This chapter brings Charles Dibdin the Younger centre stage, facilitating an assessment of longer-term changes in the late Georgian cultural economy. The focus is the decline of Dibdin’s management of Sadler’s Wells in the years after 1814. The theatre’s wartime success rested on its spectacular, patriotic, aquatic pantomimes, yet a combination of the tense postwar political climate, the changing social constituency of the area in which the theatre was situated, and an increasing disinclination towards the mixed performances the theatre offered all played a part in the losses the theatre sustained in the late 1810s. The author draws a parallel between the decline of Sadler’s Wells and Dibdin’s poetic romance Young Arthur (1819), which, while enthusiastically received by some, was too much of a ‘medley’ to satisfy others. In both the literary and theatrical fields, tastes were changing, leaving practitioners uncertain of their place in this new theatrical economy.
In the spring of 1799 'expectation was on tip-toe' for Sheridan's new play. 1 Pizarro, a spectacular five-act tragedy adapted from Kotzebue's Die Spanier in Peru (1796), boasted an all-star cast including John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons, William Barrymore and Dorothy Jordan; a musical score with accompanying vocal parts especially composed by Michael Kelly; and 'entirely new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations'. 2 In anticipation of 'overflowing' audiences, Drury Lane unbolted its doors as early as three o'clock in the afternoon. Managers correctly predicted that the already well-advertised play, celebrating 'the joint reputation of Sheridan and Kotzebue, and the first dramatic attempt of the former, after an interval of twenty years', would be certain to excite the eager curiosity of metropolitan audiences. 3While the first performance pointed to the need for 'judicious' alterations and curtailments (in order to cut down the play's excessive running time), reviewers confidently identified its 'purity of moral sentiment' and 'genuine and enthusiastic bursts of heroic patriotism' as 'indisputable claims to the patronage of the Public'. 4 Pizarro was played consecutively for the remainder of the season, bringing in revenue that was desperately needed to replenish Drury Lane's depleted coffers. 5 By 1815 the text had already been issued in thirty different editions and Pizarro was
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.