Annotations by George Joseph Bell on plays from Mrs. Inchbald's British theatre [manuscript], ca. 1808.

Annotations by George Joseph Bell on plays from Mrs. Inchbald's British theatre [manuscript], ca. 1808.

British theatre (1808)

3 v ; 17 x 11 cm

Manuscript notes on the acting of Sarah Siddons and her contemporaries, especially in Macbeth, interleaved throughout a uniformly bound set of plays from Inchbald's The British theatre (London : Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1808). Bell's annotations also include slash marks (to indicate the rise and fall of Siddons' voice) and underlining to mark words she spoke with special emphasis.

Interleaved notes on "Mrs. Siddons's Lady Macbeth" and as Queen Katherine in King Henry VIII, as well as on performances of J.P. Kemble and William Charles Macready as Macbeth. Includes indication that some "extra notes copied from another copy of Macbeth annotated by G.J. Bell."

Interleaved notes and marginalia on "Mrs. Siddons's readings" (including the observation "She read Hamlet - & the Merchant of Venice - Lear I think should be read by _her_ not acted"), Lear "as altered by that Blockhead Tate," Edmund Kean in Merchant of Venice (including mention of blocking and his expressions), and performances by Edmund Kean, Charles Kean, and Sarah Siddons in Hamlet.

Interleaved notes on Mrs. Siddons as Mrs. Beverley (in Edward Moore's The gamester) and as Lady Randolph (in John Home's Douglas)

Some of the notes are quoted in Macbeth and the players by D. Bartholomeusz (e.g. on p. 104), apparently taken from Papers on acting ed. Brander Matthews, 1958. Bartholomeusz identifies writer of notes as Prof. John Bell.

Notes on Siddons in the roles of Lady Macbeth and Queen Katherine published by Fleeming Jenkin in Mrs. Siddons as Lady Macbeth / from contemporary notes by George Joseph Bell (London, 1878)

Calf binding; spine title: Siddons.

Bookplate of George Joseph Bell, Esq. (motto: Justitiae soror fides)

British theatre. London : Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1808.

Great Britain -- England.

W.a.70-72 (ms. content)

cs939