Add MS 42865-43038 C

The present collection covers the whole of the periods of office, as successive Examiners of Plays, of George Colman, junior (appointed 19 Jan. 1824), and Charles Kemble (appointed 2 Nov. 1836), and part of that of John Mitchell Kemble (appointed 24 Feb. 1840); it also contains two misplaced items of later date (42989, art. 26; 43038 C). Plays submitted from Dec. 1737 to Jan. 1824 passed to the family of John Larpent (Examiner of Plays 1778-1824) and are now in the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California (see D. MacMillan, Catalogue of the Larpent Plays in the Huntington Library, Huntington Library Lists no. 4, 1939); microprints of the Larpent Collection are in the Department of Printed Books, press-mark Cup. 700 l. I. A brief account of the present collection is in Brit. Mus. Quart., vii, 1932-1933, pp. 72-73; see also Allardyce Nicoll, A History of English Drama, 1660-1900, vol. iv, p. 246. In the Lord Chamberlain's Office the plays were bound in volumes containing from seven to fifty items; they have now been re-bound, but preserve the original order and division into volumes. Basically the arrangement is chronological, but some plays are misplaced in whole or in part, while the main series for each of the years 1827, 1830, 1836 and 1837 is followed by an additional series of plays submitted throughout the year (42888; 42906; 42939, artt. 9-30; 42944). The dates cited below in the descriptions of the volumes are those of the issue or refusal of licences as noted on the plays themselves, and cross-references are given to plays thus dated which have been misplaced; on many plays, however, this date is not noted and, as some of these also may be misplaced, it should be remembered that the dates in the description do not necessarily apply to all the plays contained in a volume. Most of the volumes begin with a list of contents (up to 42882 in the hand of William Bodham Donne, who was Examiner of Plays, 1857-1874, having earlier acted as J. M. Kemble's deputy) which is not specially noted in the description, and most of the plays are accompanied by a signed note from the manager of the theatre applying for the licence. Non-issue of a licence, where noted on the play, is recorded in the description. The title of each play here given is that in the manuscript, but with punctuation, etc., normalized. Where a play is given two different titles and it is not clear which was intended as the final version, both are printed, separated by al. When a play was produced or published under a different title, this latter is added, in round brackets. If there is no title in the manuscript it has, where ascertainable, been supplied, in square brackets, from other sources. The manuscripts seldom name the authors of the plays, and their names have been supplied, where possible, from Allardyce Nicoll, op. cit., vols. iv-vi, or elsewhere. If an author is better known by his pseudonym or assumed name, this is given in the description, within inverted commas; the author's real name can be ascertained from the Index. Many of the manuscript plays are obviously copies made by amanuenses, but plays, or sections thereof, which have been identified as autograph are so noted. A considerable number of the plays, particularly those in foreign languages, are in printed form; dates of publication have been added, within round brackets where given in print, in square brackets where supplied from some other source. The names of authors, where known, are given in the Author Index to this Catalogue. Songs submitted separately are likewise indexed under their authors' names, even though the authors may not be named in the descriptions. The Title Index includes all alternative titles given in the descriptions, with cross-references from sub-titles. Allardyce Nicoll, op. cit., vols. iv and v, lists all plays produced between 1800 and 1899 (index of titles in vol. vi), noting those that occur in the Lord Chamberlain's collection, with (down to 1849) the dates of licensing. Paper. Folio. One hundred and seventy-four volumes. 1824-1851. Presented by the Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's Household.

The plays submitted to the Lord Chamberlain's Office, 1824- 18511, are described and indexed in a separate volume, which was published by the Trustees, 1963.

Brenzett, Kent: Deeds and papers rel. to: 1448-1777.: fr.