THEATRE REVIEWS

22. Joseph’s Sweetheart (1888)

Joseph’s Sweetheart
by Robert Buchanan (adapted from the novel, Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding).
London: Vaudeville Theatre. 8 March to 17 August, 1888. Followed by provincial tour.
London: Vaudeville Theatre. 24 September to 16 January, 1889. (260th performance).
London: Vaudeville Theatre. 28 November, 1889 to 10 January, 1890.

The Stage (2 March, 1888 - p.13)

     Titles of new plays are so frequently altered at the last moment that it is with a feeling of doubt that I mention that Robert Buchanan’s new play for the Vaudeville is called Joseph’s Sweetheart. By-the-bye, will not this name suggest to many who do not know the source of Buchanan’s plot the incident in the lives of Joseph and of Potiphar’s wife?

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The Graphic (3 March, 1888 - Issue 953)

     Joseph’s Sweetheart—such is the title which Mr. Robert Buchanan has given to his new comedy based on Fielding’s “Adventures of Joseph Andrews”—is in active preparation at the VAUDEVILLE. Its successive scenes, spread over five acts, will, it is expected, present many striking pictures of life and manners in the Hogathian days of King George II. Joseph’s “sweetheart” is, of course, Fanny. She will be played by the fascinating Miss Kate Rorke, who, by the way, is to marry, next summer, Mr. Gardiner, the popular actor who played the hero in Pleasure at Drury Lane. This is as it should be—that is to say, clever actresses should marry actors, and not peers of the realm and such haughty folk, who generally require them to forswear the stage. Here let us note that Mr. Thomas Thorne plays Parson Adams, Mr. Conway Joseph, Miss Eliza Johnstone Mrs. Slipslop, and Mr. F. Thorne Llewellyn—a character for whose introduction into the story Mr. Buchanan’s invention alone is responsible.

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The Times (9 March, 1888 - p.10)

THE THEATRES.

VAUDEVILLE.

     Mr. Robert Buchanan’s second adaptation of Fielding, Joseph’s Sweetheart, was brought out at the Vaudeville yesterday afternoon and proved to be a worthy pendant to Sophia, whose success, in all probability, it will rival. As Sophia was a version of “Tom Jones,” so the present play tells the story of “Joseph Andrews,” with improvements suggested by the conditions of dramatic effect and also, we may add, by the improved tone of polite conversation. To quote an “author’s note” on the playbill, Joseph’s Sweetheart is “rather a play utilizing some of Fielding’s characters than a dramatization of Fielding’s story.” It is Mr. Robert Buchanan’s good fortune to have perceived great dramatic potentialities in a novel hitherto disdained by the adapter; and a more wholesome, more vigorous, more interesting, more enjoyable play than he has fashioned out of it the public could not wish to see. The success of yesterday’s performance was unequivocal. That fielding is no longer read by the masses is not a matter likely to affect the popularity of Joseph’s Sweetheart in the smallest degree. The spectator is not called upon to brush up his knowledge of the original in order to understand either the adapter’s characters or his situations. Clear and straightforward in construction, the play tells its own story, and its pulse, so to speak, beats throughout with a steady, healthy throb. As his mainspring of action Mr. Buchanan has given prominence to the jealous vindictiveness of Lady Booby toward Joseph Andrews and his rustic sweetheart, Fanny Goodwill, whose abduction by the scented dandy and libertine, Lord Fellamar, is planned and carried out at her instigation. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Lady Booby gives a pointed illustration of the axiom. Her passion for her erstwhile lackey, who is subsequently found to be of aristocratic birth and who has spurned her advances, turns into a hate that knows no bounds. Her project of revenge being foiled, for the innocent Fanny is rescued from her ravisher’s clutches at a night fête in Ranelagh-gardens, she declines to accept the inevitable, and at the close of the fifth act, when the happiness of the lovers is assured, she leaves the stage cursing them. It is a terrible picture which is thus drawn of a jealous woman’s fury and implacability, and Miss Vane, who plays Lady Booby, does the fullest justice to it, aided as she is by a handsome and imposing presence. Lest invidious comparisons should be drawn, let us hasten to say that the play has been no less fortunate in obtaining the support of Mr. H. B. Conway as Joseph and Miss Kate Rorke as the persecuted Fanny. They make a noble pair of lovers, whose varying fortunes are followed with the most sympathetic interest. How little the theatrical public care, after all, for that alloy of the goodness of human nature so much affected by naturaliste writers! Joseph Andrews is all that is upright, brave, and loyal, Fanny Goodwill all that is faithful and devoted, and the spectacle of so much virtue sends the house into raptures.
     The character of Parson Adams, one of the best known in the whole range of the 18th century fiction, stands in the relation of an accessory to Mr. Buchanan’s dramatic scheme, but it is so closely interwoven with the action, and so admirably embodied by Mr. Thomas Thorne, as to be the most prominent of all. The quaint figure of the rustic, simple-minded cleric who is passing rich on something less than £40 a year is met with at every turn, and one of the prettiest scenes of the piece is a representation of his humble cottage with a glimpse of its domestic life. Parson Adams preaches peace, but the wrongs of the world cause him to brandish menacingly at frequent intervals the stout-knotted stick that he always carries. This character is one of Mr. Thorne’s most delightful creations, far superior in point of interest and artistic truth to his Partridge. The habit of the pulpit is strong upon the venerable divine, but under his clerical manner human nature peeps forth with the most refreshing effect. Among other characters entitled to rank as flesh and blood are Lord Fellamar by Mr. Cyril Maude, Mrs. Adams by Miss Gladys Homfrey, Gipsy Jim by Mr. J. S. Blythe, Sir George Wilson, father of the long-lost Joseph, by Mr. William Rignold, Fellamar’s Welsh factotum Llewellyn ap Griffith by Mr. F. Thorne, and Mrs. Slipslop by Miss Eliza Johnstone. Most of the characters of the piece, indeed, exhibit a genuine kinship with humanity. It is curious to note that Mrs. Slipslop is the undoubted parent of Mrs. Malaprop, although her “derangement of epitaphs” is not perhaps quite so amusing. Considering the smallness of the stage of the Vaudeville wonders have been done in the way of scenic effect, particularly as regards the view of Ranelagh-gardens by night, where, by the way, the austere cleric falls into the hands of a bevy of enchanting damsels, greatly to his perplexity and alarm. Joseph’s Sweetheart is, on the whole, a stronger and better play than Sophia; it may suffer a little, however, in public estimation from being second in order.

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The Era (10 March, 1888 - Issue 2581)

“JOSEPH’S SWEETHEART.”

A New Comedy-Drama, in Five Acts, by Robert Buchanan,
Founded on Fielding’s Novel “Joseph Andrews,”
Played for the First Time at the Vaudeville Theatre,
on Thursday Afternoon, March 8th, 1888.

Joseph Andrews     ...     ...     ...     Mr H. B. CONWAY
Sir George Wilson  ...     ...     ...     Mr WILLIAM RIGNOLD
Llewellyn ap Griffith        ...     ...     Mr FREDERICK THORNE
Gipsy Jim                ...     ...     ...     Mr J. S. BLYTHE
Squire Booby          ...     ...     ...     Mr SCOTT BUIST
Lord Fellamar          ...     ...     ...     Mr CYRIL MAUDE
Sir Harry Dapper     ...     ...     ...     Mr FRANK GILMORE
Parson Adams         ...     ...     ...     Mr THOMAS THORNE
Fanny Goodwill       ...     ...     ...     Miss KATE RORKE
Mrs Slipslop            ...     ...     ...     Miss ELIZA JOHNSTONE
Mrs Adams             ...     ...     ...     Miss GLADYS HOMFREY
Abe                         ...     ...     ...     Miss BOWMAN
Mrs Green               ...     ...     ...     Miss BESSIE HARRISON
Lady Spangle           ...     ...     ...     Miss GRACE ARNOLD
Lady Flutter             ...     ...     ...     Miss BANNISTER
Lady Booby             ...     ...     ...     Miss VANE
Lord Supple             ...     ...     ...     Mr SILVESTRE
Gamekeeper             ...     ...     ...     Mr AUSTIN
Constable                 ...     ...     ...     Mr WHEATMAN
Lord Fellamar’s Servant   ...     ...     Mr WILSON

     In attempting to find materials for a play in “Joseph Andrews,” in the same way as he successfully dealt with Sophia, Mr Buchanan set himself a second task much harder than his first. Having said so much with reference to the foundation of Joseph’s Sweetheart, we need not enter into any elaborate essays upon the origin of Mr Buchanan’s play. The question is, after all, not how much or how little the dramatist is indebted to Fielding, but at how much advantage he has invested his borrowings, and how he has arranged his own narrative. There is no suspicion of caricature about Mr Buchanan’s Joseph. He is a first-rate hero, muscular and admirable entirely, and his livery suits him excessively well. We find him in the first act in Lady Booby’s boudoir, and here he is wooed by that amorous dame, and his sweetheart Fanny is favourably “remarked” by that very fine gentleman Lord Fellamar. Lady Booby’s declaration is followed by Joseph’s rejection of her proposal of marriage, and an accusation by her against Joseph of his having grossly insulted her leads to his dismissal from her service. We find him, however, hale and hearty, in the second act, at Parson Adams’s cottage. Here Lord Fellamar’s Welsh chaplain and “creature,” Llewellyn ap Griffith, comes and, pretending to be a publisher anxious to buy Adams’s sermons, gets him out of the way, and assists Lord Fellamar to carry off Fanny. Joseph enters, and with the Parson’s assistance is beating down the ravishers when Griffith, to save his patron, stabs Andrews, who falls wounded, whilst Fanny is borne away. In the next act we find the wealthy Sir George Wilson in his lonely manor-house lamenting the loss of his only son, who was stolen away by gipsies when a mere child. A certain Gipsy Jim is brought up by the constables, and makes the restoration of Sir George’s lost offspring the price of his (Jim’s) release. Parson Adams arrives to seek shelter at the manor house, having been turned out of his living by its patron the revengeful Lady Booby; and after Joseph has been introduced and has vowed vengeance on Lord Fellamar, the gipsy returns and discloses the fact that Andrews is Sir George’s son. We are next taken to Lord Fellamar’s house, where Fanny is a prisoner. Fellamar, in a fit of irritation, chastises Griffith, who, in retaliation, goes over to the enemy, and advises Fanny to ask Fellamar to take her to see Ranelagh, where he (Griffith) will arrange for her rescue. Thinking that she is yielding to his proposals, the peer consents; and in the last scene of the act we get to Ranelagh Gardens, where most of the principal characters arrive. Fellamar pursues Fanny into a kiosk, and locks the door. Joseph in the full pride of his gentlemanhood, enters, bursts down the door, and releases her. Fellamar’s friends gather round him with drawn swords; but they are confronted by Adams and Griffiths with his friends. Andrews strikes Fellamar, and dares him to a deadly combat, which takes place in the last act, but not coram populo, and Fellamar is wounded, Joseph being saved by the MSS. of Adams’s sermons being used to serve as a shield for his vitals. Fellamar acknowledges Fanny’s innocence, Lady Booby departs chagrined and defeated, the lovers are united, and Adams is presented by Sir George Wilson with a living of a hundred a year.
     The mounting of the piece was learned, lavish, and elaborate. Lady Booby’s boudoir in the first act was a literal reproduction of a well-known cartoon from the series of “Marriage à la Mode.” The exterior of Adams’s cottage, with its real thatch and glass, was a striking instance of the combination of actual construction with clever cloth and profile painting. Lord Fellamar’s room in the fourth act was carefully finished, though the insertion of a modern French picture on the chimney piece was a strange archæological error. Ranelagh Gardens was a bright and pretty set, and the tavern in which the last act was played, with its spits and dish-covers, was a model scene of its kind. The costumes, too, were picturesque, accurate, and appropriate. The only defect of the play is its lack of continuous and centralised interest. We are occasionally “switched” off the main line of the story into a siding, and there is also a good deal of dialogue which is redundant. Nor is it only words that might be dispensed with. The last act is unnecessary, and Joseph might just as well punish Lord Fellamar at the end of the fourth, so far as dramatic interest is concerned. Nevertheless, marvels have been worked ere now by judicious curtailment and revision; and the fresh purity of its tone, the dramatic nature of its stronger scenes, and the healthy humour and honest pathos which pervade the piece, make Joseph’s Sweetheart a charming and agreeable play.
     A better Joseph Andrews than Mr H. B. Conway it would be hard to find. With the sturdy frame and personal comeliness which account for the praises lavished upon Joseph by Lady Booby and Mrs Slipslop, he combined the dramatic experience and ability necessary for the depiction of the not very exacting character. Joseph has, in truth, little to do save to make love enthusiastically, and to be made love to with as good a grace as may be; and both of these functions Mr Conway performed admirably. Mr William Rignold’s solid and dignified style was well suited to the part of Sir George Wilson; and Mr Frederick Thorne looked the dissipated and subservient little Chaplain to the life, and reminded us strongly of the sketch of a similar personage in Thackeray’s own illustrations to “The Virginians.” Mr J. S. Blythe electrified the house by a sudden powerful burst of dramatic energy as Gipsy Jim, and his performance throughout was strikingly graphic and picturesque, both in make-up, attire, and general treatment. Mr Scott Buist, a meritorious actor, who has won his present position by indefatigable perseverance against somewhat discouraging beginnings, played Squire Booby cleverly and firmly throughout; and Mr Cyril Maude made an excellent Lord Fellamar, the mingling of the dandy and the libertine in the character being marked with commendable discretion and judgment. Mr Thomas Thorne had in Parson Adams one of those parts of which he possesses a kind of monopoly. The quaint absurdities and inconsistencies of the good pastor were so pleasantly commingled with the virtues of the man that the audience at once took Parson Adams into their personal friendship, and respected his goodness while they laughed at his oddity. To achieve such a result demands excellent art on the part of the actor, and Mr Thorne added another leaf to the laurels he has won in comedy by this excellent impersonation. There was no attempt to shirk the comic side of the character, but the serious passages were delivered with so much sincerity that flippancy was silenced and a reverence begotten which forbade ridicule; and event he spectacle of the Parson with a lobster-claw nose beset by a bevy of light ladies in Ranelagh failed to destroy the respect which Mr Thorne’s Adams had won. Miss Kate Rorke as Fanny Goodwill had only one strong scene, that in which Fanny is kept prisoner by Fellamar, and assisted by the Chaplain; but of this she made the very most, and was throughout a charming sample of a fresh, honest, affectionate country maiden. Miss Eliza Johnstone as Mrs Slipslop had a part which was replete with “fat,” and did not fail to take advantage of her many opportunities, making her Malapropisms with perfect naturalness; and Miss Gladys Homfrey was just the kind of woman one imagines the real Mrs Adams to have been. Last, but perhaps most important of all, we come to Miss Vane, who played Lady Booby. We have seldom seen a piece of acting so thoroughly satisfactory. From the earlier and lighter scenes, where the veneer of fashion yet covers Lady Booby’s real character, to the concluding exit, in which her nature is disclosed in all its moral ugliness, Miss Vane depicted through all its shades of feeling the infatuation of the fine lady as it gradually worked havoc in her disposition, and led her on from mere brazen audacity to jealousy, conspiracy, and heartless bitterness. A truer picture of a strongly marked type has not been seen on our stage for some time. That Miss Vane was no less of an adept at the delivery of rhymed verse than at that of prose was shown by her admirable recitation, before the curtains separated at the commencement, of the following prologue:—

     Ladies and Gentlemen,—Behold in me
A wicked dame of the last century,—
Just brought to life again before your gaze,
To hint the fashion of forgotten days,
When Garrick, bent to woo the comic Muse,
Changed the high buskin for soft satin shoes,
And frolicking behind the footlights, showed
Love à bon ton and marriage à la mode!
La, times are changed indeed since wits and lords
Swagger’d in square-cut powder’d wigs, and swords!
Picture the age!—A lord was then, I vow,
A lord indeed (how different from now!)
And trembling Virtue hid herself in fear
Before the naughty ogling of a peer.
Abductions, scandals, brawls, and dissipation,
Were rich men’s pleasure, poor men’s consternation,
While Fashion, painted, trick’d in fine brocade,
Turn’d Love to jest, and Life to masquerade!

Well, ’mid the masquerade, the pinchbeck show,
When Folly smiled on courtesan and beau,
Some noble human Spirits still drew breath,
And proved this world no hideous Dance of Death!
Sad Hogarth’s pencil limn’d the souls of men,
And Fielding wielded his magician’s pen!
Off fell the mask that darken’d and concealed
Life’s face, and Human Nature stood revealed!
Then rose Sophia, at Fielding’s conjuration,
Like Venus from the sea—of affectation;
Then madcap Tom showed in his sport and passion
A man’s a man for a’ that, spite the fashion;
Then Parson Adams, type of honest worth,
Born of the pure embrace of Love and Mirth,
Smiled in the English sunshine, proving clear
That one true heart is worth a world’s veneer!

And now our task is, in a merry play,
To summon up that time long past away;
To bring to life the manners long outworn,
The lords, the dames, the maidens all forlorn—
A tableau vivant of the tinsel age
Immortalised on the great Master’s page!
Hey, presto! See, I wave my conjurer’s cane!
The Present fades—the dead Past lives again—
The clouds of modern care dissolve—to show
Life à la mode a hundred years ago!

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The Stage (16 March, 1888 - p.14)

VAUDEVILLE.

     On Thursday afternoon, March 8, 1888, was produced a new five-act comedy drama founded by Robert Buchanan upon Fielding’s novel “Joseph Andrews,” and entitled:—

Joseph’s Sweetheart.

Joseph Andrews     ...     ...     ...     Mr. H. B. Conway
Sir George Wilson  ...     ...     ...     Mr. William Rignold
Llewellyn ap Griffith        ...     ...     Mr. Frederick Thorne
Gipsy Jim                ...     ...     ...     Mr. J. S. Blythe
Squire Booby          ...     ...     ...     Mr. Scott Buist
Lord Fellamar          ...     ...     ...     Mr. Cyril Maude
Sir Harry Dapper     ...     ...     ...     Mr. Frank Gilmore
Parson Adams         ...     ...     ...     Mr. Thomas Thorne
Fanny Goodwill       ...     ...     ...     Miss Kate Rorke
Mrs. Slipslop           ...     ...     ...     Miss Eliza Johnston
Mrs. Adams            ...     ...     ...     Miss Gladys Homfrey
Abe                         ...     ...     ...     Miss Bowman
Mrs. Green              ...     ...     ...     Miss Bessie Harrison
Lady Spangle           ...     ...     ...     Miss Grace Arnold
Lady Flutter             ...     ...     ...     Miss Bannister
Lady Booby             ...     ...     ...     Miss Vane
Lord Supple             ...     ...     ...     Mr. Silvestre
Gamekeeper             ...     ...     ...     Mr. Austin
Constable                 ...     ...     ...     Mr. Wheatman
Servant                     ...     ...     ...     Mr. Wilson

     In Joseph’s Sweetheart Mr. Buchanan has boldly and successfully dramatised a very ticklish story. Fielding’s novel is perhaps well known to our readers, and so we will merely skim over the incidents Mr. Buchanan has brought together for his play. Joseph Andrews is in the service of Lady Booby, who is so enamoured of her servant as to openly declare to him her unconquerable passion. On the other hand Joseph’s sweetheart, Fanny, has aroused the unlawful desires of Lord Fellamar, whose attentions to the poor girl are encouraged by Lady Booby for her own vile ends. Joseph spurns his mistress’s advances and so inflames her anger that she accuses him of making overtures to her. So poor Joseph is dismissed from her house. In Act 2 Joseph and his beloved Fanny are found in company with Parson Adams, to them enters Llewellyn ap Griffiths, Lord Fellamar’s chaplain. The latter, pretending that he is a publisher, offers the parson a large sum of money for his unpublished sermons, contrives to get him out of the way, and then, with the assistance of Lord Fellamar and his servants, carries off Fanny, but not before Joseph and the parson—who has re-entered—have given the scoundrels a sound thrashing. In the affray Joseph is wounded by Griffiths, and sinks to the ground as his beloved is borne off by her captors. In Act 3 we find Sir George Wilson in his manor house brooding over the past, and recalling sad memories of his dead wife and his lost son, who when a child has been stolen by gipsies. Gipsy Jim—who had formerly promised to stick to Joseph through thick and thin in return for some kindness shown him—now enters, brought in by constables. On condition that he is permitted to escape free he promises Sir George that his lost son shall be found. Act 4 shows us a room in the house of Lord Fellamar in which the Welsh chaplain Griffiths is recovered from a drunken stupor. Griffiths is assaulted by Fellamar, and in revenge swears to protect Fanny, who is a prisoner in Fellamar’s house. True to his word Griffiths manages Fanny’s escape by planning a ruse. Fanny is to accede to Fellamar’s desire to accompany him to Ranelagh Gardens without demur. Griffiths is to be on the spot, and with a few faithful followers is to secure her freedom from her would-be ravisher. This plan succeeds. Fellamar and Fanny visit Ranelagh Gardens. Here nearly all the characters are cleverly brought together by the dramatist. Fanny, heartbroken and despairing of relief, rushes madly from a gay throng of painted and shameless women into a wooden house, pursued by Fellamar. Griffiths calls together his band and is about to commence a rescue when Joseph appears. A scene between Fellamar and Joseph ends in the latter striking Fanny’s abductor and challenging him to a duel. In Act 5, a tavern near Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Fellamar’s second appears and questions the right of Joseph to fight with a gentleman. Sir George enters and declares Joseph to be a man of birth—his own son. Joseph goes off to fight Fellamar. The latter shortly after returns badly wounded, and asks forgiveness for the pain he has caused all. Joseph forgives him, and at the same time gives some well-timed advice to Lady Booby, who has come to gloat over what she thinks the ruin of Fanny and the defeat of the man she has so passionately admired. Thus Fanny and Joseph are once more united, and Parson Adams finds in Sir George a firm friend and patron. Despite a want of cohesiveness, Joseph’s Sweetheart is a cleverly contrived play—one that should bring in a rich harvest to the Vaudeville management, who on Friday placed it in their night bill. The piece is prettily staged, perhaps the most natural set ever seen upon the boards is the thatched cottage of Parson Adams—a delightfully rural looking structure, without the slightest sign of the stage carpenters’ or painters’ hands. The interiors, too, are all well designed and painted sets, reflecting the greatest credit on all concerned. Mr. Conway is to be congratulated upon his success as Joseph. He not only looks the part perfectly, but also plays it with much freshness and vigour, giving a picture that is almost inseparable from the play. Mr. Rignold is well suited as Sir George, of which part he gives a dignified and characteristic portrayal. Mr. Fred Thorne as the little backcrawler, the Welsh parson, looks and acts admirably, his fire-eating speeches being received with great laughter. A hit is made by Mr. Blythe as the outcast, Gipsy Jim. His make-up and performance are equally good. Mr. Maude shows much skill and refinement as Lord Fellamar, and Mr. Buist as Squire Booby gives a most acceptable impersonation. Parson Adams, a dear old fellow, after the style of the Vicar of Wakefield, full of contentment and thankfulness for his present welfare, yet having enough of the old Adam in him to resent a blow with a blow, is capitally played by Mr. Thos. Thorne, who gives equal attention both to the serious and the comic side of the character. The most difficult character of Lady Booby is admirably enacted by clever Miss Vane. How many actresses could successfully portray this part without giving offence, we wonder. Miss Vane, like a true artiste, sinks all personal feeling, and depicts to the life the lustful and revengeful woman, who, unable to carry out her designs upon Joseph, seeks to destroy his happiness by blasting the fair fame of his loved one. A hateful character grandly played. Miss Johnstone as Mrs. Slipslop—another Mrs. Malaprop—appears to revel in the part. She gives her lines with a seeming unconsciousness that is most enjoyable. Another clever performance comes from Miss Homfrey as Mrs. Adams. A perfect picture of the old parson’s loving spouse is given by this actress, whose appearance is well suited to the character. Pretty Miss Rorke as Fanny looks charmingly and acts with much modesty and freshness of style, contributing a sketch of a dear little country maiden, such as we should imagine Fanny to be—gentle and affectionate.
     Before the play on its first production Miss Vane stepped in front of the curtain and admirably delivered the following prologue:—

Ladies and gentlemen—behold in me
A wicked dame of the last century,
Just brought to life again before your gaze,
To hint the fashion of forgotten days,
When Garrick, bent to woo the comic muse,
Changed the high buskin for soft satin shoes,
And frolicking behind the footlights, showed
Love à bon ton and marriage à la mode!
La, times are changed indeed since wits and lords
Swaggered in square-cut, powdered wigs, and swords!
Picture the age!—a lord was then, I vow,
A lord indeed (how different from now!)
And trembling Virtue hid herself in fear
Before the naughty ogling of a peer.
Abductions, scandals, brawls, and dissipation
Were rich men’s pleasure, poor men’s consternation,
While Fashion, painted, tricked in fine brocade
Turn’d Love to jest, and Life to masquerade.

Well, ’mid the masquerade, the pinchbeck show,
When Folly smiled on courtesan and beau,
Some noble human Spirits still drew breath,
And proved this world no hideous Dance of Death!
Sad Hogarth’s pencil limn’d the souls of men,
And Fielding wielded his magician’s pen!
Off fell the mask that darkened and concealed
Life’s face, and Human Nature stood revealed!
Then rose Sophia, at Fielding’s conjuration,
Like Venus from the sea—of affectation;
Then madcap Tom showed in his sport and passion
A man’s a man for a’ that, spite the fashion;
Then Parson Adams, type of honest worth,
Born of the pure embrace of Love and Mirth,
Smiled in the English sunshine, proving clear
That one true heart is worth a world’s veneer!

And now our task is, in a merry play,
To summon up that time long past away;
To bring to life the manners long outworn,
The lords, the dames, the maidens all forlorn—
A tableau vivant of the tinsel age
Immortalised on the great Master’s page!
Hey, presto! See, I wave my conjurer’s cane!
The Present fades—the dead Past lives again—
The clouds of modern care dissolve—to show
Life à la mode a hundred years ago!

[Illustration from The Theatre (2 April, 1888)]

The Theatre (2 April, 1888)

“JOSEPH’S SWEETHEART.”

New Comedy Drama, in five acts, by ROBERT BUCHANAN, founded on FIELDING’S novel, “Joseph Andrews.”
First produced at the Vaudeville Theatre, Thursday afternoon, March 8, 1888.

     Mr. Buchanan has taken his idea from Fielding’s novel, but without sacrificing for a moment the spirit of the work, he has written a play which may to all intents be called original, and one that, from its hearty nature, admirable construction, and its polished dialogue, may be considered as one of the best that has been produced for some years. The author has been careful to make the hero a manly fellow, protected against the wiles of other women by the honest love he bears for a young country girl, not a sanctimonious milksop. The enamoured lady of fashion, too, may almost be forgiven her passion in consequence of its object being of such a noble nature; and in the country parson we have a being who is all charity and kindliness, showing some of the weaknesses of the old Adam in his not hesitating to call to his aid his good blackthorn stick when requisite, with a spice of dry humour, and a natural human weakness for believing that his sermons have only to be seen by a publisher to be at once purchased and printed; and in the telling of his story Mr. Buchanan has faithfully reproduced the characters and scenes of a hundred years ago. The play opens in Lady Booby’s tiring room, where we find her surrounded by exquisites and ladies of fashion. Joseph, her handsome man-servant, has inspired her with love, as he has also her maid, Mrs. Slipslop, but he will have none of either. The great lady, finding her advances repulsed, at once summons her servants and accuses Joseph of insulting and trying to kiss her, and his immediate dismissal is the more disgraceful from the fact of the accusation having been made in the presence of his sweetheart, Fanny Goodwill, who has been brought up to town by Parson Adams. These two, however, will not believe that he can be capable ot such conduct, although the nobility of his mind prevents him from casting the blame on his late mistress, and so these three journey back to the country parsonage, where they are welcomed by the buxom and good-hearted Mrs. Adams. And here poor Fanny’s troubles commence, for Lady Booby has set on Lord Fellamar, a dissolute nobleman, who has been struck with the innocent country girl’s charms, to carry her off, and this is done through the agency of his chaplain, Llewellyn ap Griffith, a choleric, bibulous Welshman. With the help of his lordship’s servants, and despite the resistance of Parson Adams and her lover, who is wounded in the struggle, Fanny is borne away. In the next act we find Sir George Wilson, a rich country gentleman, lamenting the fact of his having no one to succeed him, his infant boy having been stolen from him many years before. Presently Gipsy Jim is brought before him on a charge of poaching. To save himself from punishment the gipsy admits that he carried off the baronet’s son, and promises for a reward, and if he is let off scot-free, that he will produce him. At this time Parson Adams and Joseph appear on the scene, faint and weary on their journey in pursuit of Fanny, who they have learnt has been taken to London. Gipsy Jim reveals Joseph to be the boy whom he stole, and he is at once taken to his father’s arms. The scene shifts to Lord Fellamar’s house, where Fanny is kept a prisoner. The chaplain having offended his noble patron is struck by him, and determines on revenge; he therefore induces Fanny to temporise with Lord Fellamar, and, pretending to listen to his protestations, induce him to take her to Ranelagh, where the chaplain says he will find means to rescue her. And so she is taken to the Gardens, and there the chaplain, with a band of Welsh gentlemen, aids Joseph and Parson Adams, who have tracked her here, to beat off her persecutor and his companions, Lord Fellamar consenting to meet Joseph, now recognised as Sir Joseph Wilson’s son. The meeting takes place, and Joseph overcomes his antagonist, notwithstanding the latter’s skill in fencing, the nobleman having sufficient grace left in him to regret the part he has been playing, and to declare that Fanny is as pure as when he first saw her, and that Lady Booby has incited him to try and make her his victim. The play might easily have concluded with the fourth act, the fifth being taken up by a very tender love scene between Joseph and Fanny, in which he tells her that he must fight, and to bring him good luck in the encounter he carries with him Parson Adams’s manuscript sermons and places them next his heart, and they really save him from receiving a fatal wound, though for him to have placed them there was scarcely a.chivalrous proceeding. Mr. Conway was the beau ideal of the character he represented—handsome, manly, and natural, with plenty of animation and deep tenderness, he succeeded admirably. He had a charming and most sympathetic sweetheart in Miss Kate Rorke, so innocent and gentle was she in her love; yet in her scene with Lord Fellamar rising to strong dramatic power. Such a contrast to her was the Lady Booby of Miss Vane, worldly and conscious of her beauty, depraved and determined, and with no innate sense of shame, and yet so glossed over with the courtly manner of the woman of fashion that the repulsiveness of her overtures was almost hidden. Her acting throughout of a most difficult character was worthy of the very highest praise. Though Parson Adams resembles Partridge in some of his characteristics, Mr. Thomas Thorne has made of  the kind-hearted country clergyman a different study. He has instilled into it more firmness and decision, and there is a change in the humour, but the charity and simplicity of his disposition are ever apparent. I think the representation might have been a little strengthened had the Parson not been quite so ready to cudgel evil-doers. Mr. William Rignold was a dignified Sir George Wilson, and his sorrow for the loss of his son was expressed in manly fashion. Mr. Frederick Thorne was excellent as the choleric Welshman. Mr. J. S. Blythe was picturesque and vigorous as the poacher, Gipsy Jim. Mr. Cyril Maude as the foppish roué, Lord Fellamar, gave another proof of how rapidly he is rising in his profession. Miss Eliza Johnstone as Mrs. Slipslop delivered her Malaprop-Iike perversions of speech with delightful unconsciousness, and Miss Gladys Homfrey and Mr. Scott Buist, Mr. Frank Gilmore and Miss Grace Arnold rendered valuable assistance. The scenery throughout was good; the exterior of Adams’s cottage, a solidly-built set, being one of the best that has been seen. Lady Booby’s boudoir is a capital reproduction of one of Hogarth’s pictures. “Joseph’s Sweetheart” was a decided success, and was put in the evening bill on Friday, March 9.
     The following prologue, written by the author, was excellently delivered by Miss Vane:—

Ladies and gentlemen—behold in me
A wicked dame of the last century,—
Just brought to life again before your gaze,
To hint the fashion of forgotten days,
When Garrick, bent to woo the comic Muse,
Changed the high buskin for soft satin shoes,
And frolicking behind the footlights, showed
Love à bon ton and marriage à la mode!
La, times are changed indeed since wits and lords
Swaggered in square-cut, powder’d wigs, and swords!
Picture the age!—A lord was then, I vow,
A lord indeed (how different from now!)
And trembling Virtue hid herself in fear
Before the naughty ogling of a peer.
Abductions, scandals, brawls, and dissipation
Were rich men’s pleasure, poor men’s consternation,
While Fashion, painted, trick’d in fine brocade
Turn’d Love to jest, and Life to masquerade!
Well, ’mid the masquerade, the pinchbeck show,
When Folly smiled on courtesan and beau,
Some noble human Spirits still drew breath,
And proved this world no hideous Dance of Death!
Sad Hogarth’s pencil limn’d the souls of men,
And Fielding wielded his magician’s pen!
Off fell the mask that darken’d and concealed
Life’s face, and Human Nature stood revealed!
Then rose Sophia, at Fielding’s conjuration,
Like Venus from the sea—of affectation;
Then madcap Tom shewed in his sport and passion
A man’s a man for a’ that, spite the fashion;
Then Parson Adams, type of honest worth,
Born of the pure embrace of Love and Mirth,
Smiled in the English sunshine, proving clear
That one true heart is worth a world’s veneer!
And now our task is, in a merry play,
To summon up that time long past away;
To bring to life the manners long outworn,
The lords, the dames, the maidens all forlorn—
A tableau vivant of the tinsel age
Immortalised on the great Master’s page!
Hey, presto! See, I wave my conjurer’s cane!
The Present fades—the dead Past lives again—
The clouds of modern care dissolve—to show
Life à la mode a hundred years ago!

                                                                                CECIL HOWARD.

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The Graphic (12 May, 1888 - Issue 963)

...
     Mr. Robert Buchanan’s second adaptation of Fielding, Joseph’s Sweetheart, was brought out at the Vaudeville Theatre on March 8th, and has proved a worthy pendant to Sophia. As his mainspring of action Mr. Buchanan has given prominence to the jealous vindictiveness of Lady Booby towards Joseph Andrews and his rustic sweetheart, Fanny Goodwill (Miss Kate Rorke), whose abduction by the libertine, Lord Fellamar, is carried out at her instigation. The famous character of Parson Adams is so admirably embodied by Mr. Thomas Thorne as to be the most prominent of all.

The Stage (28 September, 1888 - p.9)

     The Vaudeville Company, after a prosperous trip to several of the principal country centres, returned to their town house on Monday evening. Joseph’s Sweetheart, which had been true to them in the metropolis, did not fail them in the provinces; nor is it likely to do so now it is once more exquisitely placed on the Vaudeville stage, and there treated with all the skill and the resource of art that characterise Mr. Thomas Thorne’s productions. The play is surely the most literary one of the year, with dialogue pointed yet entirely natural, and with simple yet powerful interests that realise and therefore justify Mr. Robert Buchanan’s aspiration to preserve in Joseph’s Sweetheart the humanity of Fielding’s genius. With Mr. H. B. Conway as Joseph Andrews—frank, open-handed, open-hearted Joseph; with Miss Kate Rorke as rustic Fanny, fragrant with country life; with Mr. Thomas Thorne as the lovable old Parson Adams, and Mr. William Rignold as Sir George Wilson, a singularly noble study of manhood—with all these, not to mention such a dark spirit as Lady Booby—a character which Miss Vane plays with so much admirable tact and finesse—or Lord Fellamar—who, as he says, is not a man but a lord, and a lord a little lower than the animals into the bargain—with these and the rest what an evening of high delight and good influence can be spent. Playgoers should at once repair to the Vaudeville, and then again repair, and yet a third time.

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The Stage (21 December, 1888 - p.9)

     Madame Soldene’s “Silver wedding matinée,” given at Terry’s on Thursday last week, was well attended by playgoers who had a fond remembrance of the past good work done by the once famous prima donna of comic opera. The proceedings opened with a pianoforte solo by Mdlle. Blanche, a recitation was then given by Miss Marie Lewes, and Miss Jeanette St. Henri sang “Dear Heart,” for which she received an encore. The first act of Joseph’s Sweetheart introduced the members of the Vaudeville company, who, as usual, played admirably together in Robert Buchanan’s capital play. Then Mdlle. Blanche gave another pianoforte solo, after which was presented the balcony scene from Genevieve de Brabant, in which Madame Soldene and Miss Clara Merivale sang charmingly the well-known duet. Miss Alice Barnett then renewed acquaintance with London playgoers, and sang with expression and feeling “Sweet September.” Mr. Herbert Campbell caused laughter with his song “Have you noticed it?” and the Comtesse de Brémont sang very prettily “Have you forgotten?” and “My Love and I.” Mr. Arthur Roberts, Miss Carlotta Natale, and Mr. E. J. Lonnen, also contributed to the entertainment, the last suffering from the want of proper attention from the orchestra. Scenes from Madame Angot followed, in which Madame Soldene appeared as Lange, and failed to please the audience, who, later on, when Madame Soldene sang “The song that reached my heart,” gave vent to their displeasure and left the theatre in anything but a pleasant frame of mind.

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The Stage (22 November, 1889 - p.9)

     The Vaudeville re-opens on Thursday next with Joseph’s Sweetheart. On Tuesday next the Vaudeville company will give a performance of Buchanan’s play at the Crystal Palace.

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The Stage (6 December, 1889 - p.9)

     Pending the production of Clarissa, Mr. Thomas Thorne has again revived Joseph’s Sweetheart at the Vaudeville, where the new season began on Thursday in last week. The captivating Joseph and the other attractive figures in Robert Buchanan’s admirable play have been closely followed up during their country perambulations in the provincial columns of THE STAGE, and the present exponents criticised at length on more than one occasion. Of the Thursday’s performance, therefore, not much need be said, save to remark that it was difficult to forget the delightful Fanny Goodwill of both Miss Kate Rorke and Miss Winifred Emery, the comely and pleasing Joseph of Mr. H. B. Conway, the Sir George Wilson of Mr. W. Rignold, and the very clever Lady Booby of Miss Vane, belonging to an earlier cast. The impersonations now given in the place of the foregoing ones by Miss Ella Banister, Mr. frank Gillmore, Mr. C. Harbury, and Miss Gladys Ffolliott, however, have many compensating merits; and with the Messrs. Thorne and the remaining members of the former company co-operating with the newcomers and bringing the advantages of long familiarity to bear upon the characters assumed, a smooth, highly-artistic performance is the natural, as it is the very enjoyable result. Playgoers cannot see Joseph’s Sweetheart too often, and as the present revival is but a brief one, they cannot see it too soon.

[Programme for Joseph’s Sweetheart at the Vaudeville Theatre, 1888.
There is a picture of William Rignold from this production on John Culme’s Footlight Notes]

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