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William Bodham Donne, Censorship and the Victorian Theatre Dramatic Anxieties: William Bodham Donne

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William Bodham Donne, Censorship and the Victorian Theatre Dramatic Anxieties: William Bodham Donne WILLIAM BODHAM DONNE, CENSORSHIP AND THE VICTORIAN THEATRE DRAMATIC ANXIETIES: WILLIAM BODHAM DONNE, CENSORSHIP AND THE VICTORIAN THEATRE, 1849-1874 By ROBERT BELL, B.A., B.ED., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School ofGraduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment ofthe Requirements for the Degree Doctor ofPhilosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Robert Bell, June 2005 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY McMaster University (English) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Dramatic Anxieties: William Bodham Donne, Censorship and the Victorian Theatre, 1849-1874 AUTHOR: Robert Bell, B.A. (King's College, University ofWestern Ontario), B.Ed. (University ofWestern Ontario), M.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Professor John Ferns NUMBER OF PAGES: viii, 241 ABSTRACT While writers ofthe Victorian era were free to address contemporary social issues, playwrights were forced to contend with government censorship that ostensibly discouraged them from debating politically controversial topics. An adjunct ofthe Lord Chamberlain's Office, the Examiner ofPlays was responsible for censoring morally and politically sensitive material, giving this individual tremendous influence over the English stage. My dissertation, Dramatic Anxieties: William Bod.ham Donne, Censorship and the Victorian Theatre, 1849-18 74, focuses on the career ofone dramatic censor, William Bodham Donne (1807-82). Throughout his tenure as Examiner (1849-74), Donne controlled the written content ofevery play performed in every theatre in England. His was a position of remarkable cultural and social influence, offering him the opportunity to shape the performed drama, and thereby the attitudes ofthose who attended it. This study examines Donne's censorship ofdramatists' attempts to treat in a serious manner such political and social issues as Anglo-Jewish emancipation, Chartism, the repeal ofthe Com Laws, prison reform, and the condition ofthe working classes. I demonstrate that to evaluate the cultural impact ofdramatic censorship in the Victorian period requires an understanding ofthe ongoing tension between Donne and the playwrights who, despite the professional ignominy that accompanied censorship, often struggled to address the political and social issues oftheir time. The relationship between Victorian playwrights and the Examiner involves a cultural dialectic that negotiates the boundaries ofa licensed IV v public space. In exposing the explicit and implicit pressures which one such Examiner brought to bear on dramatists, this study begins to uncover what is still a largely unexplored feature of Victorian theatre history. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a number ofpeople to whom I would like to express my thanks and gratitude. My advisor, Dr. John Ferns, has been guiding this project since it began as a Master's thesis, providing invaluable insight and gracious encouragement. Throughout this time he has been a model to which I continue to aspire. My sincere thanks, John, for all you have done. Similarly, Dr. Grace Kehler has been an invaluable member of my committee, offering both editorial insight and a critical perspective that significantly shaped this project. Thank you, Grace, for your ongoing encouragement and support. Also, I greatly appreciated the help ofDr. Jeffery Donaldson, who provided a helpful perspective from outside Victorian studies, and an enthusiastic interest in the project. It is also timely to express my gratitude to Helen Creedon and all those at Interlibrary Loan in Mills Library, for whom no document was too obscure to locate. Thanks, too, to Malcolm Marjoram and Beryl Blair at the British Library for their help in recopying rare documents made rarer still by the post. I would like to acknowledge the support ofthe Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council ofCanada, whose Doctoral Fellowship funded much ofthe research and writing ofthis dissertation. My thanks, as well, to the Mid-West Victorian Studies Association, for honouring this study with the Walter L. Arnstein Award for Dissertation Research. Also, I would like to thank the travel funding bodies at McMaster University, specifically VI Vll the Department ofEnglish, the School ofGraduate Studies, and the Graduate Student Association, which furnished me with the Schweitzer, and Research Travel Grants, a Yates Travel Scholarship, and a GSA Travel Grant, that allowed me to conduct research in various archives in England. In the last four years, I have enjoyed the advice and humour ofAntoinette Somo, Ilona Forgo-Smith, John DaSilva, Aurelia Gatta and Jacqueline Langille. I have similarly appreciated the encouragement ofGlen and Jobyna Bell, Joy and Fred Croke, Jeanette MacDonald, Roger Hyman, Cathy Grise and Tim Versteeg, Reverend Ron Archer, Glen Nichols, Mel Solman, Alan Bishop, Andrew Campbell and Michela Paludetto, Matt Bin and SuMei Cheung, as well as Isabel White and Iain Clark. Many thanks to you all. I want to express my profound gratitude to my parents, Kathy and Marc, who, with love, patronage and wisdom have always encouraged the endeavours oftheir sons - now doctors both. With great love I wish to thank Jack and Olwyn, who helped me to keep the big picture in view at all times. Finally, this dissertation is for Sara, whose love and counsel, experience and intelligence, guided each step ofthe project. This work is shared, like everything else in my life, with you. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: The Victorian Theatre and Its Censor 1 Chapter I: The Examiner's "quiet sanction": William Bodham Donne, Censorship and the Victorian Theatre 12 Chapter II: Censorship, the Middle-Class Agenda and the Social Order: Mary Barton and Its Adaptations 59 Chapter III: Uncle Tom's Cabin and Victorian Class Anxieties 115 Chapter IV: Politics and Prisons: Donne's Treatment of Two Plays by Charles Reade 155 Conclusion 198 Appendix I: Excerpt from the Original and Revised Versions ofMary Barton (Victoria Theatre, 1850) Act I, Scene ii 204 Appendix II: Excerpts from the Original and Revised Versions ofMary Barton (Victoria Theatre, 1850) Act II, Scene I 207 Appendix Ill: The Times' Review ofHarriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (3 September, 1852) 210 Appendix IV: The Times' Review ofTaylor and Lemon's Slave Life, (30 November, 1852) 219 Appendix V: Excerpt ofMaterial Cut from Reade's Gold (Drury Lane, 1852) Act IV, Scene I 222 Bibliography 225 Vlll INTRODUCTION The Victorian Theatre and Its Censor Jn certain recesses ofthe Palace ofSt. James, in Westminster, are annually deposited some hundreds ofmanuscripts, the records ofgratified or disappointed expectations. These manuscripts are copies ofthe dramas licensedfor representation.... It is not, indeed, desirable that there should be more frequent disinterments from this dramatic cemetery, since few of its inmates merit a resurgam upon their escutcheon; yet, in the mass, they deserve some attention, as the abstracts and chronicles ofthe theatrical character ofthe age. William Bodham Donne, Essays on the Drama, 128 Writers ofthe Victorian era were frequently concerned with social issues such as political reform, civil liberties, and the economic exploitation ofthe working classes. Yet playwrights ofthe period were forced to contend with government censorship that ostensibly discouraged them from debating such topics. An adjunct ofthe Lord Chamberlain's Office, the Examiner ofPlays was responsible for censoring morally and politically sensitive material, giving this individual tremendous influence over the English stage. This dissertation focuses on the career of one dramatic censor, William Bodham Donne (1807-82), who, during his tenure as Examiner ofPlays, radically shaped the English drama. 1 This study examines Donne's censorship ofdramatists' attempts to treat in a serious manner such political and social issues as Anglo-Jewish emancipation, 1 Donne fulfilled the responsibilities of the Lord Chamberlain's Examiner of Plays from 1849 to 1874. Throughout this period Donne acted as Examiner with the exception ofone year, 1856-1857, in which John Mitchell Kemble (who Donne had temporarily replaced in 1849) returned to the position, which he held until his death on 26 March, 1857. Donne was officially made the Examiner on the following day. 1 2 Chartism, the repeal ofthe Com Laws, prison reform, and the condition ofthe working classes. The relationship between Victorian playwrights and the censor involves a cultural dialectic that negotiated the boundaries of a licensed public space. Because the Examiner sanctioned both the physical and textual sites in which the publicly performed drama was based in this period, scholars ofVictorian theatre must contend with the influence of censorship. In exposing the explicit and implicit pressures which one such Examiner brought to bear on dramatists, this study begins to uncover what is still a largely unexplored feature of Victorian theatre history. The more we know about the censor, the more we may understand the cultural field - with all ofits attendant limitations and opportunities - in which dramatists worked. It is hard to overstate the diacritical relationship between the Victorian drama and its censor, insofar as each came to reflect the character ofthe other. While scholars have called for a greater understanding of spectators' influence on the drama of this period, too often we forget that the Examiner was the playwright's first and, arguably, most crucial audience. In his introduction to Censorship and Silencing: Practices ofCultural Regulation ( 1998), Robert C. Post criticizes past scholarship on censorship for its
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