Parody Playbills: The Politics of the Playbill in Britain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries James Gregory … the crudest play-bills, the mere flotsam and jetsam of their own day, have now an appreciablevalue;andthemushroomliteratureofamodernelection,nomatterhowpoor itmayhaveappearedincontemporaryeyes,willcertainlynotbelackingininteresttothe historian or the antiquarian of another day.1 EdwardMaundThompson,theprincipallibrarianoftheBritishMuseum,concernedinJuly1895 tocreateanarchivefromthepoliticalephemeraoftheday,calledforelectioneeringaddresses andliteraturetobesenttotheMuseum,afactthatledtotheeditorialcommentintheWestern Daily Press whichprefaces this article.2The Bristol newspaper’s judgment onThompson’s effortsuggestedinpassingthattheephemeralplaybillforadvertisingentertainmentwassimilar to the propagandist literature of electoral politics in historical interest. Stimulated by the British Library’snewcrowdsourcingprojectIn the Spotlight,studyingthevastnumberofsurviving eighteenth and nineteenth century theatre playbills, this article looks at the tradition of the parody or mock playbill in this period. It was a well-known genre for lampooning current politicaleventsandpersonalities,especiallyattimesofparliamentaryandotherelections,orfor promoting a reform cause (such as capital punishment abolition and temperance in the Victorian era). Playbillsweresingle-sheetadvertisementsprintedonflimsy,narrow,plainorcolouredpaper, andplacedinshopwindows,pastedtowalls,distributedinthestreets,printedinthenewspapers andreadouttothepublictopromotetheplay,showorexhibition(seefig.1).3Theatreaficionados andantiquariansbecamefascinatedwitholdplaybillsinthenineteenthcentury(thetheatre historianJackyBrattoncallsplaybillsthe‘essenceoftheatricalantiquarianism’),reprinting theminnewspapers,andrecountingtheirhistory(seeforinstancePercyFitzgerald’sessay,in the Gentleman’s MagazineinJune1900which,ironically,bewailedthat‘TheBritishMuseum issadlyifnotwhollydeficient’incollectingtheoldplaybills‘andseems,moreover,tobequite uncuriousinthematter’).4AstheBritishLibrary’sIn the Spotlight publicity material indicates, these sheets offer a rich source of material on entertainment and print culture: from scenery IwouldliketothankChristianAlgarforstimulatingthisresearchbyshowcasingtheBritishLibrary’scrowdsourcing projectIn the SpotlightattheUniversityofPlymouthinNovember2017;andtoBarryTaylor. 1 Western Daily Press(13July1895),p.5. 2 Onephemera,seeAnn-MarieFoster,‘“Iamsendingherewith”–FirstWorldWarEphemeraattheBritish Library’, eBLJ (2017),art.3,pp.1-12.http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2017articles/article3.html. 3 Ontheprehistoryoftheplaybill,theearliestsurvivinginBritainbeingfrom1687,seeTiffanyStern,‘“On eachWallandCornerPoast”:Playbills,Title-pages,andAdvertisinginEarlyModernLondon’,English Literary Renaissance,xxxvi(2006),pp.57-89.Forarecentsurveyofeighteenth-centuryplaybillsfromthe perspectiveofdigitalhumanities,andasameanstostudygenreandauthor,seeMarkVareschiandMattie Burkert,‘Archives,Numbers,Meaning:TheEighteenth-CenturyPlaybillatScale’,Theatre Journal, lxviii (2016),pp.597-613. 4 Percy Fitzgerald, ‘The Play-Bill: Its Growth and Evolution’, Gentleman’s Magazine, 288: 2034 (June 1900),pp.529-50;‘TheatreinLondonin1832:anewoverview’inJacquelineS.Bratton,New Readings in Theatre History (Cambridge,2003),p.39.Forantiquarianismlinkedtoplaybillsinanon-westernculture, seeJonathanZwicker,‘Playbills,Ephemera,andtheHistoricalImaginationinNineteenth-CenturyJapan’, Journal of Japanese Studies, xxxv:1(Winter2009),pp.37-59. 1 eBLJ 2018, Article 6 Parody Playbills: The Politics of the Playbill in Britain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries and set piece descriptions, to colourful graphic designs and typefaces during the nineteenth century.Theircommonfeatures(asidentifiedrecentlybyMarkVareschiandMattieBurkert): informationonthevenue,main-piecetitleandgenre,main-piececastlist;dancingorother entertainmentsandafter-piece,detailsoftickets,whethertheperformancewasrevived,newor forthe‘benefit’ofanactor,providedelementstobeparodied. BL, Playbills 263. A ‘genuine’ theatrical playbill as displayed in digital facsimileontheBritishLibrary’scrowdsourcingplatformIn the Spotlight https://www.libcrowds.com/collection/playbills. Key details of theatrical performancescanbeidentifiedandtranscribedbyvolunteers.Thedatais beingmadeavailableforresearchandforenhancingcataloguedescriptions onBritishLibrarydiscoverysystems. The principal primary sources for playbill parodies are the contemporary histories of electoral contests,periodicals,andnewspapersoftheperiodthatpresented,reproducedandcirculated theminmetropolitanandprovincialsociety,andwhichhavebeenstudiedherethroughdigitized collectionssuchastheBritishNewspaperArchiveandGooglebooks.Localrecordoffices,and collections of broadsides, squibs and notices from elections in the British Library, may also includeexamplesofthemockplaybill(someofthelocalarchivesarelistedinn.60below). Themocktheatreplaybillwasjustoneamongaricharrayofparodicandsatiricalliteraryforms thathadasignificantparttoplayinelectioneering.Theseincludedplaybillsfornon-theatrical entertainments(seefig.2foranexamplefromYarmouthin1835),facetiouscorrespondence, mock advertisements for lost and found items, lampooning book sales (which permitted a similarironicuseofliterarytitles),accountsofthearrivalofstrangeanimals,andthelocally allusiveverseorsong.ThepoliticalhistorianJamesVernonhasarguedthatthesemadepolitics ‘accessible,concreteandfamiliar’andthatthe‘visualappearanceofthesegenressoughtoutan audiencebypromisingtofulfiltheexpectationsassociatedwiththegenre.’5 A rare comment on the playbill parody process, albeit itself in a collection of political squibs, appearsin1824: I’llsetsomeofmyseven-and-sixpence-a-dayGentlemen(knaves,fiddlers,andvagabonds!) tocopythefiftietheditionofanelectioneeringPlay-bill,substitutingthenamesofsomeof the“ruffiansandassassins”whoaremostactiveagainstme. Thisisanoldfusty,hackney’dmeasure,butnomatter,wemustattemptsomething, andbeingdestituteoftalentandoriginality,wemustevenputupwithsheerold-fashioned personality.6 5 See James Vernon, Politics and the People: A Study in English Political Culture, 1815–1867 (Cambridge, 1993),p.136. 6 Fromthesquib,‘Pocket-BookFound’,inSquibs and Handbills relating to a Mayor-Choosing at Beverley, Now first Collected and Reprinted as they were original published(Beverley?,1824),p.28. 2 eBLJ 2018, Article 6 Parody Playbills: The Politics of the Playbill in Britain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Printed locally, sometimes with the price and – as later required by law – the name of the printer, the election playbill squib must have been quite familiar. In London, examples commentingoncurrentpoliticsandscandalsmightemanatefrompublishers’addressesinthe notoriousHolywellStreet(asintheplaybillsreproducedasfigs4and5)7.Oftenawittyparody oftheplaybillform,themockplaybillusedthelanguageoftheatreanditsall-too-translatable figures of buffoons, farcical behaviour and ‘limited performances’. Play titles, character names,andtheatrerolesallowedsubtle(andlesssubtle)jokestobemadeattheexpenseof publicfigures.Oftentheimplicationwasthatthestuffofpoliticswasinsubstantialorsham; andthepoliticianhimself(andtheywere,ofcourse,allmale,giventhatnineteenth-century parliamentaryand,untilthelatenineteenthcentury,municipalelections,involvedmenonlyas voters,candidates,andelectedrepresentatives)waslittlebetterthanahamactororsomeother lowlyentertainer. Thescholarshipontherelationshipbetweenpoliticsandthetheatreinthisperiodisrichand vigorous:withworkonradicalpoliticsandtheuseoftheatreintheageoftheFrenchRevolution; andinnineteenth-centurymovementssuchasChartism;the‘theatrics’(i.e.,performativity) orattitudestowardsthetheatrebyleadingpoliticalfiguressuchastheplaywright-politician RichardBrinsleySheridan,SirRobertPeelandWilliamGladstone;thepoliticalpurposesor messagesinplaysbyleadingplaywrightsuchasElizabethInchbald;orintheharlequinadeor pantomime;andthecultureoftheatricalitywhichmorewidelyrenderedtheplaybillformat familiar to its readers.8AsIdiscussinthenextsection,visualandliterarysatirealsobrought related treatment of politicians: depicted as performers or actors in the scripts of parodic plays, andrepresentedintheserolesbycartoonists’.9 ByHisMajesty’scommand!JustarrivedPraed&Baringrespectfullyacquaintthe public,thattheywillhavethehonourofpresentingavarietyofgrandamusements, onTuesdayandWednesdayJanuary6&7,1835,intheMarket-Place,wherethey haveerectedacommodiousbooth,repletewitheveryaccommodation.(Yarmouth: Crisp,1835).BL,N.Tab.2012/6(1ii)© British Library. 7 Theotheraddressgivenwas‘282,Strand’theaddressofthewholesalebooksellerandpublisherJ.A.Brook andCo.,inthe1870s. 8 See,onSheridan,RobertW.Jones,‘SheridanandtheTheatreofPatriotism:StagingDissentduringthe WarforAmerica’,Eighteenth-century Life, xxvi:1(Winter2002),pp.24-5.Forthenineteenthcentury,see essaysinPeterYeandle,KatherineNeweyandJeffreyRichards(eds.),Politics, Performance and Popular Culture: Theatre and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain(Manchester,2016);and(fortheChartistera)M. Brodie,‘FreeTradeandCheapTheatre:SourcesofPoliticsfortheNineteenth-CenturyLondonPoor’,Social History,xxviii:3(October2003),pp.346-60. 9 SeeHenryMiller,Politics Personified: Portraiture, Caricature and Visual Culture in Britain, c.1830–80 (Oxford,2016),pp.207-18. 3 eBLJ 2018, Article 6 Parody Playbills: The Politics of the Playbill in Britain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries The theatre of politics Thecontextfortheparodicpoliticalplaybillneedstobeoutlined.Oneistheviewthatpolitics isliketheatre–allaboutperformance–andlikeaplayforapayingpublic,forcommercial