The Author's Farce

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A document reading, "The Author's Farce; and the Pleasures of the Town. As Acted at the Theatre in the Hay-Market. Written by Scriblerus Secundus. —Quis iniquæ / Tam patiens urbis, tam ferreus, ut teneat se? Juv. Sat. I." At the bottom is "London: Printed for J. Roberts, in Warwick-Lane. MDCCXXX."
Title page from The Author's Farce

The Author's Farce and the Pleasures of the Town is a play by the English playwright and novelist

Little Theatre, Haymarket. Written in response to the Theatre Royal's rejection of his earlier plays, The Author's Farce was Fielding's first theatrical success. The Little Theatre allowed Fielding the freedom to experiment, and to alter the traditional comedy genre. The play ran during the early 1730s and was altered for its run starting 21 April 1730 and again in response to the Actor Rebellion of 1733. Throughout its life, the play was coupled with several different plays, including The Cheats of Scapin and Fielding's Tom Thumb
.

The first and second acts deal with the attempts of the central character, Harry Luckless, to woo his landlady's daughter, and his efforts to make money by writing plays. In the second act, he finishes a

allegorical representatives of theatre and other literary genres. After its rejection by one theatre, Luckless's play is staged at another. The third act becomes a play within a play
, in which the characters in the puppet play are portrayed by humans. The Author's Farce ends with a merging of the play's and the puppet show's realities.

The play established Fielding as a popular London playwright, and the press reported that seats were in great demand. Although largely ignored by critics until the 20th century, most agree that the play is primarily a commentary on events in Fielding's life, signalling his transition from older forms of comedy to the new satire of his contemporaries. Fielding's play within a play satirised the way in which the London theatre scene, in his view, abused the literary public by offering new and inferior genres. The Author's Farce is now considered to be a critical success and a highly skilled satire.

Plot

Most of Fielding's plays were written in five acts, but The Author's Farce was written in three. The opening introduces the main character, Harry Luckless, and his attempts to woo Harriot, the daughter of his landlady Mrs. Moneywood. The play begins in much the same way as Fielding's earlier romance-themed comedies, but quickly becomes a different type of play, mocking the literary and theatrical establishment.[1] Luckless is trying to become a successful writer, but lacks the income that would allow him to concentrate on his writing. Although others try to support him financially, Luckless refuses their help; when his friend, Witmore, pays his rent behind his back, Luckless steals the money from Mrs. Moneywood. In the second act, Luckless seeks assistance to help finish his play, The Pleasures of the Town, but is poorly advised, and the work is rejected by his local theatre. Luckless revises his play and succeeds in finding an alternative venue,[2] leading to the third act, in which the work is performed as a puppet show, with actors taking the place of the puppets.[3]

The third act is dominated by the puppet show, a play within the play. It begins when the Goddess of Nonsense chooses a mate from a series of suitors along the

Bantam then arrives to tell Luckless that he is the prince of Bantam. News follows that the King of Bantam has died, and that Luckless is to be made the new king. The play concludes with the revelation that Luckless's landlady is in reality the Queen of "Old Brentford" and that her daughter, Harriot, is now royalty.[7] An epilogue in which four poets discuss how the play should end is brought to a conclusion by a cat, in the form of a woman.[8]

Themes

Fielding uses Luckless and The Author's Farce to portray aspects of his life, including his experience with the London theatre community.

Beggar's Opera than the other works produced by the Scriblerus Club.[17]

The Author's Farce is not a standard comedy; rather, it is a

Pamela, in which a nobleman makes advances upon a servant-maid with the intent of making her his mistress.[22][23]

The blending of the fictional and real worlds at the end of the play represents the inability of individuals to distinguish between fictional and real experience.[24] The final act of the play also serves as Fielding's defence of traditional hierarchical views of literature. He satirises new literary genres with low standards by using personified versions of them during the puppet show.[25] In particular, Fielding mocks how contemporary audiences favoured Italian opera,[26] a dramatic form that he regarded with contempt. Fielding considered it "a foreign intruder that has weaned the public from their native entertainments".[27] The character Signior Opera, the image of the favoured castrato singer within the puppet show, is a parody of the foreigners who performed as singers, along with the audiences that accepted them. Additionally, the character serves as a source of humour that targets 18th-century literary genres; after the character Nonsense chooses the castrato Signior Opera as her husband, Mrs Novel objects, declaring that she gave birth to his child. This act would be physically impossible because Opera is a castrato, and it pokes fun at how the genres and the public treated such individuals. Fielding was not alone in using the castrato image for humour and satire; William Hogarth connects the castrato singer with politics and social problems,[28] and many other contemporary works mock women who favour eunuchs.[29]

Sources

Black and white image of a man facing centre. He is wearing a shoulder length wig, has an elaborate coat with a cloth around his neck. He has a hat under his left arm and both a glove and a watch in his left hand. He is holding up his right hand with the thumb and pointer pressed together.
Colley Cibber as Lord Foppington

Many aspects of the play are drawn from Fielding's own experiences.

John Henley, a clergyman, entertainer, and well-known orator; Monsieur Pantomime is John Rich, a director and theatre manager; and Don Tragedio is Lewis Theobald, an editor and author. Sir Farcical Comick is another version of Colley Cibber, but only in his role as an entertainer.[35]

Fielding drew inspiration from many literary sources and traditions as well as from his own life. The structure and plot of The Author's Farce are similar to those of

Three Hours after Marriage (1717) and The Beggar's Opera (1728).[37] In turn, Fielding's play influenced later Scriblerus Club works, especially Pope's fourth book of his revised Dunciad and possibly Gay's The Rehearsal at Goatham.[38]

Performance history and publication

Monochrome sketch of a man in head-dress looking left. He is wearing a black jacket.
Henry Fielding

The Author's Farce and the Pleasures of the Town was written during 1729.[36] The first press announcement of the play appeared on 18 March 1730 in the Daily Post, stating that it was in rehearsal. An advertisement appeared in the same newspaper shortly afterwards mentioning restricted seating and high ticket prices, suggesting that the play was expected to be a popular entertainment. It opened on Easter Monday, 30 March 1730, at the Little Theatre, Haymarket, and shortly thereafter was billed alongside The Cheats of Scapin. The last act was later made into the companion piece to Hurlothrumbo for one show.[39]

Fielding altered and rewrote The Author's Farce for its second run beginning on 21 April 1730, when it shared the bill with his earlier play Tom Thumb. This combination continued through May and June and was later billed for a revival on 3 July 1730. Starting on 1 August 1730, the third act of The Author's Farce was revived by the Little Theatre during the week of the Tottenham Court fair. On 17 October 1730 an advertisement in the Daily Post announced that a new prologue was to be added. A version without the prologue followed before the play's run ended, to be replaced by The Beggar's Wedding by Charles Coffey. The Author's Farce was briefly revived in November 1730 and January 1731, but only the first two acts of the play were shown. It was paired with the afterpiece Damon and Phillida, which was later replaced by The Jealous Taylor in January 1731. Performances continued into February and March 1731. Productions in 1732 included a new prologue, now lost, that had been added for the 10 May 1731 performance.[40]

On 31 March 1731, The Author's Farce was paired with the Tom Thumb remake, The Tragedy of Tragedies, as a replacement for The Letter Writers, the original companion piece. Although both Tragedy of Tragedies and The Author's Farce were main shows, they alternated on the billing until the 18 June 1731 performance, the final showing of any Fielding play in the Little Theatre except for a 12 May 1732 benefit show of The Author's Farce. The last documented non-puppet version was performed on 28 March 1748 by Theophilus Cibber as a two-act companion piece for a benefit show. The Pleasures of the Town act was performed as a one-act play outside London throughout the century, including a 15-show run at Norwich in 1749 and during the 1750s, and a production at York during the 1751–52 theatre season. Additionally, there were benefit shows that included the third act at a variety of locations, including Dublin, on 19 December 1763 and Edinburgh in 1763.[41] There were also many performances of the puppet theatre versions, including a travelling show by Thomas Yeates, titled Punch's Oratory, or The Pleasures of the Town, which started in 1734.[42]

In response to the Actor Rebellion of 1733, Fielding produced a revised version of The Author's Farce, incorporating a new prologue and epilogue. Performed at the Theatre Royal, it was advertised in the Daily Journal, opening with an inferior replacement cast for some of the important characters. It was joined by The Intriguing Chambermaid and The Harlot's Progress. These were the only performances of the revised version, which was printed together with The Intriguing Chambermade (1734) and included a letter by an unknown writer, possibly Fielding himself.[43] The 1734 edition of the play was printed in 1750, and it was used for all later publications until 1966.[36] Printed texts of the play were included in Arthur Murphy's 1762 Works of Henry Fielding and George Saintsbury's 1893 Works of Henry Fielding. The latter includes The Author's Farce along with only two other plays. The 1903 Works of Henry Fielding, edited by G. H. Maynadier, included only the first two acts.[44] Only three scenes were included in Alfred Howard's The Beauties of Fielding, which collected passages from Fielding's works. George Saintsbury included The Author's Farce and two other plays in a Fielding collected edition of 1893, but ignored the others.[45]

Critical response

The success of The Author's Farce established Fielding as a London playwright;

Harold Pagliaro describes the play as Fielding's "first great success".[47] Catherine Ingrassia, in 2004, attributes its popularity to Fielding's satirical attack on the archetypal woman writer, specifically Haywood.[48] Among contemporary accounts the Daily Post of 2 May 1730 reported that the play received universal approval, and on 6 May that seats were in great demand. The 7 May issue of the Grub Street Journal noted that the play was popular among "Persons of Quality"; many notable figures attended the show, including on the first night John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont, and Frederick, Prince of Wales, whose presence was mentioned in the 28 April 1730 London Evening Post and the 15 May 1730 Daily Post.[49] The only surviving comments from any of those who saw the play come from the diary of the Earl of Egmont, who reported that The Author's Farce and Tom Thumb "are a ridicule on poets, several of their works, as also of operas, etc., and the last of our modern tragedians, and are exceedingly full of humour, with some wit."[50]

The play was hardly discussed at all during the 18th century, and the 19th century mostly followed the same trend. A chapter on the play is included in Frederick Lawrence's Life of Fielding (1855), and it is mentioned by Leslie Stephen and Austin Dobson, who focus on what the play says about Grub Street and Fielding.[45] Most later critics agree with Dobson's judgement that the play primarily provides a commentary on events in Fielding's life, and marks his transition from older forms of comedy to the new satire of his contemporaries.[51] Charles Woods, writing in 1966, argues that The Author's Farce was an integral part of Fielding's career, and dismisses a political reading of the work.[52] Some years earlier, in 1918, Wilbur Lucius Cross had held that the play revealed Fielding's talent for writing farces and burlesques.[53] Writing in 1993, Martin and Ruthe Battestin maintain that the play "was [Fielding's] first experiment in the irregular comic modes ... where his true genius as a playwright at last found scope". They further assert that Fielding was the first to offer audiences "a kind of pointed, inventive foolery", and that his talent for "ridicule and brisk dialogue" and for devising "absurd yet expressionistic plots" was unmatched even in 20th-century theatre.[54] Earlier, Frederick Homes Dudden, had described the puppet show in the third act as "a highly original satire on the theatrical and quasi-theatrical amusements of the day."[55] F. W. Bateson included the play in his 1963 list of "satirical extravaganzas".[56]

J. Paul Hunter, in his 1975 comparison of Fielding's theatrical style and form, notes that while "many of the literary and theatrical jibes are witty," the slow pacing and lack of dramatic conflict make the play seem "essentially untheatrical".[57] Pat Rogers disagrees, reasoning that "Few livelier theatrical occasions can ever have been seen than the original runs of The Author's Farce, with their mixture of broad comedy, personal satire, tuneful scenes and rapid action."[58] Robert Hume, in 1988, comments that the literary structure of The Author's Farce is "ramshackle but effective",[59] although he considers that "Fielding's parody of recognition scenes is done with verve" and "the 'realistic' part of the show is a clever combination of the straightforward and the ironic."[60] Writing in 1998, Thomas Lockwood explains various aspects that make the play great, putting particular emphasis on the "musical third act", which he believes "shows a gift for brilliant theatrical arrangement". Lockwood praises the play's conclusion in particular, and the ever-increasing tempo of events following Murdertext's "explosive invasion".[61]

Cast

1730 cast

Play:[62]

  • Harry Luckless – playwright, played by Mr. Mullart (William Mullart)
  • Harriot Moneywood – daughter of Mrs. Moneywood, played by Miss Palms
  • Mrs Moneywood – Luckless's landlady, played by Mrs. Mullart (Elizabeth Mullart)
  • Witmore – played by Mr. Lacy (James Lacy)
  • Marplay – played by Mr. Reynolds
  • Sparkish – played by Mr. Stopler
  • Bookweight – played by Mr. Jones
  • Scarecrow – played by Mr. Marshal
  • Dash – played by Mr. Hallam
  • Quibble – played by Mr. Dove
  • Blotpage – played by Mr. Wells junior
  • Jack – Luckless's servant, played by Mr. Achurch
  • Jack-Pudding – played by Mr. Reynolds
  • Bantomite – played by Mr. Marshal

Internal puppet show:[63]

  • Player – by Mr. Dove
  • Constable – by Mr. Wells
  • Murder-text – by Mr. Hallam
  • Goddess of Nonsense – by Mrs. Mullart
  • Charon – by Mr. Ayres
  • Curry – by Mr. Dove
  • A Poet – by Mr. W. Hallam
  • Signior Opera – by Mr. Stopler
  • Don Tragedio – by Mr. Marshal
  • Sir Farcical Comick – by Mr. Davenport
  • Dr. Orator – by Mr. Jones
  • Monsieur Pantomime – by Mr. Knott
  • Mrs. Novel – by Mrs. Martin
  • Robgrave – by Mr. Harris
  • Saylor – by Mr. Achurch
  • Somebody – by Mr. Harris junior
  • Nobody – by Mr. Wells junior
  • Punch – by Mr. Hicks
  • Lady Kingcall – by Miss Clarke
  • Mrs. Cheat'em – by Mrs. Wind
  • Mrs. Glass-rin – by Mrs. Blunt
  • Prologue spoken by Mr. Jones[64]
  • Epilogue spoken by four poets, a player and a cat
  • 1st Poet – played by Mr. Jones
  • 2nd Poet – played by Mr. Dove
  • 3rd Poet – played by Mr. Marshall
  • 4th Poet – played by Mr. Wells junior
  • Player – played by Miss Palms
  • Cat – played by Mrs. Martin

1734 altered cast

Play:[65]

  • Index – unlisted actor

Internal puppet show:[66]

  • Count Ugly – unlisted actor
  • Prologue spoken by Mrs. Clive[67]
  • Epilogue spoken by Mrs. Clive[68]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Comparing relative purchasing power of £13 in 1729 with 2008[31]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Rivero 1989 pp. 35–36
  2. ^ Pagliaro 1999 pp. 70–71
  3. ^ Rivero 1989 p. 37
  4. ^ a b Pagliaro 1999 pp. 71–72
  5. ^ Campbell 1995 p. 33
  6. ^ Lockwood 2004 p. 282
  7. ^ Pagliaro 1999 p. 72
  8. ^ Hunter 1975 p. 54
  9. ^ Pagliaro 1999 pp. 69–70
  10. ^ a b Koon 1986 p. 123
  11. ^ Rivero 1989 p. 23
  12. ^ Rivero 1989 pp. 31–34
  13. ^ Lockwood 2004 p. 189
  14. ^ Rivero 1989 pp. 34–35
  15. ^ Pagliaro 1999 p. 71
  16. ^ Campbell 1995 pp. 32–34
  17. ^ Warner 1998 p. 242
  18. ^ Rivero 1989 pp. 38–41
  19. ^ Freeman 2002 pp. 59–63
  20. ^ Fielding 1967 p. 16
  21. ^ Rivero 1989 pp. 33–37
  22. ^ Warner 1998 p. 241
  23. ^ Castro-Santana 2016 pp 637-41
  24. ^ Freeman 2002 pp. 64–65
  25. ^ Ingrassia 2004 pp. 21–22
  26. ^ Roose-Evans 1977 p. 35
  27. ^ van der Voorde 1966 p. 96
  28. ^ Campbell 1995 pp. 33–34
  29. ^ Campbell 1995 pp. 32–36
  30. ^ Pagliaro 1999 p. 70
  31. ^ Officer, Lawrence H. (2009), Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to Present, MeasuringWorth, archived from the original on 24 November 2009, retrieved 29 April 2010
  32. ^ Battestin and Battestin 1993 pp. 72–73
  33. ^ Freeman 2002 pp. 62–63
  34. ^ Rawson 2008 p. 23
  35. ^ Hume 1988 p. 64
  36. ^ a b c Hume 1988 p. 63
  37. ^ Lockwood 2004 pp. 188–190
  38. ^ Lockwood 2004 p. 205
  39. ^ Lockwood 2004 pp. 192–193
  40. ^ Lockwood 2004 pp. 194–196
  41. ^ Lockwood 2004 pp. 196–197
  42. ^ Speaight 1990 p. 157
  43. ^ Lockwood 2004 pp. 194–199
  44. ^ Lockwood 2004 pp. 204–206
  45. ^ a b Lockwood 2004 pp. 205–206
  46. ^ Rivero 1989 p. 31
  47. ^ Pagliaro 1998 p. 69
  48. ^ Ingrassia 2004 p. 106
  49. ^ Lockwood 2004 pp. 194–195
  50. ^ Lockwood 2004 qtd p. 204
  51. ^ Lockwood 2004 p. 206
  52. ^ Woods 1966 p. XV
  53. ^ Cross 1918 p. 80
  54. ^ Battestin and Battestin 1993 p. 83
  55. ^ Dudden 1966 p. 54
  56. ^ Bateson 1963 pp. 121–126
  57. ^ Hunter 1975 p. 53
  58. ^ Rogers 1979 p. 49
  59. ^ Hume 1988 pp. 63–64
  60. ^ Hume 1988 pp. 64–65
  61. ^ Lockwood 2004 p. 212
  62. ^ Fielding 2004 p. 227
  63. ^ Fielding 2004 pp. 227–228
  64. ^ Fielding 2004 p. 222
  65. ^ Fielding 2004 p. 304
  66. ^ Fielding 2004 p. 305
  67. ^ Fielding 2004 p. 297
  68. ^ Fielding 2004 p. 299

Bibliography

External links

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