The iron chest : a play; in three acts. Written by George Colman, the younger. With a preface and postscript. ...
1796
Items
Details
Title
The iron chest : a play; in three acts. Written by George Colman, the younger. With a preface and postscript. ...
Edition
The second edition.
Created/published
London : Printed by W. Woodfall. For Messrs. Cadell and Davies, 1796.
Description
[4],xxvii,[1],107,[1]p. ; (8vo)
Associated name
Colman, George, 1762-1836, author.
Note
With a half-title.
Source of acquisition
copy 2
hldg 506223
hldg 506223
Cited/described in
English short title catalogue (ESTC), N8675
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England -- London.
Item Details
Call number
PR4501.C3I9 1796 Cage
Call number
FAST ACC 271843 (folio)
Folger-specific note
Purchase made possible by The Karen Gundersheimer Acquisitions Endowment. This copy has not yet been cataloged. The description may contain incorrect information. The "FAST ACC" number is a temporary call number. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance. Ordered from Antiquariat INLIBRIS, Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH D9342, 2019-08-27, email quote. From dealer's description: Contemporary manuscript copy of this ‘suppressed’ play including a vituperative attack on John Philip Kemble, the most celebrated actor of his age. Colman placed the blame for the initial failure of his The Iron Chest squarely upon the shoulders of Kemble, and attached a scathing preface and post-script to the text of the play for its second edition; subsequently, Colman and Kemble seem to have resolved their differences and the calumnies were omitted in further editions. The present manuscript, evidently copied by a contemporary hand, probably attests to both the scandalous popularity of this iconoclastic attack as well as the difficulty in procuring a printed copy (though today printed editions are not as much of a bibliographical rarity as once assumed). As the Dictionary of National Biography tells us, “The Iron Chest, a three-act drama, taken from Godwin's Caleb Williams, with music by Storace, Drury Lane, 12 March 1796, was the first play of Colman's produced elsewhere than at the Haymarket. Though it remains an acting play, and has supplied Kean and other tragedians with a favourite character, it was at first a failure. Colman attributed the responsibility of this to Kemble, the exponent of [the main character] Sir Edward Mortimer. To the first published edition, accordingly, he affixed a petulant, abusive, and ill-natured preface, afterwards suppressed, which has rendered the edition a bibliographical rarity.” George Colman the Younger (1762–1836) was the son of two actors and became a successful dramatist and theatrical manager of the Haymarket in his own right. The preface here first attacks in colorful language the critics who had slandered The Iron Chest on its opening night (“Good venal and venomous gentlemen, who dabble in ink for pay or from pique, and who have dubb’d yourselves Criticks, keep your distance now! Run home to your garrets! Fools! Ye are but Ephemera at best; and will die soon enough, in the paltry course of your insignificant natures…”). Blow-by-blow, Colman then describes Kemble’s disastrous performance and the circumstances leading up to it: for example, just three hours before the opening, Kemble’s prompter notified Colman that two important scenes were to be transposed due to staging difficulties. Cruel language is used to describe Kemble’s theatrical skills, delivery, and characterization (“He was not only dull in himself, but the cause of dullness in others…”, etc.); and frequent reference is even made to the great actor’s drug use; Colman writes that he encountered Kemble just before the opening curtain swallowing opium pills “and nobody who is acquainted with that gentleman will doubt me when I assert, that they are a medicine which he has long been in the habit of swallowing”. The post-script included here in turn celebrates the triumphant performance of the play as it was intended at Colman’s own Haymarket theatre. * cf ESTC T20792 & N8675 (no discernable difference).
Call number
FAST ACC 271404 (quarto)
Folger-specific note
This copy noted as Samuel Ireland's copy, lacking last leaf. From dealer's description on printed card with item, "With autograph of "SAML. IRELAND on both halftitle and title." Order information unknown. This copy has not yet been cataloged. The description may contain incorrect information. The "FAST ACC" number is a temporary call number. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Folger accession
271404