Literary and Cultural Criticism from the Nineteenth Century

Katherine Newey, Professor of English, University of Exeter, UK

Volume II: Theatre and Drama Criticism

Table of Contents.

Part 1: Theatrical Debates

Headnote

1. 1 Melodrama and the Shock of the New

1. ‘Theatre’, Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure, November 1802, 375-376.

2. ‘The Theatres’, The Satirist; or Censor of the Times, 19 February 1832, 62.

3. ‘Monster Melo-Drame’, The Satirist; or Monthly Meteor, 1 January, 1808, 337-341

4. D—G [George Daniels], ‘Remarks’ on A Tale of Mystery, from Cumberland’s British Theatre, Vol. VIII (London: John Cumberland, 1826).

5. ‘Surrey Theatre’, The Mirror of the Stage: or, New Dramatic Censor 13 January, 1823, 189-190.

6. Walter Scott, extract from ‘An Essay on the Drama,’ originally published as Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1819. This version from The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Vol VI, Chivalry, Romance, The Drama (Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, and London: Whittaker & Co., 1834), pp. 383-395.

7. Joanna Baillie, extract from A Series of Plays in which it is Attempted to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind [Plays on the Passions] (London: T. Cadell, 1798), pp. 12-26.

8. Henry Barton Baker, ‘The Old Melodrama’, Belgravia, May 1883, pp. 331-339.

1.2 The Decline of the Drama, and the National Theatre

Headnote

9. Edward Lytton Bulwer, ‘The Drama’, From England and the English Vol II (London: Richard Bentley, 1833), pp. 332-337, 339-346.

10. Extracts from the Evidence from the 1832 Select Committee Report:

Committee recommendations.

Evidence from John Payne Collier, Q. 279, p. 24.

Evidence from Douglas Jerrold; QQ 2834 to 2852, pp. 158-9.

Evidence from William Thomas Moncrieff, QQ3118-3216; pp. 175-180.

11. D. J. [Douglas Jerrold], ‘The Rights of Dramatists,’ Monthly Magazine, May 1832, 559-565.

12. Vivian, [George Henry Lewes] ‘Dreary Lane’, The Leader, 21st February, 1852.

13. [George Henry Lewes] ‘Vivian in Tears’, The Leader, 7 February, 1852.

14. ‘Why I Don’t Write Plays’, Pall Mall Gazette, August 31, 1892.

15. ‘Why I Don’t Write Plays’, Judy, 28 September, 1892, p. 152.

16. Effingham Wilson, A House for Shakespere: A Proposition for the Nation (London: H. Hurst, 1848) pp. 5-7.

17. William Archer & Granville Barker, ‘Preface’, in A National Theatre. Scheme and Estimates (London: Duckworth, 1907), pp. xv – xxi.

18. Henry Arthur Jones, ‘The Future of English Drama’, The New Review, August, 1893, pp. 177-181.

1.3. The Woman Question

Headnote

19. ‘Women as Dramatists’, All the Year Round, 29 September, 1894, pp. 299-301.

20. ‘Women as Playwrights’, The Sketch, 8 June, 1898, p. 256.

21. ‘Women Playwrights’, The Era, 6 November, 1897, p. 14.

22. Madge Kendal, The Drama. A Paper Read at the Congress for the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, Birmingham, 1884. (London: David Bogue), pp. 2-6, 8-13.

23. Raymond Blathwayt, Does the Theatre Make for Good? A Talk with Mr. Clement Scott, Reprinted from ‘Great Thoughts’ (London: A. W. Hall, 1898), pp. 3-18.

1.4. On Theatrical Criticism

Headnote

24. Leigh Hunt, ‘Appendix’ [Rules for the Theatrical Critic of a Newspaper] to Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres, (London: John Hunt, 1807) pp. 17-21.

25. ‘On Theatrical Criticism’, The Musical World, 30 May 1839, pp. 69-73.

26. William Archer, ‘The Ethics of Theatrical Criticism’ in About the Theatre: Essays and Studies (London, T. F. Unwin, 1886.), pp. 183-196.

27. R. M. Sillard, ‘Concerning Theatrical Criticism,’ Westminster Review, December 1898, 634-640.

Part II: Theatrical Aesthetics in Practice

2.1 Pantomime

Headnote

28. ‘Introductory Chapter’, Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, by Boz [Charles Dickens], 1838, pp. xi-xix.

29. ‘Female Management’, The Spectator, 8 January, 1831, p. 34.

30. ‘Theatres’, John Bull, 29 December, 1834.

31. ‘Pantomimes and Christmas Pieces’, Illustrated London News, 28 December, 1844, 408-410

32. ‘Boxing Day’, The Era, 28 December, 1897.

33. Percy Fitzgerald, ‘Stage Illusion – Mechanism’, The World Behind the Scenes, (1881) pp. 1-5

34. Henry J. Byron, ‘Pantomimical’, The Theatre, 1 January, 1879, pp. 408-410.

2.2 Tragedy

Headnote

35. Leigh Hunt, Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres (London: John Hunt, 1808)

a) ‘Tragedy’, pp. 1-4

b) ‘Mrs Siddons’, pp. 16-21

36. William Hazlitt, A View of the English Stage (London: Robert Stodart, 1818).

a) ‘Preface,’ pp. x-xiii

b) ‘Miss O’Neill’s Juliet’ pp. 46-50

37. Fanny Kemble’s debut as Juliet

a) ‘Covent-Garden Theatre,’ The Times, 6 October 1829.

b) ‘Covent-Garden Theatre,’ Morning Chronicle, 6 October, 1829.

c) ‘The Drama,’ New Monthly Magazine, Nov 1829, pp. 476-478.

38. John Forster, ‘Macready as Macbeth,’ The Examiner, October 4, 1835, repr. in Dramatic Essays edited by William Archer and Robert W. Lowe (London: Walter Scott, 1896), pp. 1-7

39. G. H. Lewes, ‘Rachel’, from On Actors and the Art of Acting, (New York: Henry Holt, 1881; first published 1875) pp. 31-38.

40. Charles Kean’s Shakespearean revivals:

a) ‘The Theatrical Examiner’, The Examiner, 14 February, 1852.

b) ‘Theatrical Success and Shakspere for 100 Nights’, The Era, September 16, 1855.

c) ‘Charles Kean and the Modern Stage’, Blackwood’s, April 1868, pp. 481-484.

41. Clement Scott, From ‘The Bells’ to ‘King Arthur’ (London: John McQueen, 1897).

a) The Bells, pp. 3-7

b) A Story of Waterloo, pp. 363-368

2.3. Victorian Acting and Scenography

Headnote

42. William Bodham Donne, ‘The Drama’, Essays on the Drama (London: John W. Parker & Son, 1858), pp. 120-128, 153-155.

43. G. H Lewes, ‘On Natural Acting’, in On Actors and the Art of Acting (New York: Henry Holt, 1880), pp. 100-112.

44. Henry Irving, ‘Preface’, to Denis Diderot, Paradox of the Actor, translated by Walter Herries Pollock (London: Chatto & Windus, 1883), p. ix – xx.

45. William Archer, ‘Diderot’s "Paradox of Acting"’, Theatre (1884: Mar.), pp.117-126.

2.4 Sensation Melodramas

Headnote

46. Dion Boucicault, The Corsican Brothers

a) ‘The Theatrical Examiner,’ The Examiner, 28 February, 1852, p. 134.

b) ‘Princess’s’ The Athenaeum, 28 February, 1852, p. 259.

c) ‘Metropolitan Theatres,’ Theatrical Journal, March 1852, p. 66.

d) ‘Our Little Chatter Box’ Theatrical Journal, March 1852.

e) Clement Scott on Henry Irving’s revival of The Corsican Brothers, From ‘The Bells’ to ‘King Arthur’ (London: John McQueen, 1897) p. 177-181.

47. Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (adaptation by Wilkie Collins, 1871)

a) ‘The Woman in White at the Olympic’, The Examiner, 14 October, 1871, p. 1018.

b) ‘The Woman in White’, Pall Mall Gazette, 11 October, 1871.

48. Lady Audley’s Secret (adaptations of the novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon)

a) The Musical World (Vol. 41, No. 11), 14 March, 1863, p. 169.

b) ‘Public Amusements of the Metropolis’, New Sporting Magazine, (No. 268) April, 1863, pp. 351-353.

c) ‘The Theatrical Examiner’, The Examiner, 18 April, 1863, p. 248.

d) ‘Amusements,’ The Penny Illustrated Paper, 7 March, 1863, p. 155.

49. Wilson Barrett, The Sign of the Cross

a) ‘The "Sign of the Cross" at the Lyric,’ The Sketch, January 1896, p. 547-548

b) ‘Waftings from the Wings’, Fun, 14 January, 1896, p. 18.

c) William Archer, ‘Daughters of Babylon’, Theatrical World, 1897, pp. 23-30.

50. Paul M. Potter, Trilby (adapted from the novel by George du Maurier)

a) ‘Mr Tree’s "Trilby" at Manchester’, Morning Post, 9 September, 1895.

b) ‘"Trilby" at the Haymarket’, The Era, 2 November, 1895.

51. Arthur Wing Pinero, The Second Mrs Tanqueray

a) ‘Last Night’s Theatricals’, Reynolds’s Newspaper, 28 May, 1893.

b) ‘St James’s Theatre’, Morning Post, 29 May, 1893.

c) ‘St James’s Theatre’, The Times, 29 May 1893.

Section 9: The New Drama

Headnote

52. Edward Aveling & Eleanor Marx, ‘The Woman Question: from a Socialist Point of View’, Westminster Review, January 1886, pp. 221-222.

53. W. A. Lewis Bettany, ‘Criticism and the Renascent Drama’, The Theatre, June 1892, pp. 277-283.

54. ‘Ibsen’s "Ghosts" at the Theatre Libre, Pall Mall Gazette, 5 June, 1890.

55. ‘Ibsen at the Opéra Comique’, Pall Mall Gazette, 18 July 1889.

56. ‘Novelty Theatre’ Daily Telegraph, 8 June 1889.

57. ‘Novelty Theatre,’ Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 15 June 1889.

58. ‘The Independent Theatre,’ The Times, 1 May 1893.

59. A. B. W., ‘The Drama,’ The Speaker, 6 May 1893, p. 512.