Articles

1. John 'Henry' Carles (1775-1837): Forgotten Star of the Georgian Stage

   Diane Brunning

   In 1824, the author of The Biography of the British Stage remarked,

   [o]f all the professions, the most precarious, either in regard to future fame or present livelihood, the Actor’s stands unrivalled … “the poor Player” must be content with the homage he receives while living, and may safely assure himself, that, when his powers of pleasing shall have passed away, he will be forgotten as completely as if he had never existed (v).

   There were periods during John ‘Henry’ Carles’s career when it suited him to disappear from public view and at times he worked under a pseudonym. Yet, despite thirty years on the English stage, during which he performed alongside some of the greats of the era, as predicted by the dictionary’s author, his name has long since fallen into oblivion and he has been completely overlooked in histories of early nineteenth-century theatre.

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2. Staging Race in the British Toy Theatre

   James Armstrong

   Toy theatres were a fixture of British childhood during the Regency era, and continued to be remembered throughout the nineteenth century. In William Makepeace Thackeray’s Regency-set novel Vanity Fair (written 1847-48) for instance, young Georgy Osborne and his friend Todd both have a taste for “painting theatrical characters” (562) — a tendency that might puzzle modern readers, who if they are unacquainted with the theatrical prints available during the era, might be unsure of whether or not the boys are taking paintbrushes to the actors at the theatres they frequent. In fact, they are engaging in a youthful activity quite familiar to Thackeray and his audience, even though it was no longer at its apex by the time the novel was written in the middle of the century. The two lads are colouring black-and-white prints of costumed actors that could be found in any number of stationers’ shops at the time. Smaller figures could be cut out, mounted on a firm backing, and used to re-enact dramas in toy theatres designed for family entertainment, an activity illustrated by numerous artists of the period, including John Leech. Thackeray clarifies what the youngsters in the novel are doing when he writes that the boys put on performances for “the Todd family and their youthful friends, with West’s famous characters, on their pasteboard theatre” (563).

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