The Dumb Belle

The Dumb Belle is a comedietta in one act by William Bayle Bernard (1807-1875)[].

The original text

First performed at the Royal Olympic Theatre, London on October 12th, 1831

First published by Samuel French in 1835. Later also published as in one volume with Match Making by John Poole (1786-1872)[1], as no 522 in Dicks' Standard Plays (1884).

Translations and adaptations

In 1835 Thomas Hailes Lacy (1809 –1873)[2] wrote a play called A Silent Woman, said by the author to have been "adaptated from a recollection of Mr. Bayle Bernard’s comedy of The Dumb Belle". Lacy's piece was first performed at the Royal Olympic Theatre, London on 17 August, 1835.

F.C.L. Bosman (1980) has the author of the latter play wrongly as "Burnand" (or perhaps his sources had it so).

Translations and adaptations

1868: A Silent Woman was performed in the Mutual Hall, Cape Town, on 13 April by D'Arcy Read and James Leffler, with "Sentimental, Comic and Nigger Songs", two scenes from The Hunchback (Knowles) and The Chevalier, the Apprentice and the Grisette (Anon.).

Sources

Match making : a petite comedy, in one act / from the French ; by John Poole. The dumb belle : an original comedietta, in one act / by William Bayle Bernard., Warwick Digital Library[3]

Blog by H. Dominic W. Stiles, UCL Ear Institute & Action on Hearing Loss Libraries; UCL Library Serices - 17 December 2015[4]

History of Western Theatre: 17th Century to Now/Complete list of one-act plays in English on the Internet[5]

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 232,

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