The Spectre Bridegroom, or A Ghost in spite of Himself

A farce in two acts by William Thomas (W.T.) Moncrieff(1794-1857). (Sometimes only listed as The Spectre Bridegroom). Founded on a story of the same name in The Sketch Book by Washington Irving (published under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in serial form 1819 and 1820).

First performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Monday, July 2, 1821 by Elliston.

Published in London and New York in 1821. Printed by J. Tabby, 1821.

Full title: The Spectre Bridegroom, or A Ghost in Spite of Himself

Performance history in South Africa

1831: Performed by All the World's a Stage under the management of Mr Booth in the African Theatre on 17 December, 1831 as afterpiece to Der Freischütz (Weber) and The Lawyer in the Sack.

1833: Performed, with Wild Oats (O'Keefe), as part of a "Farewell Benefit" for Mr Booth by All the World's a Stage in the African Theatre on 5 March, 1833.

1838: Performed by the English Amateur Company in the Cape Town Theatre on 13 October, 1838, as afterpiece to Ambrose Guinett, or a Sea-Side Story (Jerrold). The name of the author is wrongly spelled "Moncrieffe" in the source for this production. (According to Bosman (1928), this was to be the last production mounted in the African Theatre before it was sold and turned into a church, and it was also the last production by English amateurs in Cape Town till 1843, for the Methodist movement to close the theatres had temporarily won the battle.)

Sources

Copy of the text in the Internet Archive[1]

Copy of Samuel French text[2]

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moncrieff,_William_Thomas_(DNB00)

Worldcat website[3]

http://www.worldcat.org/title/spectre-bridegroom/oclc/56886389?referer=di&ht=edition

Bosman, 1928: p. 208, 2018, 225

Go to ESAT Bibliography

Return to

Return to S in Plays II Foreign Plays

Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page