Fictions of Presence: Theatre and Novel in Eighteenth-Century Britain

341 Pages·2020·6.577 MB·English

by  Ros Ballaster

Fictions

of

Presence

THEATRE AND NOVEL

IN EIGHTEENTH-

CENTURY BRITAIN

ROS BALLASTER
Fictions of Presence
Studies in the Eighteenth Century
ISSN: 2398–9904
This major series from Boydell & Brewer, published in association with the British
Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, aims to bring into fruitful dialogue the dif-
ferent disciplines involved in all aspects of the study of the long eighteenth century
(c. 1660–1820). It publishes innovative volumes, singly or co-authored, on any topic in
history, science, music, literature and the visual arts in any area of the world in the long
eighteenth century and particularly encourages proposals that explore links among the
disciplines, and which aim to develop new cross-disciplinary fields of enquiry.
Series editors: Ros Ballaster, University of Oxford, UK; Matthew Grenby, Newcastle Uni-
versity, UK; Robert D. Hume, Penn State University, USA; Mark Knights, University of
Warwick, UK; Renaud Morieux, University of Cambridge, UK
Previously published
Material Enlightenment: Women Writers and the Science of Mind, 1770–1830, Joanna Whar-
ton, 2018
Celebrity Culture and the Myth of Oceania in Britain, 1770–1823, Ruth Scobie, 2019
British Sociability in the Long Eighteenth Century: Challenging the Anglo-French
Connection, edited by Valérie Capdeville and Alain Kerhervé, 2019
Things that Didn’t Happen: Writing, Politics and the Counterhistorical, 1678–1743, John
McTague, 2019
Converting Britannia: Evangelicals and British Public Life, 1770–1840, Gareth Atkins, 2019
British Catholic Merchants in the Commercial Age, 1670–1714, Giada Pizzoni, 2020
Lessons of Travel in Eighteenth-Century France: From Grand Tour to School Trips, Gábor
Gelléri, 2020
Political Journalism in London, 1695–1720: Defoe, Swift, Steele and their Contemporaries,
Ashley Marshall, 2020
Fictions of Presence
Theatre and Novel in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Ros Ballaster
THE BOYDELL PRESS
Published in association with
© Ros Ballaster 2020
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
The right of Ros Ballaster to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2020
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978 1 78327 558 8 hardback
ISBN 978 1 80010 037 4 ePDF
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
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website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for
external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guaran-
tee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
Cover image: Mrs. Abington as Miss Prue in Love for Love by
William Congreve, 1771, Sir Joshua Reynolds RA (1723–1792), oil on canvas.
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
To Phil, Frances and Stuart, who are always with me

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Being There 1
Part 1. Authors: Unconcealment and Withdrawal
1 Introducing the Authors 25
2 Eliza Haywood: Authoring Adultery 35
3 Henry Fielding: Ghost Writing 55
4 Charlotte Lennox: (In)dependent Authorship 75
5 Oliver Goldsmith: Keeping Up Authorial Appearances 95
6 From Author to Character 115
Part 2. Characters: Occupying Space
7 Introducing Characters 121
8 Outdoing Character: Lady Townly 133
9 The Sway of Character: Pamela 155
10 The Expanse of Character: Ranger 177
11 The Play of Character: Tristram 197
12 From Character to Consumer 219
viii Fictions of Presence
Part 3. Consumers: What is Seen
13 Introducing Consumers 225
14 The Mimic 235
15 The Critic 255
Conclusion 275
Bibliography 283
Index 305
Acknowledgements
I am a late and reluctant convert to theatre history. Students, scholars and
colleagues have helped me to get there. Student actors sometimes appeared
flighty, but I’ve come to admire the fierce energy they bring to finishing
their work and taking their audience with them. I wrote this book over the
five-year period that I served as the senior member of the Oxford Univer-
sity Dramatic Society. The creative presence of the actors, directors and
producers with whom I worked is felt everywhere in these pages. So too the
doctoral students I have supervised over the same period, who have written
so well about theatre, the eighteenth century, women writers and perform-
ers: Azlina Aziz, Sarah Barnette, Kitty Gurnos-Davies, Kimberly Marsh,
Rathika Muthukumaran, Camille Pidoux, Honor Rieley. Special thanks to
Dr Anna Senkiw, first my doctoral student and later my research assistant,
who checked citations and prepared my online bibliography, as well as
holding long and fascinating conversations with me about eighteenth-cen-
tury celebrity culture. Research is always the better for doing it with others
and I thank here the other research assistants who have given support along
the way: Ellen Brewster, Grace Egan, Kathleen Lawton-Trask, Anne-Claire
Michoux, Ben Wilkinson-Turnbull. They have sustained me through their
willing embrace of my enthusiasm for the present, the now, in all its rich
and redolent fictitiousness.
There are colleagues at Oxford to whom I owe particular intellectual
debts. The teaching and research of Dr Ruth Scobie always inspire me
and prompt me to think further and responsibly. I have called often on
the depth, scope and generosity of Dr David Taylor’s knowledge of the
eighteenth-century stage. Professors Christine Gerrard, Nicole Pohl and
Abigail Williams have been the best of companions here at Oxford in com-
municating the excitement and energy of eighteenth-century culture, and
the research in which we engage. Professor Karin Kukkonen has been a
brilliant interlocutor, first at Oxford and after from Oslo. She has kept me
on my toes with her understanding of how the novel found its feet through
theatre in the period, as well as with her command of cognitive theory.
I have benefited from the expertise of many scholars of the theatre and
the novel and acknowledge them here, while reserving the claim for any