The Miller's Maid

The Miller's Maid is a melodrama in two acts by John Faucit Saville (1783?–1853)[1]

The original text

Founded on a like-named poem by Robert Bloomfield (1766-1823)[2], with the songs principally selected from his works as well, it was first performed at the Theatre Royal, English Opera House, London, in 1821, and printed for the author by Longman et al in the same year.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1830: Performed in Cape Town in English by H. Booth and local amateurs on 24 July, as an afterpiece to Pizarro, or The Death of Rolla (Von Kotzebue, credited to Sheridan).

1832: Performed on 22 September in the Cape Town Theatre, Cape Town, by All the World's a Stage with The Soldier's Daughter (Cherry) and Jack at the Cape, or All Alive Among the Hottentots! (Booth).

1837: Performed by the Private Amateur Company on 31 July 1837 in the Cape Town Theatre, as afterpiece to The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles (Planché).

1862: Billed as a "Domestic Drama", The Miller's Maid was performed by Clara Tellett and her company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 21 July, with That Blessed Baby (Moore).

1862: A piece now billed as The Maid of the Mill, but still called a "Domestic Drama", was performed by Clara Tellett and her company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 2 August, with Love in Humble Life (Scribé/Payne) and A Perfect Cure (Sapte). Though the text performed is most likely to have been Saville's play, F.C.L. Bosman (1980, p. 131 footnote 459), asks whether - given the title - the work performed was not in fact a version of Bickerstaffe's comic opera The Maid of the Mill (which Bosman, for some inscrutable reason, refers to as The Maid and the Mail.)

Sources

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009604055

http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/49/101049703/

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Saville%2c%20John%20Faucit%2c%201807%2d1855&c=x

Saville, J. Faucit. (1821). The Miller's Maid: A Melo-drama in Two Acts. London: Printed for the author, and sold by Longman [etc.]. Facsimile version, Hathi Trust Digital Library[3]

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [4]: pp. 207, 214, 224

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.131, 134

Go to ESAT Bibliography