RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 161 spare time to the amusement of their fellow residents. Moreover, as has been said before, the community was small, and the critic had after all to live with his actor-neighbours who would no doubt know about his identity. Thus, "A Stranger" wrote, about George Colman's Heir at Law (April 21 1851): “Zekiel Homespun was inimitable; we had no idea there was a Gentleman in Shanghae who could take the difficult part so well.) The simplicity, humour and serious earnestness which it displays in some parts were brought out and sustained in a manner that we have scarcely seen equaled, except by some of the leading actors of our Metropolis". And again: “Constant playgoers as from childhood we have been we have rarely, indeed never, ‘assisted' at a more agreeable evening than that of Wednesday the 16th instant [i.e. February 16 1859]. The performances [of J.M. Morton's Whitebait at Greenwich and Thomas Morton's Sink or Swim] passed off with the utmost eclat due to the talent and exertions of the actors". Sometimes the author felt it even necessary to apologize for any criticism he uttered: "We do this, not in the invidious character of critics upon amateur performances or still less as tinctured with the slightest disposition to find fault, but in order that the excellent materials which have been combined in the troupe should be made as much of as possible. Indeed it is the very appreciation of the talents displayed on Thursday [sic; this should be Wednesday January 23 1856– JH] which prompts the expression of these remarks. We are sure that neither the performers nor the audience would thank us for the undiscriminating and therefore worthless praise which usually satirize amateur performances". But even in this case the critic only had made some comments on the costumes that were used in one of the pieces (cf. Calendar, 23.1.1856). Mild remarks were the severest criticism dished out; about one of the actors on June 2 1859, **we may perhaps be permitted to take an exception to his brogue, which, however good as an assumption, scarcely denoted one to the manner born"; and about another on the same evening; "his humour seems better fitted for low than for eccentric comedy". 10 Only when it came to the choice of pieces was the paper not always undividedly positive. Writing about John Maddison Morton's Done on Both Sides (February 10 1858) not much enthusiasm was shown: “We have witnessed, we confess, better farces on the same stage and we are inclined to believe that as actors may sometimes not come up to the play, it occasionally happens that plays are not altogether worthy of the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 186 who evidently had no 'tender cares' to occupy them, manfully maintained their seats in front, and remained so spellbound as to forget entirely the courtesies of gallantry and good breeding. We are of opinion that a perusal of Lord Chesterfield's 'Hints' might be a useful exercise for such as have no innate impulses to enable them to understand and practice what is conveyed in the phrase 'Place aux Dames' when those fair patronesses choose to honour public entertainments with their presence". 129 Once front seats were shunned by ladies, but that was not the case in mid-century Shanghai. In the Regulations to be Observed on the Evenings of Performances at the Shanghae Theatre printed in the North China Herald of February 14, 1857, it was even stipulated that, "after the front row had been set apart for the exclusive accommodation of H.B.M. Consul and the French and American Consuls, the seats numbered 2 to 6 will be reserved for ladies, and the gentlemen who escort them." VII. The Plays From the references above, and even more from the Calendar of Performances, it will be clear that the dramatic fare in Shanghai consisted for the greater part, nay for nearly one hundred percent, of pieces that could easily amuse the people. That is to say: farces, comediettas, burlesques, melodramas, burlettas, musical comedies or whatever name may be invented for the genre. There is no space here, nor is it within the scope of this Survey, to give an analysis of these plays, so I shall keep myself to some general remarks. Most pieces that were performed dated from the 19th century, but there were some from the previous one, like Henry Carey's The Dragon of Wantley (1737), a short three-act opera with music by John Frederick Lampe which burlesqued the Handel style works which were then in vogue (but hardly a century later); and James Townley's (or was it David Garrick's?) High Life below Stairs which one rather antiquarian critic thought "worth whole bales of farces of the 'Box and Cox' pattern". Sheridan's The Rivals (1775) was also on the programme several times (although not on that of the local amateurs) but it is remarkable (and, considering the travesties that were common, maybe just as well) that a classic comedy like Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer was not tackled. 130 Of contemporary authors the most prolific was John Maddison Morton and it should cause no surprise that his plays took top of the bill: no ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 239 MORTON, John Maddison (1811-1891) "Attic Story" (19.5.1842). P: 6.5.1852 "Betsy Baker or too attentive by half" (13.11.1850). P: 23.3.1853 145 "Box and Cox: a Romance of Real Life" (1.11.1847). P: 15.5.1854; 18.2.1857 "A Capital Match" (4.11.1852). P: 23.4.1857; 3.12.1864 "Done on Both Sides" (24.2.1847). P: 10.2.1858 "Fitzsmythe of Fitzsmythe Hall" (26.5.1860). P: 26.3.1863 "Grimshaw, Bagshaw and Bradshaw" (1.7.1851). P: 2.6.1859 "Lend me Five Shillings" (18.2.1846). P: see p. 15 "A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion" (11.6.1849). P: 22.3.1854; 1.4.1864 "Our Wife or The Rose of Amiens" (18.11.1856). P: 13.12.1863; 17.2.1863 "Poor Pillicuddy" (12.7.1848). P: 15.3.1860; 26.5.1864 "Slasher and Crasher" (13.11.1848). P: 21.2.1856 "To Paris and back for £5" (5.2.1853). P: 10.5.1860; 21.3.1865 "The Two Bonny Castles" (25.11.1851). P: 22.3.1854; 8.5.1865 "Where there's a will there's a way" (6.9.1849). P: 26.3.1863 "Whitebait at Greenwich" (14.11.1853). P: 23.1.1856; 16.2.1859; 26.5.1864 "Woodcock's Little Game" (6.10.1864). P: 14.2.1865 MORTON, Thomas, Sr (1764-1838) "A Roland for an Oliver" (29.4.1819). P: 23.2.1852 MORTON, Thomas, Jr "Sink or Swim" (2.8.1852). P: 16.2.1859 MURRAY, William Henry Wood (1790-1852) 146 "Diamond cut Diamond" (19.6.1843). P: 12.12.1850 ? "No!" (14.11.1826). P: 23.2.1852 ? "Rob Roy" (10.6.1818). P: 28.3.-5.4.1865 OXENFORD, John (1813-1877) "I couldn't help it" (19.4.1862). P: 13.4.1865 "Retained for the Defence" (23.5.1859). P: 25.4.1864 PAYNE, John Howard (1790-1852) "Charles the Second or the Merry Monarch" (27.6.1824). P: 16.3.1858 "'Twas I" (3.12.1825). P: 27.4.1865 PEAKE, Richard Brinsley (1797-1880) "The Haunted Inn" (31.1.1828). P: 6.5.1852 PLANCHE, James Robinson (1796-1880) "Faint Heart never won Fair Lady" (28.2.1839). P: 8.10.-14.10.1864; 14.2.1865 "The Invisible Prince or the Island of Tranquil Delights" (26.12.1846). P: 23.3.1865 "The Knights of the Round Table" (20.5.1854). P: 24.5.1865 REYNOLDS, Francis (1764-1841) ? "No!" (16.5.1828). P: 23.3.1852 RHODES, William Barnes (1772-1826) "Bombastes Furioso" (7.8.1810). P: 28.1.1851; 5.5.1858 ROBERTS, George ? "Lady Audley's Secret" (28.2.1863). P: 28.12.1864 ================================================================================