Difference between revisions of "Inkle and Yarico"
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== The original text == | == The original text == | ||
| − | Though billed as a "comic opera", the story is tragic, one of the betrayal of love by Inkle, an English trader, who is shipwrecked in the West Indies, and survives with the help of Yarico, an Indian maiden. They fall in love, but he ultimately sells her into slavery to cover his losses and enable him to marry well. Actions which he justifies to the West Indian chieftain in the end. | + | Though billed as a "comic opera", the story is tragic, based on a often retold tale, one of the betrayal of love by Inkle, an English trader, who is shipwrecked in the West Indies, and survives with the help of Yarico, an Indian maiden. They fall in love, but he ultimately sells her into slavery to cover his losses and enable him to marry well. Actions which he justifies to the West Indian chieftain in the end. |
| + | Richard Ligon's book ''A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes'' (1657) contains the first telling of this supposedly true story, which was then retold by Richard Steele in his ''Spectator'' column (March 1711), in which Yarico is a Native American, sold into slavery while bearing Inkle's child. The story next appeared in Christian Fürchtegott Gellert's popular trilogy | ||
| + | in 1746, followed by an illustrated [[Dutch]] version in 1772. | ||
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| − | + | In het Duits verscheen dat werk van Gellert, het eerste van een zeer populaire trilogie, voor het eerst . Een geïllustreerde Nederlandse vertaling volgde in 1772, en die versie staat op Google Books, | |
| − | |||
| − | In het Duits verscheen dat werk van Gellert, het eerste van een zeer populaire trilogie, voor het eerst | ||
Revision as of 06:52, 1 March 2015
A comic opera in three acts, with music by Samuel Arnold and a libretto by George Colman the Younger.
Contents
The original text
Though billed as a "comic opera", the story is tragic, based on a often retold tale, one of the betrayal of love by Inkle, an English trader, who is shipwrecked in the West Indies, and survives with the help of Yarico, an Indian maiden. They fall in love, but he ultimately sells her into slavery to cover his losses and enable him to marry well. Actions which he justifies to the West Indian chieftain in the end.
Richard Ligon's book A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes (1657) contains the first telling of this supposedly true story, which was then retold by Richard Steele in his Spectator column (March 1711), in which Yarico is a Native American, sold into slavery while bearing Inkle's child. The story next appeared in Christian Fürchtegott Gellert's popular trilogy in 1746, followed by an illustrated Dutch version in 1772.
In het Duits verscheen dat werk van Gellert, het eerste van een zeer populaire trilogie, voor het eerst . Een geïllustreerde Nederlandse vertaling volgde in 1772, en die versie staat op Google Books,
Gellert was destijds een veel gelezen auteur, maar van het verhaal over Inkle en Yariko bestond ook een Nederlands toneelstuk (1781) dat op zijn beurt weer aanleiding gaf tot het maken van prenten. Volgens een bespreking in de Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen van 1789 had Gellert het verhaal ook niet zelf verzonnen, maar ontleend aan een Engelse Spectator. Inderdaad staat het verhaal in de Spectator van Steele, jaargang 1711. Het werd vanaf 1787 tevens opgevoerd als opera in Londen. Naar het zich laat aanzien bleef dat stuk in Engeland nog lang populair, zo is er nog een affiche uit 1799 van een theater in Bristol. Overigens bleek Steele het verhaal evenmin van zichzelf te hebben, hij ontleende het weer aan een geschiedenis van Barbados uit 1657, waarin het wordt opgevoerd als waar gebeurd.
First staged at the Haymarket Theatre in London, England in August 1787, going to 98 performances there. Hugely successful, it saw a total of 164 performances on London stages by 1800.
Printed from the prompt book under the authority of the managers of the theatres royal Covent Garden and Haymarket by T. Davison, Whitefriars, London; for the publishers Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orm. Contains introductory remarks by Mrs. Inchbald.
Translations and adaptations
Translated into Dutch as Incle en Yariko and described as a "Tooneelspel in Drie Bedryven". Publsiehd in Rotterdam by N. Brakel, 1792.
Performance history in South Africa
1824: Performed on 11 September by the English Theatricals company in the African Theatre Cape Town , with The Spoiled Child (Bickerstaff) as afterpiece. It was done as a benefit for Mrs Black.
1835: The Dutch text performed in De Liefhebbery Toneel, Cape Town, according to Bosman p.271 with the title Incle en Yariko, by the children's company Kunst en Smaak on 24 October, with De Dronkaard (Von Kotzebue). Both plays repeated on 30 October.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkle_and_Yarico
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Inkle and Yarico[1]
Groninganus. 2014. Inkle en Yariko, of: liefde staat boven slavernij[2]
"Inkle und Yariko" in Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. 1746. Fabeln und Erzaelungen. Kapitel 11: p.29[3]
A. van der Kroe en J. Yntema. 1793. Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen. Amsterdam[4]
Bosman, 1928: 199, 271,
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