrowed from the Olympic)." Frederick Fox Cooper's burlesque of Jerrold's Black-eyed Susan, written for the Olympic in 1829, shortly after "Susan" appeared. See below.

Black-eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs. Regency, 6/19/30* "Tbe celebrated Nautical Burletta. ' later termed a "Nautical Entertain­ ment." By Douglas William Jerrold, first produced at the Surrey on 6/8/29* One of the most popular of the nautical melo-dramas.

Black Spirits and White; or, The Haunted Chamber. Sadler's Wells, 2/13/26" Two playbills of the same date style this variously as a "Burletta" and a "Comic Musical Pasticcio in Two Acts." By Thomas Dibdin: his Reminiscences call this work Scraps; or, B. S. & W.; apparently this play is an expansion of his 1819 one-act work Scraps; or, The Village Theatre (^. v.).

The Black Sentinel; or, The Court Jester. Sadler's Wells, 8/3l/^3* Laughable Burletta. A blackface show, perhaps the same as the Black Sentinel given at the Grecian in l8h0.

The Bleeding Nun. See The Forest of Rosenwald.

The Blue Devils. Regency, I+/U/1 5 . "Burletta founded on and called T71 Based on George Colman'e farce of this title (Covent Garden, 1798). The European Magazine notes the play at Drury Lane in July, 1 8 2 1.

The Blue Jackets; or. Her Majesty's Service. Regency, j/kfkZ, "Nautical Burletta," Apparently Edward Stirling's farce, first given at the Adelphi in 1 8 38. 100

The Blunder; or, My lady's Lap Dog. Regency, 9/19/25* "Burletta.” Author unknown; not in Nicoll.

The Bold Buccaniers. Sadler's Wells, 8/23/19* "Romantic melo- rtTRTnAt.ir frnrVptta.." Perhaps related to an anon. The B. B.; or, Carlba at the Coburg in 1826; otherwise unidentified.

Bombastes Purioso. Regency, 5/l6/39; Surrey, (10^+1) and 9/l9/1(3* "Favorite Burletta in Two Acts" (Regency); "Burlesque-tragic . . . Burletta" (Surrey: undated playbill with 18^1 set); "Mock-heroical- bombastica1-burlesque-tragic-opera in One Act" (Surrey, 18^3)* These all seem to be adaptations of William Rhodes' burlesque of this title, which had numerous London productions after its Eaymarket premiere in 1810.

Bon Ton; or, High Life Above Stairs. Regency, l/l6/2fn "Burletta." A version of David Garrick's farce of the same name (Drury lane, 1775)*

The Bond of Blood; or, the Jew of Venice. Regency, 1/3/2 8 , "Burletta founded on a play of Snakespeare’s called ..." An adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.

Bond Street Loungers Outwitted. See The Riding Coat.

Borrowed Feathers. Regency, 1/26/36. "‘New Burletta." Written for the Regency, probably by John Gideon Mlllingen; according to Nicoll, also attributed to Morris Barnett.

The Boundaries; or, Tne Way to Win Her. Regency, U/li/25. "Burletta." Unknown. Nicoll lists an anon, comedy, The Way to Win Her, published but not produced in l8lk. Possibly related.

Boys, Girls and Guardians. See Three Times Three.

Brigands in the Bud. Regency, 6/5/6 1 . "Burletta." Apparently the farce written by T. Mildenhall for the Olympic in 18^9*

The Brisket Family. See Dolly and the Rat.

The British Amazons; or. Army Without Reserve. Sadler's Wells, 7/18/03. "/Jew Burletta Spectacle/ later" New Military Burletta Spectacle . . . by C. Dibdin jr." (8/8/03). By Charles Dibdin, Jr.

Broadbrim &. Co. Sadler's Wells, 2/11/28; Regency, 2/16/2 9 . "Comic Burletta in Three Acts ” (both). Anon.; Nicoll notes the SW production with the same date.

The Broken Sword- See The Mountain Torrent. 101

The Rrokcn Wheel. Regency, 7/27/30. "Entirely nev Burletta." Unknown; not in Nicoll.

Brother Bob. Surrey, 10/24/53. "Burletta." Bty John Beer Johnstone. Listed on other Surrey playbills of 1852-53 without type name. Nicoll gives the Surrey production date of 10/31/53*

The Brothers; or, The Man of Sentiment. Regency, 6/ 17/3 0 . "Burletta rounded on a well-known comedy, to be called ..." This may be a version of Richard Cumberland's comedy, The Brothers (Covent Garden, 1 769); otherwise, unknown.

The brown Fiend; or. The Terror of the Seas. Regency, 8/19/33- "Nev nautical Burletta in two acts." The Lord Chamberlain's collection contains an I83 O The Brown Devil; or The Charmed Pirate by Frederick Coleman Nantz; possibly related.

Brown Studies. See hfr Absent Son.

The Buckle of Brilliants. See The Crown Prince.

The Burning Wood. See The Castle of Conenberg.

The Busy Body• Regency, 5/l/l6; l/l3/23* "Burletta founded on and called ..." (lbl6); "Burletta founded on . . ." (1 8 2 3 ). Apparently a version of Susanna Centlivre's The Busie Body ( D r u r y Lane, 1709).

The Butcher of Fltzroy Market. See Hookey Walker.

The Cabinet* Regency, 2/16/1 3 . "Burletta founded on the opera . . ." An adaptation of Thomas Dibdin's comic opera of this name (Covent Garden, 1802). LLG notes this at Drury Lane in 1824 (12/18/24).

The Cameleopard. See The Giraffe.

A Carnival Ball. See One Hour.

Captain Charlotte. Regency, 4/17/4 3 . "Burletta." By Edvard Stirling; first given at the Adelphi on 3/6/43. Also produced at Sadler's Wells in 1844. A two-act work.

The Castle of Conenberg; or, The Burning Wood. Regency, 5/l5/l5* ^Kelo-dramatic Burletta in Three Acts. Unknown; not in Nicoll.

The Catawba Travellers; or, Kiev Neika's Return. Sadler's Wells, 8/5/1797 and 6/9/1798. "Burletta Pantomime" (1797); "Comic, Pantomimic Burletta . . . as performed last season " (1798). The earlier playbill emits the subtitle. Unknown; not in Nicoll or ED. 102

Charge for Change. See Which Is the Mar.

The Charter of the Forest. See All l_n One Wight.

The Child of e Tar; or, Fonesty's the Best Policy. Regency, it/20/29. " Comic Eurietta. in One Act. ftie subtitle appears on subsequent playbills, not the one of the date listed. Unknown; Nicoll lists both the title and subtitle for other, unrelated plays.

■Hie Child of Nature. Regeney, IO/26/ 1 6 ; 12/8/23; ll/n / 3 0 . "Burletta” (l8l6 & 1523); "Serio-comic Burletta" (1030). A version of Mrs. Elizabeth Inchbald's play of this title (Covent Garden, 1 7 8 6 ) , itself a translation of Jtae. de Genlis* Zelie; on, 1 ' Ingenue (Paris, 17S1 ).

Children Ir. the Wood. Regency, 5/lS/ll. "Burletta founded on . . . " Probably 'bases on Ihoitas Morton's "Musical Piece” of the same name (Haymarket, 10/l/l793); but several post-loll plays have this title.

The Citizen. Regency, 'j/2kflG and 1 0 /1 7 /2 2 . "Burletta founded on . . . (1 0 1 6 ); rTBurletta founded on Murphey' s Entertainment of . . . “ (1 6 2 2 ). From Arthur Murphy's three-act ''comedy" (Drury lane, 1 7 6 1). BD terms Murphy’s play ''rather a long farce than a comedy. " Nicoll gives Deslouches, la Fausse Asnes (Paris, 1759) as a partial source for the "comedy. A burletta version vas also given at the Coburg in 1819.

The City Care; or, The King -- the Mayer -- and the Citizen. Regency, 1C/13/93; 9/23/^; 6/17/be; "(undated i<>*9 bill). "Laughable Burletta" (10L3 ); "Burletta" (others). The 1&J+3-4U playbills omit the subtitle. Unknown; not in Nicoll.

The Clock - — Has - Struck.- See The Wager Lost.

The Clown and the Captain. See Sveetheartlng.

The Clown' s Defeat. See The Soldier's Triumph.

The Cobler. Sadler's Wells, 9/19/1798 and 5/18/0 1 . "A favorite Burletta'* (both). Probably based on Charles Dibdin’s The C.; or, A Wife of Ten Thousand, a ballad opera (Drury Lane, 177^), in turn drawn from M. J. Sejaine’s Blaise le Savetier (Paris, 1759)*

The Cockney Ghost. See Fortune’s Frolic.

The Cockney Outwitted. See The Doctor and the lawyer.

Colonel S. - - - . Regency, 10/17/ 3 6 . "Burletta.” Unknown. 103

The Comic Robbers; or, The Escape Upon the Common. Sailer's Wells, lO/ll/30. "Burletta in One kct." In Nicoll, sane data. Anon.

Coning; Up Sir.; or. He Would Be a Soldier. Sadler's Wells, 10/16/2 7* "Nev Comic Burletta." Nicoll:' sane data. Anon.

The Conscript; or. I'm Off for a Soldier. Regency, 3 /18/ 3 1*- "Nev Burletta by Mr. Oxberry. By William Oxberry. Nicoll gives the date of this production as 3/l9/3*+ and omits the subtitle. He terms the work as a farce.

Contrivances; or, a Plot in the Dark. Regency, l/l2/21. "Burletta." Nicoll lists a farce by Edward Lancaster called C.; or, The Bailiff and the M. P., published in the Oxberry Budget series as a Regency acting edition vith no production date: relationship uncertain.

The Cook Sylph; or, A Footboy's Dream. Regency, 5/20/39- "New bombastic, terrific, operatic, dramatic, burlesque, Burletta.'1 Probably a version of J. B. Buckstone's The Kitchen Sylph (Adelphi, 1 83 ^), a burlesque of Thomas Thackeray's opera The Mountain Sylph (Lyceum, 183*0 according to LLG (10/ll/3*0.

The Court Jester. See The Black Sentinel.

The Crazy Old Slippers; or, The Miser of Bagdad. Surrey, 10/28/30. "Popular Eastern Burletta founded on" the Arabian Nights. Nicoll gives a Surrey production date of L/7 /2 8 for this title; he also lists an anon. Bakarak, the Miser; or, The Crazy Old Slippers of Bagdad at the Surrey in I82L. Also see the entry under Riser of Bagdad^

The Creole Ball. See "Jim CTov."

Crossing the Line. Sadler's Wells, 5/17/35* "Burletta." By George Almar. Nicoll adds the subtitle Tne Boat Builders of Brugen for an 1833 performance of this burletta at SW; he also notes a Surrey production the same year with the subtitle Crowded Bouses. A two- act work.

The Cross-Legged Horses. See Tragedy On All Fours.

Tne Crown Prince; or. The Buckle of Brilliants. Regency, 2/13 /U3 . "Romantic Burletta" £by3 T. lb Wilks." Written by Thomas Egerton Wilks for Sadler’s Wells in 1 6 3 8.

Cupid. Regency, 12/3/32 and 5/9/37; Surrey, "An entirely nev, seriously-affecting, shriek-creating, boisterous, glorious, uproarious, lovely, Burlesque Burletta" (Regency, both dates); "Popular Burlesque Burletta" (Surrey). Written by Thomas Haynes Bayly for the Olympic in 1832; LLG (9/l>/32) calls the Olympic io4

production "A mythological burletta by Haynes Bayly, founded on Poor Vulcan, " Charles Dibdin's 1778 burletta for Covent Garden. LLG also note3 an 1032 Adelphi production of Cupid (10/6/32).

A Cure for the Heart-ache. Regency, 5/25/19* "Burletta." Hiis is probably a version of Thomas Morton's comedy of this name (Covent Garden, 1797)* LLG notes productions at the Haymarket (6/21/2 3 ) and Drury Lane (IO/6/2 7).

Curiosity Cured; or, Powder for Peeping. Sadler's Wells, 6/20/2 5* "New Burletta written by Mr. JL Buckstone with [alterations by Thomas Dibdin]]." By John Baldwin Buckstone. Nicoll: same data, omitting Dibdin's contribution.

The Custom of Dunmow. See Flitch.

Cut Your Coat According to Your Cloth. See The Biter Bit.

Damon and Pythia3. Sadler's Wells, 6/l8/32; Regency, 12/16/ 3 6 . "New-Burletta" /SW); "Burletta" (Regency). Apparently J. B. Bucks tone's D. and P ., written for the Adelphi in I83 I.

Damp Beds. Regency, 3/25/35* "Burletta." From Thomas Parry's "comedietta," first given at the Strand in 1 8 3 2 .

A Daughter to Marry. Surrey, 5/29/^7- "New farcical Burletta in One Act".11 By James Robinson Plane he : LLG reviews a production at the Olympic as a "burletta by Flanch^" (10/13/32). Nicoll gives the Olympic's title as My Daughter, Sir; or, A D. to M. at the Haymarket in 1028: the two are almost certainly "regular" and "irregular" versions of the same play, not connected by Nicoll. He relates the Haymarket farce to a French play, Une Demoiselle h Marier (feris, 1826).

The Daughters of Danaus and Sons of Aeryptus; or, Fifty Weddings and Kine~and-forty"Murders" Surrey, 3/5/21. "New classic, mythologic, . . . melo-dramatic Burletta." By Thomas Dibdin. The Surrey production is noted by N1W, k/x/21, A burlesque.

A Day After Marriage. Regency, 6/19/30. "Comic Burletta." Possibly a version of the following entry. Not in Nicoll.

A Day After the Wedding. Regency, 9/12/36- "Burletta." Probably taken from Mirie-Therese Kemble's interlude, The D. A. t . W . ; or, A Wife's Firsc Lesson (Covent Garden, 1808). LLG Xl/ IV 32) give e the^original source of the piece as the French La Jeune Femme Colere. Mrs. Kemble's play was frequently produced in London.

A Day at Riris; or, Fairly Taken In. See the following entry. 105

A Day's Adventure; or, Fairly Taken In. Regency, ll/12/32 and *3/5/39- "Comic Burletta" (l&32); "Burletta by C. Selby" (1 8 39). The 1832 production was retitled A Day at Paris; or, F. T. I. later in the season. By Charles Selby; first given at the Strand in July, 1832 as A Day in Raris. Nicoll terms it an "operatic farce."

Days of Yore; or. The Houses of York and Lancaster. Regency, 2/l6/l6. "Musical Burletta.1' Probably a version of George Colman’s melo-drama or "Comedy," The Battle of Hexham; or, Days of Old. Nicoll notes two l6l2 burlettas with some combination of these titles at the Surrey and the Royalty; he equates the latter with Colman's play. The original work was given at the Haymarket in 1798*

The Dead Alive. See Killing No Murder.

Dead and Alive; or, Which Am I? Sadler’s Wells, 5/31/24. "Favorite Burletta. Possibly based on John O'Keeffe's little "comic opera" The Dead Alive (Haymarket, 178l). Nicoll notes an anon. T. D. A. at the Coburg in 1819; the SW title and subtitle are not in Nicoll.

A Dead Shot. Regency, 5/13/33 and 4/3/35; Surrey, ?/2l/35* "Burletta" (Regency, both dates); "Popular Burletta" (Surrey). Ry J* B. Buckstone, first given at the Adelphi in 1827,

The Deaf Traveller. See Supper At Winchester.

The Death of Kolia. See Pizarro.

The Deep Deep Sea; or, Perseus and Andromeda. Surrey, 7/21/35• "Grand Mythological Burletta. *’ Written for the Olympic in 1833 by J. R. Planche and Charles Dance. Both productions starred Mne. Vestris.

The Deserted Village. Surrey, 4/24/34. "New domestic Burletta . . . founded on Goldsmith's . . . poem." Nicoll lists a farce of this title by Frederick Fox Cooper (Adelphi, 1833 ): relationship uncertain.

The Devil's in the Room. Regency, 5/27/44. "The laughable Burletta." By William Thomas Moncrieff, written for the Victoria (formerly Coburg) in l84o.

Diamonds and Clubs. Regency, 3 /2/2 9. "Farcical Burletta in three acts." Unknown: same data in Nicoll.

Dick Turpin's Ride to York. See Turpin's Ride to York. io6

The Dinner of Madelon. Regency, IO/30 /2 6. “Burletta in one act translated from the French by Mr. Kerr." By John Kerr, from M. A. Desaugiers, Le Diner de Madelon; ou, Le Bourgeois du Marais (1 8 1 3 ). Nicoll has only an anon, burletta of this naracT (Olympic, I8 2 8) which he equates with an anon. The Sportsman and the Shepherd; or. Where's the Wig (Sans Pareil, l8l6J7

The Diorama. Regency, 6/23 /2 8. “Broad farcical Burletta." Unknown; not in Nicoll.

Dissipation, Desperation and Starvation. See The Rope Ladder.

The Doctor and the Lawyer; or, The Cockney Outwitted. Regency, 5/B/15and 3/23/2k . "New Burletta” in' two acts" (1815); "Burletta" (182U). Unknown; not in Nicoll.

Dolly and the Rat; or, The Brisket Family. Sadler's Wells, 5/1 3 /2 3 and 182^ (und^atcd bill). "laughable broad comic Burletta in two acts" (1 8 2 3 ); Laughable . . . parody on The Maid and the Magpie’1 (I82U). A burlesque by Douglas Jerrold, given at the Olympic in 1822 as The Brisket Family; or, The Running of the Rat, revived there the next season with the SW title. For data on the play parodied, see The Magpie; or, The Maid.

Don Giovanni; or, A Spectre on Horseback. Surrey, 2/3 /1 9 and 3 /25/2 8; Regency, 1/21/30.' "Comic^ HeroicOperatic, tragic, pantomime, burlesque, Burletta Spectacular Parody" (1 8 1 9); "Mr. T. Dibdin’s" (ditto) "in two acts" (1828); "Burletta" (Regency, I83O). Thomas Dibdin’s very popular burlesque of Mozart's opera. In his memoirs, Dibdin states that he wrote the work in one week; it was first given at the Surrey on s/l2/l7 and ran 100 nights. It saw numerous productions throughout England thereafter. Subtitle added in 1 8 2 8.

The Dog of Mbntargus. See The Forest cf Bondy.

Don Quixote, the Knight of the Wonderful Countenance; or, The Humours of Sancbo Patiza. ho playbill listing, but LLG notes this at the Adelphi as :'a Romantic Serio-comic Burletta by Mr. Fitzball " (1/12/3 3 ). Nicoll's Adelphi listing is anon, with the performance date of 1/7/33. He notes several other Don Quixote plays of this era, but none by Edward Fitzball.

Double Imposture. See The Village Doctor.

The Dream of a Day. Regency, 2/ls/kk; 6/22/U6; ll/l2/^9- "A singular­ ly comic yet gorgeous Eastern Burletta" (l8UU); same, omitting "Eastern" (161*6); "Burletta" (1849). Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

Duke and No Duke. See A Month’s Trial. 107

The Duke and the Devil; or, Which is Which? Surrey, 2/lO/l9; Sadler's Wells, 2/6/2 6. "Conic melo-dramatic Burletta in tvo acts" (Surrey); "Comic Burletta in two acts founded on . . . a sketch by Garrick" (SW). The Surrey listing omits the subtitle. Sy Thomas Dibdin: his memoirs give David Garrick's Duke end No Duke as his source. Nicoll lists no such work by Garrick, but it is probably his adaptation of Nahum Tate's 166H play of that title (D. S? N. D.). Nicoll lists both minor productions: same data except an earlier Surrey date of 5/6/1 8.

Puke for a Day. Regency, Vl8/31- "New Burletta in one act." By Charles Dance, first given at the Olympic on 2/2V31 h s The (ditto).

The Dumb Belle. Regency, 3/l^/32. "Burletta." A version of William Bayle Bernard1s "comedietta" (Olympic, 1 8 31 ). A one-act afterpiece.

The Dumb Sailor Boy- See The Inchcape Beil.

Dusty Bob in the Country. See London Improvements.

The Eastern Menagerie. See The Bear and the Bashaw.

Edward and Susan; or, Tie Beauty of Buttermere. Sadler's Wells, h/10/03."New Purletta Spectacle." Later in the season, termed a "Favorite Burletta" and "the much admired Burletta Spectacle." By Charles Dibdin, Jr. The subtitle is given in the SW book of songs, not on the playbills. Nicoll gives both titles for the production.

Eight Miles an Hour. See Hookey Walker.

The Etaperor1s Gift. Regency, kf16/5 5* "Burletta." Possibly related to the anon, operetta" of this name given at the Strand, 1 8 53*

Enchanted Girdles. Sadler's Wells, 10/27/2 5. "Burletta." on 10/10/2 5, called Tne Three Girdles, a "New Romantic tale in three acts." By Thomas Dibdin: his memoirs give the title as The Three Enchanted Girdles; or, Winki the Witch and the Ladies of Samarcand, a "comic romance, partly based on a little French fairy tale. Nicoll lists the play as The Enchanted Girdles with Dibdin's subtitle, 10/10/2 5.

English Plum Pudding; or, Two Masters Better than One. Surrey, 3/l/2Ji. Farcical Burletta. Listed as anon, by Nicoll, with the date 2/23 /21*.

The Englishman in Paris. Regency, 9/18/2 6. "Burletta." Possibly Samuel Foote's two-act comedy of this title (Oovent Garden, 1753).

The Enrag'd Politician. Regency, 3/l/l3* "Burletta founded on the new farco Turn Out. ' Not in Nicoll. See Turn Out for other data. 108

Equivocal Appearances. See Reformation.

Escape upon the Common. See The Comic Robbers.

Etchings and Prayings from the Picture Gallery. See Nature and Art.

The Exeter Mall; or, Three Days at Hatchett's. Sadler's Wells, 9/8/26. "Broad farcical Burletta in two acts." Nicoll: same data except his date Is 9/9/2 8.

ffye-on. Regency, 12/16/3 6 . "Original, operatlcal, serio-comical burlesque, travestie, Burletta." A burlesque of Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd’s tragedy Ion (Covent Garden, 1836). Nicoll: same data, not indicating the subject of the parody.

Fairly Taken In. See A Day's Adventure.

The Faithful Irishman. Regency, I/26/2 5. "Burletta." This is the subtitle of several plays of the era, none of them obviously related to the Regency's burletta. Not in Nicoll.

False and Constant. Regency, 6/28/3 3 * "Burletta." Ry Joseph Lunn. Apparently a revival in 1833: Nicoll lists a Regency date of 11/23/29*

Family Discord. See Love, War and Music.

Family Peculiarities; or, The Sisters Three. Regency, 2/13/35* Burletta. Nicoll: same data.

The Family Picture; or, The Sailor's Legacy. Regency, 10/28/22. Burletta in one act. Nicoll's date is 10/7/22.

Fashionable Flayfolks. See Marriage by Comedy.

Fashion's Fools. See Jackey and the Cow.

Fatal Curiosity. Regency, 1/23 /1 5* "Burletta in three acts founded on and called ..." A version of George Llllo's 1736 tragedy. Thomas Dibdin also "put 'Fatal Curiosity' into a form suitable for a minor theatre, with the new name of 'The Murdered Guest'" at the Surrey in 1817, (Reminiscences). Nicoll lists Dibdin's adaptation but not the anon, one at the Regency. Both may be based on the elder George Colman1s alteration of Llllo's play (Haymarket, I7S2 ).

The Fate of Fha-ton. See The Son of the Sun.

The Female Cavaliers. Regency, 2/l7/3^« "Burletta In three acts founded on Cibber's She Would & She Would Not." Nicoll ascribes this adaptation of Colley Cibber's 1702 comedy to a Mrs. Dunlop. Also see the following entry. 109

The Female Impostors. Regency, 10/20/22. "Burletta founded on a play of Colley Cibber's called ..." Based on Cibber's She Wou'd and She Wou'd Not. The name is a corruption of Cibber's subtitle The Kind Impostor. Not in Nicoll. See the entry preceding for a later Regency production.

The Female Jockey. See Youth, love and Folly.

The Female Volunteer. Regency, 6/ ? V 3^* "Burletta." By William Henry Oxberry. Nicoll gives the date of U/20/3^ for the Regency and states that the play appeared earlier at the Clarence Theatre in 1832 or 1033-

Fifty Weddings and Nine-and-forty Murders. See The Daughters of Danaus . . .

The First of August. Regency, 9/22/2 6. "Musical Burletta." See The Waterman.

Flitch; or, The Custom of Dunmov. Sadler's Wells, 5/23 /1 8. "New comic burletta dance . . . songs by C. Dibdin." A revival or alteration of Charles Dibdin Jr.'s interlude The Flitch of Bacon; or, The C. of D. (SW, 1806).

Florence Macarthy; or, A Tour in Hibernia. Surrey, 5/3l/l9* "Comic melo-dramatic Burletta founded o d Lady Morgan’s ..." By Thomas Dibdin. Noted by LLG (5/22/19) which also gives the Irish novel as the play's basis.

Flowers of Lovelvness. Regency, 12/26/35- "New Burletta." Spelling changed to” ^Loveliness" on the 1/2 5 /3 6 playbill. Nicoll has the earlier date with the later spelling.

The Flowery Orator; or, The Lawyer in a Sack. Regency, U/27/2 9. Comic Burletta. Unknown; not in Nicoll.

The Flying Dutchman; or, The Phantom Ship. Sadler's Wells, 6/27/2 7. Popular nautical Burletta. Edvard Fitzball's nautical burletta or melo-drama, first given at the Adelphi, 1/1/2 7.

Folly, Love and ffarriage. See The Rake and His Pupil.

A Footboy' s Dream. See The Cook Sylph.

The Forest cf J-ondy; or, Dog of Montargus. Regency, H / 7/2 2 . ''Burlett:." ~(at need of playbill); ''Melo-drama" (with main listing). From William Barrymore's melodrama, with the titles reversed (Covent Garden, 1014) or from Barrymore's source, Le Chien de Montargis; ou, La Foret do Dondy by Pi xe re court (Paris, 101*+). NMM reviews the Covent Garden play on ll/l/lk. 110

The Forest of Friuli; or, Wood of Olives. Regency, 1/27/ 1 7. "Melo­ dramatic Burletta. Not in Nicoll; may be related to his listing of an anon, melo-drama Serbelloni; or, the F. of F. (SW, 1 8 33 ).

The Forest of Rosenuald; or The Bleeding Nun of Lindenberg. Regency, WWW- Me lo-dramatical Burletta." A later playbill (l2/ll/15 ) omits "of Lindenberg" from the subtitle. Unknown. Nicoll omits this play, but lists two anon, works with related titles; The Travellers Benighted; or. The F. of R. (Haymarket, 1811); and The Robber's Wife; or, the B. N. of L. (~Coburg, l82l). A common source is likely.

Fortune's Frolic; or, The Cockney Ghost. Regency, 1/29/2 1 . "Burletta." Apparently adapted from John Till Allingham's farce F rs F . (Covent Garden, 1799)* See The Ploughman Turned lord, a later Regency retitling of this play, for further information.

Forty and Fifty. Surrey, 5/22/1+3* "Admired Burletta." By Thomas Haynes Bayly, first given at the Olympic in 1 8 3 6. In one act.

The Foundling of the Forest. Regency, 6/29/15* "Burletta founded on and called ! ^ T11 Based on William Dimond’s melo-drama of this name (Haymarket, lS09)* HMM notes an l8lk Haymarket revival (9/l/l^)*

The Four Sisters; or. V.'oman1 s Worth and Woman’s Ways. Regency, 3/23/32• nrImitative Comic Burletta with music." Based on William Bayle Bernard's farce of th? s name (Strand, 2/13/32). Nicoll ..otes a Royal Pavilion production in 1835*

Freaks in a Forest. See Stop Thief.

Freaks of Love. See Men and Women.

Frederick and Voltaire; or, The King and the Poet. Surrey, 7/l6/21. "Comic Burletta. 1 By Thomas Dibdin; an afterpiece. Noted by NMM (8/l/2l) and the European Marazinc (7/21). See The Spread Eagle, also by Dibdin, apparently a rewriting of this piece.

Frederick of Prussia; or, The Monarch and the Mimic. Regency, 7/2^/37* "New Burletta in One Act." By Charles Selby. Nicoll gives the same data, but states that the Regency production used the title The King of Prussia. (?).

Fun and Folly. Regency, 2/9/21. "Musical Burletta." Unknown; not in Nicoll.

Garrick and His Double. Sadler's Wells, IO/10/2 5. "New Burletta founded on a tr.eatrical fact." By Thomas Dibdin. First performance. Same data in Nicoll. Dibdin discusses this burletta in his memoirs; it was taken "from a Preach vaudeville performing at this time." Ill

The Gentle Shepherd. Surrey, 8/28/21. "Burletta founded on Alan Ramsay Ts T * T1' From Ramsay's 17^5 pantoral drama or his 1729 "ballad opera version of the same work. No such minor work in Nicoll.

Georre Barnwell; or, The London Merchant. Regency, 12/ 26/ lU; 12^ 26/15# V/12/ 1 9; etc., etc-, through 12/26/2 6. Variously styled a "Burletta in three acts founded on . . • ;" "Serious Burletta;" "Melo-dramatic Burletta;" "Tragic Burletta;" etc. Based on George Lillo's tragedy (Drury lane, 1731). Nicoll notes a still earlier Regency production on 5/29/ H # "obviously a reworking of Lillo's drama." The play was an almost annual Dec. 26th offering at the Regency during this period.

The Ghost in Snite of Himself. See The Phantom of the Chamber and The Spectre Bridegroom*

The Giant Spectre. See The Prophecy.

The Gig Upset. See A Trip to Blackheath.

Giovanni jn London. Sadler's Veils, 2/20/h3. "Popular Burletta." By William Thomas Moncrieff, first given at the Olympic in 1 8 17. NMM (6/i/20), LLG (6/3/20) and European Magazine (7/21) note the work at Drury lane; Nicoll lists an I63O SW production and the Olympic premiere, both as "operatic extravaganza" with the subtitle The Libertine Reclaimed.

The Giraffe; or, The Cameleopard. Sadler's Wells, IO/1/ 2 7. "New Burletta. An unidentified 1027 clipping reviews the play as dull nonsense featuring a live giraffe. Apparently never revived.

Girls, Boyb and Guardians; or, Tricked at Last. Sadler's Wells, io/20/2 5. "Favorite Burletta. Probably Thomas Dibdin's Three Times Three (q. v,), retitled. Not in Nicoll.

Give a Man luck and Throw Him in the Sea. See A New Way to Get Married.

The Golden Pippin. Regency, 5/28/IO. "Burletta." later bills add '"written by^the author of Tom Thumb." Kane O'Hara’s famous English burletta (Covent Garden, 1773).

The CosT'Qrt Chandler; or, A Lord's Warming Pan. Regency, 1/ 7/1 9* * (First Time) A new Burletta. Unknown; not in Nicoll.

Grace Huntley. Surrey, 12/6/3 6 . "Burletta." In two acts. Henry Holl's domestic drama, or an adaptation of it. First given at the Adelphi in 1833* Nicoll notes an 183 ^ Surrey version, not as a "burletta." 112

The Grand Secret. See Hie Lord Mayor's Fool.

A Great Arrival at a Little Island. Regency, I2/30 /1 5. "Burletta In one act. Unknown: not in Nicoll.

The Great Gentleman in the Little ftirlour. Sadler's Wells, h/k/25; 5/30/25. " Lev Burletta" (April); "Comic Burletta in one act " (Kay). Hie later listing is titled Under the Rose; or, (ditto). By Thomas Dibdin.

The Green Gosling; or, The Poacher. Sadler's Wells, 5/12/2 8; 7/25/2 8. "Comic Burletta1 (Kay); "laughable Burletta" (July). Nicoll: same data as in May. Anon.

The Grenadier. Regency, h/18/31; 3/lV32; 2/16/35* "Burletta" (all). Probably Thomas Haynes Bayly's burletta written Tor the Olympic, I/2U/3 1 . Eighteenth-century works of this title were written by Charles Dibdin, William Shield and John O ’Keeffe.

Gustlbus the Third; or, The Musket Ball and the Masquerade. Regency, (in rehearsal) 11/25/33- "New Bombastic, terrific, operatic, dramatic burlesque Burletta." A burlesque of J. R. Plnnche's opera Gustavus III; or, The Masked Ball (Covent Garden, ll/l3/33)> itself based on A. E. Scribe's opera Gustave III (Paris, 2/27/33)* Nicoll lists the opera but not the burlesque.

Guy Mannering. Regency, 9/9/36. "Burletta." One of the many dramatizations of Sir Walter Scott's novel of this name (IS1 5), the first done by Scott himself with Daniel Terry for Covent Garden, l8l6. Nicoll lists several versions, none for the Regency. Anon.

The Gypsey's Prophesy. See Meg Merrllles.

The Gypsy Heir of Rookvood; or, Turpin's Ride to York. Sadler's Wells, 7/19/I1 and d/2/kl. ''Old English Equestrian Burletta Spectacle . . . from the novel 'Rookvood' by the author of 'Mazeppa'" (July; later omits "Spectacle"); "Equestrian Burletta" (August). By B. M. Milner (who wrote a Mazeppa), based on William Harrison Ainsworth's novella "Rookvood. For a different dramatization at the Surrey, see Turpin's Ride to York. Nicoll's listings are confusing: among several ''Rookvood" dramas, he gives Milner's as Dick T's. R. to Y., Surrey, 6/30/i+l; for Sadler's Wells, Nicoll has a Rookvood; or, The Legend of Old Lime Tree by G- Dibdin Pitt on 2/2b/%0~. According to the Surrey playbill, its version was by Andrew Ducrov, whom Nicoll omits entirely as a "Rookvood" adaptor. Nicoll also has anon, versions at Astley's (1835) the Coburg or Victoria (l£&0), an 18^7 Strand play by Morris Barnett or Wm. Bayle Bernard, plus some post-1850 dramatizations. Finally, LLG (6/7/3*+) disagrees with Nicoll on the date and title of Astley's production. 113

Hamlet Travestie. Sadler's Welle, 8/l8/22. "Highly laughable Burletta with parodies on . . . popular airs." Apparently John Poole's burlesque of Hamlet, given at the Regency in l8ll and at Covent Garden in 1813*

A Hand some Husband. Regency, 2/21j/37- "Burletta." Written by Elizabeth (Mrs. J. R. ) Planche for the Olympic in 1836.

The Happy African. See The Irishman in London.

Harlequin Hoax; or, Pantomime Proposed. Surrey, 3/^/23- "Pantomimic Extravaganza Burletta by permission of T. Dibdin." By Thomas Dibdin; first given at the English Opera House (Lyceum) in l8lU. Dibdin's memoirs record it as "a most successful burlesque." NMM notes the Lyceum premiere (9/l/ll); a Haymarket production (lo/l/l^+J; and an earlier Surrey shoving (9/1/2 0 ).

Harvest Home. Regency, l/27/l7* "Burletta." Apparently Charles tlihdin’s comic opera (Haymarket, 1707) in adaptation. Nicoll notes other minor works of this title at the Royalty (iSOl) and Surrey (1811).

Hie Haunted Chamber. See Black Spirits and White, The Secret and Scraps.

Have I a Father? Regency, 3/20/2 7 . "Broad farcical Burletta." Not in Nicoll. An MS note on the playbill relates this to Exchange No Robbery, a Theodore Hook comedy (Haymarket, 1820).

He Lies Like Truth. Regency, 9/21/36* "Burletta." Probably the ''operetta" of this name by F. Kimpton (English Opera House, 1828). NMM (9/l/28) termed the piece a "half-hour interlude;" LLG (7/26/2 8) gives its source as Le Menteur Verdlque, as does Nicoll.

He Would Be a Soldier. See Coming Up Sir*

Head and Blockhead. See The Plot.

The Heir at Taw. Regency, ll/26/ll. "New Burletta founded on . . ." A version of the younger George Colman's comedy of this name (Haymarket, 1 7 9 7). Nicoll notes an anon, burletta so titled at the Royalty in l8ll.

Helvetian Freedom- See The Hero of Switzerland.

The Henpecked Husband. Regency, 12/29/2 3 . "Burletta." Unknown; not in liicoll.

Her Majesty's Service. See Blue Jackets. 114

The Hero of Switzerland• or, Helvetian Freedom. Regency, 3/28/15 and 2/6/16. "Grand Historical Melo-dramatic Burletta" (1815); "Melo-drama" (l8l6 ). One of many William Tell plays of this eraj most were based on J. C. F. Schiller's Wilhelm Tell (l£)04). Nicoll lists a number of such plays, none for the Regency or with this title.

H e 'b Sure To Be Done. See Nine To One.

The Hibernians; or, A Visit to London. Regency, hf 12/25. "Burletta." Unknown; not in Nicoll.

Hide and Seek. Regency, 10/10/3 6 . "Burletta." Probably the "petite opera" ofthis name by Joseph Lunn (Haymarket, 1824), noted there by LLG (10/30/24). Nicoll credits Lunn with an 1630 5. and S . at Covent Garden (Noted by NMM I2/1/30 ) which is also ascribed to "'Westmacott Jr." Also, the 1833 Lord Chamberlain's plays include an anon, burletta of this title, possibly the Regency's license copy.

Elgh Life Above Stairs. See Bon Ton.

High Life Belov Stairs. See Kitchen Frolics and The Rout.

The Hoax. Regency, ll/4/lO. "Burletta interlude . . . the idea suggested by . . . news-paper accounts concerning . . . the Stamford Ghost." Nicoll gives the date of this anon. Regency burletta as ll/21/lO.

The Hole in the Wall. Regency, 2/5/21. "Burletta." Probably based on John Foole's farce of this title (Drury Lane, IS1 3 ).

Homeopathy. Regency, 7/24 /3 7 . "New Burletta in One Act." Unknown.

The Honest Fisherman. Regency, 'j/8/ll. "Burletta founded on . . . The Adopted Child. Rendered into Recitative by Anthony Pasquin, Esq." A version of The A. C. by Samuel Birch, a "musical drama” (Drury Lane 1795)* Neither the Regency's play, nor Pasquin are mentioned by Nicoll.

The Honest Thieves. Regency, 5/28/1 2 . "Burletta from ..." Based on Thomas Knight's farce of this name (Covent Garden, 1797), itself altered from fir Robert Howard's 1662 The Committee. Nicoll notes another (or the same?) burletta version at the Royalty, 1011.

Honesty's the Best Policy. See The Child of a Tar.

The Honey-moon. Surrey, 8/ 5/1 2 ; Regency, ll/2l/?2 and 1/20/2 3 . "Burletta" (Surrey); "Comic Burletta" (Regency, 1822); "Burletta founded on Tobin's ..." (1823). From John Tobin's comedy of this name (Drury Lane, 1 8 0 5 ). Nicoll relates the Surrey version to Tobin's play. For another minor version of this, see A Month's Trial. 115

The Hooded Bridegroom. Sadler*s Wells, 'jfizfkl. "Farcical Burletta In two ncto. 1 Nicoll lists an anon, drama of this name at the Marylebone in 16^8; possibly related.

Hookey Walker. Sadler's Wells, 5/lU/21; Regency, 2/9/25; 9/26/25, etc. Hew Burletta" (SW); "Burletta in one act" (Regency, Feb.); "Burletta" (Regency, Sept.). The SW production is subtitled Fight Miles an Hour; the Regency's, The Butcher of Fltzroy Market in Feb., changed to A Bailiff's Bet in Sept. Possibly related to Richard Brinsley Peake's "operatic farce," A Walk for a Wacer; or, A Bailiff's Bet (English Opera House, 1&19)* Nicoll lists the Eh production with the same data, except his title is Hooking Walker; or, E. M. an H . "Hookey Walker.'" was a nineteenth-century exclamation, of uncertain origin, signifying incredulity.

The House upon the Heath. See All in One Night.

The Houses of York and Lancaster. See Days of Yore.

Hov to Die for Love. Regency, 12/6/22. "Burletta founded on . . ." Apparently the anon. adaptation of August Kotzebue1s farce Blind Geladen given at the J^yceum in 1612.

How to Get a Place. Regency, 6/7/2 7* "Hew Burletta written by Mr. San ter.11 Possibly based on the Covent Garden afterpiece described by NMM (3/1/19): "A new farce called 'Place Hunters' . . . a poor flimsy thing . . . was compressed into a piece of one act, called 'How to Get a Place.'" Nicoll lists only the anon. Covent Garden play (both versions); "Mr. Santer" is unknown.

How to Live Cheap. Regency, 12/23/22. "Burletta." Not in Nicoll. Possibly related to the following entry.

How to Liye Without Money. Sadler's Wells, 9/15/20. "Farcical BurlettaT" Anon. Kicoll gives the play an SW date of 6/9/30.

How to Ru3e a Husband. See School of Reform.

now to Tame a Wife. Sadler's Wells, 9/22/2 3 . "Comic Burletta." Unknown, unless related to Nicoll's listing of an anon, burletta, The Shrew; or, How to Tame a Woman (SW, 12/1/28).

The Rumours of Billy O'Rourke. See Irish Gold Mines

The Humours of Jobson the Cobler and His Wife Nelly. Sadler's Wells, 10/14/22. ''Ccmic Burletta in two acts. " Apparently based on Charles Coffey's opera The Devil to Pay; or, The Wives Metamorphos'd (Drury Lane, 1731)> which features these characters. Also see Jobson and Nell, another adaptation of Coffey. Not in Nicoll. 116

The Humours of Timothy Crabshav. See Sir Launcelot Greaves.

Humphry Clinker. Surrey, h/20/l9; Sadler'G Wells, 2/20/26, etc. irComic Burletta” (Surrey); "Farcical Burletta founded on Dr. anollett's novel . . ." (SW); later SW bills say "T. Dibdin's Burletta ...” A tvo-act burletta by Thomas Dibdin, from Tobias Smollett's 1771 novel of this name. Premiered at the Surrey on 7/6/1 8, noted by LLG on 7/25/1 8. Mentioned in Dibdin's memoirs as for the 1817 Surrey season.

The Hunchbacks. Regency, 5/21/IO. "New Burletta in 1 act." Unknown; not in Nicoll or BD.

The Hungarian Hero. Regency, 7/20/ll. "Burletta founded on . . . 'Tekeli or the Heroine of Montgatz.1" A version of Theodore Hook’s melo-drama, T.; or. The Siege of Montgatz (Drury Lane, 1806), itself adapted from Pixerecourt's Tekeli; on. le Siege de M. (Paris, 1803 ). Nicoll lists an anon, burletta with Hook's title (Royalty, l8l2) that he relates to the melo-drama, but no Regency production.

Hunger Does Wonders. See She Is Cured.

The Hunter of the Alps. Regency, 3/9/12 and 6/26/1 6. "Burletta founded on the musical entertainment of . . •" (l8l2); "Musical Burletta" (l8lo). Based on William Dimond's melo-drama of this name (Haymarket, iSOk). Nicoll lists a Royalty burletta version in 1813 (anon.); LLG ( V 3/2*0 reviews a Covent Garden revival of Dimond's "melo-drame." In two acts.

Hush Money. Regency, 5/V35* "Burletta in two acts." By George Dance, for the Olympic, 1833*

The Hussar; or, love and Mercy. Surrey, 6/29/21. "Romantic Burletta in 2 acts founded on a drama by W. Dimond." A version cf William Dimond's "comic opera," The Young Hussar; or, L. & M. (Drury lane, I 8 0 7)* Nicoll gives the Surrey date as 6/22/21 for the 2nd performance; he does not relate the work to Dimond, although in his entry for the opera, he states that Harvard Univ. has an 1821 "Surrey prompt copy" of Dimond's play. NMM notes the Surrey production on 8/l/21.

Hydra the Moon and the Daffodil. Sadler's Wells, 8/21/ 3 0 . "Burletta in Three Acts.' Nicoll lists this as an anon. "drama," The Bydra, the Moon (etc.), with the same theatre and date.

I Hope I Don't Intrude. See Paul Pry.

"I'll Sleep on It." See Victorine.

The Illustrious Stranger. Surrey, IO/5/3 5 . "Farcical Burletta." Apparently based on the operatic farce by James Kenney and John Millingen, subtitled Married and Buried (Drury Lane, 1 8 2 7). No minor version in Nicoll. 117

I'm Off for a Soldier. See The Conscript.

The Inchcape Bell; or, The Dumb Sailor Boy. Regency, 8/ll/29* Nautical Burletta from the pen of Edward Fitz Ball." First given at the Surrey, 1 6 28. In two acts.

Independence. See Uncle Jonathan.

The Indian Maid; or, The Slave Merchant. Regency, 9/28/2k. "Melo­ dramatic Burletta. Probably related to Nicoll's listing of an anon, melo-drama The I. M.; or, Sailors and Savages (SW, 1823)*

Industry Must Prosper. See Lots of Fun.

Inkle and Yarico. Surrey, ll/28/lO; Regency, 12/2/22. "Burletta" (Surrey); "Burletta from the opera of . . ." (Regency). Based on George Colman the Younger, ditto, "an Opera," (Haymarket, 1 7 8 7). European Magazine (7/21) notes a Covent Garden production on 7/11/21; LLG reviews a Victoria (Coburg) version (9/28/33)*

The Intimate Friend; or, A Queer Guest at a Wedding. Regency, 2/21/2 6. An entire new musical Burletta in 1 act interspersed with songs . . . [adapted from the3 Comedy of 'L'Ami Intime1 . . . by John Kerr." Nicoll gives a much later Regency date of 12/26/I5 (1625 misprinted?) and omits the source.

Intrigue. Surrey, 10/21/28. "The admired Burletta." Apparently by John Poole; the premiere at Drury H m e le reviewed by NKM (8/l/lk) as "a nev interlude . . . by Mr. Poole." First given h/26/lk.

Intrigues at Madrid. See The Two Ghosts.

Irish Gold Mines; or, The Humours of Billy O'Rourke. Regency, 5/ V 29• "Burletta in 2 Acts. Unknown; not in Nicoll.

The Irish Tutor: or, Nev Lights. Surrey, 12/28/27 and k/12/^0; Regency, 10/25/2 9. "Popular Burletta" (Surrey, 1 6 2 7); "Interlude" (Surrey, 1 8 3 0 ); "Burletta" (Regency). Only the Regency uses the subtitle. Based on the Earl of Glengall's farce or interlude of this name (Covent Garden, 1822). LLG reviews productions at Covent Garden (the premiere, 11/2/22; revival, II/15/2 3 ); Haymarket (6/11/2 5); Drury Lane (9/29/3 2 ). The first of these reviews calls the play "u one act piece from the French--we believe Le Tuteur Gargon." For earlier Regency productions, see Nev Lights.

The Irish Valet. See More Blunders than One*

The Irishman in London; or, The Happy African. Regency, 3/2l/l2. "Burletta founded on . . . farce of . . ." From William Macready's farce of this title (Covent Garden, 1792), which BD calls "an 118

alteration from The Intriguing Footman" by James Whiteley, Shrewsbury, 179-1*

The Iron Chest; or, Murder Brought to Light. Regency, 2/26/11. r'New Burletta founded on . - . Apparently based on George Colman's melo-drama or musical drama of this name (not subtitled), for Drury Lane, 1796. According to BD, the original source Is William Godwin's 179^ novel, "The Adventures of Caleb Williams.”

The Irreslstlbles. Regency, 3/9/61. "Burletta." Probably William Thomas Moncrieff's burletta, written for the Surrey in 1828. Nlcoll lists an anon, farce of this title at the Haymarket Opera, 3/3/57, which may be the same work.

Is He Jealous? Regency, 9/25/2 6. "Burletta translated from the French/ 1 The "operetta" in one act by Samuel Beazley, Jr., first given at the English Opera House (Lyceum) in 1816 and reviewed there by NMM (8/l/lb) and LLG (1/28/1 7). KMM also notes a Surrey "farcetta" production of this work (6/1/2 0 ) which Nicoll calls an anon, burletta with the Surrey date of 5/15/20. The French source, also noted in the l8l6 KMM review, is unspecified.

Ivanhoe; or, The Jew'B Daughter. Surrey, 2/24/20. "Historical melo- draiiiatic Burletta in three acts." By Thomas Dibdin, first given on l/20/20 at the Surrey. One of many dramatizations of Sir Walter Scott's novel (1 8 1 9): KMM (4/l/20) finds Dibdin's Surrey play better than the rival "Ivanhoe” works of the patent houses. Nicoll states that the Dibdin play was revived at the Coburg in 1830 as I.; or, The Knights Templars; or, Isaac the Jew of York.

Jaclntha; or, Like Master Like Man. Sadler's Wells, 7/12/2 1 . "New Burletta in 1 Act." Anon. Nicoll: same data. Possibly related to The Wrangling Lovers (^. v.).

Jack in the Water; or, The Ladder of Life. Sadler's Wells, 7/3l/^3,* Regency, 4/12/L8. tr0riginal Domestic Burletta in 3 acts” (SW); "Original Burletta In Three Acts" (Regency). By William Leman Rede, first given at the Olympic in 1842. Nicoll lists the Olympic and SW productions.

Jackey and the Cow; or, Fashion's Fools. Sadler's Wells, 3 /29/1796 and” 4/5/1796. "a Comic Burletta Divertisement (for the first time) called • . . , the subject taken from the popular songs so named" (March); "A favorite comic narrative" (April). No subtitle in April. Unknown; not in Nicoll. F's. F. is the title of a C. I. M. Dibdin pantomime (SW, 1809); relationship unknown.

Jealousy. Regency, 5/ll/29* "Comic Burletta." Unknown. Nicoll lists several plays of this title, all ten or more years later. 119

Jemmy For Ever; or, The Lads of the Village. Sadler's Wells, 4/16/27. Farcical Burletta, never acted. ' By Thomas Dibdin. Nicoll: same data.

Jesse the Flower o'Dumblane. Regency, 9/26/3 6 . "Burletta." The "operetta" by Capt, Henry Addison, first given at the Adelphl in 1833- Reviewed by LLG (8/31 /3 3 )* Nicoll gives the Adelphi title as Jessie the F. o' P.; or, "Weel May the Keel Row."

The Jew and the Doctor. Regency, l/2/l6; 10/2/23; 8/23/24; 6/20/33* ^Burletta'1 (all). Apparently Thomas Dibdin's farce (Covent Garden, 1798) or an adaptation of it. No minor production in Nicoll.

The Jew of Venice. See The Bond of Blood.

The Jew's Daughter. See Ivanhoe.

"Jim Crow;" or, The Creole Ball. Sadler's Wells, 9/2 6 /3 6 and 3 /6/3 7 . "Farcical Black Burletta written by T. P. Taylor" (1836); "Laughable Burletta" (1837). A blackface play by Thomas Proclus Taylor. Nicoll lists only an 1838 Adelphi "extravaganza” by Taylor, Jim Crov in His New Place, probably a sequel (Adelphi date: 12/31/38)*

Jobson and Nell. Surrey, 3 /22/1 9. "Comic Burletta in 2 acts . . . founded on The Devil to Pay." A version of Charles Coffey's 1731 play. For another adaptation and further facts, see The Humours of Jobson the Cobler . . .

John Duddlestone, the Breeches-Maker of Bristol; or, The Queen's Court. Surrey, 7/13/37• "Broad Farcical Burletta founded on a tale in the 'Percy Anecdotes.'" Apparently drawn from William Thomas Moncrieff's "historical comic drama" which LLG (5/24/3*0 reviewed at the Victoria (Coburg), giving the title as J. P.; or, The Prince and the Breeches Maker. Nicoll gives the Victoria title as The Court of Queen Anno; or, The P. and the B. M. Nicoll also notes the Surrey's burletta: some title and date, listed as anon.

John English; or, Love Makes the Man. Regency, 7/21/34. "Burletta in two acts. Unknown; not in Nicoll. Apparently not related to Colley Cibber's 1700 Love Makes a Man.

John of Paris. Regency, 8/22/3 6 . "Musical Burletta.” Probably a version of Isaac Poeock's conic opera of this name (Covent Garden, l8l4). No minor version in Nicoll.

John Street, Adelphi. Sadler's Wells, 8/18/3 4 . "Popular Burletta . . . written by J. B. Buckstone." First given at the Adelphi in 1826 as "A Card'. 23 John Street, Adelphi." Nicoll lists the 1826 Adelphi and an 1836 Surrey production. 120

Jolly Dick, the Lamplighter. See Life's a Lottery.

The Keep of Castle Hill. See lord Darnley.

Killing No Murder; or, The Dead Alive. Regency, ll/26/23- "Musical Burletta." Apparently based on Theodore Hook’s "operatic farce," K. N. M. (Haymarket, 1809); Charles Mathews recalls starring in the premiere in his Memoirs. The Regency subtitle is the name of John O'Keeffe's "comic opera" (Haymarket, 17^1): probably incidental.

Kiev Nieka's Return. See The Catawba Travellers.

The King and the Freebooter. See Lord Darnley.

The King and the Poet. See Frederick and Voltaire.

King Charles In the Royal Oak. See Waggery in Wapping.

King Charles the Second's Merry Days. See Rochester-

King Richard the Third. Regency, 2/8/19 &rd IO/25/2I. "Burletta founded on the tragedy of . . ." (1 8 19); "Burletta founded on the life and death of . . ." An "irregular" version of Shakespeare's play. Nicoll emits this production, but notes another minor adaptation, King Richard ITI; or, The Battle of Bosworth Field (Royalty, 1812).

’Hie King, the Mayor and the Citizen. See The City Cage.

Kiss and Be Friends. Regency, 1/26/2 9. "Broad comic Burletta." Later in the season, "Farcical Burletta." Nicoll lists an anon, burletta of this name at the Surrey in l8l6. No other data known.

Kitchen Frolics; or, High Life Below Stairs. Sadler's Wells, 10/2 5 /3 6 and 'ifbj: 7 ■ ‘'Laughaole Burletta" (1636); ^Laughable Entertainment" (1837). Based on James Townley's farce H. L. B. S. (q. v.; Drury Lane, 1759)* Also see The Rout, another adaptation. No K. F. in Nicoll.

The Ladder of Life. See Jack in the Water.

The Lads of the Village. See Jemmy For Ever.

The Lady in Her Sleep. Sadler's Wells, l/lli/28; Regency, 2/9/2 9. Broad Comic Burletra in 2 Acts" (SW); "Whimsical Burletta Sketch" (Regency). By Thomas Dibdin, for SW. Nicoll: Same data for SW.

The lady of Monster. Regency, 10/20/3 6 . "Burletta." Apparently based on Thomas Haynes Bayly's one-act farce, Perfection; or, The L . of M. (Drury lane, 1830 )* Also produced at the English Opera House in 181*1 . 121

The Lady of the Tower; or, The Midnight Watch. Regency, 2/15/II. hNev Burletta in tvo acts. Nicoll notes this without the subtitle at the Regency, 2/i/ll. Ah MS note on the playbill relates this play to The Apparition, possibly the James Cross musical drama of that name (Haymarket, 179*0*

The Lancer. See Long Cloth.

Laugh When You Can. Regency, 3/25/13 11/26/22. "Burletta founded on the comedy ..." (1 8 1 3 ); "Comic Burletta" (1822). Based on Frederick Reynolds' comedy of this name (Covent Garden, 1798), which BD speaks of as playing veil although "it does not bring all its advantages with it into the closet." Nicoll has no Regency version but lists an anon. L. W. Y. C.; or, Female Constancy (Surrey, 1813) as a burletta: possibly also based on Reynolds' comedy. Also see the following entry.

The laughing Philosopher. Regency, 12/13/26. "Serio-comic Burletta." An MS note on the pxuybill relates this to Laugh When You Can (q. v.), given earlier at the Regency. Nicoll lists an anon. Durletta, Broad Grins,* or, The L. P. at the Coburg in 1829, possibly taken from the Regency play.

The lawyer ir. a Sack. See The Flowery Orator.

The lawyer, the Jew and the Yorkshireman■ Sadler's Wells, 8/22/25* New Burletta in 3 Acts founded on T. Dibdin*s 'Liberal Opinions' and 'School for Prejudice;'" later in the season, "Operatic Burletta." All three titles are by Thomas Dibdin, and variations on the same play. L. 0. (Covert C:rden, 1800) came first, a 3 act comedy that Dibdin expanded to 5 acts as S. for P. (Covent Garden, l80l). In 1625, Dibdin "converted my comedy of 'the School for Prejudice' into a three-act opera, with from fifteen to twenty new songs" for SW with the third title. (Reminiccences.) Nicoll: same data and SW date.

The Lia r . Regency, 12/21/22; Surrey (undated bill, l820's). ""Burletta founded on the comedy of . . ." (Regency); "Burletta" (Surrey), ApparentJy from Samuel Foote's comedy The Lyar (or Liar), Covent Garden, 1 7 62, itself adapted from Corneille's Le Menteur (l6i3), which, in turn, drew on La verdad sospechosa by Alarcon.

The Libertine's Lesson. No playbill: reviewed by LLG (IO/13 /2 7) at the Adelphi as 'a new Burletta founded on Le Mariage de Raison (the origin also of love and Reason at Covent Garden ) . " By" Edward" Fittball, first performed 10/6/27■ Nicoll gives no source for Fitzball's play, but he states that L. and R., by Michael R. Lacy, is adapted from Scribe's Bertrand et Suzette.

Life as It Is. See Tom, Logic and Jerry. 122

The Life of an Actor; or, The Adventures of Peregrine Proteus. Keeency^TcTTlT^u "Hew comic, satirical, local and laughable Burletta in 2 acts . . . founded on Pierce Egan's ..." Based on Pearce (or Pierce) Egan's book, published the same year. Authorship uncertain; Nicoll lists only a dramatization by Richard Brinsley Peake for the Adelphi, December, l82h (same title, no subtitle), later than the Regency premiere. Nicoll does not mention Egan as the source.

Life's a Lottery; or, Jolly Dick, the Lamplighter. Sadler's Wells, 8/1I1/U3 ; Regency, k/3 /^8. Domestic Burletta in Three Acts" (SW); "Domestic Eurletta in 3 acts by Leman Rede" (Regency). By William Leman Rede, first given at the Olympic in l8h2.

The Light of the Moon. See The Ihree Vampires.

Like Master Like Man. See Jaclntha and The Wrangling Lovers.

1116 Little Gypsies. Sadler's Wells, k/2./ok. "New Burletta." By Charles Diblin, Jr. The SW playbook gives the title as The Little Gipsies. Nicoll terms the work an "operatic farce."

Little Pickle. Surrey, ll/lo/21. "Farcical Burletta." Apparently based on The Spoiled Child (q. v .) which features this character. Not in Nicoll.

Little Sins and Pretty Sinners. Regency, 1/12/3 6 . "New Burletta.” By Charles Selby. Nicoll: same data, plus a Strand production in 1 8 3 8.

The Living Ghost. Regency, 3/V23* "Burletta." Unknown; not in Nicoll.

The Living Phantom. See Montonio.

The loan of a Lover. Surrey, 6/29/36 ; Regency, 3/l8/35 and 3 /28/3 7 . "’’Vaudeville Burletta" (Surrey); "Burletta" (Regency, l835)j "Vaudeville Burletta by J. R. Planch6" (Regency, 1837). Written by Planche for the Olympic in 183 b: this and the Surrey production both starred Charles Mathews & Nfine, Vestris. Noted at the Olympic by LLG {lO/k/lk).

Lock and Key. Regency, 5/28/12; Sadler's Wells, 3/l^/(30?)* "Burletta founded on the entertainment of . . ." (Regency); "Favorite Operatic Burletta" (3W). Based on Prince Hoare's "musical entertainment" of this name (Covent Garden, 1 7 96). The "1 8 30 " SW bill omits the year.

London Improvements: or, Dusty Bob in the Country. Regency, 8/23 /2I. "New Farcical Burletta in 1 Act." Not in Nicoll. In his Ph.D. dissertation on the Prince of Wales’s (Regency), Richard Lorenzen ascribes the play to John Kerr (see Bibliography). 123

London Manners at a Country Mansion. See The Adventurers.

The London Merchant. See George Barnwell*

Long Cloth; or, The Lancer. Sadler's Wells, 5/1/2 8. "Melo-dramatic Burletta-1' later in the season, titled Long Cloath and the Lancer, an "Operatic Burletta." By Thomas Dibdin. Nicoll gives the earlier title and the date of 1/21/2 8.

Lord Darnley; or, The Keep of Castle Hill. Surrey, 9/ll/37- "New and original Burletta in 2 Acts ... by Thomas Egerton Wilks." Ihe Surrey playbook calls the piece "A Romantic original drama." Nicoll has the same data, but gives the subtitle as The Keeper of the C. E.; he also lists, for the same theatre and date, an anon, burletta The King and the Freebooter; or, The Keep of C. K. by one "J. C. Wills," evidently from a corrupt reference to the" same play.

The Lord Mayor's Fool; or, The Grand Secret, a Tale of 1642. Sadler's Wells, 4''28/ 3 6 , etc. "Original comic Burletta (the Music by Jolly)." Subtitle added on 6/2 0 /3 6 playbill. Anon.; given at the Royal Pavilion 9/29/34 (same title complete). Nicoll lists this 1834 production and a The L. M. F. of 1642 at Astley's in 1837*

A Lord's Wanning Fan. See The Gosport Chandler.

The Lost Son. See Luke the laborer and Reuben Apsley.

Lots of Fun. Regency, 5/H/ 2O; n / 17/2 3 ; 1/28/24. "Musical Burletta" T a l l ) . The 1824 bill adds the subtitle Industry Must Prosper. Unknown. Not In Nicoll.

Lots of laughing. See Quarantine.

The lottery Ticket. Regency, 12/13/47* "Burletta." Apparently Samuel Beasley's farce, subtitled The Lawyer's Clerk (Drury Lane, 1 8 2 6). Barry Duncan's book on the St. James's Theatre (see Bibliog.) mentions a production of Beasley's play there in 1 8 37.

Love and Charity. Regency, 3/29/43* "Burletta . . . by permission of Mark. Lemon. ' Lemon's burletta, written for the St. James's in 1 8 3 8. A one act afterpiece.

Love and Pisannolntment; or, The Noble Troubadours. Regency, II/3 /2O. Nev Grand Musical Burletta in Three Acts." Not in Nicoll. Possibly related to The Prince and Joconde; or, The N. T . (q,. v.).

Love and Forgery. See P. 0. P . 124

Love and Laudanum; or, The Sleeping Draught. Regency, 2/3/24. Burletta.'' From an earlier play ar:l its copy, using the titles of both. Both LLG (4/4/l8) and NMM (5/1/1 8) note a Drury lane farce "by Samson Fenley called The S. D . that they call a copy of a Woolwich production (earlier in 1818) called L. & L., written by a Mr. Baynes. Nicoll lists both plays but does not connect them; he omits the Regency version.

Love and Madness. See The Mountaineers.

Love and Mercy. See The Hussar*

Love and Mystery; or. Which Is ity Cousin. Sadler's Wells, 1/23/32* New Burletta in 1 act. By John Thomas Haines, for SW. Nicoll: same data, adding that the play is possibly related to an anon, comedy, ffrstificatlon, English Opera House, 1826.

The love Gift; or, The Trials of Poverty. Regency, 4/17/43- "New and original Burletta of every-day life . . . by Edvard Stirling." Produced at the Adelphi on 3 /20/4 3 .

Love in a Cottage. Surrey, 6/29/3 6 ; Regency, 3/20/37- "Burletta" (both). By”Thomas Haynes Bayly, first given at the Olympic in 1835. All three productions featured Mne. Vestris, Nicoll lists the Olympic production and an anon, burletta of this title at Drury Lane in 1 8 3 6: probably a copy.

Love in a Village. Surrey, 5/l2/l9; Regency, 9/17/36 and 5/15/43- "Melo-dramatic Burletta founded on . . ." (Surrey); "Burletta" {Regency, 1 8 3 6: later this season termed "Opera"); "Musical Burletta" (Regency, 1643). Versions of Isaac Bickerstaffe's "comic opera" (Covent Garden, 1762), a popular work with many London theatres, T.T/l notes at least ten productions between 1820 and 1 8 3 5*

Love in Germany. See One and Twenty.

Love in Humble Life. See Michael and Christine.

Love in the King’s Arms■ Regency, 9/29/3 6 . "New Burletta." Unknown. Not in Nicoll- The title is undoubtedly a pun.

Love Laughs at locksmiths. Regency, ll/26/ll; 10/24/(1*;?); 2/l/l9; 11/12/23 ■ ''.Jew Bur 1 e11 a from . . . " (l8ll); "Burletta founded on the musical farce of . - (l8l4?); "Musical Burletta" (later). Based on George Colman'c "operatic farce" of this title (Haymarket, 1803). BD gives Colman'c source as Une Folle by Bouilly. Nicoll lists the l8ll Regency version as anon. For another adaptation of Colman, see Love's Stratagem. Note: the "1814" playbill omits the year.

Love Makes a Man. See John English. 125

Love under a Lamp-post. See Wooing a Widow.

Love, War and Music: or, Family Discord. Regency, $/2^/2k. "New Operatic Burletta." Unknown. Not J>r\ Nicoll.

Love, War, Physic and Latin. See The Student.

Love’s Stratagem. Sadler's Wells, 6/7 /1 9 and 7/26/1 9. "Musical Burletta founded on 'Love Laughs at Locksmiths1" (q_. v.; both). A version of George Col ma n 1 s farce. Nicoll lists the title, L 1 s. S., for an anon. Surrey burletta, 1812: this may be from Colman too.

Luck In the Lottery. Regency, I/13 /2 9. "Comic Burletta in one act." Anon. Nicoll: same data.

Luke the Laborer. Surrey, 9/7/27 a^d (undated bill, l820's). ** Domes tic Me lo-drama" (1 8 2 7); "Burletta" (undated). Apparently J. B. Buckctone's melo-drama, subtitled The Lost Son (Adelphi, 1826). The Davidson Acting Ed. (on OSUTRI FilinT no. P. 13^6) terms the 2-act piece a "Domestic Melo-drama," listing Adelphi casts for 1&?6 & 1828, and an 1829 ''Surry" cast.

Macbeth, King of Scotland. Regency, 3/l5/l7* "The Popular Burletta with all the original music." Evidently based on Shakespeare; possibly related to Elliston’c "Ballet of Macbeth" (Surrey, l809). No minor version of Macbeth in Nicoll.

The Mad Actor. Regency, 3/22/25- "Comic Burletta." Unknown; possibly related to Nicoll's listing of an anon, "interlude" of this name at the Lyceum, 8/6/25-

The Magician. Sadler's Wells, 8/19/1797, "The Favorite Comic Burletta." Ey Thomas Dibdin; the SW book of songs (1798) adds the subtitle The Invisible Lover. Nicoll has no production dates but notes a variant subtitle, The Invisible Hand.

The Magpie; or, The Maid. Regency, 10/2V36. "Burletta." One of a number of adaptations of L. C- Caigniez's La Pie voleuse; ou, la Servante de Palaiseau. Probably copied from Isaac Pocock's version (Covent Garden, 1615), which has the same title. Rival versions include Samuel Arnold's The Maid and the Magpye (Lyceum, 1815) and Thomas Dibdin'c The Magpie; or. The M. of P. (Drury Lane, 1815). KMM notes the Drury Inr.e version (1/1/lti); LLG notes several productions, including Pocock's play at the English Opera House in 1828 (7/ 5/2 8).

Maids and Batchelors; or, Nettlevig Hall. Surrey, 2/16/2k. "New broad farcical Burletta." By Charles Westmacott, for this production. The play was revived at Drury lane in 1831 under its subtitle: see the N. H . entry for details and a later Regency production. 126

The Major and the Minor. See White Lies.

Major Linkey; or, An Affair of Honour. Surrey, 6/29/36. "Broad farcical Burletta." Possibly Willian Leman Rede's farce, An A. of H., Olympic, 1 635. Title not in Nicoll.

The Man and the Marquis; or, The Three Spectres of the Castle of St. Valorl. SadleF7^-WeTTsT^/^W^T^ "New comic melodramatic Burletta. " By Thomas Dibdin: his memoirs give the date as the premiere and call the play "one of my best attempts at farce." Nicoll: same data.

The Man and the Tiger. See P. P .

The Man of Sentiment. See The Brothers.

The Man with 100 Wives. See The Seraglio.

The Man with the Roman Nose. Surrey, 6/29/ 3 6 - "Burletta." Unknown; possibly related to Nicoll's entry, The Man with the Nose; or, A Cure for Love, an anon. Adelphi farce of 1^37- Surrey title not in Nicoll.

The Manager's Lat-t Kick. See The Quadrupeds.

The Manager's Night. See Spoil'd Children.

The Manager's Room. Regency, 10/24/25* "Burletta." Apparently based on Richard Brinsley Peake's "operatic farce" Amateurs and Actors (English Opera House, l6l8), the latter noted by LLG (9/5/l8) and NMM (10/l/lS). The Regency revived Peake's 2 act play under its own name on 8/3 /?9> calling it a "Farce."

Marriage by Comedy; or, Fashionable Playfolks. Sadler's Wells, 5/16/1796. "New Comic Bur l etta, (translated from the French)." Anon. Nicoll: same data.

Marriage Projects. Regency, 3 /12/2 3 . -"New Burletta." One of several adaptations of Leg Projets de Mariage by Duval; possibly copied from John Poole'¥ farce Matchmaking (Haymarket, 1821), which bore the Regency title on the Larpent license copy. Other versions include two later ones by J . R. Planche, Military Tactics (English Opera House, 1824) and Manoeuvring (Haymarket, lo29)-

Married and Single; or, Which Is Best? Regency, n / 16/2 6. "Serio­ comic Burletta, acted cut once at this theatre," Apparently based on John Foole’s comedy, M. & S.; cr, Takings and Mistakings, also subtitled Belles and bailiffs (haymarket, 1824). 'The original is L'Homme a soixante Ans. NMM notes Poole's play (8/l/24). 127

The Karr led Batchelor. Regency, 12/9/22; Sadler fs Wells, 2j\fy3 and 1/13/40. "Burletta" (Regency); "New Burletta in 1 Act" (SW, 1 8 3 0 ); "Interlude" (SW, 1840). Apparently P. P. 0 1 Callaghan' s burletta (Adelphi, 1821), subtitled Master and Man. The SW play may be a condensation or another unidentified play.

The Married Rake. Regency, 6/l/39. "Burletta." By Charles Selby, first given at the Regency on 2/9/35* according to Nicoll. In 1 act.

Martial lav; or, The Proclaimed District. Regency, 1/7/34 8/13/34/ "Burletta" (both). The later bill adds the subtitle. By Edward Mayhev for this production. Nicoll: same data, without the subtitle.

Masonry; or, The Secret Discovered. Surrey, 6/(ll)/21. "Whimsical Burletta." By Thomas Dibdin. Noted by the European Magazine (6/21). Nicoll supplies the date of the 11th as the 2nd performance.

The Masquerade. Regency, 4 /29/3 9 . "Burletta." Unknown. Several plays have this title, none clearly related. No such Regency play in Nicoll.

Matrimony. Regency, 8/31 /2 9- "Burletta in one act." Possibly based on James Kenney's popular "petit opera" of this name (Drury Lane, l804), adapted from Adolphe et Clara by J . B. Marsollier (Paris, 1799)* Nicoll also lists an anon. Surrey burletta of this title in l8l2.

May Day. Regency, 4/19/1 6. "New Burletta written by a lady, from the Interesting Tales of Mrs. [MariaJ Edgeworth." No further data known. Nicoll lists only David Garrick’s farce (Drury Lane, 1775) by this title: apparently unrelated.

The Mayor of Gareat. Regency, 12/26/15 and 6/10/24. "Burletta in 1 act"" (IB1 5); "Burletta" (1824). Apparently based on Samuel Foote's two act comedy (Haymarket, 1763)* In his memoirs, Thomas Dibdin speaks of adapting this play for Elliston at the Surrey; the only minor versions noted by Nicoll are anon, burlettas at the Royalty (1810) and St. James's (1 8 3 7).

The Marourka. Regency, 6/l/35 and 6/22/3 9 . "Burletta" (1 8 3 5); "Burletta i:i 1 Act" (1 8 39). Other 1835 bills term the piece a "Petite Comedy." Anon. Nicoll gives this burletta a Regency date of 5/2S/3 5 .

Meg Merrllles; or, The Gypsey's Prophesy. . Regency, 2/3/17* T Dramatic Burletta." An adaptation of Scott's novel "Guy Marmering." For others, see G. M .

Men and Women; or, Freaks of Loye. Sadler's Wells, 1/28/2 8. "Broad comic burletta in 1 act founded on . . . Vanbrueh's . . . The 128

Mistake/ 1 From Sir John Y's. 1705 comedy, Nicoll: same data, hut vithout noting the source. Also see The Mistake.

Michael and Christine; or, Love in Humble Life. Regency, kf29/2k. 1TBur^etta in one act. Either from John Howard Payne's "dramatic sketch," in H. L . (Drury Lane, 1022), or from its source, Michel et~ rhri stinc by Scribe (Paris, 1821). LLG (2/l6/22) and Nicoll note the Drury Lane piece but not the Regency burletta.

Midas. Regency, 1810, 1821, 1830, 1836, 18**7, I85O; Surrey, 1830 , 1 8 3 5, l8*+9, 1851; etc. Kar.e O'Hara's original "English Burletta," widely produced and frequently reviewed in this era. Two later productions term the work other than a burletta: Regency, 3/10/1*7, "Operatic Burlesque;" Surrey, "Comic opera." The European Magazine calls an 1816 Surrey production "The splendid Burletta of Midas, 11 noting that productions at this sometime circus "approach quite as near to legitimacy without horses as any classic theatre in the kingdom can do with horsesn~(11/16). In contrast, NMM (9/1/2 5) reviews a Haymarket production, complaining that Midas "is without meaning or wit."

The Midnight Hour. See The Wager Lost and What’s O'clock.

The Midnight Meeting; or, The Three Pair of Lovers. Regency, 1/3 /2 1 . Comic EurietUi/ Revived in lti23 under the subtitle (q. v.). Not in Nicoll under either title. Possibly related to Thomas Dibdin's Three Times Three (q. v.).

The Midnight VJatch. See The lady of the Tower.

The Mlngrellian Princess. Regency, 5 A / l 5- "Grand romantic Burletta founded on the Melo-drama of Timour the Tartar by M. G. Levis." Not in Nicoll. Lewis's melodrama was first given at Covent Garden in l8ll.

Misanthropy and Repentance. See The Stranger.

The Mischance. Regency, l/l2/ll. "Burletta interlude." Probably Charles Dibdin’s interlude of this name (SW, 1 7 72).

Mischief Making. Surrey, 7/30/35; Regency, l/l7/*t8. "Buckstone's Laughable Burletta" (Surrey); "Burletta" (Regency). By J. B. Buckstone; first given at the Surrey as an "interlude" in 1828. Nicoll notes the Surrey premiere and an 18*16 SW production, listing the title as Mischief-making.

The Miser of Madrid. Sadler's Wells, 5/30 /3 1 * "Burletta in 2 Acts." Anon. Nicoll: same data, except his date is 6/3/31.

Miss Metamorphosed. See Puss I Puss I1. PussIII 129

The Mistake. Regency, 2/17/ 1 7. "Comic Burletta." Possibly Sir John Vanbrugh's play of this name in adaptation (1705). Nicoll notes an anon, burletta The M.; or, The G. G. (subtitle initials only) at the Royalty in 1823 • See Hen and Women for a retitled version of Vanbrugh's play.

The Mistakes of a Night; or, The Rop^ Ladder. Sadler’s Veils, 9/20/2^. "Broad Laughable Burletta/' Not "in Nicoll. See The R. L . for an apparently related Regency play of the same year.

Mistakes on All Sides. See Advertisements.

Mr. Wilkins. See Wives and Partners.

Modern Antiques. Regency, 6/29/15- "Burletta founded on and called ~ i T" Based on John O'Keeffe's farce, subtitled The Merry Mourners (Covent Garden, 1791 )* NMM notes productions at Drury lane (9/1/20) and Covent Garden (2/17/1 6).

The Mogul Tale. Regency, 6/3 /2^. "Burletta." Possibly Elizabeth Inchbald's interlude or farce of this name (Haymarket, I78U). Not in Nicoll.

The Monarch and the Mimic. See Frederick of Prussia.

Monsieur Jacques. Sadler's Wells, h/'f/bl. "Popular Burletta vrittcn by Rr. Morris Barnett . . - First Time." This is the first SW performance; the play was written for the St, James's in 1 8 3 6, adapted from Le Pauvre Jacques bv the Bros. Cogniard (Baris, l835)* A one act afterpiece. Nicoll omits the French source.

Monsieur Tonson. Regency, 3/^/23 and 9/9/36. "Burletta" (both). From William Thomas Moncrieff's farce of this name (Drury Lane, 1821), described by NMM (ll/l/2l) as "a new farce, founded on the old Joke of Monsieur Tonson." (?). LLG (8/23 /2 3 ) notes a production at the English Opera House (lyceum).

A Month's Trial; or, Duke and No Duke. Regency, 5/lO/l7* "Burletta in 3 acts founded on The Honey Moon. Apparently a version of John Tobin's comedy (Drury Lane, 1O05), adapted earlier at the Regency under its ovm jisue; see The Honey Moon. The Regency play is not in Nicoll.

Montonio; or, The Living Phantom. Regency, 3/l5/l7- "Grand Romantic Melo-dramatic Burletta in Three Acts." Derived from A. Duval's Montoni; c,u, be Chateau (Paris, 1797); Richard Lalor Shell's translation of it for Covent Garden, Montoni; or, The Phantom was produced in 1820. No version but Shell’s is listed in Nicoll. 130

The Moor of Venice. Regency, 11/27/26. "Tragic Burletta." An adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello. Not in Nicoll.

More Blunders than One; or, The Irish Valet. Regency, 3 /2 6 /3 2 and 6 7 3 /M * "Burietxa'1 (1 8 3 2 ); "the’ Laughable Burletta" ( l 8M ) . The later listing omit3 the subtitle. By George Herbert Rodwell, first given at the Olympic in 182H. Tin ( l o / n / 2 8 ) describes a Covent Garden production as "Some pleasant nonsense . . . transplanted hither from the Adelphi." In one act.

More Frightened than Hurt. Sadler's Wells, ^/30/21. "Nev comic Burletta in 2 Acts." Written by Douglas Jerrold for SW. Nicoll and state that the piece was originally titled The Duellists.

More Jonathans. See Tarnation Strange.

A Mother's Vengance. See Adrian and Orllla.

The Mountain Cottager. See Mouse-Traps.

The Mountain Torrent; or, The Broken Sword. Regency, 2/19/1 8. Melo-dramatical burletta. Probably a version of William Dimond's melo-drama, The B. S. (Covent Garden, 16.1 6). Not in Nicoll.

The Mountaineers; or, Love and Madness. Regency, 6/25/1 9* "Burletta." Apparently based on George Colman's The M . (Haymarket, 1793)# a musical drama. Nicoll's listing of an anon, melo-drama, L. and M.; or, The Maniac of the Cave (Surrey, l6ll) may be related.

Mouse-Traps; or, The Mountain Cottager. Surrey, 1/3/20. "New comic, melodramatic romantic Burletta in 2 acts." By Thomas Dibdin; mentioned in his memoirs. Nicoll gives an earlier date of 12/27/19.

Mrs. Gamp and Mrs. Harris. Regency, Il/l6/h6. "New and original Burletta. Apparently based on Dickens' novel "Martin Chuzzlewit" (lf&3-M); the ladies named are his disreputable old nurse and her mythical friend. Listed by Nicoll as "farce;" no source indicated.

Mrs. Norma. Surrey, 5/ 23/U2 . "Grand Burlesque Burletta." A burlesque, apparently of J. R. Planche's opera Norma (Drury lane, 1837); possibly related to William Henry Ox berry' s If. Travestie (Adelphi, l8^l) and an anon, burlesque, Mrs. Normer (Edinburgh, 18H2). Not in Nicoll 'Tho lists the other plays mentioned.

Mrs. White. Sadler's Wells, 11/23/^0. "Popular laughable Burletta." Evidently the operetta by Ricliard John Raymond, first given at the English Opera house (lyceum) in 1 8 3 6. 131

The Mummy, Regency, 5/15/35* "Burletta.” By William Bayle Bernard, for the Adelphi, 1833*

Murder Brought to Light. See The Iron Chest.

The Murderers; or, The Round Tower Inn. Regency, 9/9/33* "Serious Nautical Burletta in Two Acta. 11 Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

The Musket Ball and the Masquerade. See Gustibus the Third.

The Mutiny. Regency, 5/lV35* "Burletta." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

The Mutiny of the Caroline. See The Red Rover.

!Sl Absent Son; or, Brown Studies. No playbill; LLG (lO/U/2 8) reviews an Adelphi production of this new comic burletta," listing J. B. Buckstone as "the reputed author." In two acts. Nicoll lists the play as anon, with an Adelphi date of 9/29/2 8.

My Aunt's Tragedy. See Treacle and Mustard.

My Daughter, Sir. See A Daughter to Marry.

My First Fit of the Gout. Regency, 3/9/35* "Burletta." By John Maadison Morton, for the Regency. Nicoll: same data. In 1 act.

My Grandfather's Will; or, Hie Old Man in the Straw. Regency, 10/21/22. "Burletta founded on a comedy of F. Reynolds, Esq., called ..." Original source uncertain. Nicoll lists only a burletta by Francis Reynolds, M. G. W.; or, The Kan of Straw (Adelphi, 1 8 3 6). Both may be based on a Frederick Reynolds play, differently titled.

My Grandmother. Regency, 6/3 /1 1 . "Burletta founded on . . ." Probably adapted from Prince Hoare1s "musical farce" of this name (Haymarket, 1793 and Drury Lane, 1796)* BD Gtates that Hoare's source is the elder George Colman's burletta The Portrait (Covent Garden, 1770), itself taken from Aneeaume's Le Tableau narlant (Paris, 1789). 6 “

My Husband's Cccrct. Sadler's Wells, 7/25/2 8; Regency, 7/5/30. "burletta In oir> act" (SW); "Comic Burletta" (Regency). By Thomas Meadows; first given at the Adelphi in 1622, with the subtitle Natural Magic.

M y lady * s lap Uof^. See The Blunder.

My Man Tom. Regency, h/15/l+O. "Laughable Burletta . . . by permission of Mark Lemon, Esq." By Lemon. Nicoll. lists only a later Olympic production in 18^2 . 132

% Wife and Freehold; or, Right of Common. Regency, if 12/21. "Comic Eurletta." Evidently taken frcm Thomas Dibdin's burletta, R. of C.; or, Kow to Get a Freehold (Surrey, l8ll). Not in Nicoll.

The Namesakes; or, The Wife and the Widow. Regency, b/2/35* "Original Burletta in 1 Act." Anon. Nicoll: same data.

Nature and Art; or. Etchings and Drawings from the Picture Gallery. Sadler's Wells, U/b/Wl. "Popular Burletta . i . 212th time." Anon. May be related to an anon, burletta, N . & A . at the Victoria (Coburg) in lE&O. No SW production in Nicoll.

Nettlewiq Hall. Regency, 9/22/3 6 . "Burletta.” By Charles Molloy Westmacott. M>iM reviews a Drury Lane production on 5/1/3 I, saying that "the author . . . has been accused of having produced it some years ago, at a minor theatre. If it had bee..* acted before, it has been produced twice too often." The earlier production was at the Surrey in l82h, under the title of Maids and Batchelors; or, N. H. (q. v.). Nicoll lists both plays but does not connect them.

The New Footman. Regency, 3/7/^* "Selby's laughable Burletta." By Charles Selby, written for the Strand in l8h2.

New Lights. Regency, 11/3 /2 3 and 9/15/2 6. "Comic Burletta" (1 8 2 3 ); "Burletta" (1 8 26). The Earl of Glengall's farce, The Ir1sh Tutor (^. v.), played under its subtitle of N. L. An 1829 Regency revival used the full title: see under The I. T.

The New Marriage Act. Regency, 10/10/22. "Burletta." Apparently W. Henry's burletta, subtitled A Lesson for Lovers, given at the Adelphi on 9/3^/22•

A New Way to Get Married; or, Give a Man Luck and Throw Him in the Sea. Surrey, o/2^j20~. TlComic Melo-dramatic Burletta in 2 acts. 71 By Thomas Dibdin: his memoirs refer to the piece by the subtitle, calling it "a 'Turkish tale," written for the Surrey in 1 819. NMM (8/l/2 0 ) has a review, also giving the subtitle alone.

The Niggers' Ball. See Somebody in the House with Dinah.

The Night Errand; or, A Traveller in Suite of Himself. No playbill; Reviewed by LiG (2/15/3 M at IheAdelphi" as a "new burletta." Anon. Nicoll notes only the license copy in the Chamberlain's collection, dated 2/7/3 U, without theatre or subtitle.

Nine to One; or, He's Sure to Be Done. Regency, ty/ll/2h, "Imitative Burletta." T.’ot in Nicoll. The 1023 Heaton ed. (OSUTRI Film no. F. 28h) lists Michael Bryant (of the Coburg Theatre) as the author. 133

No! Regency, 12/15/3 6 ; Surrey, 5/20/3 9 * "Musical Burletta in 1 Act" (Regency); "Musical Burletta" (Surrey). Unknown; possibly related to three of Nicoll's listings for this brief title: an anon. Adelphi license copy in the Chamberlain's collection, 2/27/29 (a burletta); a farce by Wm. Murpt^ (Edinburgh, 1026); another farce by Francis Reynolds (Bath, 1828).

No Dinner Yet. See A Race for a Dinner and Sponge Out of Town.

No Harm Done. See Tame Tigers.

No Magic Like Love. Regency, II/27/26 . "Burletta." Unknown; not in Nicoll.

The Noble Shepherd. Regency, l/9/l6- "Burletta in 3 acts founded on the Tragedy of Douglas." Apparently based on Nicholas Home's tragedy (Edinburgh^ 1756”) * Nicoll lists several anon, minor versions using Home's title: a Regency revival in l8l8; Surrey, 1019; City, 1831.

The Noble Troubadours. See Love and Disappointment and The Prince and Joconde.

No Song, No Supper. Regency, 7/l/H; Surrey, H / 21/2 7. "Burletta founded on the musical entertainment of . . ." (Regency); "Musical Burletta founded on . . ." (Surrey). Based on Prince Hoare's "opera" of this name (Drury Lane, 1790). Journals note productions at Drury Lane (NMM, ll/l/l9); Covent Garden (European Mag., 7/21); and the Victoria (LLG, 8/24/33). Nicoll lists the original and an anon. Royalty burletta in 1012.

Of Age Tomorrow. Regency, 6/8/ll; 5/k/l6 ; 2/0/l9; 12/ 13 /2 6. "Burletta founded on . . ." (1011); "Musical Burletta" (l8l6-26); "Burletta (1 8 1 9). From Thomas Dibdin's "musical entertainment" (Drury Lane, l800). Based on Kotzebue's Per Wildfang, according to Nicoll; BD gives the Kotzebue source as The Baron and the premiere date as 1009. Nicoll lists another minor production at the Royalty, 1812. For a later rewriting of this play, see One and Twenty.

Old and New School; or, Which Is Best? Regency, 8/10/2 5. "Burletta . . . written by the author of Hookey Walker." Unknown; not In Nicoll. Unfortunately, the author of H. W. (g.. v.) is unknown.

Old and Young. Regency, IO/2V 3 6 . "Burletta.” Based on John Poole's farce of this name (Drury Lane, 1822), reviewed by TIG (12/7/22) arid NMM (1/1/2 3 ). In one act. In his mejnoirs, Thomas Dibdin says that the play is "taken from the French" (source not kacvn). 13*

Old and Young Staler. Surrey, 6/29/ 3 6 . "Favorite Burletta." By William Leman Rede, written for the Olympic in 1035* The Surrey production featured Charles Mathews.

Old Fools. Sadler's Wells, 8/l0/01. "The Revived Burletta." By Charles Dibdin Jr., first given on k/lh/lQOO with the subtitle Love's Stratagem. In 1019, SW used that name for an adaptation of Colman's Love Laughs at Locksmiths; perhaps related. See L's. S *

The Old Man in the Straw. See frjy Grandfather's Will.

Old Sadler's Ghost; or, The Wells in the Days of Queen Bess. Sadler's WelTs^ (undated advertisement, 1002). "Occasional Burletta Prelude (Music by Ruffel)." By Charles Dibdin, Jr. Nicoll: same data; no specific date, no genre indicated.

Olympic Revels; or, Prometheus and Pandora. Regency, 8/l0/^2. "Hythologicai, allegorical” and musical Burletta." Written by J. R. Planehe and Charles Dance for the Olympic, 1831.

The Omnibus. Regency, 7/5A7* "Comic Burletta." Apparently from Isaac Pocock's farce, The 0.: or, A Convenient Distance (Covent Garden, I83O).

One and Twenty; or, Love in Germany. Sadler’s Wells, 1/2/2 8. "New Comic Burletta founded on 'Of Age Tomorrow.'" Thomas Dibdin's rewriting of his own 0. A. T . (q. v.). Nicoll: same data, omitting the source.

One Hour; or. A Carnival Ball. Surrey, 6/29/3 6 ; Regency, 2/15/ 3 9 . ^"Admired Burletta" (Surrey)] "Burletta by T. Haines Bayly" (Regency). By Thomas Haynes Bayly, first given at the Olympic on 1/1 2 /3 6 with the variant subtitle A Carnival Frolic.

Othello According to Act of Parliament. Sadler's Wells, 10/7/hl; Regency, h/29/ho and 5/5/50- "The very popular operatic burlesque Burletta" (SW); "Burlesque Burletta" (Regency, both dates). One of a number of Shakespearean burlesques based on Hamlet, Othello, etc. and called . . . Travestie or . . . A. t. A. o. P. This one may be related to Maurice G. Dowling's 1S3 * Liverpool burlesque, which was known by both titles (0. T. and 0. A. etc.).

P. 0. P.; or, Love and Forgery. Regency, 12/13/27- "Burletta." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

P. P.; or, The Man and the Tiger. Regency, 5/15/35- "Burletta." From Thomas Parry's farce, written for the Adelphi in 1833* Reviewed by LLG (10/26/33) at the Adelphi. 135

The Paddington Canal. Sadler’s Wells, 9/l^/01* "Celebrated Burletta Spectacle . . . by C. Dibdin." By Charles Dibdin, Jr. Nicoll gives an earlier date of 7/31/01; his version of the title is The Grand Junction Canal; or, A Trip to Paddington.

Faddy O'Rafferty. Regency, l/l2/ll. "New Burletta." Anon. Nicoll: same data; he also lists an evident revival by the Regency, An Irish­ m a n ’s Fortune; or, Paddy O'R. (9/6/30), that he relates to an anon. City Theatre play, The I. F.; or, The Adventures of P. O ’R. (8/22/31)*

The Padlock. Regency, 12/23 /llj Sadler's Wells, 5/lO/l9* "Burletta founded on . . ." (both). A version of Isaac Bickerstaffe's "comic opera" of xhis title (Drury Lane, 1 768), often revived in the nineteenth century.

The Fainter and His Four Daughters. See Venus and Her Hobby.

The Painter's Portrait. See Plots■

The Panel; or, The Secret's Not Mine. Surrey, 9/lV35* "Farcical Burletta.' Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

A Pantomime Proposed. See Harlequin Hoax.

The Partners. Regency, 9/12/2 6. "Burletta." An MS note on the play­ bill relates this play to John Poole’s comedy Simpson & Co. (q. v.), first given at Drury iAne in 1823 and given under Poole's title at the Regency in 1 836. The P . is the title of a Prince Hoare comedy (Haymarket, 1 8 0 5): apparently incidental.

Paul and Virginia. Regency, 5/6/11 and 2/2^/l3. "Burletta founded on ^ (1811); "Musical Piece" (1 8 1 3 ). Probably taken from James Cobb's "musical entertainment" (Covent Garden, l800), but several apparently related burlettas, ballets and musical dramas of this era, both French and English, bear this title. Nicoll lists Cobb's piece and the Regency's anon, burletta (same data), plus ballets at the Iyceuro (lBlO) and Covent Garden (l8l8); LLG (5/31/17) and NMM (7/l/l3) note a musical afterpiece of this name, probably Cobb's, at Drury lane.

Paul Pry; or. I Hope I Don't Intrude. Regency, 9/1S/2 6* "Burletta in 3 Acts. One of a number of "Paul Pry" plays, all apparently copied from John Poole's comedy, P. P . (Haymarket, 1025). Nicoll lists several minor versions in 1026: a burletta for the Surrey by Charles Dibdin. Jr.; an anon. Mr. P. P.; or, I H. I D . I. at the Coburg; a P. F . on Horseback at Astley's; and, in 1627, a farce by Doublas Jerold at the Coburg. LLG (9/17/25) and KMM (IO/1/2 5) review the Haymarket play favorably. No Regency version in Nicoll. 136

Pay Today and Trust Tomorrow. Sadler's Wells, 8/17/20. "Burletta;" later this seascn, Highly Successful Ccmic Burletta." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

A Peculiar Itjsltlon. Regency, 3/13/39* "Mr. J- Ft* Planche’s Burletta in One Act." First given at the Olympic in 1837.

Perseus and Andromeda. See The Deep Deep Sea.

The Phantom of the Chamber; or, The Ghost in Suite of Hiir.self. Regency, 6/ 3 /30* ~ (lBurletta; ” later this season, termed both "Musical Entertainment" and "Burletta." Possibly related to William Thomas Moncrieff's The Spectre Bridegroom (q. v.); otherwise unknown. Title not in Nicoll.

The Phantom Ship. See The Flying Dutchman.

Fhilpot & Co. Sadler's Wells, 9/10/2 7* "Comic Burletta." Anon. Nicoll: same data.

The Pilot. Regency, 9/7/29* "Nautical Burletta." One of the dramatizations of James Fenimore Cooper's novel of this name; the first and most popular was by Edvard Fitzball (Adelphi, 1 8 2 5), with the subtitle A Tale of the Sea. William Bayle Bernard wrote an Identically titled melo-drama for the Coburg in 1626. Nicoll notes these works and a J. B. Buckstone burlesque of them, The P.; or, A Tale of the Thames (Adelphi, 1 6 30 ), but omits the Regency play.

Plzarro; or, The Death of Rolla. Regency, 5/22/15* "Grand Tragic Burletta in Three acts.’ Apparently one of the adaptations of Kotzebue's Die Spanier in Peru; Oder, Hollas Tod (1796). The most famous English version, a likely basis for the Regency play, is Richard Brinsley Sheridan's tragedy, Pizarro (Drury Lane, 1799). Frequently produced; NMM (l/l/2l), reviewing a Drury Lane revival, says "this play, if too warmly admired by the people, is perhaps undervalued by the critics." The version in question was a "melo- drame," No Regency version in Nicoll.

The Plot; or, Head and Blockhead. Regency, 8/22/25* "New Burletta," Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

A Plot in the Dark. See Contrivances.

Plots; or, ^ 0 Painter's Portrait. Surrey, 11/5/35* "Farcical Burletta. apparently related to an earlier anon. Surrey burletta, Plots in Madrid; or. The Painter's Study, given on kf19/2^. These works seem to be based on Charles Kemble's farce, Plot and Counterplot; or, The Portrait of Michael Cervantes (Haymarket, lSoB). Nicoll lists these ana an anon. Plots; or, Hie Portraits of Cervantes (Coburg, I83 I )t but not the 1835 play. 137

The Ploughman Turned Lord. Regency, 9/15/23- "Burletta founded on 'Fortune's Frolic.''From John Till Allingham's farce, F's. F . (Covent Garden, 1799)] given at the Regency in 1621 under Allingham's title (see F's. F .). Nicoll lists no Regency version under either title, hut lias an anon* The P. T. L . at the Royalty (1012), "a version of Allingham's play," and an~apparently related The Frolics of Fortune; or, The Lordly Ploughman, "said to have been ’revived' at the” Lyceum" in 1635* NMM notes the play at the Haymarket in 1630 (IO/1/3 O).

The Poacher. See The Green Gosling.

Poachers and Petticoats. Surrey, 3/l6/kB. "Laughable Burletta in 3 Acts." By C. P. Thompson, first given at the Strand in 1 8 3 6. According to Nicoll, the play was also known as Pheasant Shooting] or, Farmer and Pheasant.

The Poor Gentleman. Regency, 2/2U/13 6/1A/2 7■ "Burletta founded on the comedy of . . ." (1 8 13 ); "Burletta founded on and called ..." (1827). From George Colrnan’s comedy of this name (Covent Garden, l80l). Nicoll lists no Regency version, but has anon, burlettas that he relates to Colman at the Royalty (1012) and Coburg (1 8 3 1 ). LLG notes revivals at Drury lAne on 6/5 /2 4 and 2/23 /2 8.

The Poor Soldier. Regency, 7/Q/H] 2/25/17; 10/20/23. "Burletta from . ^ " (l8Tl); "Musical Burletta" (later). Based on John O'Keeffe's "comic opera" or musical farce (Covent Garden, 1793)> itself rewritten from the author's earlier farce, The Shamrock; or, St. Patrick1 " Day (Crow St., Dublin, 1777)> according to BD and Nicoll. LLG ( V 17/1 9) reviews a "farcical piece on The Poor Soldier" at SW, and (7/5/23) another version at the English Opera House, as well as two Drury Lane productions (9/2 0 /1 8 & 10/19/22). No minor version in Nicoll.

Powder for Peeping. See Curiosity Cured.

The Prince and Joconde; or, The Noble Troubadours. Regency, 6/3 /2^. "Burletta. " Probably based on William Thomas Moncrieff's burletta, Joconde] or, Le Prince Troubadour (Olympic, l6lo). Not in Nicoll. See Love and 1)1 sappolntraent for a later Regency play that may be related.

The Price] or, 2,5,3,8. Regency, 6/7/IO. "New Burletta founded on the incidents of . . . From Prince Hoare's "musical farce' of this name (King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1793). No minor version in Nicoll.

The Proclaimed District. See Martial Lav.

Prometheus and Pandora. See Olympic Revels. 138 The Promissory Note. Sadler’s Wells, 5/?/(3u?)* "Comic Burletta." The undated advertisement lists the performances "on Whit-Monday and during the week." Apparently from Samuel &eazley's "operetta" of this name (English Opera House, 1820), noted there by NMM (fi/l/20) as an operetta "from the French." Nicoll gives Beazley's source as La Lettre de Change; no SW version in Nicoll.

The Prophecy; or, The Giant Spectre. Surrey, 1/6/20. "Grand serio­ comic melo-dramatic Burletta in 3 acts." By Thomas Dibdin for this production: his memoirs give his source as Robert Jephson’s tragedy, The Count of Karbonne (Covent Garden, 17&1)* NMM (8/l/20) reviews the Surrey play as a "tragic Melo-drame" based on "'The Castle of Otranto:*" this is Horace Walpole's 1765 novel that Jephson dramatized for his tragedy.

Proteus; or, How to Gain an Election. Regency, 12/20/19* "Burletta." Unknown. Neither title in Nicoll.

The Purse; or, The Benevolent Tar. Regency, 12/27/2 3 . "Musical Burletta." A version of James cT Cross's one act "musical drama" of this name (Drury Lane and vraymrket, 179*0* Revived at the Regency in 1826 under the subtitle (4. £ )*

P u s s'. Pussil Fuss! I! or, Miss Metamorphosed. Sadler's Wells, 10/29/27* ”New Burletta." Anon. Nicoll; same data.

The Quadrupeds; or, The Manager’s last Kick. Regency, 8/l/l6 and 1 0 / 2 1 / 3 3 " "Burlesque Tragedy" (l8lo); ,jA laughable burlesque Burletta taken from 'The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather'" (1 833 ). The later bill omits the subtitle. The source, also known as Wet Weather, is an anon, burlesque given at the Haymarket in 1797 and IB1 9• LLG (12/20/2 3 ), reviewing an Adelphi production of The Q ., states that Samuel Focte is the authoi’ and that the piece is an equestrian drama. Nicoll lists The Q . only as an anon. Lyceum burlesque of 1811. Both Lyceum references include the Regency's subtitle.

The Quaker. Surrey, k/28/1 9; Q/3/^2; 9/^/^3* "Burletta in two acts founded on Dibdin's ..." (1 8 19); "Dibdin's Burletta" (18^2 ); "Ballad opera" (18U3 ). Based on the elder Charles Dibdin's "comic opera" of this name (Drury Lane, 1777)* LLG notes a revival of "Dibdin's opera" at Covent Garden (10/25/2 8). The later Surrey performances may be the original rather than the 1819 adaptation.

S U B ™ . tine; or, hots of Laughing; or, 3 Horses, 3 Mules and an Ass.

Surrey, " j f 5/22 . "Laughable^ farcical, musical Burletta. " Unknown. None of these titles are in Nicoll.

Quarlcr Day; or, Who Pays the Rent? Regency, U/15/ll. "Burletta interlude. ' Possibly Richard Sicklemore's interlude or ballad-opera of this name, given at Dover ca. 1797. Nicoll lists the anon. Regency 139 work (same data) and an evidently related Q. P.; or, A New Way to Pay Your Rent at the Coburg in 1821.

The Queen's Court. See John Duddlestone.

The Queen's Marriage. Regency, 5/1/U3 . "The elegant and fashion- able Burletta.11 Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

A Queer Guest at a Wedding. See The Intimate Friend.

A Quiet Day. Regency, 2/20/39* "Burletta." By John Oxenford. Nicoll lists the 1837 license copy and several published versions, but no production.

A Race for a Dinner. Sadler's Wells, 7/8/29* "Laughable Burletta" (bill); "Spi rited Burletta" (advertisement, same date). A version of J. Thomas G. Rodwell's farce of this name (Covent Garden, 1828), noted there by LLG ( V 19/2 8). Nicoll lists an SW production, but on 7/19/^; he also relates Rodwell's one act afterpiece to a burletta called No Dinner Yet; or, Sponge out of Town (Adelphi, 1 623 ), also by Rodwell and apparently the original version. This play was given by the Regency in 1835 with the titles reversed: see 5. o. o. T .

Raising the Wind. Regency, U/l/ll and 5/7/ll* "Burletta taken from . . . the popular farce of . . ." (April); "Burletta founded on . . (May). From James Kenney's farce, also called How to Raise the Wind (Covent Garden, 1803 ). Nicoll gives the Regency date as 5/6/II and lists the production as anon., not mentioning Kenney.

The Rake and His Pupil; or, Folly, Love and Marriage. Surrey, 7/7/3*+• "New Burletta in Three Acts." By J* B* Buckstone, first given at the Adelphi in November, 1833*

Rather Too Bad. Surrey, 1/29/1 9. "Favorite Burletta." By Thomas Dibdin, first performed on 5/11/1 8. Also see All Her Own Way, a later rewriting of this play by Dibdin.

The Recruiting Sergeant. Sadler's Wells, (undated advertisement, 1803); Surrey, 5/21/1 9. "Favorite Burletta . . . music by Mr, Dibdin" (SW); "Comic Burletta in 2 Acts" (Surrey). From Isaac Bickerstaffe's "musical entertainment" of this name, with music by the elder Charles Dibdin (Ranleigh House, 1770). The Surrey adaptation is spelled "Serjeant." No minor version in Nicoll.

Red Riding Hood; or, The Wolf of the Forest of Arden. Surrey, 3 /8/1 9; Sadler's Wells^ 9 / 1 9 / "Favorite Burletta" (both). By Thomas Dibdin; his memoirs say that it is adapted "from the French." First given at the Surrey on Q/2b/lQ. For other productions, see The W. of the F. of A. The Fed Rover; or, 'Hie Mutiny of the Caroline. Sadler's Wells, (undated advertisement, 1629*5* "Nautical Burletta written by Ft. T. Weaver." One of the dramatizations of James Fenimore Cooper's novel of this title; Edward Fitzball did another for the Adelphi in 1829, and the Surrey produced an anon, play the same year based on Cooper's novel. Nicoll lists the SW production, supplying the date of 3 /2/ 2 9; other data the same.

Reformation; or Equivocal Appearances. Regency, l/l/30. "New Burletta in 1 act." Possibly based on an "interlude" of this title by a Mr. Pulham (Covent Garden, 1 8 1 5). Nicoll lists the Regency burletta, giving the date as l/lh/3 0 .

The Regatta. Surrey, 5/3/19* "Burletta founded on Dibdin's Burletta farce of the Waterman ." From Charles Dibdin's ballad opera, The Vfaterman; or, The First of August (q. v.), later given at the Surrey under its own t j tie. LLG (9/20/17) notes The R . at the Surrey as a new piece during the I816-I7 season. Nicoll’s listing is titled Tom Tug; or, The Regatta, with a Surrey date of 9/1V 1 6.

Reuben Apslcy; or, The Lost Son. Regency, 12/18/3 2 . "Serio-comic domestic Burletta in 2 Acts. Unknown; evidently not related to J. B. Bucks tone's Luke the laborer, which has the same subtitle. The title is not in Nicoll, but his listing of an anon, melodrama, The Lost Son (Olympic, I83 I), may be related to this play, or to Buckstone's.

The Review; or, The Wags of Windsor. Regency, lo/2 6/ll; I7P272^-T7l972F: "Burletta from . . ." (l8ll )> "Musical Burletta" (others). The l8ll playbill omits the subtitle. Based on George Colman' s "comic opera" of this name (Haymarket, 1800). Colman's subtitle is The Ways of W. . No Regency version in Nicoll; he lists two anon, burlettas, The W. of W . (Royalty, l8lO), and one with the Regency title and subtitle (St. Janies * s, 1837).

The Revolt of the Seraglio. Surrey, 3 /5/3 ^; Sadler's Wells, 3 /7/3 8 . New extravaganza Burletta by Moncrieff" (Surrey); "Comic Extravaganza Burletta . . . by Moncrieff" (SW). By William Thomas Moncrieff, for the Surrey. Nicoll gives the Surrey title as The R. of the S. on the Other Side of the Pole, with the date of 2/26/3**; he omits the SW production.

Ki chord TIT: or. The Buttle of Bosworth Field. Sadler's Wells, 3/V/31* "Burletta foui ded on and called ..." An adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Not in Nicoll, but he lists an anon. Battle of Ft. F; or, The life and Death of King R. IXX at the Coburg in 1 8 2 7. ------Ihl

The Riding Coat; or, Bond Street Loungers Outwitted. Regency, VlO/15 and i?/ll/l5. "Musical Burletta taken lrom the farce Intrigue" (April); "f.'ev Burletta written expressly for this theatre" (December). The later playbill omits the subtitle. Apparently based on John Poole's Intrigue (q. v .). Neither Regency title is in Nicoll.

Right of Common. See Ky Wife and Freehold.

Hie Ping; or, The Benevolent Jew. Regency, 12/13/27* "Burletta." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

Hie Ringdoves. Regency, 2/15/39- "Mr. Charles Mathews' Burletta." First given at the Olympic in 1637 &s The Ring-Doves. In 1 act.

The Rivals. Regency, 6/l0/2*t. "Burletta founded on Sheridan's . . . comedy of . . Based on Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play of this name (Covent Garden, 177b). No minor version in Nicoll.

Rob Roy. Regency, IO/19/2I and 9/21/3 6 - "Musical Burletta" (l82l); "Burletta" (IS3 6 ). One of the numerous dramatizations of Sir Walter Scott's 1817 novel of this name. The best known was Isaac Pocock's R. R. fee Gregor (Covent Garden, l8l8), reviewed there by LLG (3/lVl8). Nicoll lists no Regency version. Anon.

The Robbers of the Mill. See The Secret Banditti.

Robert IcGranoe. Regency, 5/?/^7- "A national Eurletta of the French revolution." Apparently Charles Webb's drama, subtitled The Night of the French Revolution (SW, 16^3).

Rochester; or. King Charles the Second's Merry Pays. Regency, 10/10/20. ftBurletta . . . for the first time." Ey William Tnomas Moncrieff, for the Olympic in l8l8. The playbill refers to the first Regency perform­ ance. Richardson's 1828 edition of the play cells it "the first original piece produced on the Minor stage, claiming any pretentions to the rank of a regular drama," oecause it was written In prose. LLG (2/27/1 9) reviews the Olympic production; in a later review of a different "Charles II" play at Covent Garden, LLG gives Duval's La Jeunesse d'Henri IV as the source of both Moncrieff's play and the patent house work by John Payne (LLG, 5/29/2^).

A Roland for an Oliver. Surrey, II/2/3 C; Regency, V 23 /3 5 . "Laughable Burletta" ^Surrey); T'Burletta" (Regency). Hiken from Thomas Morton's farce of this name (Covent Garden, 1 8 19), itself based on Scribe's Une Vistc A Bedlam (Paris, l8l8). LLG reviews the Covent Garden premiere as 'a very clever and laughable farce . . . with some music" (5/l/l9); alro LLG notes productions at the same theatre in 1823 (ll/l5/23) and at the Richmond Theatre in 1832 (8/11/3 2 ). Nicoll adds an 1819 Last Iondon (Royalty) version, but omits the Surrey and Regency productions. The Romp. Regency, 3/l0/l2. "Burletta taken from . . . the farce of ..." Apparently based on the "operatic farce" of this name by a Mr. Lloyd (Covent Garden, 17?8), which was an abridgement of Isaac Blckerstaffe's opera, Love in the City (Covent Garden, 1 7 6 7). TJMM ( H / l / 1 7) notes a farce called The Romp at Drury Lane, also listed by Nicoll: this may be the same work.

The Romp Reclaimed■ See All Her Own Uay.

Rookwood. See The Gypsy Heir of Rookwood.

The Rope ladder; or. Dissipation, Desperation and Starvation. Regency, 3/23/21;, New comic Burletta in 1 act." Nicoll lists an anon, burletta with this title and subtitle at the Coburg in 1622: probably the Regency's source. Also see The Mistakes of a Night for an apparently related SW play of 182U.

Bosina. Regency, "Burletta founded on the plot, incidents and diction of . , ." Based on William Shield's comic opera of this name (Covent Garden, 1 7 8 2), taken from Favart's bes Moissoneurs (Paris, 1 7 6 8). The opera is in two acts.

The Round Tower Inn. See The Murderers.

The Rout; or, Hirh Life Belov Stairs. Regency, h/2’j/2k + "Burletta in Two Acts.’’ Based on James Townley's 2 act farce, H. L. B. S. (Drury Lane, 1759)* For another adaptation, see Kitchen Frolics; for a later Regency production, see H. L. B. S. TrTe 182I title is not in Nicoll.

The Sailor's Legacy. See The Family Picture.

School for Scandal. Regency, II/25/2 2 . "Burletta from ..." Based on Ricliard Brinsley Sheridan's famous comedy (Drury Lane, 1777)* No minor version In Nicoll.

School of Reform; or, Horw to Rule a Husband. Regency, 5/ll/2k. Burletta in 3 acts founded on and called ..." a version of Thomas Morton's comedy of this name (Covent Garden, 1805). No minor production in Nicoll.

Scraps: or, Tie Village Theatre. Surrey, I/I+/1 9. "Comic Burletta in one uci. y ihonus Dibdin; his memoirs call the piece S.; or, Black Spirits and White; the subtitle Is the name cf another Dibdin piece for SW, apparently rewritten from Scraps (See B. S. & W.). Dibdin gives the Surrey date as 12/26/1 8; Nicoll's date for the same production is lO/ly/1 8. Nicoll also lists a Scraps; or, Fun for the Gallery by Dibdin at SW, IO/5/2O, that he relates to the Surrey piece in addition to the later B- S. & W. lU3

The Seaman's Toast. Regency, 9/15/26. "Burletta in 3 Acts." Unknown. An MS. note on the playbill relates the play to one called Sweethearts and Lovers, alsc unknown. Neither title is in Nicoll.

The Secret; or, The Haunted Chamber. Regency, l/6/2l+ an

The Secret Banditti; or, The Robbers of the Mill. Regency, I4/15/I5 and I/I6/1 6. "Grand Dramatic Burletta romance founded on The Miller and His Men" (1&15); "Romantic Melo-dramatical Burletta" (l8l6). The later listing emits the subtitle. One of many versions of Isaac Pocock's popular melodrama, first given at Covent Garden in l3l3*

The Secret Discovered. See Masonry.

The Secret's Not Mine. See The Panel.

The Secretary and the Cook. Regency, ^fh/2h and IO/25/2 6. "New Burletta" (I828 ); "Burletta translated from the French" (1 8 26). Evidently from Scribe's Le Secretaire et le Culsinler (Paris, l82l). Not in Nicoll, but probably related to his listing of an anon. Coburg burletta of the same name in 1821. Nicoll does not note the source.

The Selfish, Simple and Sensible. See The Three Hunchbacked Brothers.

The Seraglio; or, The Man with 100 Wives. Regency, 6/8/2U. "Persian Burletta.' One of the many works on this subject, possibly taken from Charles Dibdin's The S. (Covent Garden, 1776), a comic opera. The Regency play iB not in Nicoll.

Seventy and Seventeen. Regency, 6/17/3 9 . "Burletta." Apparently from the "operatic farce'1 of this name, attributed to Charles Dance (in the Chamberlain's collection for the Haymarket, 1 8 37)*

ShaKespeare's Early Days; or, Stratford on Avon in 1585. Regency, 11/12/15 . t!:,’ev Burletta in 2 acts. " By Charles A* Somerset, given at Covent Carden in 1&29 without the subtitle. Reviewed by LLG (6/19/3 0 ), which states that the play ran for eleven nights at Covent Garden.

She Is Cured; or, Hunger Does Wonders. Regency, 8/15/2 5. "Burletta." Unknown; neither title is In Nicoll.

She Stoops to Conquer. Regency, 12/30 /2 2 . "Burletta founded on . . From Oliver Goldsmith's comedy (Covent Garden, 1773). No burletta version in Nicoll. 1 M

Shot at a Pigeon and Killed a Crow. See A Trip to Margate.

Simpson & Co. Regency, IO/3 /3 6 . "Burletta." From John Poole's "petite comedy" of this name (Drury Lane, 1 8 2 3 ), reviewed by LLG (l/ll/23) at Drury Lane, and (1/17/2*0 at Covent Garden. Nicoll omits the Regency version, but has an anon, burletta of this name in the Chamberlain's collection, 1 8 3 9. For an earlier Regency production under a different title, see The Partners.

Sir Launcelot Greaves; or, The Humours of Timothy Crabshaw. Sadler's Wells, 5/22/2 6. "T. Dibdin's celebrated Burletta." By Thomas Dibdin, evidently based on Tobias Smollett's novel "Sir L. G." (1760-62). First produced at the Surrey in 1 8 18: reviewed then by LLG (3/28/18) as '*a very good burletta." Nicoll gives the title as Sir L. Graves, apparently an error, with the Surrey date of 3 /23 /1 8.

Sir Roger de Coverley. Surrey, l/io/yj. "Burletta." By John Frederick Smith, written for the Adelphi in 1 8 3 6. Apparently based on Addison's sketcnes of the mythical Sir R. de C. in the Spectator; a number of plays of this ere. were built around this character.

The Sisters Three. See Family Peculiarities.

Sketches in India. Regency, 8/30/h7. "Burletta." Anon. Nicoll has no such Regency work, but lists anon, "entertainments" of this name at SW (l8h6) and the Strand (185*4 ): probably related.

The Sketch-book; or, A Touch at the Times. Regency, ll/n/22. "New comic Burletta in 3 acts. Noted briefly by LLG (ll/l6/22) at the Regency. Not in Nicoll; possibly related to Robert Jameson's A T. at the T . (Covent Garden, 1812); or to Washington Irving's 1820 "Sketch-book."

The Slave Merchant. See The Indian Maid.

The Sleep Walker; or, wrhich Is the Lady. Regency, 6/2 6 /1 6 and 5/3 /2 5. ** Burletta" (lolb'); "Burletta founded on and called ..." (l825). Based on Walley C. Oulton's farce for the Kaymarket, first given in l8l2. NMM (l0/l/l6) reviews a Covent Garden revival of this "humourous afterpiece" contemporary with the Regency production on l8l6. The earlier Regency playbill omits the subtitle.

The Sleeping Draught. See Love and Laudanum.

Small Profits Do Great Things. Surrey, 12/27/1 9. "New Burletta in two acts." By Thomas Dibdin, for this production. Nicoll: same data.

The Smoked Miser; or. The Benefit of Hanging. Sadler’s Veils, b/23/23. "New Comic Burletta in 1 act." Later termed "laughable Interlude." By Douglas Jerrold, for SW. Nicoll lists the piece lh5

twice: e l s an "interlude" by Jerrold without the subtitle (SW, June 1623); and as an anon, burletta, The Miser Smoked; or, The B. of H . (SW, 6/23/23)* He does not relate the two.

The Soldier's Daughter. Regency, 3/2l/l2; 10/31/22; l/l9/2*+. "Burletta founded on . . . the comedy of . . . " (1812 & -2^t); ''Burletta in 3 Acts" (1822). From Andrew Cherry's comedy of this name {Drury Lane, l6oh); LLG notes revivals there on 11/9/22 and 9/29/32. No minor version in Nicoll.

TTie Soldier's Triumph; or, The Clown's Defeat. Regency, 12/l0/l0. "New Burletta interlude.'1 On 12/lti/10, "Musical Piece in lAct." Unknown. Neither title in Nicoll.

Solon. Regency, 9/12/2 6. "New Burletta." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

Somebody in the House with Dinah; or, The Niggers' Ball. Regency, 6/2/^7. "New and original operatic Ethiopian Burletta." Anon. Nicoll lists only the Regency license copy of this in the Chamberlain’s collection, 5/27?**7, titled Somebody1 s in the H. w. P.; or, The Invitation to the Nigger Ball.

The Son of the Sun; or, The Fate of Fha't-on. Regency, 2/8-17/3^* "New grand classical, satirical, musical, mythological, and whimsical Burlesque Burletta." By Gilbert Abbott & Beckett, for the Regency. Noted by LLG (3 /1/3*0 there, under the subtitle. Nicoll: same data, giving the dates as 2/8-15/3 ^.

The Spanish Barber. Regency, 9/19/3 6 . "Burletta with the original music by Mozart." Apparently based on The Marriage of Figaro, but later the same season, the Regency featured The Barber of Seville, which may be the same production retitled. The title is that of the elder Colmar.'s translation of Beaumarchais' play (Haymarket, 1777) with music by Samuel Arnold.

The Spare Bed. Regency, 9/6/3 6 . "Burletta in two acts." Evidently the farce by Frederick Fox Cooper, first given at the Surrey in 1833 with the subtitle, The Shower Bath.

Sparks in the Pork. See The T inder box.

The Spectre Bridegroom; or, A Ghost in Pnlte of Himself. Sad1e r * s Veils, o/i0 / 10. "Farcical Burletta." from William Thomas Moncrieff's farce of this name for Drury Lane, 1821; reviewed there by LLG (7/20/21), NMM (8/l/?l) and European Magazine (7/21). LLG stated that "it possessed very little raeri ^ . . . though considerable applause was bestowed upon it.” According to Rep., Moncrieff's source was Washington Irving's "Sketch-book" (1820"). For a possibly related burletta, see The Phan ton: of the Chamber. Iks

A Spectre on Horseback. See Don Giovanni.

Speed the Plough. Regency, 5/26/12 and 1/7/23- "Burletta founded on the comedy of . . ." (1&12); "Burletta founded on . . ."(1 8 2 3 ). Based on Thomas Morton's comedy of this name (Covent Garden, 1800), or on Charles Dibdin Jr.’s musical version of It (SW, l802). LLG notes revivals of Morton's play at Covent Garden (IO/5/2 2 ) and the English Opera House (9/10/2 5)- No Regency version in Nicoll.

The Spirit of the Are. Regency, 10/ 10/ 3 6 . "New and Original Burletta." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

The Spitalficlds Weaver. Sadler's Veils, 3/13/39 and l?/l/4l. "Laughable Burletta" {T8 3 9); "Laughable Burletta by Thos. Haynes Bayly” (l84l). First produced at the St. James's, 1838. In one act.

Suite of His Teeth. Regency, (in rehearsal 1/26/2 9)- "Burletta." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

The Spoiled Child. Regency, 1/23/15 and 9/13/24; Surrey, ll/20/28 and 7/8/30. "Burletta founded on ar.d called ..." (Regency, 1815); "Burletta" (1624 and 1 8 3 0 ); "Laughable Burletta" (Surrey, 1828). The later Regency listing is titled The froil'd C . From Isaac Bicker- staffe's farce, The Spoil'd Child (brury Lane, 1790)• LLG notes productions at Drury Lane (12/7/22) and the English Opera House (7/?0/?? and 7/9/25). Both 1822 productions starred Clara Fisher, a child wonder, as "Little Pickle." Nicoll lists the original production and a burletta version at the St. James's in 1 8 3 6. For an earlier Surrey version, see Little Pickle.

Spoll’d Children; or, The Manager’s Night. Surrey, 9/22/19; Sadler's Wells, 6/13 /2 5* Farcical Burletta in 1 Act" (Surrey); "Comic Burletta" (SW). The SW version has a different subtitle, Tag, Wat and Prissy. Ely Thomas Dibdin: his memoirs state that he wrote the piece for his Surrey benefit in l8l9- -Nicoll gives the Surrey date as IO/2/19.

Sponge Out of Town; or. No Dinner Yet. Regency, 3/23/35- "Burletta." By J. Thomas G. Fodwell, written for the Adelphi in l6?3 (with the titles reversed). Noted at the Adelphi by NMM (H/l/2 5) as N. D. Y . The same play was later called A Race for a Dinner: see this title for other productions.

The Spouting Butler. See All the World's a Stage.

The Spread Eale; or. The Traveller a nd His Host. Sadler's Wells, 1/16/26. "New Burletta founded on an historical anecdote . . . 2 acts." Nicoll: same data. By Thomas Dibdin: his memoirs say the play is "founded on an anecdote of Voltaire and Frederick the Great of Prussia." Apparently based on Dibdin's earlier turlotta for the Surrey, Frederick and Voltaire (<^. v.). lVf

The Stage Struck Apothecary. Sadler's Wells, l/l/27* "Comic Burletta." Anon. Same data in Nicoll.

The Stage Struck Lady. Surrey, 10/4/l9. "Comic Burletta." Anon. Nicoll: same data.

Stop Thief; or, Freaks in a Forest. Sadler's Wells, 6/ll/27- "New Comic Burletta.'1 Apparently taken from Thomas Dibdin's burletta for the Surrey (g/l/20), S. T.; or, The Horrors of the F ., reviewed by NMM (l0/l/20), in which a rube mistakes a strolling company for a robber band. The SW play is not in Nicoll.

The Stranger; or. Misanthropy and Repentance. Regency, l/6/l6. "Burletta in 3 Acts." One of a number of English versions of Kotzebue's comedy, Menschn.nhass und Reue (1 7 6 9), of which Benjamin Thompson's (Drury Lane, 1798) was the most popular. Nicoll lists an 1812 Royalty burletta that he relates to Thompson’s play; he omits the Regency version.

Stratford on Avon in 1 5 8 5. See Shakespeare's Early Days.

The Striking Beauty. Regency, IO/3 /3 6 . "Burletta." Earlier in the season, termed a Sketch." Anon. Nicoll's date (for the "sketch") is 8/1/ 3 6 .

The Student; or, Love, War, Physic and Latin. Surrey, 8/25/2 3 . "Broad farcical Burletta written by the author of Fdward the Black Prince, Guy Fawkes, & Winning a Husband." By George MacFarren, who vrote the plays mentioned. Nicoll lists the Surrey play as anon.; his date is 8/26/23-

The Student's Supper. See Who's to Pay Me?

Supper at Winchester; or, The Deaf Traveller. Regency, 2/21/2 6. Comic BurleLta." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

Sweethearting; or, The Clown and the Captain. Sadler's Wells, 8/13 /2 7. "New favorite Burletta written by Mr. T. Dibdin." Nicoll lists this as two separate SW burlettas: an anon. S., 7/26/2 7, and Thomas Dibdin's The C. and the C., 8/^/27-

The Swiss Cottage. Regency, 3/29/^3- "Mr. Haynes Bayly's Burletta." Written by Tncmas Haynes Bayly for the Olympic in IB3 5 ; originally titled Why Don't Che Marry? Published in the lacy series with both titles: The S. C.; or, W. Didn't S. M . A one act afterpiece.

Tag, Wat and Prissy. See Spoil'd Children.

Tame Tigers; or, No Harm Done. Regency, h/6/35. "New Burletta in one act." By Charles Dance, for this production. Nicoll gives the 1^8

date as li/9/35 - He also lists a possibly related Tame Tigers in the Chamberlain's plays cf 1836, for the Olympic.

The Taming of the Shrew. Regency, 9/23 /2 2 . "Burletta founded on Shakespeare." Nicoll lists no minor version, but has an anon. "operatic farce” of this name at Drury lane in 1828.

Tarnation Strange; or, More Jonathans. Surrey, 3 /17/^8* "Original and peculiar Anglo-American Burletta of National humour, characteristics and singularities by the author of . . . Tom & Jerry." By William Thomas Moncrieff, written for the Strand in 1838. Moncrieff wrote one of the most popular "Tom and Jerry" plays.

Teddy the Tiler. Regency, IO/3 /3 6 . "Burletta." Based on George Herbert Rodwell's farce of this name, given at Covent Garden in 1830, Reviewed there by NMM (3/l/30) as a "short, broad, unctuous farce." The original is Pierre le Couvrcur, according to Nicoll. He lists no Regency production, but has an SW burletta of this name in 1830 .

A Ten Years' Blunder. Surrey, 2/2/2I+. "Laughable Burletta." Some data in Nicoll. Possibly based on "alley C. Oulton's farce, Botheration; or, A T. Y. B. (Covent Garden, 1798).

The Terror of the Seas. See The Brown Fiend.

Three and the Deuce. Regency, 2/17/1 2 . "Burletta founded on . , . the comic drama of . . ." A version of Prince Hoare's "comic drama" of this name (llaymarket, 1795). BD states that the plot of Hoare's play is "borrowed from the French."

Three Days at Hatchett's. See The Exeter Mall.

The Three Girdles or Three Enchanted Girdles. See The Enchanted Girdles.

The Three Graces. Surrey, 9/lV^3* "New classical and comical musical and mythological burlesque Burletta in 2 acts . . . by permission of J. M. Maddox and G. A. a'Beckett." By Gilbert A. a Beckett, first given at the Princess's (then managed by Maddox) on **/iY/^3• No Surrey production in Nicoll.

Three Horses, Three Mules and an Ass. See Quarantine.

The Three Hunchbacked Brothers; or, The Selfish, Simple and Sensible. Sadler's Wells, S/V 39* 'Farcical Burletta . . . by permission of J. Cumberland." Apparently related to Edvard Fitzball's The Three Hunchbacks, in the Lord Chamberlain's collection for Edinburgh, 1826 and performed at the Strand in I8U7. The play was published in John Cumberland's Minor Theatre series; Nicoll lists this ar.d an undated Surrey Acting edition, but only the Strand production. 11*9

The Three Fair of Lovers. Regency, 9/2**/23* "Burletta in 1 Act." See The Fidnight Meeting for an earlier Regency production and further data. Not in Mlcoll.

The Three Spectres. Regency, 7/7/31* "New Burletta in 1 Act." Anon. Same data in Nicoll. Possibly related to the following entry.

The Three Bnectres of the Castle of St. Valori. Regency, 5/12/1*2. ^Melo-dramatic Burletta by T. Dibdin." Thomas Dibdin1 s burletta, The Han and the Marquis (q. v.), played under its subtitle of The 3 Si * ■ ■

Three Times Three; or, Boys, Girls and Guardians. Surrey, 6/12/20. Comic Burletta. By Thomas Dibdin, for the l8l6 Surrey season; reviewed by LLG (9/20/l7). For related plays, see Girls, Boys and Guardians, The Midnight Meeting and The Three Pair of Lovers.

The Three Vampires; or, The Llrht of the Moon. Regency, 10/7/20. "New Burletta in 1 act." Probably related to an anon. Coburg burletta of 1823, The 3 or » Maids Beware of Moonshine. Not in Nicoll.

Three Weeks After ferriage. Regency, 12/23/2?, "Burletta founded on . . ." From Arthur Kurphy1 s farce of this name (Covcnt Garden, 1776), which BD cays "if no other than the What We Must All Come To of the same author, with a new title." The earlier title was used for a Covent Garden production in 1761*. NMM (9/l/20) notes a Drury Lane revival under the later title. Nicoll lists no Regency version, but has an anon. Surrey burletta of the same name in 1812. Also see W . W . M. A . C . T . for an 1&22 Surrey production.

The Tinder Box; or, Sparks in the Dark. Sadler's Wells, 5/ 18/2 3 . New Burletta . - . written by W. R. Esq." Nicoll lists the play as anon., with the SW date of 5/19/2 3 . "W. R." could be William Leman Rede, although no such play by him is known.

Tom and Jerry. Sadler's Wells, !/?/22. ."New Burletta written exclusively for this theatre by Pierce Egan, author of 'Life in London.'" Pierce Egan's dramatization of his sketches of London life; for other versions, see the following entries. The listing is from an incompletely dated advertisement. Nicoll's listing of the production is also imprecise: "Easter, 1822."

Tom and .Terry: or, All Ports of Life in London. Surrey, 12/1 9-20/3 6 . "Moncrieff' s Operatic Extravaganza'1 (19th); "Musical Burletta" (20th). William 0"nomas Msncrieff's dramatization of Pierce Egan's sketches (see the previous entry); first given at the Adelphi in 1821 with the subtitle Life in Tondon. Also see the following entry. This Surrey production featured Egan himself as "Logic." 150

Tom, Logic and Jerry; or, Life as It Is. Regency, U/15/2 2 . "New Serio, Comico, Operatico, Fantoinimico, Classic, Domestic, Terpsi- choric, Localic, Aristophanic, Extravaganza Burletta in Three Acts." Another play based on Pierce Egan's "Life in London," possibly taken from Charles Dibdin Jr's. Life in London; or, The Day and Wight Adventures of Logie, Tom and Jerry (Olympic, 1 8 2 1 ) . Not in Nicoll, who lists other minor versions at the Royalty, Coburg, and some provincial theatres. In 1822, Davis's Amphitheatre (Astley's) staged an equestrian version.

Tom Thumb the Great. Regency, U/lO/23; 5/5 & 10/25; 9/^6/31- l?Burletta founded on Fielding’s . . ." (1 8 23 ); "Burletta" (5/5/25); "Burlesque Extravaganza" (5/IO/2 5); "Tragic Burletta" (1 8 3 1 ). The last playbill gives the title simply as Tom Thumb. Evidently Kane O'Hara's T. T. (Covent Garden, 1 7 8 0), a burletta version of Henry Fielding's T. T. the G . (Haymarket, 1730)* Frequently performed by both majors and minors during this era.

The Tomboy. Regency, l/28/ll. "Burletta taken from Love in a City . . . never performed." Apparently based on Isaac Bickerstaffe's comic opera, L. in the C . (Covent Garden, 1 7 6 7). Nicoll lists the anon. Regency burletta as The Tom Boy, giving the date of l/26/ll as the third performance. Nicoll does not note the source.

Too Late for Dinner. Regency, 9/29/3 6 * "Burletta." Apparently taken from the farce of this name by Richard Jones (Covent Garden, 1820) which LLG first (2/26/2 0 ) attributed to "Mr. Theodore Hooke," later (3/V20) correcting itself and naming "Mr. Jones" as author. NMM (^/l/20) states that the farce is "altered from the French." Nicoll lists no Regency version, but notes an anon, operatic farce of this name at SW in 18L1+. pn i8i+6, the play was published as Ins and Outs; or, A Little too Late.

A Touch at the Times. See The Sketch-Book.

A Tour in Hibernia. See Florence Macarthv.

Tragedy on All Fours; or, The Cross-Legged Horses. Sadler's Wells, 7/12/20. "Burletta in two acts." Unknown. Not”in Nicoll.

The Traveller and His Host. See The Spread Eagle.

A Traveller in Spite of Himself. See The Night Errand

Treacle and Mustard; or, My Aunt's Traredy. Regency, 5/1 1 /2 5. "New Burletta written by the author of Guy Fawkes &c ." Ftossibly by George MacFarren, who wrote a C. F . play for the Coburg in 1822; according to Niccli, the Regency burlexta was first given at the Coburg in 1820. Nicoll's listing for the Coburg is anon.; he notes no Regency version. There were other G. F. plays, most of them later. 151

The Trials of Poverty. See The hove Gift.

Tricked at last. See Girls, Boys and Guardians.

Tricks and Blunders; or, Which Is My Son? Regency, 9/l6/22. wBurletta in 2 actc." Nicoll: same data, except he has the play as an anon, farce. Nicoll also notes two burletta productions entitled T. & P.; or, English, Irish and Scotch that may be related (Coburg, 1823 and Olympic, 1625); he attributes the 1825 play to a J. Dobbs.

A Trip to Blackheath; or, The Gig Upset. Regency, 10/27/23 and 5/19/25. "Comic Burletta" (lo235; "burletta" (1825). The later play­ bill omits the subtitle. Anon. Not in Nicoll, but his listing of an anon. Coburg burletta of 1829, Past Four O ’clock; or A T. to B., may be related.

A Trip to Dover. Regency, 12/1 2 /2 6 and 5/29/2 7* "Burletta" (both). Given earlier at the Regency as Ways and Means; or, A T. to D . (q. v .). Based on George Colman's comedy of this (fuller) title (Havmarket, 1 7 8 8).

A Trip to Margate; or, Shot at a Pigeon and Killed a Crow. Regency, 5/ 1/2 7* "Comic burletta in 2 acts." Unknown. Nicoll lists A T. to M . only as the subtitle of an 1885 farce.

Turn Out. Regency, 5/8/32* "Burletta." Apparently based on James Kenney's "operatic farce," Turn Him Out (Lyceum, l8l2). For an 1813 Regency production of this play under another title, see The Fnrag'd Politician, "founded on the new farce Turn Out." The Regency titles are not in Nicoll.

The Turnpike Gate. Regency, 7/16/1O; 10/6/23; 3/l/25* "Burletta, as performed at the Royalty . . . adapted for . . . this stage by G* Male" (l8lO); "Burletta" (later). Based on Thomas Knight's "musical entertainment" of this name (Covent Garden, 1799), noted by LLG at the English Opera House (7/6/22) and Drury Lane (IO/25/2 3 ). Nicoll lists no minor version, nor any play of this name by G. Male; he does list other works by that author.

Turpin's Ride to York. Surrey, 9/16/Ul. "Favorite Burletta spectacle arranged by M. Ducrow from the novel of 'Lockwood.'" By Andrew Duerev, irom William Harrison Ainsworth's novel, "Rookwood" (not "Lockwood"). Not in Nicoll. For productions of other "Rookwood" plays and information on Nicoll1s listing of a different version of the novel at the Surrey, see The Gypsy Heir of Rookwood.

Twelve Precisely. Regency, 1/29/2 1 . "comic Burletta," Ry H. M. Milner, first given at the Olympic on i/l/21 with the subtitle, A Wight at Dover. Nicoll lists this production and one at the Haymarket in 1622, but no Regency performance. 152

Twice Killed- Regency 3 /28/2 9. "Burletta by Mr. Oxford." By John Oxenford, written for the Olympic in 1835- I*1 one act.

The Twins: Paul and Philip. Regency, 1/ 21/3 6 . "New Comic Burletta." Written by George Dibdin Pitt for this production. Nicoll* same data •

The Two Ghosts; or, Intrigues at Madrid. Regency, 2/ 15/2 5. "Comic Burletta in 1 Act." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

The Two Gregoriec; or, Where Did the Money Come From? Surrey, 5/2 6 /2 1 7 Regency, 10/i/£k; 2/9/29; 6/20/1*7; Sadler's Wells, 3 /7/3 1 . "Hew Burletta" (Surrey); "Burletta in 1 act" (Regency, l62h & SW); "Burletta" (Regency, 1 6 2 9); "Musical Burletta" (Regency, I8U7 )• By Thomas Dibdin, first given at the Surrey on V 23 /2I; an adaptation of Jocrisce Valet et Jocrisse Maitre. In one act. Nicoll lists the Surrey premiere and an iol6 Drury Lane production; NMM (6/l/2.l) reviews the premiere as "a short and sprightly farce." Note: the SW and first Regency playbills omit the subtitle.

Two Masters Better than One. See English Plum Pudding.

The Two Smiths. Regency, (in rehearsal 3/27/35)* "New Burletta in 1 act." Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

Uncle Jonathan; or, Independence. Sadler's Wells, 9/2^/27• "New dramatic improbability written by Mr. T. Dibdin in the form of a Burletta." Later, "New Burletta." By Thomas Dibdin, for this production. Nicoll lists this play as anon,, with the same date, etc.

An Uncle Too Many. Sadler’s Wells, -H/19/29. "Comic Burletta written by J. Thompson . . . Royal Brunswick Theatre." By James Thompson, first given at the Brunswick in 1828,

Under the Rose. See The Great Gentleman in the Little Parlour.

The Vaults of St. Cosmo. See Who's Afraid.

Venice Preserved. Regency, 12/20/22. "Burletta founded on . . ." A version of Thomas Otway's V. P.; or, A Plot Discovered (1682). Nicoll lists no Regency version, but has an anon, burletta at the East London (Royalty) in 1S17 with Otway's title & subtitle.

Venus & Her Hobby; or, The Painter and His Four Daughters. Regency, 5/30/39- "New Burletta in 1 Act." Later, "New Burlesque." Unknown, Not in Nicoll.

The Vicar of Wakefield. Surrey, 8/2L/1 9. "Popular Burletta in 3 acts founded on Dr. Goldsmith’s novel..” Thomas Dibdin’s dramatization of Oliver Goldsmith's "V. of W.," first given at the Surrey on 8/25/1 7. 153

According to the 1817 Surrey acting edition, the piece was rewritten from an onera version by Charles and Thomas Dibdin, written for the patent houses but rejected ca. 1802. LLG reviews the Surrey production (7/25/1 8) and one at the ffaymarket (IO/V2 3 ), calling the latter "a very tiresome drama" in which "a super-abundance of singing . . . was intolerable."

Victorine; or, "1*11 Sleep on It." Surrey, 6/9/3^* "New and peculiar Burletta partly from the French." Ity J. B- Buckstone, first given at the Adelphi in 1 8 3 1 . The French source is unknown. In 3 acts.

The Village Doctor; or, Who's the Inroostor. Regency, l/27/l7 and II/I6/2 6. "Burletta" (1817); "Burletta . . . first time these 5 years" (1826). The later playbill has the subtitle as Double Imposture. Evidently taken from John Poole's farce, The V. P.; or, The D. I. (Drury Lane, 1815).

The Village F^te. Regency, h/2J>/lO. "New pastoral Burletta Founded on the Plot, Incidents & Diction of Love in a Villace." From Isaac Bickerstaffe's opera (Covent Garden, 1762); according to Raymond's memoirs of Elliston (see Bibliog.), this Regency piece "was in fact the opera itself . . . word for word, with the interruption only of a discordant note occasionally, on the pianoforte." Both Nicoll and BD list the Regency production (same data).

The Village Lawyer. Regency, 12/l0/l9- "Bui uetta." Revived 5" 1826 and 1627 as a Farcetta" or "Interlude." Apparently based on the farce of this name ascribed to William Macready (Haymarket, 1787), that BD calls "a laughable farce of French origin . . . performed at all the London and most of the Provincial theatres" whose author, "a dissenting minister in Dublin . . . did not choose to avow it." Macready is listed as the author in a pirated edition of 1795- Nicoll gives the play's French source as L'Avocat Datelin by Erueys (Paris, 1 7 06).

The Village Theatre. See Scraps.

A Visit to London. See The Hibernians.

The Volunteers. Regency, 3/2^/35* "New military Burletta." By Thomas Haynes Bayly, for this production. Nicoll: same data.

The Wager lost; or. The Clock Has Struck. Regency, 1/25/2 1 . "Burletta." An MS note on the playbill relates this piece to Elizabeth Inchbald1s farce, The Midnight Hour (Covent Garden, 1787). In 1825, Drury Lane presented an opera called The Wager; or, The M. H., that LLG (II/26/2 5) says is "nothing mere, after all, than Mrs. Inchbald's farce," with a few songs added: possibly copied from the Regency play. Nicoll lists no such Regency piece, but has an anon. "Farce," Twelve O'clock; or. The W. L. (Olympic, 1823) that may be related. Also see What's 0 'Clock. 15*

W a t e r y in Wapping; or. King Charles in the Royal Oak. Surrey, (il7Vl6), ITComic Burletta in two acts. Undated playbill: date supplied by Nicoll. By Thomas Dibdin, for the Surrey; noxed there by LliG (9/20/17) and European Mapazlne (ll/l6). Dibdin's memoirs state that this play was copied by John Howard Payne for Covent Garden in 182b, under the title Charles the Second; or, The Merry Monarch. According to Nicoll and LIU (5/ 29/2 Payne's source was Duval's In Jeuncsse d'Henri TV; LLG gives the French play as the source of Waggery in Wappi ng~~n~by Moncrieff" as well.

The Wags of Windsor. See The Review.

The Wanderina: Minstrel. Regency, 1/16/ 3 A. "New Musical Burletta," By Henry Mayhew for this production. Nicoll: same data, except he lists the play as a "farce." In 1 act.

Wants and Superfluities. See Azlm.

The Watchman; or, The Army and the Navy. Regency, 2/2/2 9• "Broad comic Burletta." Anon. Same data in Nicoll, except his date is 2/9/29*

The Water Witches. Regency, 5/10/I8. "Burletta, by permission of Stirling Coyne." Written by Joseph Stirling Coyne for the Lyceum in l&U 2 - In 1 act.

The Waterman; or, The First of August. Surrey (183 b, undated bill); hf3/^3> 5/5/5b, Regency, 7/ 26/3 0 * dibdin1s musical entertainment" (Surrey, I63 M ; "Dibdin1 s admired Burletta" (Surrey, I8L3 ); "Musical Burletta" (Surrey, 1 6 5 6); "Burletta" (Regency). The Regency playbill omits the subtitle. Based on the elder Charles Dibdin*s "ballad- opera" of this name (llaymarket, 177^)* Nicoll notes another minor production at SW in l8bb. For earlier Regency productions, see the following entry and The F. of A . Also see The Regatta.

The Waterman and the Macaroni Gardener. Regency, l/23/2b. "Burletta founded on and called ..." An adaptation of Charles Dibdin's The W .; see the entry above.

The Way to Win Her. See The Boundaries.

Ways a nd Means; or, A Trip to Dover. Regency, 12/ll/l5 and I/3 /2O. 7rBurletTn~ /both). The later bill lacks the subtitle. From George Colmar's comely rf th* s name (Haymarket, 17-58). For later Regency performances of this play under the subtitle, see A T. to D . No minor version in Nicoll.

The Weathercock. Regency, 2/l8/ll and ll/io/lb. "Burletta founded on . . ." (lLii); "Burletta from the favorite farce of . . . "(181b). Apparently adapted from John Till Allingham's farce of this name (Drury Lane, I8O 9 ). Nicoll notes the l8ll Regency play as anon. 155

The Wedding Day. Regency, 10/7/(22). "Burletta in 2 Acts." Probably based on Elizabeth Inchbald*s two act "comedy" of this name (Drury lane, 179^). No minor version in Nicoll.

Hie Wedding Supper. Regency, 7/15/31*- "Burletta." Unknown. Nicoll lists an anon. Victoria (Coburg) farce of this name on II/27/3 U: probably the same piece.

The Wells in the Days of Queen Bess. See Old Sadler’s Ghost.

The Welsh Girl. Surrey, 7/21/3 5 . "Burletta." By Elizabeth Blanche', written for the Olympic in 1833 as a "vaudeville." The Surrey production featured Mme. Vestris* In 1 act.

West Country Wooing. Regency, 8/1/3 6 ; Sadler's Wells, 8/25/ 3 6 . "New musical Burletta’1 ("Regency); "New Burletta" (SW). Anon. Nicoll lists the Regency production; his date is 8/8/3 6 .

The West Indian. Regency, 1/9/2 3 * "Burletta founded on . . Evidently adapted from Richard Cumberland's comedy of this name (Drury lane, 1771)* No minor version in Nicoll.

What We Must All Come To. Surrey, 2/U/22. "Comic Burletta." From Arthur Murphy's comedy of this name (Covent Garden, I7 6I), later retitled Three Weeks After Marriage (Covent Garden, 1776) and given at the Surrey in l8l2 under that name. See T. W. A. M. for further data.

What’s O ’clock; or, The Midnight Hour. Surrey, 2/28/21. "Comic Burletta in 3 acts founded on Guere Ouverte; ou. Ruse contre Ruse. 11 Reviewed by TIMM (h/l/2l) as "an afterpiece . . . founded on the farce of The Midnight Hour" by Elizabeth Inchbald (Covent Garden, 1 7 8 7). Dumaniant' s La G. 0 . (Paris, 1 7 8 6) was Mrs. Inchbald's source. Not in Nicoll. Also see The Wager Lost for other minor adaptations.

What's to Pay. See The Barber Lawyer.

Wheels within Wheels. Surrey, 7/3l/20. "Comic Burletta." Ey Thomas Dibdin, for this production. Same data in Nicoll. Reviewed by NMM, 9/1/20.

Where Did the Money Come From? See The Two Gregorles.

Where Is Fliza? Regency, 12/27/I7. "Burletta [by] Stanfield James." First given at the Strand on 10/l8/^7 as Where13 Eliza; Nicoll lists this Strand production and an "anon." farce for the same theatre and date called Where's Eliza? What Is She At? Where Can She Be? that is certainly the same play. Another apparently related play is an anon. W. I. F. ; or, H.v/e You Seen My Sister? (Britannia, IO/25/U7 ). Nicoll lists these, but not the Regency production. 156

Which Am I , See Dead and Alive.

Which Is Best? See Married and Single and Old ard New School.

Which Is My Cousin. See Love and Mystery.

Which Is Hy Son? See Tricks and Blunders.

Which Is the lady. See The Sleep Walker.

Which To the Man; or, Charge for Change. Regency,9 /25/2 6. "New comic Burletta in Two Acts written expressly for this theatre by a lady ..." Possibly condensed from Hannah Cowley's comedy of this name (Covent Garden, 1 782); otherwise unknown. Not in Nicoll.

Which Is Which? See The Duke and the Devil.

White Lies; or, The Major and the Minor. Sadler’s Wells, 8/6/2 7* "Popular comic burletta founded on a popular fai cL-." Based on the farce of this name by Joseph Lunn (Drury lane, 1826). Nicoll lists the two productions in the same entry, as the --time play

The White Serjeant. Sadler's Wells, 5/26/28. "Burletta." Unkj "vn. Not in Nicoll.

Who Am I. See Asleep or Awake.

Who Pays the Rent? See Guarr Day■

W h o ’ll Lend Me a Wife? Regency, 6/l/35* "Burletta in 2 acts." By John Gideon Millingen, written for the Victoria (Coburg) in 183 ^. The Coburg production is noted by Nicoll and LLG (7/26/ 3 ^)•

Who*a Afraid; or, The Vaults of St. Cosmo. Regency, 3/22/36. Original Burletta ^ ! . First Time. ,f Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

Who’s the Impostor. See The Village Doctor.

Who's to Pay Me?; or, The Student's Supper. Sadler's Wells, 9/5/31* "Farcical Burletta in 1 act. Unknown. Not in Nicoll.

Widow and No Widow; or. The Faithful Irishman. Sadler's Wells, h/l8/l7vo; Surrey, VI 7/ 2CL "New Burletta" (sw); "Comic Burletta" (Surrey). Anon. Nicoll notes the SW production (same data); NMM (5/1/20) reviews the Surrey play, a "musical piece," as "a pleasant sort of dramatic pic-nic." The Surrey playbill omits the subtitle. The two productions are not positively identified as the same play. 157

The Widow's Frolic. Regency, U/^/hl. "Nev and Original Burletta." Nicoil lists an anon. Victoria (Coburg) burletta of this title with the date of ?,/l/^l: probably the same play. An l£A2 Haymarket license copy, in the Chamberlain's collection with the same title, may also be related.

The Wife and Mistress. Sadler's Wells, 5/18/1797• "Favorite Burletta, [the Music by Mr. Davy)." Anon. The composer is probably John Davy, who supplied the music for several of Thomas Dibdin's plays. Not in Nicoll; he lists a possibly related The W. & M.; or, The Italian Gamester (Pavilion, ldlO).

The Wife and the Widow. See The Namesakes.

Will Reckless. Regency, 8/25/3 6 . "Original Nautical Burletta (First Time)." Later in the season, termed a "Nautical Drama." Anon. Nicoll lists the same production; his date le 8/27/3 6 .

Wives and Partners; or, Mr. Wi Ikins. Sadler's Wells, 3/3/28. "Melo-dramatical farcical Burletta in two acts." Anon. Nicoll: same data.

The Wolf of the Forest of Arden. Sadler's Wells, 10/27/25; Regency, 1/26/29* "Burlenta" (SW); "Comic Melo-dramatic Burletta in Two Acts . . . by T. Dibdin" (Regency). The SW play omits "of Arden" from the title. The Regency play is termed a "Fairy Melo-drama" on 2/2/29* This play is Thomas Dibdin’s Red Riding; Hood (q. v.), played under its subtitle. Sadler's Wells used the full title- in 1826.

Woman's Revenge. Regency, 3/l^/32. "New Burletta." Probably the play of this title by John Howard Payne (Olympic, 2/27/32).

Woman1s the Devi1. Regency, 6/10/39; Sadler's Wells, 2/20/U3 . ''Burletta" (Regency); "Popular Burletta" (SW: called "farce" on another SW playbill of the same date). By Edward Stirling, first given at the Victoria (Coburg) in 1837, with the subtitle A Masked Ball.

Woman's Worth and Woman's Ways. See The Four Sisters.

The Wonder.' A Woman Keens n Secret. Regency, lO/26/ll and 11/28/22. "Burletta from the celebrated comedy of . . ." (l8ll); "Comic Burletta’1 (l822). The later listing is titled simply The V. From Sucanneh Centljvre ' s comedy of this name (Drury Lane, 17TI ). No minor version in Nicoll. NMM notes a Drury Lane production of the comedy (l0/l/l6).

The Wood of Olives. See The Forest of Friuli.

Wooing a W idow; or, Love Under a lamp-post. Regency, 9/2/3 6 . "Burletta." By William Bayle Eernard, first given at the Strand 158

in 1 8 32 . Nicoll lists the Strand play and a production at the Adelphi in l832> but not the Regency performance.

The Wrangling Lovers; or, Like Master Like Man. Regency, I/22/2U. T,Burletta in 1 Act.' Apparently the farce of this name by William Lyon, published in Edinburgh, 17^5* BD states that Lyon's play is "tanen from Vanbrugh's Mistake" of 1705* Possibly related to Jacintha (q. v. ), which has the same subtitle.

The Young Hussar. Regency, 3/l0 'P. "Burletta founded on the operatic drama of ..." Evideiii.lv cased on William Dimond’s "operatic piece" of this name (Diccy Lane, 1807), subtitled Love and Mercy. See The Hussar for another minor version of Dimond1 s play.

The Young Widow. Regency, 9/10/3 6 . "Burletta." From J. Thomas G. Rodvell's farce of this name, first given at the Adelphi in 182U, with the subtitle, A Lesson for Lovers. No Regency version in Nicoll.

Youth, love and Folly; or, The Female Jockey. Surrey, 8/27/21. "New Musical Burletta cy W. Dimond. By William Dimond. First given at Drury Lane in 1605 as a "comic opera" without the subtitle; later produced at the Olympic (1 8 31 ) as a farce called The Little Jockey (possibly a condensed version). Published in the Cumberland series as Y. L. &. F. ; or, The Little Jockey, and by Dicks with these titles reversed. Thomas oibdir. spea: s of Dimond's Female Jockey in his memoirs; Nicoll notes the pas. ge, saying that he has been unable to trace the play.

The Youthful Queen. Sadler's Wells, 7/10/37 and 9f2&/hQ. "Burletta" (1 8 3 7); "Petite Drama" (lfcAo). A version of Charles Shannon’s comic afterpiece (Drury Lane, 1828V noted there by NMM (12/1/2 8) as a "new afterpiece." SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

The great majority of the playscripts consulted for this

Btudy are omitted here in order to avoid an unnecessary redundancy: the titles of these plays and other pertinent data are included in the appended Handlist of Burlettas. Only playscripts that have been quoted in the text of the study are listed below.

Ackerman, Robert. The Microcosm of London, London in Miniature. 3 vole. London”: Methuen & Co., 1909.

Baker, David Erskine; Reed, Isaac; and Jones, Stephen, eds. Biographia Dranatica. 3 vols. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, ejD aT_. , l8l2.

Baker, H. Barton. History of the London Stage and Its Famous Play era f13? 6-1503)» Reissue. New York and London: Benjamin Blcm, 19t>9*

Besant, Sir Walter. London •< n ihe Nineteenth Century. London: Adam fie Charles Black, 1909*

______. London North of the Thames. London: Adam fie Charles Black, 1911*

Blanchard, Edward Litt Laman. The Life and Rerainiscenses of E. L. Blanchard. Edited by Clement Scott and Cecil HovarcU 2~vols. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1891.

Brown, Elunea, ed. The London Theatre, l8ll-l8 6 6: Selections from the Diary cf Henry Crabo Robinson. London: The Society for Theatre Re search, 1 9 6 6.

Bulwer, Edward Lytton. England and the English. Edited by Standish Mcach&ra. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1970.

159 160

Bunn, Alfred. The Stage: Both Before and Behind the Curtain. 3 vols. London: Richard Bentley, 1 &io~.

Burletta c a p r i c c j >■' -ldieola tra 11 Pottor Fur^eson, e Bagollno.

Lucca: n. p . , lo93-

Burney, Charles. A General History of Music. U vols. London: Printed for the Author, 17t>9-

Clarence, Reginald, ed. "The Stage" Cyclopaedia. London: "The Stage," 1909.

Clark, William Smith. The Irish Stage in the Country Towns, 1T20 to 1800. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 19^5•

Clinton-Baddeley, V. C. All Right on the Night. London: Putnam, 195^.

Clive, [.Catherine]. The Rehearsal; or, Bays in Petticoats. London: For R. Dodsley, 1753-

Colles, H. C., ed. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 3rd ed. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1935-

Colman, George. Random Records. 2 vols. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1630.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Literature. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1963*

Dibdin, Thomas. The Reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin. ? vols. London: Henry Colburn, lo37*

______, The Vicar of Wakefield. London: John Miller, l8l7*

Disher, Maurice Willson. Blood and Thunder. London: Frederick Miller Ltd., 19^9-

Duncan, Barry. The St. James's Theatre: Its Strange and Complete His tory, loj5-1957 • London : Barrie and Rockliff,' 196b.

Encielopedin dello Spettacolo. Q vols. Roma: Casa Editrice Le Mas chcre, 1951-62. ‘Tndice-Repertorio. Roma: Unione Editoriale, I96O.

Fit 2. ball, Edward. Thirty-five Years of a Dramatic Author's Life. London: T. C. Newby,' 1859.

Ford, Wyu K. Music in England before 1800. London: The Library Association, 19^7 • 161

Fovell, Frank, and Palmer, Frank. Censorship In England. Lone on: Frank Palmer, 1913*

Gagey, Edmond McAdoo. Ballad Opera. New York: Columbia University Press, 1937*

Genest, John. Some Account of the English Stage, from the Restoration in 1660 to 1030. 1 0 vols. Bath: h7~E. Carrington, 183^

Great Britain. Parliament. Parliamentary Papers (House of Commons & Command), 1831-32, Vol. VII. Gnnd. bY9* Aug. 2, 1632 , "Report from the Select Committee on Dramatic Literature." The Irish University Press Series of British Parliamentary Papers. 'Stage and Theatre,'1 Vol. l7 Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1 966.

Grout, Donald Jay. A Short History of Opera. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 19*+7•

Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 3rd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1967-

Hogan, Ita Margaret. Anglo-Irish Music, 1780-I83O. Cork: Cork University Press, 1 9 00.

Hblcroft, Thomas. A Tale of Mystery. 3rd ed. London: J, Roach, 1013*

Mander, Raymond, and Mitchenson, Joe. The Lost Theatres of London. Hew York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 19oih

The Theatres of London. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 19^

Mathews, Mrs, Charles. Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1039-

Meeks, Tyeclie Howard. Sheridan Knowles and the Theatre of His Time. Bloomington, Indiana: The Principia Press, Inc., 1933*

Mellers, Vilfr.'d. nions Meeting: A Study of the Relationship be 1 Wren Korl Irh f'tuxic, Poetry and Theatre, c. loOQ-lyQQ. London: Demis Don son, 190?.

Molloy, J . Fitzgerald. The Romance of the Irish Stage. 2 vols. New York: Dodd, Head and Company, 1697*

Moncrieff, V. T. Rochester; or, King Charles the Second's Merry £. London: Thomas Richardson, [182BX* " ™* 162

Tom and Jerry; or, Life in London. 2nd ed. London: Thomas Richardson^ [1&?6] .

Nicholson, Watson. The Struggle for a Free Stage in London. London: Archibald Constable & Co., Ltd., 1906; Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1906.

Nicoll, All&rdyce. A History of English Drama, 1660-1900. 6 vols. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1952-59-

______. Masks Mimes and Miracles. New York; Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1963*

The World of Harlequin. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1 9 6 3;

O'Hara, Kane. April-Pay. London: G. Kearsly, 1777*

. Midas. 6th ed. London: G. Kearsly, e_t a l . , 1771*

Peake, Richard Brinsley. Memoirs of the CoLman Family. 2 vols. London: R. Bentleyy l59"l~

Pinks, William J. The History of Clerkenwell. 2nd ed . London: Charles Herbert, 1601.

Planche, J. R. The Recollections and Reflections of J. R. Planche*. 2 vols. London: Tinsley Brothers, 16/2.

Raymond, George. Memoirs of Robert William Elliston. London: John Mortimer, l8bk

Reynolds. Ernest- Early Victorian Drama, 1830 -1 8 7 0. Cambridge: W. Heifer &~5o7i& ' Ltd ~

Rosenfeld, Sybil. Foreign Theatrical Companies in Great Britain in the I7th and loth Centuries. The Society for Theatre Research Pamphlet Series, No. k, 195^-55* Iondon: Printed for the Society, 1955*

Rowell, George. The Victorian Theatre. London; Oxford University Press, 195c .

Scott, Clement,. 7h e Drama of Ye o r d ay and Tod ay . 2 vols. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, lc9'L ~

Streatfield, R. A. The Cpera. 5th ed. Revised by Edward J. Dent. London: George Routledge * Sons, Ltd.; J. Curven & Sons, Ltd., 1925; New York; E. P. Dutton & Co., 1 9 2 5. 163

Trevin, ,T. C., ed. The Pomping Folk in the Nineteenth Century Tneatre. London: J. M._ Dent & Sons Ltd., 1968.

Walpole, Horace. The Letters of Horace Walpole. Edited by Paget Toynbee. Vol. II. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1903-

Watson, Ernest Bradlee. Sheridan to Rooertson: A Study of the Nineteenth-Century Iondon Stage. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 192b.

Wheatley, Henry B. London Past and Present. 3 vols. London: John Murray, 1891.

White, R. J. Life In Regency England. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1963; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1 9 6 3*

Wilkinson, Tate. Memoirs of His Own Life. ^ vols. London: Printed for the Author, 1790.

Articles and Periodicals

Athenaeum, 1828-I85O.

Era Almanack and Annual, 1890-1900.

European Magazine and London Reviev, 1782-1825- lady * s Monthly Museum, 1798-1 8 3 2 .

Lawrence, W. J. "Early Irish Ballad Opera and Comic Opera." The Musical Quarterly, July, 1922, pp. 397-iil2.

______. "Tommaso Giordani: An Italian Composer in Ireland." The Musical Antiquary, January, 1911, pp. 99-107.

Literary Chronicle and Weekly Review, l8l9-l6?8.

Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences &c * , 1 8 1 7 -185b . ' ------

London Uagnzj ne, 1820-1629. hew Month.v Magazine, l8lk-I85O .

St. Pauls, 1865-1 8 7 0.

Hatier. IQ3O-I83I.