Playbill advertising the programme at Astley's Royal Amphitheatre for the week commencing 14th May 1838 featuring Bonaparte's Passage of the Deserts!!, or The French in Egypt; scenes in the circle; The Young Highwayman, or the Gibbet of Hounslow, and Pat's Vagaries. Letterpress. Printed by J.W. Peel, Lambeth

Letterpress playbill for a 'Double Spectacle of Equestrian and Dramatic Entertainments' for the week commencing Monday 14th May 1838. Printed in black ink on cream paper, headed ASTLEY'S within a decorative border and listing the evening's entertainment, the performers and characters, proprietors, ticket prices and name of the printer.

Gabrielle Enthoven Collection

The evening's performance began with the military equestrian drama Bonaparte's Passage of the Deserts, or the French in Egypt featuring Mr. Gomersal as Napoleon Bonaparte, Mr. S. Foster as General Kleber, Mr. Elliott as Sir Sidney Smith, Mr. Hicken as General Dessaix, Mr. West Jnr. as Captain Eugene and Mr. Widdicomb as General Lanusse. Other performers were Mr. Leclercq, Mr. Rayner, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Norman, Mr. H. Widdicomb, Mr. Dillon, Messrs. Fillingham and J. Smith, Messrs. Ellar and Frampton, Mrs. Shepherd, Mrs. Leclercq, Miss Julian, Mrs. Gomersal. Riders of scenes in the circle in The Roman Racers, or Eight Swift Steeds were Messrs. Hicken, Stickney, Signor Hillier, and 'the German Rider', and there were more feats of horsemanship by Herr Mottie, The Meltonians, the Infant Ducrow and the Liliputian Equestrians. Mr. Price 'The Bouncing Ball!!' turned successive somersaults (or 'summersets'), and Mr. West Jnr., Messrs C. Williams and H. Widdicomb, Mr. Sloan, Mr. Dillon, Miss Julian, Mrs. Bruin, Mrs. Gomersal and Mrs. Shepherd took part in The Young Highwayman. or the Gibbet of Hounslow. The evening finished with the Irish comedian Mr. Sloan as Larry in 'the laughable entertainment Pat's Vagaries! with Mr. S. Foster, Mr. Lawrence, Mrs. Leclercq. Miss Julian and Mrs. Stickney.

Astley's Royal Amphitheatre, Westminster Bridge Road, was managed by the great equestrian Andrew Ducrow (1793-1842) from 1825 until his death in 1842, and in partnership with West Jnr. in the 1830s when this bill was printed. Although the original proprietor of Astley's, Philip Astley, is known as 'the father of the circus', it was never actually called a circus, and continued as a riding establishment to give riding lessons daily, which are advertised on the bottom of this bill.

The Royal Amphitheatre presented dramatic pieces with and without feats of equestrianism, both on its stage and in its ring. Andrew Ducrow had made his name with the riding feat known as 'the Courier of St. Petersburg' and went on to create a number of pantomimical duets on horseback such as 'The Mountain Maid and the Tyolean Shepherd' which he performed with the equestrienne and tightrope dancer Louis Woolford, whom he married in June 1838. Like many theatres at the time the interest in theatrical scenery was becoming a powerful attraction and this playbill notes especially the 'effects' of Wimbledon Common in the Olden Times, and Hounslow Heath by Night.

S.538-2018