The Married Bachelor, or Master and Man

The Married Bachelor, or Master and Man is a one-act farce by P.P. O'Callaghan.

Also found with the shorter title The Married Bachelor

Not to be confused with Master and Man (1898), a four act play by George R. Sims and Henry Pettitt.

The original text

First performed in London in the Adelphi Theatre, London in 1821, and was apparently very popular throughout the 19th century.

Published as The Married Bachelor, or Master and Man by J. Cumberland, London, in 1828 and in one volume with My Neigbour's Wife by Alfred Bunn (1796 – 1860) by J. Dicks, London, in 1828 (No 316 of Dick's Standard Plays) (The Internet Archive has a publication date of "1928?", but this text suggests it was published the year of first production).

Published as a single text entitled simply The Married Bachelor in 1853 by an unknown publisher

Performance history in South Africa

1830: Performed on 3 July by All the World's a Stage in the Cape Town Theatre (i.e. the African Theatre), as afterpiece to Romeo and Juliet. (The author listed as "O'Calligan" by Bosman, 1928 - possibly misspelled by his source or the company.)

1830 Performed on 11 September by All the World's a Stage in the Cape Town Theatre, as afterpiece to The Honey Moon (Tobin)

1832: Performed (under the shortened title of The Married Bachelor) on 9 June by All the World's a Stage in the Cape Town Theatre (i.e. the African Theatre), with Bombastes Furioso, or The King of Utopia (Rhodes) as afterpieces to The Maid and the Magpie, or Who's the Thief!!! (Pocock).

1862: Performed as The Married Bachelor, or Master and Man by Clara Tellett and her company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 11 and 12 August, with The Bonnie Fishwife (Selby) , A Perfect Cure (Sapte) and The Pilot, or A Tale of the Sea (Fitzball).

Sources

J.P. Wearing. 2013. The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. London: Scarecrow Press: p.3[1]

Facsimile version of the 1828 Cumberland text, The Internet Archive[2]

Facsimile version of the 1828 Dick's text, The Internet Archivehttps://archive.org/stream/myneighbourswife00bunnuoft#page/10/mode/2up

https://www.amazon.com/married-bachelor-farce-one-act/dp/B007SAFCZS

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [3]: pp. 214, 215, 222

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.132

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