The Day After the Wedding, or A Wife’s First Lesson

A farce in one act by Mrs Kemble (1774-1838)

Also credited to Mrs Charles Kemble, Marie Thérèse Kemble or Marie Thérèse De Camp Kemble in various editions.

The original text

It is usually ascribed to Mrs Kemble (under one of her four names) as an original work, though one London edition , that of 1856, refers to it as “An Interlude in One Act. Adapted from the French by Mrs Charles Kemble”.

First produced at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 18 May 1808, as a benefit for her husband Charles Kemble.

The second edition, published in London 1811 by C. Chapple, has the title as The Day After the Wedding, or A Wife’s First Lesson and calls it "An Interlude in One Act", credited to Marie Thérèse Kemble.

Published in New York in 1846 as The Day After The Wedding only, and called "A farce in one act", credited to Mrs. Charles Kemble.

Published in 1856 by Lacy in London as The Day After the Wedding, or A Wife’s First Lesson; and referred as "An Interlude in One Act, Adapted from the French by Mrs. Charles Kemble"

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1823: Performed as The Day After The Wedding in the African Theatre, Cape Town by the Garrison Players on 27 September, as afterpiece to Folly As It Flies (Reynolds).

1833: Performed as The Day After the Wedding, or A Wife’s First Lesson in the African Theatre, Cape Town by the All the World's a Stage on 21 September, with the interlude A Race for Dinner (Rodwell), the comic sketch of The Actress Of All Work (Oxberry, though the author not is said to be unknown) and the farce The Rival Valets (Ebsworth).

Sources

Facsimile version of the 1856 Lacy text, Internet Archive [1] Facsimile of the second London Edition,1811[2]. Facsimile version of the 1846 USA text, Internet Archive[3]

The Cabinet: Or, Monthly Report of Polite Literature, Volume 3, June 1808, p. 427.[ https://books.google.co.za/books?id=FyYTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA427&lpg=PA427&dq=Day+at+the+Wedding+by+Mrs+Kemble&source=bl&ots=mS1UWQ70f1&sig=wHuOw3pAMgk6uk8Wt8UWq9Jxe7o&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mIMwVb77G6S67gbThoCIBA&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Day%20at%20the%20Wedding%20by%20Mrs%20Kemble&f=false]

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928: pp.185 and 227

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