The Lottery Ticket and The Lawyer's Clerk

The Lottery Ticket and The Lawyer's Clerk is a farce in one act by Samuel Beazley (1786–1851)[1], with attribution to Jean Baptiste Radet (1752-1830)[2]and Louis-Benoît Picard (1769-1828)[3].

(For instance a version published in New York and Philadelphia by Turner and Fisher [ca. 1830], is listed in the HathiTrust Digital Library as by Beazley as well as both French authors.)[4]

The shortened title, The Lottery Ticket, is often found.

The original text

An adaptation of La Maison en Loterie, a one act comedy by Radet and Picard. First performed on 8 December, 1817, in the Théâtre Royal de l'Odéon, Paris. Picard and Radet are often mentioned, singly or together, as additional authors of the English text.

The Beazley version was first Performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in December 1826. First published as The Lottery Ticket and The Lawyer's Clerk, with no author mentioned, by C. Chapple in 1827.

Translations and adaptations

There is also a later one act farce, entitled The Lottery Ticket, or The Lawyers's Clerk , credited to John Baldwin Buckstone (1802-1879), and published by Samuel French (No CXXXVII in the series The Minor Drama, 1880). It may possibly have been an adaptation by Buckstone of Beazley's original, but it is more likely that this was simply a wrong attribution by the publishers, since no play by this name appears in any list of Buckstone's many works. The Harvard Library catalogue entry[5] on the Samuel French text addresses this anomaly as follows: "Attribution: by J.B. Buckstone. ... Author / Creator: Beazley, Samuel, 1786-1851...Acting copy. An adaptation of La maison en loterie by Picard and Radet. Wrongly attributed to John Baldwin Buckstone."

(See also Hathi Trust Digital Library catalogue entry[6] and Caliban Book Shop website[7])

Performance history in South Africa

1846: First performed as The Lottery Ticket, or the Lawyer's Clerk in Cape Town by the All the World's a Stage on Friday, 4 September, with The Brigand (Planché) and The Original (Morton).

1855: Performed in Cape Town on Thursday 26 July 1855 by Sefton Parry as part of his farewell performance, alongside A Phenomenon in a Smock Frock (Brough) and Buried Alive, or The Visit to Japan (M'Pherson).

1857: Performed as The Lottery Ticket by Sefton Parry and company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 3 November. Also part of the programme were The Maid and the Magpie, or Which is the Thief? (Pocock) and a performance on the "nautical hornpipe" by Mr Gough.

1861: Performed by Sefton Parry and company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 13 June, along with London Assurance (Boucicault) and a "Fan Dance" by Miss Powell.