Staging the Mysterious Mother.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roman, Cynthia E.

Contributor:

Campbell, Jill.

Kramnick, Jonathan.

Series:

The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797. Mysterious mother.

Walpole, Horace.

Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797--Criticism and interpretations.

English drama (Tragedy).

Incest in literature.

Mothers and sons in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (373 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2023.

Summary:

The first book-length study of Horace Walpole's scandalous The Mysterious Mother, including critical essays, an abridged script, and a facsimile edition Horace Walpole's five-act tragedy The Mysterious Mother (1768), a sensational tale of incest and intrigue, was initially circulated only among the author's friends. Walpole never permitted it to be performed during his lifetime except as a private theatrical. He described his play as a "delicious entertainment for the closet" and claimed that he "did not think it would do for the stage." Yet the essays in this volume trace a history of private readings, amateur theatricals, and even early public performances, demonstrating that the play was read and performed more than Walpole's protests suggest. Exploring a wide variety of topics-including the play's crypto-Catholicism, its treatments of incest, guilt, motherhood, orphans, and scientific spectacle, and the complex relations between print and performance-the essays demonstrate the rich relevance of The Mysterious Mother to current critical discussions. The volume includes the proceedings of a mini-conference hosted at Yale University in 2018 on the occasion of a staged reading of the play. Also included are the director's reflections, an abridged script, a facsimile of Walpole's own copy of the full-length play, and reproductions of the illustrations he commissioned from Lady Diana Beauclerk.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

Introduction

PART I: READING THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER

1. Dale Townshend The Mystery of The Mysterious Mother: Textual Lives and Afterlives

2. Cheryl Nixon The Mysterious Orphan: Dramatizing the Betrayal of the Child

3. Nicole Garret Misreading The Mysterious Mother: Motherhood and Religious Feeling

4. Al Coppola "Some demon rides in th' air": Lightning and the Problem of the Supernatural in Walpole's Second Gothic

5. Matthew M. Reeve Horace Walpole's Crypto-Catholicism, the Gothic, and The Mysterious Mother

6. Nicole Mansfield Wright Defiance of Authority and the Visionary Power of Negation in The Mysterious Mother

PART II: STAGING THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER

7. Marcie Frank Wilful Walpole: Performing Publication and The Mysterious Mother

8. Jean I. Marsden Family Dramas: The Mysterious Mother and the Eighteenth-Century Incest Play

9. Judith Hawley "The beautiful negligence of a gentleman": Horace Walpole and Amateur Theatricals

10. David Worrall "I beg you would keep it under lock and key": The Mystery of the 1821 Mysterious Mother Performances

Part III: THE YALE PERFORMANCE

11. David Worrall Abridged Version of The Mysterious Mother

12. David Worrall Abridging Horace Walpole's The Mysterious Mother

13. Misty G. Anderson Staging The Mysterious Mother

PART IV: "THIS COPY IS TO BE KEPT IN THE BEAUCLERC - CLOSET TO EXPLAIN LADY DI BEAUCLERC'S DRAWINGS. H .W."

Facsimile of Horace Walpole's Copy of the 1768 Strawberry Hill Edition

14. Cynthia E. Roman The Beauclerk Closet Drawings: Seven Illustrations of The Mysterious Mother

List of Contributors

Acknowledgments

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-300-27485-8

OCLC:

1402817780