Rob Roy

Rob Roy can refer to:

(1) the popular novel by Sir Walter Scott(1771-1832)[1], published in 1817,

(2) to his central character, Robert Roy Campbell MacGregor (1671-1734)[2], the brigand turned hero, who became known as "Rob Roy",

(3) to a number of stage and film dramatizations of the novel from 1818 onwards.

The novel

The story of Robert Roy MacGregor (1671–1734), the Scottish outlaw and later folk hero, has many versions of varying truth, and was first recorded during his lifetime in the publication of a fictionalised account of his life called The Highland Rogue (full title: The Highland rogue: or, the memorable actions of the celebrated Robert Mac-gregor, commonly called Rob-Roy 1723), but it was the publication of Rob Roy[3] by Sir Walter Scott in 1817, that really internationalised his fame and fleshed out his biography. The novel was first published as one of the Waverley novels, appearing in three volumes and dated 1818, being published in Edinburgh on 30 December 1817 by Archibald Constable and Co. and in London on 13 January 1818 by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.

Dramatizations of Rob Roy

The work was adapted for the stage almost immediately after publication and numerous times afterwards. The texts are often only marginally based on the novel, and the authors of the adaptations are not always credited (the play in some instances even credited to Scott alone).

The entries below concern stage versions performed, or thought to have been performed, in South Africa.

Rob Roy Macgregor, or Auld Lang Syne! by Isaac Pocock

The original text

The work, while based on the novel, was a musical version, incorporating songs and verses from Robert Burns (1759-1796)[4] and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)[5], and music by John Davy (1763–1824)[6], drawing heavily on traditional Scottish folk songs.

It was first played at Covent Garden on 12 March 1818, with William Charles Macready in the title role, and published in the same year by John Miller, London, in 1818 and in New York by D. Longworth, 1818.

It was first performed, to great success, in Edinburgh on 15 February 1819, and played through into the following year. It was perhaps also the version of Rob Roy Macgregor performed for the King's visit in 1822. The version appears to have been the most successful and longest lasting of the early adaptations and certainly the version most often performed in South Africa in that the 19th century.

Performance history in South Africa

1823: Performed (and announced as Rob Roy MacGregor Campbell) on 15 November by the English Theatricals company in the African Theatre Cape Town , with The Mock Doctor (Fielding) as afterpiece.

1823: Performed again on 20 December by the English Theatricals company in the African Theatre Cape Town , with All the World's a Stage (Jackman) as afterpiece.

1824: Performed on 11 August by the English Theatricals company in the African Theatre Cape Town , with The Weather-Cock (Forrest) as afterpiece.

1861: Performed as Rob Roy Macgregor, or Auld Lang Syne by Sefton Parry and his company in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 4 July, with Thomas Brazier as "Rob Roy". Ici on Parle Français (Williams) performed as an afterpiece.

1861: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 8 July, with The Loan of a Lover (Planché) as an afterpiece.

1862: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 28 March, with The Dancing Barber (Selby) as an afterpiece. The evening a benefit for T. Brazier.

Sources

Facsimile version of the London published text of Pocock's play (1818), Google eBook[7]

Facsimile version of the New York published text of Pocock's play (1818), Google eBook[8]

Frederick Burwick. Playing to the Crowd: London Popular Theatre, 1780-1830 (Palgrave Macmillan, 08 Nov 2011 )[9]

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Murray,_William_Henry_(DNB00)

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928: pp. 73-77, 142, 198.

Fletcher, 1994 p. 40

Rob Roy MacGregor by William Henry Murray

The original text

Rob Roy MacGregor by William Henry Murray[10]

Rob Roy, The Gregarach by George Soane

The original text

Rob Roy, The Gregarach by George Soane[11]

Performance history of all versions of the tale in South Africa

Below is a list of performances of ALL known versions of Rob Roy in South Africa

1823-24: A play called Rob Roy MacGregor Campbell, or simply referred to a Rob Roy, said to be based on Scott's novel (or credited to Scott himself), was performed a number of times in the African Theatre, Cape Town by the amateur company English Theatricals in these years. It is most likely that this was the widely known and published Pocock musical version of 1818, but it may have been the William Henry Murray version, entitled Rob Roy Macgregor, which had been devised in association with Scott and was performed in Edinburgh in 1818. It was certainly not the Soane version, which was a straight play, for the adverts make reference to a "melodramatic opera", with "original Overture and Music".

1823: Performed as Rob Roy MacGregor Campbell "with the original Overture and Music, new Scenery, Dresses, etc." on 15 November, in the African Theatre, Cape Town, with as afterpiece The Mock Doctor (Fielding).

1823: Performed again by the company English Theatricals as Rob Roy MacGregor Campbell on 20 December, this time with All the World's a Stage (Jackman) as afterpiece.

1824: Performed as Rob Roy MacGregor Campbell, now called a "melodramatic opera", in the African Theatre, Cape Town, by the English Theatricals on 11 August, with The Weather-Cock (Forrest).

1823: Performed (and announced as Rob Roy MacGregor Campbell) on 15 November by the English Theatricals company in the African Theatre Cape Town , with The Mock Doctor (Fielding) as afterpiece.

1823: Performed again on 20 December by the English Theatricals company in the African Theatre Cape Town , with All the World's a Stage (Jackman) as afterpiece.

1824: Performed on 11 August by the English Theatricals company in the African Theatre Cape Town , with The Weather-Cock (Forrest) as afterpiece.

1861: Performed as Rob Roy Macgregor, or Auld Lang Syne by Sefton Parry and his company in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 4 July, with Thomas Brazier as "Rob Roy". Ici on Parle Français (Williams) performed as an afterpiece.

1861: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 8 July, with The Loan of a Lover (Planché) as an afterpiece.

1862: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 28 March, with The Dancing Barber (Selby) as an afterpiece. The evening a benefit for T. Brazier.

1866: Three performances (on 27 and 30 August, 1 September) of Rob Roy by the Le Roy and Duret Company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, , with Bachelor's Buttons (Stirling) as afterpiece.

1875: Performed in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck's company on 2 June, with The Happy Pair (Smith).

Sources

Facsimile version of the London published text of Pocock's play (1818), Google eBook[12]

Facsimile version of the New York published text of Pocock's play (1818), Google eBook[13]

Frederick Burwick. Playing to the Crowd: London Popular Theatre, 1780-1830 (Palgrave Macmillan, 08 Nov 2011 )[14]

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Murray,_William_Henry_(DNB00)

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928: pp. 73-77, 142, 198.

Fletcher, 1994 p. 40

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Pocock

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Roy_(novel)

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

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

Gordon Goodwin. "Davy, John (1763-1824)", Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 14. [15]

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[16]: 197, 199

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.98, 106, 111, 180, 212, 214-5, 219, 324, 342, 346, 349, 386

Facsimile version of the London published text of 1818, Google eBook[17]

Facsimile version of the New York published text of 1818, Google eBook[18]

Frederick Burwick. Playing to the Crowd: London Popular Theatre, 1780-1830:pp. 120-124 (Palgrave Macmillan, 08 Nov 2011)[19]

http://hal_macgregor.tripod.com/gregor/tree.html

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

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Murray,_William_Henry_(DNB00)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Murray

F.C.L. Bosman. 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [20]: pp. 197-199.

Jill Fletcher. 1994. The Story of Theatre in South Africa: A Guide to its History from 1780-1930. Cape Town: Vlaeberg: p. 40

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