Subjects
Acting Theory and the English Stage, 1700–1830
Editor: Lisa Zunshine
Consulting Editor: Tetsuo Kishi
978 1 85196 901 2: 234x156mm: £450.00/$750.00
During the eighteenth century, treatises on the science of elocution, gesture and naturalness abounded. This five-volume facsimile edition draws together a representative selection of the most difficult-to-access texts from throughout the period.
The edition enables cultural historians to examine the place of stagecraft in the eighteenth-century imagination. What factors shaped the popular market for such writings? How did this burgeoning market affect the stage? In a culture of sympathy, what went into the construction of an identity where the gap between the bodily display of emotion and actual feeling was applauded? What was the relationship of these concepts to the rise of the sentimental novel? The arrangement of the texts enables readers to see eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century publications on acting as a crucial part of the period’s cultural imagination.
Most of the texts included have never been republished and the rarest are taken from the only surviving copy. New editorial material includes a general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index.
This edition will appeal to scholars and students of Eighteenth-Century Studies, History of the Theatre, Cultural History and History of Print.
- Most of these rare sources have never been republished
- Full editorial apparatus includes a substantial general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index in the final volume
- Each facsimile page is digitally cleaned and enhanced, significantly improving on the quality and legibility of the original text
Contents
Volume 1
Tobyas Thomas, The Life of the Late Famous Comedian, Jo Hayns (1701); John Weaver, An Essay Towards an History of Dancing (1712); The Censor (1717); The Prompter (1734–6); William Oldys, Thomas Betterton, and Edmund Curll, The History of the English Stage, from the Restauration to the Present Time (1741); James Parsons, Human Physiognomy Explained (1747); Anon., An Essay on the Stage; or, the Art of Acting. A Poem (1754); Roger Pickering, Reflections Upon Theatrical Expression in Tragedy (1755)
Volume 2
The Theatrical Examiner (1757); The Theatrical Review (1757-8); Thomas Wilkes, A General View of the Stage (1759); Robert Lloyd, The Actor: A Poetical Epistle to Bonnell Thornton (1760)*; The Theatrical Review: or, Annals of the Drama (1763)
Volume 3
Paul Hiffernan, Dramatic Genius (1770); The Theatrical Review; or New Companion to the Play-House (1772); The Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine (1773); The Sentimental Spouter; or, Young Actor’s Companion (1774); William Cooke, The Elements of Dramatic Criticism (1775); Thomas Young, ‘The Siddoniad . . . a Characteristical and Critical Poem’ (1784); Anon., ‘The Modern Stage Exemplified, in an Epistle to a Young Actor’ (1788)*; Anon., The New Thespian Oracle; Containing Original Strictures on Oratory and Acting (1791); John Palmer, The New Spouter’s Companion (1792); Joseph Haslewood, The Secret History of the Green-Room: Containing Authentic and Entertaining Memoirs of the Actors and Actresses in the Three Theatres Royal (1795); The Dramatic Censor; or, Weekly Theatrical Report (1800)
Volume 4
The Theatrical Speaker; or, an Elucidation of the Whole Science of Acting (1807); Christian Augustus Gottlieb Goede, The Stranger in England; or, Travels in Great Britain: Containing Remarks on the Politics, Laws, Manners . . . with Criticisms on the Stage (1807); Thomas Gilliland, The Dramatic Mirror (1808); Anon., The Prompter, or Cursory Hints to Young Actors. A Didactic Poem (1810); Anon., The Thespian Preceptor; or, A Full Display of the Scenic Art (1807); The Dramatic Censor; or, Critical and Biographical Illustration of the British Stage (1811)
Volume 5
The Theatrical Inquisitor, or, Literary Mirror (1812–3); The Monthly Theatrical Reporter (1814); Charles Newton, Studies in the Science and Practice of Public Speaking, Reading & Recitation (1817); John Brown of Great Yarmouth, The Stage: A Poem (1819)*; Thomas Rede, The Road to the Stage; or The Performer’s Preceptor (1827); George Grant, An Essay on the Science of Acting. By a Veteran Stager (1828)
*Texts reproduced in full are indicated by an asterisk