The Castle Spectre

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A play in five acts by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775 –1818) Apparently based on a previous attempt at a gothic story by the author, inspired by Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, it was reworked into a play in 1796 and first performed at the Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane, on Thursday, December 14, 1797. Despite manifold obvious weaknesses the play was a popular success and according to Bertrand Evans (1947, pp 143-44), with its appearance “...Gothic drama assumed a popular position not below that of the Gothic novel. Besides having a very long and eminently successful first run, this concoction went through seven printed editions in 1798 and eleven by 1803." It was apparently still popular in 1829.

Performance history in South Africa

Performed in the Cape Town Theatre, Cape Town by the English Theatricals on 27 November 1824, with The Poor Soldier (O'Keeffe).

Translations and adaptations

Sources

Bertrand Evans, Gothic Drama from Walpole to Shelley, University of California Publications in English vol. 18, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1947; pp.143-44.[1]

http://omni.sytes.net/lewis.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Lewis_(writer)


Bosman, 1928: pp. 199,

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