Transformation or Conformation? The English Broadside Ballad and the Playhouse, 1797–1844

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article considers the migration of theatre music into the English broadside ballad tradition from 1797 to 1844, the most prolific era of the broadside during which the fierce professional competitors John Pitts (active 1797–1844) and James Catnach (active 1813–41) operated their presses in the Seven Dials, near London’s patent theatres. The discussion is based on the findings of a database that was constructed systematically to cross-reference 520 theatrical works from the London stage with 11,432 broadside songs of this period from the Bodleian Library’s broadside collections. By considering the scale and mechanism of the migration of theatre music into the broadside tradition—as well as examining the characteristics of the songs themselves—this article explores the effects of theatre music on nineteenth-century street literature and song, evaluating the ways in which theatre songs transformed the broadside tradition, and the ways in which they conformed to it.