View source for He Who'd Be A Governor

''[[He Who'd Be A Governor]]'' is a scenario for a comic opera written by [[S.E. Hudson]]. 

The text is inscribed in his journal as "The New Comic Opera", and lampoons and heavily criticizes the officials and prominent citizens (including [[Lady Anne Barnard]]) at the Cape who were at odds with sir [[George Yonge]]. The work was never performed, but the text is contained in ''The Diary of Samuel Eusebius Hudson Chief Clerk in the Customs, Cape Town 1798-1800'', which is held by the [[South African Library]] in Cape Town.
 
There are a number of anomalies in references to this work by a range of authors. For instance [[F.C.L. Bosman|Bosman]](1928: p. 108),  citing [[Dorothea Ann Fairbridge|Miss Fairbridge]] (most probably Fairbridge's  edited versions of [[Lady Anne Barnard]]'s ''Cape Diaries''), has the title as ''[[He Wou'd Be A Governor]]''; both Bosman and [[Jill Fletcher|Fletcher]] (1994: p.24)  cite Hudson's second name as "Esuibuis", and [[Sydney Paul Gosher|Gosher]] illogically dates the text as 1861 - i.e. 33 years after the author's death.   

== Sources == 
  
[[F.C.L. Bosman]]. 1928. ''Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855''. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy.[http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bosm012dram01_01/]: p. 108. 

[[Jill Fletcher]], 1994.  ''The Story of Theatre in South Africa: A Guide to its History from 1780-1930''. Cape Town: Vlaeberg: p. 23

[[Sydney Paul Gosher]] 1988.  ''A historical and critical survey of the South African one-act play written in English''. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Pretoria: University of South Africa.

Go to the [[ESAT Bibliography]]

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