From Covent Garden to the Bowery: Kemble and Hamblin Promptbooks for Henry VIII

Abstract

John Philip Kemble, particularly during his palmy days at the rebuilt Covent Garden from 1809 to 1817, introduced a new style of production and management into English theatre. In producing Shakespeare's plays (twenty-seven in twenty-nine years) Kemble was determined “to bend every nerve to make them perfect, beyond all previous example.” His calculated “authenticity,” picturesque groupings, illusionistic scenery, and splendid processions revolutionized theatrical style. “Unquestionably all the truth, all the uniformity, all the splendour and the retinue of the stage came in, but did not die, with Mr. Kemble,” writes his biographer, James Boaden, with customary enthusiasm. “He transported us absolutely into the days of Henry VIII. or Coriolanus,” recalls one admirer.