ANECDOTE, FARCE, AND SONG ON THE LONDON STAGE
Mathews's trip to paris; or, the dramatic tourist: containing the whole of the songs, adventures and misadventures, original anecdotes, high and low life, Whimsical Imitation of French and English Characters...
London.
Printed and sold by Dean & Munday, 1819.
First edition.
12mo.
49pp, [1]. With an engraved hand-coloured folding frontispiece by Robert Cruikshank. Recent blind-ruled half-calf, marbled paper boards, lettered in gilt to spine. A trifle rubbed. Scattered spotting.
The first edition of Trip to Paris, one of the earliest 'At Home' series entertainments, written and performed by acclaimed comic actor Charles Mathews (1776-1835).
Commencing in 1817, the annual 'At Home' performances - monopolylogue entertainments which were the epitome of the genre - were for Mathews the most successful of his career. The performances were presented as table entertainment, with a monologue providing the channel for diversions into anecdote, farce, and song to transport the audience through a myriad of comical misadventures, often revealing the most curious of human characteristics. The four-hour Trip to Paris provided Mathews not only with one of his most popular comic creations, a discombobulated aged spinster, but provided ample opportunity to lampoon the foibles of English tourists on the Continent.
£ 375.00
Antiquates Ref: 22601
Commencing in 1817, the annual 'At Home' performances - monopolylogue entertainments which were the epitome of the genre - were for Mathews the most successful of his career. The performances were presented as table entertainment, with a monologue providing the channel for diversions into anecdote, farce, and song to transport the audience through a myriad of comical misadventures, often revealing the most curious of human characteristics. The four-hour Trip to Paris provided Mathews not only with one of his most popular comic creations, a discombobulated aged spinster, but provided ample opportunity to lampoon the foibles of English tourists on the Continent.
