NineteenthCentury Drama in the early 19 th century

Nineteenth-Century Drama in the early 19 th century

Beginnings • When the century began, drama was at its lowest ebb. • George III was that „old, mad, blind, despised and dying king”, that Shelley described, and his son became regent in 1812 before becoming George IV (1820 -1830). • He was liked no better than his father, and his brother, William IV (1830 -1837), antagonized the politicians. • It was quite a change when the young Victoria (1837 -1901) became popular. • She loved theatre and, by the end of her reign, „the new drama” had emerged.

Queen Victoria

Drama in the early 19 th century • For the first 15 years of the century, Britons were occupied with the Napoleonic War and with the heroic figures of Nelson and Wellington. • But the great urban centres had so grown that widespread poverty arose after the war; authorities severely repressed the workers. • It was only after the Reform Act of 1832 that prosperity increased and civil war was averted.

Theatrical conditions • The patent theatres both burned down and were rebuilt on a massive scale: • Drury Lane (1812) had a capacity of over 3200 while Covent Garden (1809) held slightly less. • Their huge size coarsened acting; performers had to indulge in rant (szavalás) and bombast (fellengzős) to be effective over large distances. • The large auditoriums also encouraged physical extravagance in plots and scenic effects; thus tastes coarsened, too.

Patent theatre • The patent theatres were theatres that were licensed to perform "spoken drama" after the English Restoration of Charles II in 1660. • Other theatres were prohibited from performing such "serious" drama, but were permitted to show comedy, pantomime or melodrama. • Drama was also interspersed with singing or dancing, to prevent the whole being too serious or dramatic.

• The Lyceum introduced gas lighting early in the century, followed by the patent theatres in 1817. • Gas lighting was flexible and easier to control: light could increase or fade quickly or slowly; various areas of the stage could be lit independently; and the soft radiance of gas created a fantasy world of compelling conviction. • Limelight was invented in 1825 and steadily came into general use. • Limelight gave an intense white light with a greenish hue. • Held by a technician high up in the gallery, its brilliant circle of light followed the leading performer around the stage.

• The limelight was unreliable and dangerous but was used for generations; only in the twentieth century was it slowly phased out as modern electric lanterns became more effective. • Traditions of great scene painting evolved: the Grieve family began its work at Covent Garden; and William Telbin worked at the Lyceum before moving to Covent Garden (1840).

• The increased size of London led to a greater audience. Smaller theatres sprang up. • There were amphitheatres in Whitechapel, Shoreditch, and elsewhere. • South of the Thames, the Royal Circus became the Surrey Theatre (1810), and the Coburg (1816) changed its name to the Royal Victoria in 1833. • In inner London, in addition to the patent houses, there were the Lyceum, The Olympic (1806), the Strand (1832), and the St. James’ (1835).

The Lyceum Theatre

Dramatic forms • The plays had to satisfy a new audience. • The expansion of London, and the increased capacity of the patent theatres, brought the working class into the playhouses. • They knew their power. • Theater riots became a kind of class war. • First, the middle class were driven from the pit to the boxes. • In 1809, Kemble tried to increase the price of admission to the pit, and riots closed Covent Garden for 67 nights.

Theatre Riots

• The forestage was reduced, which increased the numbers in the pit. • The performance, which satrted at 6: 00 p. m. (halfprice for those coming after 8: 00), consisted of at least three pieces: the main piece – usually sendwiched between two others, one of which was the afterpiece. • Thus the entire performance lasted for four or five hours or longer. • It was no wonder that tragedy and comedy degenerated into crude melodrama and farce. • Polite society did not return to theatres until Victoria had reigned for some years.

• The law said that only at Covent Garden and Drury Lane might characters in a play speak aloud to one another. • Thus mostly dumb shows were performed at the smaller theatres. • This let to utter simplicity (a black beard signified a villain) and magnification of action. • For variety there were singing, dancing, combats, pageantry, and magnificient scenery.

Dramatists • Most dramatist of this period were infected by that and can be quickly passed over. • Douglas William Jerrold (1803 -1857), who founded Punch (1841), established the pattern of the English nautical melodrama with Black Eyed Susan (1829). • John Sheridan Knowles (1788 -1862), an Irish cousin of Sheridan’s, combined classic themes, an Elizabethan manner, melodramatic situations, and the lower-middle-class taste of the audience.

Early Victorian Drama • The accession of Victoria in 1837 ushered in „the hungry forties”, a period of severe economic depression. • The novels of Charles Dickens, which brilliantly portray the domestic facts of misery and poverty, were all written between 1837 and 1870. • The poverty was worst in London. • The new railways had vastly increased its population, from 3/4 of a million in 1801 to two million in Victoria’s first years. • However, the railways stimulated employment.

• Prosperity began to return, so that in the 1850 s Britain became „the workshop of the world”. • The Great Exhibition of 1851 was an international trade advertisement on a grand scale. • Britain exported nearly three billion yards of cotton cloth each year, while her coal production was double that of Germany, France, and Belgium combined.

• Yet despite the expanding wealth, there were disturbing sings: these were the years of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny; moreover the poverty of the cities remained, even if it was not so obvious as in the 1840 s.

Theatrical Conditions • In 1837 theater belonged to the lower-middle and working classes. • By the late 1850 s, however, polite society was trickling back. • Theatre Act of 1834 destroyed the monopoly of the two patent theatres. • This Act merely recognized the growth of the minor houses earlier in the century; there was no immediate rush to build new theatres. • Yet, by 1851, there were 19 active playhouses in London.

• Haymarket removed both its proscenium doors and the forestage to fill the space with reserved stalls for wealthier patrons; steadily, other playhouses followed suit. • By 1850, the end of an act meant the dropping of a curtain which, for the next act, rose to reveal a new setting. • The audience now looked through the prosecnium arch, much like looking through a window onto events.

• The old patent houses turned to opera and spectacular events. • In 1853, Drury Lane even became a circus. • Acting was left mostly to the smaller theatres, where subtlety was needed. • The actor learned flexibility, he constantly changed roles. • Queen Victoria liked theatre. She even had companies perform at Windsor, so that, by 1842, Charles Kean began to supervise them. • This so impressed the middle class that they began to go back to the playhouses.