Ben Bolt

Ben Bolt is a drama in two acts by John B. Johnstone (1803-1891)[1]

The original text

The play was inspired by the famous American ballad Ben Bolt by Thomas Dunn English (1819–1902)[2], written in 1842 and published in the New York Mirror in 1843, after which it became a very popular as poem in America and England, and thereafter even better known as a naval song, having been set to music by Nelson Kneass.

The poem provided both the broad theme and the names of the lead characters, and the play was first performed at the Royal Surrey Theatre on Tuesday, 28 March 1854, and published in the same year by Thomas Hailes Lacy.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1859: Performed by the Charles Fraser and his company in Cape Town with Slasher and Crasher (Morton) on 3 May.

1859: Repeated by the Charles Fraser and his company in Cape Town with a scen from Macbeth (Shakespeare) and To Paris and Back for £5 (Morton) on 9 May.

1865: Performed by the Valorous Amateurs (amateur players from H.M.S. Valorous) in the Garrison Theatre, Cape Town on 17 November, with Michael Erle the Maniac Lover (Wilks) and Betsy Baker (Morton).

1866: Performed by the 9th Regiment's dramatic company in the Garrison Theatre, Cape Town on 8 December, with performances of dances and music.

1867: Performed by the Young Men's Dramatic Company in Mr Ferguson's Saloon, in the Swiss Hotel, Plein Street, Cape Town on 24 July, with A Shilling Day at the (Great) Exhibition (Halliday and Brough).

1875: Performed by Disney Roebuck and company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, on 26 June, with a recital of The Charge of the Light Brigade by Miss Berenger and The Daughter of the Regiment (Stirling).

1875: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town on 3 July, with Life's Revenge (Suter).

1877: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 18 August, with The Shaughraun (Boucicault).

1877: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 20 October, with Our Boys (Byron), as a benefit for E.V. Sinclair and Mrs Sinclair.

Sources

Transcript version of the poem Ben Bolt, with commentary[3]

Transcript version of the 1854 play text, Victorian Plays Project[4]

"John Beer Johnstone" in: Léger-St-Jean, Marie. Price One Penny: A Database of Cheap Literature, 1837-1860. [19 March 2017]. Faculty of English, Cambridge [08 April 2018] (http://priceonepenny.info).[5]

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 124, 258, 270, 271, 325, 359, 361.

Go to ESAT Bibliography