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From stage to folk: a note on the passages from Addison's Rosamond in the "Truro" mummers' play - Topics, Notes And Comments

Folklore, August, 2003 by Tom Pettitt

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The Truro play may once have contained more lines from Rosamond than it did when recorded in the 1780s, making the "King Henry" sequel even longer than it is now, but it is just as likely that this gallimaufry of loosely linked popular material is a valuable echo of a tradition of local entertainment among the young cordwainers of eighteenth-century Truro, which comprised dramatic material as well as ballads. In other words, I am suggesting that Rosamond may have been part of the repertoire of the "village theatre" of Truro or the neighbourhood, that as yet largely unresearched tradition of holiday (especially Christmas) performances of interludes, stage jigs (sung farces), and extracts from plays (drolls) by "spouting clubs" of local youth for paying audiences, of which we have sporadic glimpses from Cornwall itself, Shropshire, Wales, and the North (Bottrell 1873, 1-3; Burne 1883, 493-502; Watkins-Jones 1927-9; Baskervill 1965, 125). Rosamond (as a play, rather than an opera) would be suitable for this context. It is very short, its three acts in early editions taking up no more than eight to ten (double-column) pages. This in turn made for the cheap-format single-play edition invoked earlier, and the sentimental plot, enhanced by Addison's lyricism, may have appealed to small-town audiences in the age of sensibility. Scenic extravagances are restricted to the descent in a cloud of two angels, who could easily walk on instead. It has only nine speaking characters, and with doubling could be played by fewer: in connection with the textual contamination of a speech by the page with a line from Sir Trusty, discussed earlier, it might be noted that these two do not appear on stage at the same time and could be doubled by a single performer (Penty Landin or a predecessor).

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With village theatre sharing the social and economic disruption that affected much of provincial England at the end of the eighteenth century, lines from Rosamond could then have found refuge in the mummers' play, which increasingly became the main, and ultimately perhaps the only, outlet for the histrionic talents and ambitions of local youth. From some perspectives, mummers' play texts containing untraditional material are a nuisance in traditional drama studies (Boyes 1985). However, if the Truro scenario was repeated elsewhere, it may turn out that other idiosyncratic texts may, by the same token, prove valuable sources of information on rural vernacular culture, including the village theatre, which provided a conduit for the transfer of material from the London stage to the folk tradition.

Note

[1] This statement is based on searching for publishers Harrison and Wenman (http:// www.copac.uk). The bibliographical details in this and following paragraphs are based on searching for Rosamond in this same database and in the BL on-line catalogue (http://blpc.bl. uk); in connection with the edition of 1767, I am grateful for the assistance of Sandra Billington.

References Cited

From stage to folk: a note on the passages from Addison's Rosamond in the "Truro" mummers' play - Topics, Notes And Comments

Folklore, August, 2003 by Tom Pettitt

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