Wanted, 1000 Spirited Young Milliners, for the Gold Diggings!

Wanted, 1000 Spirited Young Milliners, for the Gold Diggings! is a farce, in one act, by Joseph Stirling Coyne (1803-1868)[1]

The above is the title as published by Lacy, but it is also found written in numerous ways, including: Wanted, 1000 Spirited Young Milliners, for the Gold Diggings, Wanted, 1000 Spirited Young Milliners for the Gold Diggings!, Wanted 1000 Spirited Young Milliners for the Gold Diggings , Wanted, 1000 Milliners for the Gold Diggings!!, Wanted, One Thousand Spirited Young Milliners for the Gold Diggings or simply Wanted 1000 Milliners.

The original text

First performed at the Royal Olympic Theatre, London, on 2 October, 1852 and published by Thomas Hailes Lacy in the same year.

Performance history in South Africa

1858: Performed as Wanted, 1000 Spirited Young Milliners, for the Gold Diggings in the Cape Town Theatre on 29 July by Sefton Parry and his company, supported by the "Cape Town Dramatic Club", with The Rent Day (Jerrold). The evening a benefit for Mr and Mrs Parry.

1860: Performed as Wanted 1000 Milliners by Sefton Parry and his company in the Cape Town Theatre on 21 and 22 May, with The Sea of Ice, or The Thirst for Gold (d'Ennery and Dugué/Robertson), a dance by Miss Powell and the Barley-Sugar Polka by "a New Comedian from London". The décor for the plays designed and painted by Thomas Baines.

June 1862: In Port Elizabeth, "the amateurs of the town" performed Wanted, 1000 Spirited Young Milliners, for the Gold Diggings at the New Theatre.

1862: Performed in the Garrison Theatre, Keiskama Hoek, on October 18 by the Amateurs of the Band (North Lincolnshire Regiment of Foot) as Wanted, 1000 Spirited Young Milliners for the Gold Diggings! with a cast consisting of: J. M'Kechnie Mr Singleton, a solicitor), W. Allan (Joe Baggs, his clerk), J. F. Gay (Tom Tipton, a medical student at Guy's), J. Davies (Selina Smith), P. Mulrennan (Sophy Stokes), ******** (Charlotte Simpson), J. Newham (Caroline Jones), ******** (Bella Brown), ******** (Jemima Jukes), T. Smith (Angelica Todd). Also performed was Edward Ball's two-act melodrama, The Floating Beacon, or Norwegian Wreckers. (For more on contemporary responses to the performances, see the entry on the North Lincolnshire Regiment of Foot)

1865: Performed as Wanted 1000 Spirited Young Milliners for the Gold Diggings by the officers and men of the 10th Regiment (1st Battalion) in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 11 and 14 March. Also performed was Hollybush Hall, or The Track in the Snow (Suter).

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stirling_Coyne

Facsimile version of the 1852 Lacy edition, Google E-book[2]

North Lincoln Sphinx Vol 1, No 14. December 10th 1862.

Facsimile version of the original text, Google E-book[3]

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.70, 74, 79, 257

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