Batrley Campbell
☛From an article on Campbell by Dr. Boli: “By many accounts the first American to make his living as a playwright was Bartley Campbell. He wrote for theaters in Pittsburgh, whence his plays propagated across the country. They were perfectly suited to the middlebrow tastes of the American theatergoer in the later 1800s. No one’s heroines were more virtuous, no one’s villains sneerier than Campbell’s.” —Though he was fabulously popular, it is very difficult to find Campbell’s plays in libraries. A collected edition was published too recently to be out of copyright; this is the only one we have found in a nineteenth-century edition.
Little Sunshine. Play in five acts. Written by Bartley Campbell. London: Samuel French; New York: Samuel French & Son, [1874?]. —French’s acting edition, with synopses, lists of props, descriptions of sets, etc.
Henry Carey
The tragedy of Chrononhotonthologos: being the most tragical tragedy that ever was tragediz’d by any Company of Tragedians. Written by Benjamin Bounce Esq. Edinburgh, 1734.
Mrs. Cowley (Hannah Cowley)
☛From the continued new editions for many decades, we can see how popular Mrs. Cowley’s comedies were. “Mrs. Cowley is one of those writers in whom, if there be little to blame, there is nothing much to praise. Her characters are, for the most part, lively sketches, rather than finished portraits; her dialogue is easy, but without the brilliancy of wit, or the polish of elegance; and her plots are meagre in point of invention—they are a succession of incidents, not always connected by a regular story.” —From an introduction signed “D——G.” to an 1850 edition of The Belle’s Stratagem. To which we may reasonably reply that the play was still being acted and printed more than seventy years after its first performance, and the audiences must have seen something in it they liked.
The
Belle’s Stratagem, A Comedy, as acted at the Theatre-Royal in
Covent-Garden. By Mrs. Cowley. London: Printed for T. Cadell, in the
Strand. 1782.
Second
edition, 1787.
Illustrated
1850 edition.
A Bold Stroke for a Husband, A Comedy, as acted at the Theatre Royal, in Covent Garden. By Mrs. Cowley. Third edition. London: Printed by M. Scott, Chancery-Lane, for T. Evans, Paternoster-Row. 1784.
A Bold Stroke for a Husband, A Comedy, in Five Acts: By Mrs. Cowley. As Performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, and Park Theatre, New-York. With remarks by Mrs. Inchbald. New-York: Published by E. B. Clayton, No. 2 Chambers-Street. 1831.
A Day in Turkey; or, The Russian Slaves. A Comedy, as it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. By Mrs. Cowley. Dublin, 1792.
The
Runaway, A Comedy: As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in
Drury-Lane. London: Printed for the Author, 1776.
Dublin edition,
the same year.
Which is the Man? A Comedy, as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden. By Mrs. Cowley. The fifth edition. London: Printed for C. Dilly, in the Poultry. 1785.