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Harlequin Empire
Race, Ethnicity and the Drama of the Popular Enlightenment
David Worrall
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Harlequin Empire
Race, Ethnicity and the Drama of the Popular Enlightenment
David Worrall
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Under the 1737 Licensing Act, Covent Garden, Dury Lane and regional Theatres Royal held a monopoly on the dramatic canon. This work explores the presentation of foreign cultures and ethnicities on the popular British stage from 1750 to 1840. It argues that this illegitimate stage was the site for a plebeian Enlightenment.
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1 The Theatrical Network
DOI: 10.4324/9781315653242-ch-1
The network of theatres in Georgian English market towns, cathedral cities and newly industrial regions is indicative of the pervasive presence of drama. It represents the tangible physical infrastructure providing the precondition for dramaâs dissemination. Unlike the circulating libraries, the playhouses could influence those who were illiterate or, in the case of pantomime, didnât understand English. Outside of London, the provincial playhouses and players accumulated exponentially larger audiences. The social and built environment of towns and cities provided the means by which actors could engage in their profession and present the contemporary dramatic repertoire to the general population. By 1800, in Georgian England a network of provincial playhouses had developed, often in places now little visited by drama. It is important to remember that, certainly as far as the built environment is concerned, there were probably far more Georgian playhouses than there are regular theatrical venues in Britain today. Very few of todayâs market towns can boast a theatrical season of between one and three months entirely dedicated to live drama performed by a regular company. However, the vestiges of these theatrical environments are fairly easy to find. In a few cases, such as Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, Stamford in Lincolnshire and Richmond in North Yorkshire, much of the Georgian interior or exterior â and even some scenery â has survived intact. Elsewhere, as at Grantham, Lincolnshire, the basic structure of the building survives but has been adapted to a modern purpose. The towns named thus far indicate some of the main differences between the modern and the Georgian dramatic world. Playhouses existed not only in the principal cities and embryonic conurbations, but also â overwhelmingly â in the English market towns. The single most comprehensive record of these playhouses comes in the form of an unpublished manuscript at the Houghton Library, Harvard University: a commonplace book compiled by James Winston, later manager of the Haymarket and Drury Lane.
Shortly before he became involved with the Haymarket, Winston assembled two volumes of prints and drawings plus a substantial commonplace book, probably put together between 1802 and 1805, listing and annotating provincial theatres â mainly covering England but with some remarks on Scotland, Wales and Ireland.1 Winston probably compiled this document as part of a project to establish (or purchase) a provincial touring circuit, an idea he abandoned when his London career flourished. The immediate published outcome was the part work, The Theatric Tourist (1805), a series of etchings portraying a number of provincial theatres accompanied by notes describing the playhouse buildings, their history, ownership and current circumstances.2 As well as being a book of theatrical topography, Winston intended it to be a guide wherein âTheatrical Professors ⊠May Learn How To Chuse And Regulate Their Country Engagementsâ and it should be considered as a precursor to Redeâs more functional, The Road to the Stage. Crucially, Winstonâs commissioning of the topographical artist, Daniel Havell (d. c. 1826) produced a series of watercolours and prints which, together with Winstonâs manuscript, provides a remarkable archive moving beyond the playhouses featured in the Theatric Tourist.3
Winstonâs manuscript amounts to a âDomesday Bookâ, or census, of Georgian theatre. Not only did he carefully note the existence of theatrical circuits and touring companies moving between towns, he also recorded how and when theatres had been built, their current state of repair, admission prices and social environment. Winston was probably targeting Thomas Robertsonâs circuit for purchase, which ranged from East Anglia up to North Yorkshire. Winstonâs manuscript provides a comprehensive overview not only of Georgian theatre in provincial England but also of its economic and social background. The picture he presents illustrates the extraordinary distribution and tenacity of provincial theatricals. He notes that Lewes, Sussex, was a âBad Town. Mostly Methodistsâ, and that in 1802 there had been âan execution on the Prem[i]s[es]â of the theatre. If Lewesâs Methodists represented dramaâs traditional enemies, at Yarmouth in Norfolk, English dissent was sufficiently varied for the seasonally rented theatre to be located in âA Chapel of or merely belonging to the Dutch Congregationâ.4 Clearly, anti-theatrical religious sentiment was unevenly distributed across the country and possibly regionally differentiated. Elsewhere in Norfolk, Norwichâs White Swan playhouse, when superseded by a new theatre in 1758, was thereafter licensed by the Diocese of Norwich for use as a Dissenting meeting house.5 Audience enthusiasm varied too. Although the Rochdale theatre in Lancashire was housed âin a Woolpack Room at the Bottom of the Bridgeâ, Winston noted that the populace were âA[ll] theatre mad hereâ and he similarly recorded that in Scarborough, Yorkshire, âTheatricals [are] much folld [sic] hereâ.6 The comedian Joe Cowell, recalling his career in England before his emigration to America, also remembered âScarborough[âs] exclusively fashionableâ audience.7 On the other hand, although Winston thought Leeds in Yorkshire, âwell situated for a summer Theatreâ, it was ânot hitherto (the Leeds people) [have] been used to a Decent Theatreâ, and visits by touring companies were clearly unevenly spread.8 Louth in Lincolnshire was visited only âOnce in two yearsâ (but with âGood Businessâ) while further up the coast at Whitby there were gaps of a year or more between visits.9 Perhaps the only features common to all these provincial playhouses were the comprehensive attempts at theatrical provision and the unpredictable patterns of its delivery.
However, the cumulative picture presented by Winstonâs manuscript is one of a theatrical presence in every reasonably sized town able to boast a regular fair, marketplace or racecourse. The theatrical season was an enduring feature of provincial life. Fairs, markets and horse racing schedules were major factors deciding the provision of drama. Croydon in Surrey, now a London suburb, had a âRegular season [which] opens on the fair day â [for] about Two monthsâ, while at Stamford in Lincolnshire, Winston commented âbusiness at Races & fair is very goodâ but not as lucrative as York recorded as taking â[ÂŁ]518â10â6â during one 1792 race week.10 Nevertheless, the York season was long, from the 1760s running from the first week of January until the third week of May and only contracting slightly in the 1790s, perhaps as a consequence of war.11
While the York races and its Theatre Royal still thrive today, the agricultural fairs have disappeared from Croydon and Stamford, but they were important in starting theatrical careers. The tumbler or acrobat James Pack, who later played pantomimes at venues as varied as Drury Lane, Astleyâs Amphitheatre, Richmond (Surrey) theatre and Londonâs Royalty Theatre, learned his trade in equestrian troupes visiting fairs across the whole of southern England, from Sudbury in Suffolk across to Nottingham, Bristol, Birmingham, Norwich and Worcester, as well as Londonâs Bartholomew Fair.12 However, if the players at the agricultural fairs were transient, by the end of the eighteenth century provincial theatrical seasons were more regular and of longer duration. In a context where the two London patent houses ran so-called âwinter seasonsâ lasting from September to the end of June, even by the early 1800s, at the height of the war with France, seasons at some of the provincial playhouses were quite substantial.13 Croydonâs two-month season was at the upper end, but Huntingdonâs was for six weeks beginning in May, Bostonâs for six weeks from the end of January, Peterboroughâs for â7 weeks com[mencin]g in Juneâ and Spaldingâs for one month in August. Wisbechâs ran for six weeks beginning from March but âtheatre madâ Rochdale accommodated a three month season.14 However, in parallel with these established circuits, including Tate Wilkinsonâs substantial Yorkshire circuit based on York and Hull, there were concurrent layers of less formally organized theatrical enterprise.15
The existence of strolling players, a phenomenon persisting from Elizabethan England, substantially increased the availability of drama in Georgian England. At the lowest level were the puppeteers. In the late 1730s, a young adventurer such as James Wyatt could join a puppet-show in Plymouth merely on the promise of learning the trumpet, travelling all over England for four years before leaving to work in a touring menagerie and, thereafter, joining a naval privateer.16 But perhaps the most itinerant of all the performers were the troupes who aimed to coincide with the pattern of agricultural fairs. Leman Thomas Rede omitted âtheatrical troops [sic], such as Richardsonâs, Scowtonâs, Hollowayâs, &c. that visit fairsâ, although Richardsonâs show, at least on its visits to Bartholomew Fair, performed Tom, Logic, and Jerry, one of many adaptations of Pierce Eganâs Life in London (1820), and presented it together with a painted âpanorama of the metropolisâ.17 In embryonic form, Richardsonâs company fulfilled the two main contentions of this book in that it disseminated the dramatic repertoire and coupled it to a simple didacticism. Such touring companies played a considerable role in introducing rural audiences to contemporary drama. One of their rare surviving playbills shows them playing âan entire new Melo Dramaâ called The Italians; or Days of Yore (probably an adaptation of Richard Cumberlandâs Days of Yore of 1796) played in tandem with Harlequin and the Dwarfs; or, Giants Castle and a âGrand Panoramaâ of Lake Como.18 A caricature print from 1815 of Fairlop Fair, a boisterous gathering in Hainault Forest, Essex, founded in 1683 and continuing until its suppression in the nineteenth century, shows a booth belonging to â[?Richa]rdsonâ with a playbill announcing the ânew grand Farce LâOperatical ⊠Pantomime callâd Hot Roll or Harlequin Dumplin [sic]â, illustrating the harlequin (complete with his slapstick) on the stage alongside the traditional pantomime Chinese character.19 However, perhaps a more reliable idea of the repertoire of the theatrical fairground companies is provided by the testimony of the comedian Peter Paterson who recalled his time playing Mathew Lewisâs, The Castle Spectre (1798) in a fairground booth near a âmanufacturing townâ, playing it as âthe shape of an essence [of the original]⊠in twelve or thirteen minutesâ, scenes which âin regular play-house ⊠[would] take nearly three hoursâ.20 It is clear from Patersonâs account that, although The Castle Spectre was heavily abridged, the company repeated it throughout the day, enormously multiplying the audiences encountering at least a smattering of Lewisâs Gothic. That such shows were important in the formation of actorâs lives and careers is confirmed by the actor Paul Bedford who was taken as a child to Lansdown Fair, Bath, where, he later wrote, âI first beheld the wonders of Richardsonâs Show, and I believe it was then I imbibed the love of the art dramaticâ.21 Like James Pack, Bedfordâs first encounter with drama occurred at Englandâs rural fairs.
A level below the touring companies were the âSharing Companiesâ, troupes who simply assembled under a manager and went ad hoc strolling. Although the scale of their presence is impossible to recover, they were clearly a widespread feature of the mid-Georgian cultural landscape. Rede observed that by the1820s, such outfits âonce numerous in England ⊠are, happily, becoming extinctâ.22 Rede had misgivings about the lack of security and uncertain touring routes of such troupes, but these companies were perfectly adaptable to playersâ needs since their âsharesâ were simply proportions of the takings.23 Mark Moore, an ex-naval officer who had served extensively overseas and returned to civilian life, married a woman who âsung well, and [had] ⊠an excellent figureâ, realized âthe stage would be the best means of supportâ and promptly joined a sharing company in Sudbury, Suffolk, with his âshareâ designated in the proportions of âone for my music, one for my wifeâs singing and acting, and one for my own actingâ.24 A memoir of one of these companies run by a manager called Lace comes in the form of a poem, William Johnsonâs, The Effects of Strolling Playing; or, A Lesson to Dramatic Maniacs (1797), based on the authorâs own experience of being a stroller or âmumperâ. Although laid out as a poetical warning to others about the hardships of this way of life, particularly about privation and hunger, Johnson recalls its camaraderie with affection. The hardships were real enough. James Pack related that the company he was with was once so destitute âOur dog was starved, and his skin was taken off and sold to pay the turnpike on our way to Billericay Fairâ.25 Mark Mooreâs shares only earned him and his wife four shillings a week (âWe endeavoured, however, to vegetate [sic] on this scanty allowance for the space of six weeksâ).26 At one point the company was forced to dine together on âone hearty feast â a sheepâs head boiledâ.27 The actress Ann Catherine Holbrookâs The Dramatist; or Memoirs of the Stage (Birmingham, 1809) recounted the effects of the incessant âjourniesâ necessitated by touring, the costs of which were borne by the players rather than by the manager. She reckoned that her own and her actor-husbandâs salaries were reduced from ÂŁ2.10s. a week to ÂŁ1.6s.8d. because of the necessity of travelling in a post-chaise. Holbrook toured accompanied by her children, causing her to remark that âAn Actress can never make her children comfortable; ill, or wellâ. Incredibly, at the beginning of their careers, the Holbrooks undertook âa very fatiguing voyage of six weeksâ from Bristol to a new engagement at Lancaster.28 William Johnsonâs fellow players were âtailors, cobblers, weavers, and the likeâ, several working under aliases, and if they arrived at a town without playbills, they simply got the local bell-man to announce their performances ââAt the New Theatre,â perhaps a barn, / Or antique stable, built a century back, / Now ruinous, and crumbling into dustâ.29 Amongst the repertoire identifiable in Johnsonâs account are Shakespeareâs Richard III, George Colman the Elderâs Haymarket play, The Manager in Distress: A Prelude (1780), Robert Dodsleyâs Drury Lane farce, The King and Miller of Mansfield (1737) and John OâKeefeâs Haymarket comedy, The Prisoner at Large (1788), a piece whose date implies that Johnson was recollecting experiences as recent as the early 1790s.30
Of course, such touring companies often encountered resistance from the authorities. While the theatrical network was comprehensive, drama was a cultural form local magistrates and religio...