Ivanhoe, or The Jewess of York

Ivanhoe, or The Jewess of York is called a "Chivalric Play in Three Acts" and is by William Thomas Moncrieff (1794-1857)[1] and Walter Scott, with music by Hughes.

Also found listed as Ivanhoe, or The Jewess.

The original text

Based on the popular novel Ivanhoe[2] by Sir Walter Scott[3], this stage adaptation was first produced on 24 January 1820 at the Coburg Theatre, London, and published in the same year.

It was one of several plays that were quickly created shortly after the publication of Scott's popular novel in 1819. Moncrieff's play appears under a number of names in various publications, including:

Ivanhoe! or, The Jewess; Ivanhoe; or, The Jewess; Ivanhoe, or, The Jew of York, Ivanhoe, or The Jewess of York (the title under which it first appeared in South Africa).

The play was possibly also billed simply as The Jewess in some cases, a title cited for a play performed by Nance O'Neill in Cape Town in 1901-2, though - as no author is given - this could also have been a reference a version of one of the many works about the medieval story of The Jewess of Toledo (e.g. Lope de Vega's Las paces de los reyes y judia de Toledo of 1617 or Franz Grillparzer's Die Jüdin von Toledo of 1851).

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1824: Produced on 17 June by the English Theatricals in the African Theatre, Cape Town as Ivanhoe, or The Jewess of York , with Who's the Dupe? (Cowley) as afterpiece.

1901: The American actress Nance O'Neill apparently played the leading role in a play called The Jewess, produced in the Good Hope Theatre, Cape Town, during September by the Wheeler Theatre Company.

1902: The Jewess produced again in the Good Hope Theatre by the Wheeler Theatre Company during February, once more with Nance O'Neill in the lead.