The Bottle

The Bottle is a drama in two acts by T.P. Taylor (Tom Taylor, 1817-1880)

The original text
A play consisting of "eight tableaux" about the evils of drink, based on the graphic illustrations - also entitled The Bottle - by George Cruikshank. In a series of eight plates, in its turn inspired by the 18th century painter William Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress, Cruikshank charts a drinker’s decline from first glass to unemployment, poverty, violence and insanity. The series was published in 1847.

Taylor's play was also published in 1847 by John Dicks.

Performance history in South Africa
1850(?): Performed in Cape Town by James Lycett and company in the Drury Lane Theatre

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