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Elliston's Productions of Shakespeare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Christopher Murray
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Extract

Robert William Elliston launched into management in 1809, when Drury Lane, where he had been leading actor ever since Kemble defected to Covent Garden, was destroyed by fire. He chose as his new theatre the Royal Circus in St. George's Fields, on the Surrey side of the Thames. According to the monopoly laws, productions here were limited to pantomime, ballet, pageantry, and equestrian displays. Drama as such was outlawed, except for what were termed “burlettas”: short sketches in rhymed recitative accompanied by the endeavors of what might flatteringly be dubbed an orchestra. By acting there himself, however, and by so adapting legitimate drama that it could be legally considered no more than burletta, Elliston determined to raise this theatre into a respectable competitor of London's major theatres. With characteristic fanfare Elliston first bowed before the Circus audience in the part of Macheath in an adaptation of The Beggar's Opera which, perhaps for its novelty alone, met with auspicious popularity. He followed up with an adaptation of Macbeth, advertised as a “Ballet of Music and Action, founded on” Shakespeare's play, which proved to be the first major breakthrough in London's struggle for a free stage.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , November 1970 , pp. 99 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1970

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References

Notes

1. See Colman, George the Younger, Random Records, 2 vols. (London, 1830), I, 51.Google Scholar A constant attempt was made to keep burletta confined to a few scenes: see Morning Chronicle of January 16, 1812 for a proclamation by Lord Thynne, Vice Chamberlain, on burletta. Confusion reigned all through this period, however, regarding definition of burletta. When Colman became Licenser of Plays in 1824 he habitually licensed pieces by inscribing the caveat, “‘Provided it be a Burletta’” on the MS, as if he was unable to rule on the matter. See Plays from the Lord Chamberlain's Office, British Museum Add. MSS. 42869, ff. 237–527. Cf. Ganzel, Dewey, “Patent Wrongs and Patent Theatres,” PMLA, LXXVI (1961), 384–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. For a discussion of the minor-major theatre question see Lawrence, James H., Dramatic Emancipation (London, 1813)Google Scholar; Tomlins, F. G., A Brief View of the English Drama (London, 1840), pp. 57 ff.Google Scholar; Nicholson, Watson, The Struggle for a Free Stage in London (Boston & New York, 1906), passimGoogle Scholar; Watson, E. B., Sheridan to Robertson (Cambridge, Mass., 1926), pp. 20–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nicoll, Allardyce, English Drama 1660–1900 (Cambridge, 1952), I, 293–301, III, 194, IV (1955), 137–139; Dewey Ganzel, loc. cit.Google Scholar

3. June 15, 1809. See Raymond, George, Life and Enterprises of Robert William Elliston, Comedian (London, 1857), pp. 161–162Google Scholar.

4. Advertisement, Morning Chronicle, August 30, 1809.

5. Undated playbill, Royal Circus, Harvard Theatre Collection.

6. Morning Post, September 6, 1809.

7. Sprague, A.C., “A Macbeth of Few Words,” in All These to Teach: Essays in Honor of C.A. Robertson, ed. Bryan, Robert et al. (Gainesville, 1965), pp. 80–101.Google Scholar This is a reprint of Professor Sprague's own copy of this rare promptbook, now in the Harvard Theatre Collection. Besides the other copy mentioned by Sprague, there are copies in the Folger Shakespeare Library and the New York Public Library.

8. Ibid., p. 92.

9. Moncrieff, William Thomas, “Remarks” on Tom and Jerry, in Richardson's Minor Theatre, Vol. 1, (London, 1828).Google Scholar

10. Sprague, op. cit., p. 101.

11. August 31, 1809.

12. September 1, 1809. Cf. Morning Post, September 1, 1809.

13. MS note, “Theatrical Miscellany, c. 1826–1851,” James Winston Collection, Folger Shakespeare Library.

14. Morning Post, September 30, 1809.

15. Advertisement, Morning Chronicle, November 1, 1809. A MS entry in Hughes' Royal Circus, Vol. 2, Stead Collection, N.Y.P.L., gives November 6 as closing date.

16. Morning Chronicle, August 6, 1810. Cf. Dibdin, Thomas, Reminiscences, 2 vols. (London, 1837), I, 433–434.Google Scholar

17. Playbill, Surrey Theatre, August 9, 1810, Folger Shakespeare Library.

18. Playbill, February 15, 1813, Harvard Theatre Collection.

19. The advertisements favored the description “melodramatic piece.”

20. Playbill, May 25, 1813, Folger Shakespeare Library.

21. Playbill, February 15, 1813, Harvard Theatre Collection.

22. Elliston, R. W., Copy of a Memorial Presented to the Lord Chamberlain by the Committee of Management of Theatre-Royal Drury-Lane and by the Proprietors of Theatre-Royal Covent Garden, against the Olympic and Sans Pareil Theatres; with Copies of Two Letters, in Reply to the Contents of such Memoirs, Addressed to the Lord Chamberlain by Robert William Elliston, Comedian (London, 1818), pp. 63–76.Google Scholar

23. Three-act plays in prose were thereafter allowed, though musical accompaniment was obligatory; a certain number of songs per act was also considered necessary. See Dewey Ganzel, op. cit., pp. 387–388; E. B. Watson, op. cit., p. 40.

24. Dated from Stratford Place November 8, 1819, Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Richard III. As Altered by Cibber, Colley (London, 1819).Google Scholar Copy in the Folger Shakespeare Library, PR 2821 / 1819a / Copy 1 Sh. Col. Cf. Theatrical Inquisitor, XV (1819), 324–326.Google Scholar

25. See Hillebrand, H.N., Edmund Kean (New York, 1933), pp. 186–190.Google Scholar

26. Clipping, in Portraits of R.W. Elliston, Harvard Theatre Collection.

27. Ibid.

28. See Odell, George C., Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving, 2 vols. (New York, 1920), II 56–58Google Scholar.

29. Dated, from Stratford Place, January 24, 1820, Shakspeare's Coriolanus; an Historical Play (London, 1820).Google Scholar Copy in the British Museum, 11764, bbb. Cf. Odell, op. cit., II, 149–151; Theatrical Inquisitor, XVI (1820), 57, where George Soane is credited with the text.Google Scholar

30. Ibid., Advertisement.

31. New Monthly Magazine, Pt. 1, XIII (1820), 472.Google Scholar

32. London Magazine, I (January-June 1820), 168.Google Scholar

33. Shakspeare's King Lear. Printed Chiefly from Nahum Tate's Edition, with some Restorations from the Original Text, by Elliston, R.W. (London, 1820).Google Scholar Copy in the Folger Shakespeare Library, PR 2819/1820b. Sh. Col. Cf. Odell, II, 154–156; Theatrical Inquisitor, XVI (1820), 297.Google Scholar

34. Kean to Elliston, March 31, 1820, Letters of Edmund Kean, Folger Shakespeare Library, Y.c. 400 (12–21). On the verso Elliston wrote, “Mr Kean respecting the 3d Act of King Lear, & the General [sic] Costume,” signed this, and dated it April 3, 1820.

35. Ibid. Cf. George Raymond, op. cit. p. 281. Raymond says that Kean had seen the remains of an eídophysikon exhibition in Spring Gardens. Perhaps Kean's friends were involved in this.

36. See Allen, Ralph G., “The Stage Spectacles of Philip James De Louther-bourg,” Diss., Yale University, 1960Google Scholar; Pyne, W.H., Wine and Walnuts, 2 vols. (London, 1823), I, 282–299.Google Scholar

37. Playbill, Drury Lane, April 15, 1820, Enthoven Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum.

38. Ibid., April 27.

39. London Chronicle, April 25, 1820.

40. Cowell, Joe, Thirty Years Passed among the Players (New York, 1845), p. 47.Google Scholar

41. Ibid., Cf. British Monitor, April 30, 1820; Times, April 25.

42. The Examiner, April 30, 1820. Cf. London Magazine, I (January–June 1820), 686–690.Google Scholar

43. Playbill, April 25, Harvard Theatre Collection.

44. Boaden, James, Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble, 2 vols. (London. 1825), II, 567.Google Scholar

45. Op. cit., II, 154. Cf. New Monthly Magazine, Pt. 2, IX (1823), 107–108.Google Scholar

46. Reynolds, Frederick, The Life and Times of Frederick Reynolds, 2 vols. (London, 1826), II, 411.Google Scholar Cf. Wyndham, H. Saxe, The Annals of Covent Garden Theatre, 2 vols. (London, 1906), I, 367 ff. and II, 4–14Google Scholar; Odell, op. cit. II, 124–147.

47. Elliston to Winston, February 15, 1824, Elliston Papers, Harvard Theatre Collection.

48. In Act I, a rendering of a sonnet; in Act II, songs from MSND, Passionate Pilgrim, AYLI, and Merry Wives; in Act III, songs from Pass. Pilg., MV: in Act IV, songs from Venus and Adonis, LLL, MSND; in Act V, songs from Marlowe (!), AYLI, MSND, and The Tempest. See playbill, February 20, 1824, Harvard Theatre Collection.

49. See European Magazine, LXXXIV (July –December 1823), 557Google Scholar; The Drama; or, Theatrical Pocket Magazine, V (July 1823-March 1824), 289Google Scholar. Stanfield's diorama, 272 feet in length, was surpassed by the diorama done jointly with Roberts for Zoroaster, April 19, 1823, which was 482 feet.

50. Playbill, Surrey Theatre, May 19, 1829, Harvard Theatre Collection.

51. Called The Battle of Shrewsbury, June 11, 1827. When revived March 10, 1829, it was no longer advertised as a burletta, but as “the First Part of Shakspeare's Tragedy of Henry IV.” By 1829 other Shakespearean plays were also presented without apology, e.g., Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice, King Lear.

52. Clark, W. Russell, Representative Actors (London & New York, 1888), p. 296Google Scholar. Cf. New Monthly Magazine, Pt. 2, XXI (1827), 288 ff.Google Scholar; Weekly Dramatic Register, June 16, 1827; The Examiner, June 24, 1827. Elliston's Falstaff was considered the best of the age.

53. The Atlas, April 27, 1828.

54. Obituary, R.W. Elliston, Esq., Gentleman's Magazine, CI, Part 2 (1831), 184Google Scholar. According to this source Elliston was the one who restored the procession.

55. See Cumberland's Minor Theatre, ed. Daniel, George, Vol. X (London, n.d.).Google Scholar

56. Op. cit., II, 123.