Abstract
Relying on information contained in Prosper Claeys’ Histoire du théâtre à Gand (1892) and in notes bynineteenth-century German theatre historians, the present essay seeks to partially reconstruct the repertory of William Durham, the (largely forgotten) manager of a troupe of wandering actors, who performed at Ghent in 1713 and in various German cities between 1724 or 1725 and 1728. No particulars are available about his performances at Ghent, which appear to have been a combination of acting and rope-dancing. Contemporary play-bills, on the other hand, reveal the diverse nature of three pieces which Durham produced in German-speaking areas: (1) Das durchlauchtigste Müllermädchen, possibly an adaptation of aseventeenth-century English comedy by John Fletcher and William Rowley; (2) Genovefa, a play about the legendary eponymous character, whose story had been widely circulated in Europe; and (3) Der transmetamorphosirte Arlequin, a Harlequin-Faustus Hauptaktion, which may have taken its cue from a spate of popular harlequinades on the contemporary London stage. Although the scanty available evidence does not allow of any firm conclusions about his international standing, Durham may have been the exponent of a ‘transnational’ or ‘transcultural’ theatre bridging the gap between various dramatic traditions.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- New Judgements on the Artistry of Andreas: The Case of Christ III
- The Kassel Fragment from an Early South English Legendary
- “Eene schoone engelsche troupe”: William Durham and His Company of Travelling Performers in Ghent (1713) and Germany (1724–1728)
- Contours of Status and Power: Seats and Sitting Postures in Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend
- Resisting Ireland’s Necropolitics of Asylum: Refugee Voices in Irish Literature and the Arts
- No Country for God: The Brutality of Western Territorial Appropriation in Blood Meridian
- Rachel Seiffert: An Interview with Paula Romo-Mayor
- Reviews
- Michael Lapidge. 2023. Canterbury Glosses from the School of Theodore and Hadrian: The Leiden Glossary. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 17/1–2, 2 vols. Turnhout: Brepols. 824 pp., 1 illustr., €135,00.
- Review
- Kerstin Majewski. 2022. The Ruthwell Cross and its Texts. A New Reconstruction and an Edition of “The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem”. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, 132. Berlin: de Gruyter, 26 + 397 pp., 39 illustr., €154.95 (hc. and e-book).
- Olga Timofeeva. 2022. Sociolinguistic Variation in Old English: Records of Communities and People. Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 13. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, xv + 204 pp., 29 tables, 14 figures, €99.00 | $149.00.
- Christoph Anton Xaver Hauf. 2021. Verbs of Speaking and the Linguistic Expression of Communication in the History of English. Munich Studies in English 47. Berlin: Lang, 324 pp., 52 figures, 36 tables, €76.70 Hardcover | €77.85 Ebook.
- Rebecca Brackmann. 2023. Old English Scholarship in the Seventeenth Century: Medievalism and National Crisis. Medievalism 23. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, xii + 235 pp., 14 illustr., £70.00 | $105.00 Hardcover, £29.95 | $24.99 Ebook.
- Carolin Harthan. 2022. Medially-Placed Linking Adverbials in Written Academic English: Usage Patterns and Functions. Munich Studies in English 49. Berlin: Lang, 340 pp., 41 figures, 51 tables, €83.20.
- Paul Dawson. 2023. The Story of Fictional Truth: Realism from the Death to the Rise of the Novel. Theory and Interpretation of Narrative. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 246 pp., $ 74.95.
- Olaf Kaltmeier, Mirko Petersen, Wilfried Raussert and Julia Roth (eds.). 2021. Cherishing the Past, Envisioning the Future: Entangled Practices of Heritage and Utopia in the Americas. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 163 pp., 3 illustr., € 23.50.
- Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp, Marion Gymnich and Klaus P. Schneider (eds.). 2021. Representing Poverty and Precarity in a Postcolonial World. Cross/Cultures 25. Amsterdam: Brill, 287 pp., € 123.05.
- Susana Onega and Jean-Michel Ganteau (eds.). 2021. Transcending the Postmodern: The Singular Response of Literature to the Transmodern Paradigm. London: Routledge, 266 pp., £31.19.
- Lasse R. Gammelgaard, Stefan Iversen, Louise Brix Jacobsen, James Phelan, Richard Walsh, Henrik Zetterberg-Nielsen and Simona Zetterberg-Nielsen (eds.). 2022. Fictionality and Literature: Core Concepts Revisited. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, 338 pp., 8 illustr., £79.95.