Inside of the Red Bull Playhouse
Print
13/06/1809 (made)
13/06/1809 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Engraving entitled 'Inside of the Red Bull Playhouse', published by William Herbert and Robert Wilkinson,13th June 1809.
The engraving was originally published as the frontispiece to part one of Francis Kirkman's The Wits, or Sport upon Sport, a collection of drolls (short comic sketches) adapted from popular plays of the time. Kirkman's book first appeared in 1662 with a black and white frontispiece attributed to John Chantry. It was republished in 1672, with a frontispiece copied from the original. The 1672 frontispiece was the one republished, in colour, by Herbert and Wilkinson in 1809.
The frontispiece shows some of the characters who feature in the drolls, gathered together onstage. They include Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff and the Hostess, Mistress Quickly, who appear in a collection of scenes entitled The Bouncing Knight, and Clause, the King of the Beggars from John Fletcher's play Beggar's Bush, adapted into a droll called The Lame Commonwealth. Although described as the Red Bull Playhouse in 1809, the engraving is unlikely to represent a particular theatre or to be an accurate representation of contemporary theatrical conditions.
The engraving was originally published as the frontispiece to part one of Francis Kirkman's The Wits, or Sport upon Sport, a collection of drolls (short comic sketches) adapted from popular plays of the time. Kirkman's book first appeared in 1662 with a black and white frontispiece attributed to John Chantry. It was republished in 1672, with a frontispiece copied from the original. The 1672 frontispiece was the one republished, in colour, by Herbert and Wilkinson in 1809.
The frontispiece shows some of the characters who feature in the drolls, gathered together onstage. They include Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff and the Hostess, Mistress Quickly, who appear in a collection of scenes entitled The Bouncing Knight, and Clause, the King of the Beggars from John Fletcher's play Beggar's Bush, adapted into a droll called The Lame Commonwealth. Although described as the Red Bull Playhouse in 1809, the engraving is unlikely to represent a particular theatre or to be an accurate representation of contemporary theatrical conditions.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Inside of the Red Bull Playhouse (published title) |
| Materials and techniques | Engraving, coloured |
| Brief description | Coloured engraving depicting the interior of the Red Bull Playhouse, London, first published 1662, republished 1672, reprinted 1809 |
| Physical description | Engraving entitled 'Inside of the Red Bull Playhouse', showing comic characters on a stage, with text underneath. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | 'The Red Bull Playhouse stood on a plot of ground lately called "Red Bull Yard" near the upper end of St. John's - Street Clerkenwell; and is traditionally said to have been the Theatre at which Shakespeare first held gentlemen's horses. In the civil wars it became highly celebrated for the representation of Drolls, to a collection of which pieces published by Frauncis Kirkman in 1672, this view of it forms a frontispiece. The figures brought together on the stage, are intended as portraits of the leading actors in each Droll. The one playing Simpleton is Robert Cox, then a great favorite, of whom the publisher thus speaks in his preface. "I have seen the Red Bull Playhouse which was a large one, so full that as many went back for want of room as had entred: Robert Cox, a principal actor and contriver of these pieces, how have I heard him cryed up for his John Swabber, and Simpleton, the Smith: In which latter, he being to appear with a large piece of Bread and Butter, on the stage I have frequently known some of the female spectators to long for it." The above print may be regarded not only as highly curious for the place it represents, but as a unique specimen of the interior economy of our antient English Theatres' (Bottom centre) |
| Credit line | Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996 |
| Object history | In 1990s, the total value for group of images S.239 and S.304 to 321-1997 was given as £50. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | Engraving entitled 'Inside of the Red Bull Playhouse', published by William Herbert and Robert Wilkinson,13th June 1809. The engraving was originally published as the frontispiece to part one of Francis Kirkman's The Wits, or Sport upon Sport, a collection of drolls (short comic sketches) adapted from popular plays of the time. Kirkman's book first appeared in 1662 with a black and white frontispiece attributed to John Chantry. It was republished in 1672, with a frontispiece copied from the original. The 1672 frontispiece was the one republished, in colour, by Herbert and Wilkinson in 1809. The frontispiece shows some of the characters who feature in the drolls, gathered together onstage. They include Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff and the Hostess, Mistress Quickly, who appear in a collection of scenes entitled The Bouncing Knight, and Clause, the King of the Beggars from John Fletcher's play Beggar's Bush, adapted into a droll called The Lame Commonwealth. Although described as the Red Bull Playhouse in 1809, the engraving is unlikely to represent a particular theatre or to be an accurate representation of contemporary theatrical conditions. |
| Associated object | S.655-2010 (Version) |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.313-1997 |
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| Record created | October 20, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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