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The Victorian Plays Project
Lacy's Acting Edition of Victorian Plays (1848-1874)
Project Director: Professor Richard Pearson, University of Worcester
Research Assistant: Dr. Kate Mattacks, University of Worcester
ELECTRONIC CATALOGUE OF LACY'S COLLECTED VOLUMES OF VICTORIAN PLAYS
Volume dates given here provide a general framework, although most volumes contain plays from earlier periods as well. For example, Vol 21 is particularly non-chronological and contains mostly plays from the period 1849-51, whereas volume 22 picks up the series at 1855 again. Most volumes also contain examples of earlier plays (particularly from the period 1810-1836) that remained popular or were undergoing revival.
NEW: 260 complete |
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Volumes 1-10 (1848-1853) |
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Volumes 11-20 (1853-1855) |
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Volumes 21-30 ([1855]-1857) |
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Volumes 31-40 (1857-1859) |
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Volumes 41-50 (1859-1861) |
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Volumes 51-60 (1861-1863) |
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Volumes 61-70 (1863-1866) |
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Volumes 71-80 (1865-1868) |
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Volumes 81-90 (1867-1871) |
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Volumes 91-100 (1870-1874) |
Victorian Dramas Conference, Saturday 27th January 2007
Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays was published by Thomas Hailes Lacy at his Covent Garden printing house from the 1840s onwards. His series was produced in the aftermath of the lifting of the censorship ban on plays and the extension of the licensing franchise to beyond the Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres. In the 1870s, Lacy was bought out by Samuel French, an American publisher with whom he had exchanged plays for publication for the previous two decades. Lacy's Acting Edition was intended to preserve and supply texts of popular productions for future London productions, provincial and minor theatre companies and private theatricals. Its real interest is in its publication of contemporary plays, releasing them shortly after their initial performances on the London stages. Classic texts were also included - such as Shakespeare or well-known late eighteenth-century or early nineteenth-century plays and melodramas - and these texts often signal a contemporary production or revival. Each volume of Lacy's Plays allows us to glimpse the London theatrical world on a year-by-year basis, and together they form a detailed collection of the contemporary drama enjoyed by the Victorians. Many of the plays are short one-act farces and comedies, but there are plenty of historical melodramas and 5-act dramas as well. Copies of Lacy’s modern plays were bound into volumes, and a complete run exists in the collections of the Birmingham Central Reference Library. Victorian drama is a much under-studied and little known area of Victorian Literature and this project aims to extend awareness to scholars of such a valuable and rich resource located in the Midlands, and thus further stimulate research into Victorian plays. This catalogue provides a volume-by-volume listing of contents, enabling a chronological overview of the Victorian theatre. In due time, a searchable database will be available to enable author and theatre searches as well.
Phase Two of the Project, beginning February 2005, aims to provide a number of e-texts of important plays and examples of genres from the collection. This phase of the project is funded by the AHRC. Edited e-texts are produced with the kind permission of the Birmingham Central Library, and all permissions for reproduction should be sought via the Victorian Plays Project and Birmingham Central Library. The Catalogue is copyright The Victorian Plays Project, 2003-05, and has been compiled by Professor Richard Pearson and Dr. Heike Bauer. All play e-texts are copyright the Victorian Plays Project and Birmingham Central Library, 2005-07.
This page was last updated: 4th June 2008
To contact the project, please email Richard Pearson or Kate Mattacks
This Project is in partnership with: