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David Garrick Presents The Padlock: An 18th-Century “Hit”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Robert Fahrner
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Extract

The importance of the afterpiece in David Garrick's managerial scheme is generally acknowledged, though most grant too casually, perhaps, that the “English Roscius” was also a practical and clever theatrical entrepreneur. He understood the popular taste and, even as he attempted to improve that taste, he catered to it for obvious financial reasons. Had a Londoner visited Drury Lane on the night of 3 October 1768, therefore, and dutifully witnessed the “prisons, racks, and death” of The Earl of Warwick, Dr. Thomas Francklin's patriotic exercise in pseudo-istorical, blank verse tragedy, he would have been rewarded with the premiere of The Padlock, a delightful afterpiece by Isaac Bickerstaffe and Charles Dibdin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , May 1972 , pp. 52 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1972

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References

Notes

1. Fran[c]klin, [Thomas], The Earl of Warwick: A Tragedy (London, 1792). p. 67. The Epilogue was first spoken by Mrs. Yates, who originated the role of Margaret of Anjou on 13 December 1766Google Scholar.

2. Pedicord, Harry William, The Theatrical Public in the Time of Garrick (New York, 1954), pp. 135–137Google Scholar; Stone, George Winchester Jr., The London Stage, Part 4 (Carbondale, Illinois, 1962), I, clxii, clxvi-clxvii. There is some discrepancy between the analysis of Pedicord and that of Stone; all statistics and references to casts and performance dates in this article are based on Stone's more recent workGoogle Scholar.

3. Pedicord, p. 138.

4. Bickerstaffe, Isaac, The Padlock: A Comic Opera (London, 1768). All references to the text are to this edition. Although The Padlock appeared as an afterpiece, comic operas—some of Bickerstaffe's among them—occasionally appeared as first piecesGoogle Scholar.

5. Nicoll, Allardyce, A History of English Drama 1660–1900, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1952), III, 192, 197–199, 237; Pedicord, p. 148Google Scholar.

6. See Dibdin, Charles, The Professional Life of Mr. Dibdin, Written by Himself (London, 1803), I, 46–49, 50–53, 57Google Scholar; Dibdin, E.R., A Charles Dibdin Bibliography (Liverpool, 1937), pp. 4—5; Nicoll, III, 237. Regarding Dibdin's sudden success as a performer, see, for example, The Universal Museum and Complete Magazine, February 1765, and The Court, City, and Country Magazine, February 1765Google Scholar.

7. Pedicord, p. 148.

8. Dibdin, , Life, I, 65–69Google Scholar.

9. Ibid., 69–70.

10. Cervantes, The Jealous Husband, in The Spanish Ladie and Two Oilier stories from Cervantes Translated from the Original by James Mabbe 1640 (London, 1928), pp. 65–122. Cervantes presents a similar story in an interlude called La Cucva de Salamanca, but Bickerstaffe does not indicate that he was familiar with itGoogle Scholar.

11. The lines, written in 1704, conclude “An English Padlock”: “Be to her Virtues very kind: / Be to her Faults a little blind: /Let all her Ways be unconfin'd:/ And clap your PADLOCK—on her mind.” Wright, H.B. and Spears, M.K., eds., The Literary Works of Matthew Prior (Oxford, 1959), I, 227Google Scholar.

12. Theatrical Biography: Or, Memoirs of the Principal Performers of the Three Theatres Royal (London, 1772), I, 132–133Google Scholar.

13. The Theatrical Review; or, New Companion to the Play-House … (London, 1772), I, 30–31. Subsequent references to this commentary appear in the articleGoogle Scholar.

14. The History of the Theatres of London, From tlie year 1760 to the present Time (London, 1771), p. 130. Subsequent references to this commentary appear in the articleGoogle Scholar.

15. As a result, Dibdin was accused of stealing his songs from some unidentified Italian composer. In his Dedication of the published music, he called upon his accusers to name the man (Dibdin, Charles, The Padlock A Comic Opera [London, n.d.], but no one did. The Theatrical Review attributed the charges to envy, declaring that even if the accusations proved true, “there is great Merit even in the application.”Google Scholar

16. Life, I, 81–83Google Scholar.

17. Dibdin, Padlock, Dedication.

18. “Memoir of Charles Dibdin,” The Songs of Charles Dibdin … [ed. Davidson, G.H.] (London, 1842), p. xvGoogle Scholar.

19. Stone, III, 1356.

20. (London, 1952), Pl. 43, opp. p. 304; (New York, 1951), following p. 72.

21. Southern, pp. 236–237.

22. Ibid., p. 236.

23. Ibid., p. 237.

24. Later editions indicate that the two women appear at different windows.

25. Ibid., p. 236.

26. Regarding the convention of the striped costume, see Byrne, Muriel St. Clare, “The Stage Costuming of Macbeth in the Eighteenth Century,” Studies in English Theatre History (London, 1952), pp. 52–64Google Scholar, and Pentzell, Raymond J., “Garrick's Costuming,” TS, X (05 1969), 18–42Google Scholar.

27. Southern, Pl. 42, opp. p. 304.

28. Nicoll, III, 39–40.

29. Dibdin, , Life, I, 70Google Scholar. Dibdin implies that Garrick was responsible for his not having been cast as Mungo immediately—curiously, since he admits Moody was promised the role by Bickerstaffe (ibid.).

30. Schriften (Leipzig, 1779), I, 14–15Google Scholar.

31. “A New Biographical Memoir of Garrick,” The Private Correspondence of David Garrick, ed. Boaden, J. (London, 1831–1832), I, xlviGoogle Scholar.

32. Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, Esq. (London, 1780), II, 164Google Scholar; Records of My Life (London, 1832), II, 10Google Scholar.

33. Stone, III, 1357.

34. Murphy, Arthur, The Life of David Garrick, Esq. (London, 1801), II, 60Google Scholar.

35. Boaden, , Correspondence, I, 320Google Scholar.

36. Murphy, II, 61.

37. Davies, II, 164; Murphy, II, 61; London Magazine, October 1768Google Scholar.

38. Murphy, , II, 61; London Magazine, October 1768Google Scholar.

39. Cited by MacMillan, Dougald, Drury Lane Calendar 1747–1776 (Oxford, 1938), p. 134Google Scholar.

40. Boaden, , “Memoir,” I, xlvi. Dibdin was so pleased with his success that he named his first son, born shortly after the opening of The Padlock, Charles Isaac Mungo—after his collaborator and his roleGoogle Scholar.

41. Murphy, II, 61–62; Boaden, “Memoir,” I, xlvi.

42. The Theatrical Inquisitor, and Monthly Mirror, July 1813Google Scholar.

43. Odell, George C.D., Annals of the New York Stage (New York, 1927–1949), I, 151Google Scholar.

44. Dibdin, , Life, I, 71–73, 83–84Google Scholar.

45. Ibid., 72.

46. The Letters of David Garrick, ed. Little, D.M. and Kahrl, G.M. (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1963), III, 1000Google Scholar.

47. Dibdin, , Life, I, 144–145, 153Google Scholar.