The Gambler's Fate, or A Lapse of Twenty Years

The Gambler's Fate, or A Lapse of Twenty Years is a drama in two acts by Charles Thompson, founded on the popular French play of La Vie D'un Joueur by Victor Ducange. Hugely popular during the mid 18th century in London. (Also known simply as The Gambler's Fate. )

Published in Cumberland's British theatre. London, ca. 1825-55. v. 17 [no 4] Note in the text says: "Printed from the acting copy, with remarks, biographical and critical; to which are added, a description of the costume, cast of the characters, entrances and exits, relative positions of the performers on the stage, and the whole of the stage business. Embellished with a wood-engraving, by Mr. Bonner, from a drawing by Mr. R. Cruikshank."

According to F.C.L. Bosman (1928, p 213), its first production in Cape Town on 5 June 1830 by H. Booth and All the World's a Stage led to a great deal of critique for the presentation and the text, which the critic of the Commercial Advertiser said was "a clumsy adaptation from the German". In response "A British Amateur" wrote in the Zuid-Afrikaan stated (correctly) that it was in fact an "almost literal translation" of the French play La Vie d'un Joueur. However, it seems to have been to everyone's taste, and was repeated by popular demand on 19 June 1830, with Payne's Charles the Second, or The Merry Monarch as afterpiece.