Selection Guide to Dickens's Amateur Theatricals- Part 1

A school friend recalls their performances of The Miller and His Men and Cherry and Fair Star,2 while Dickens himself writes, 'Out of this delight springs the toy-theatre [...] in the getting-up of The Miller and his Men, and Elizabeth, or the Exile of Siberia'.3 At or near the age of sixt...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Dickensian 2011-12, Vol.107 (485), p.220
Main Author: Hanna, Robert C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actors
British & Irish literature
Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)
English literature
Governors
Hearing
Theater
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:A school friend recalls their performances of The Miller and His Men and Cherry and Fair Star,2 while Dickens himself writes, 'Out of this delight springs the toy-theatre [...] in the getting-up of The Miller and his Men, and Elizabeth, or the Exile of Siberia'.3 At or near the age of sixteen, Dickens might have performed at home in The Stratagems of Rozanza, a manuscript adapted from an Italian comedy by Carlo Goldoni and cleverly revised to allow a cast of eight to perform twelve roles.4 During his 1827-28 employment as a clerk for London solicitors Ellis and Blackmore, he revealed to fellow clerk George Lear that 'he had often taken parts in amateur theatricals before he came to us'.5 Moreover, Lear and Dickens began accompanying clerk C, Potter6 to Minor Theatre in Catherine Street, Strand, where Mr Potter and others paid for the opportunity to act before an audience. On her way to the King, she offers to aid a fairy in disguise and receives in return a trunk with treasures; Comrade the Talking Horse; seven servants gifted with strength, speed, marksmanship, hearing, exhaling wind, eating endlessly, and drinking endlessly; and a man's name 'Fortunio'.
ISSN:0012-2440