1776

The //London Magazine, or the Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer// is a monthly publication originally founded by Edward Cave in 1732. Cave published his periodical under the name Sylvanus Urban and stated that his magazine was created with the intention that it be “A Collection of all Matters of Information and Amusement.” The magazine cost six-pence per issue and featured a wide variety of reading material including poetical essays, mathematical theories maps, and descriptions of the latest advancements in explorations and inventions. fght
 * History of //The Gentleman’s Magazine// **

//The Gentleman’s Magazine //featured public affairs, both foreign and domestic as well as the births, marriages, and deaths of well-known individuals. The magazine mostly consisted of reprints of articles of interest from other journals and newspapers. These source publications included //The London Gazette, The Public Ledger Gazetteer, The Daily Advertiser,// and //The London Chronicle//. Cave focused on finding interesting material from other periodicals and newspapers to make his magazine popular among readers. Cave soon introduced his own material by including a Historical Register that displayed important events from around Great Britain and the world. The register also included current prices for various commodities and stock prices.

Cave attempted to assume a politically neutral position in his magazine by featuring unbiased reports on the proceedings and debates of Parliament. He was threatened with imprisonment in 1738 because the British government had strictly forbidden the publication of its proceedings. Cave was able to avoid punishment by changing the title of the reports to “Debates in the Senate of Lilliput” until the law prohibiting reporting on Parliamentary proceedings was retracted.

//The Gentleman’s Magazine // was also a home for the arts. Each issue featured several book and theater reviews. The magazine published short stories, poetical essays, maps, illustrations, songs, and character profiles from the theater. The magazine seemed to provide material that would inform its readers about current events as well as enrich their minds with entertaining anecdotes and literature.

Political struggles continued over freedom of the press, the election and freedom of speech. The American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. This was also a scandalous time for the nation. The trial of the Duchess of Kingston was gaining national attention. The Duchess of Kingston, or Elizabeth Chudleigh, was a maid of honor to the Princess of Wales and secretly married to Augustus John Hervey. She later conspired with the second duke of Kingston, Evelyn Pierrepont, to have her marriage to Hervey invalidated so that she could become the Duchess of Kingston. Her plan worked until a relative of the late duke had challenged her marriage and the duke’s will. The duchess was charged and put on trial for bigamy. She fled to Calais after being charged for bigamy and in April 1776 she was convicted of bigamy and her title was removed.
 * [[image:XJ846587.jpg align="left" caption="The trial of the Duchess of Kingston"]]Great Britain During 1776 **

1776 was a year of transition for the British theatre. Both of the Drury Lane Theatre’s supervising partners left their positions. One of them, James Lacy, died in 1774 and the other, David Garrick, had sold his share of the theater and retired due to an illness. The Drury Lane Theatre was then under the control of four new proprietors. Disagreements broke out and as mismanagement became apparent, the theater season was under scrutiny. Two of the new proprietors, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Thomas Linley, quickly learned how to manage and assumed the most control of the theater. The Haymarket Theater also changed proprietors and introduced George Colman, who leased the Haymarket patent from Samuel Foote. Colman’s first season was a success as well as Sheridan’s first season at Drury Lane. The Covent Garden and The King’s Theatre both enjoyed managerial tranquility during this uncertain time.
 * The Theater Season: 1776 **

Samuel Foote’s play, //A Trip to Calais,// was ready for the stage in 1775 but was suppressed by the Lord Chamberlin because it defamed the Duchess of Kingston who was currently being charged with bigamy. The play features a young girl named Jenny Minnikin who goes to France with Dick Drugget to elope. They are followed by her parents, Jenny’s suitor Kit Codling, and her aunt Mrs. Clock. The play centers on Jenny and her struggle between marrying Dick or marrying the suitor picked by her father. The play features an infamous character named Kitty Crocodile who becomes a mentor to Jenny. Lady Kitty had moved to France after her husband’s death and advises Jenny to marry both Dick and Kit. The bigamy references were an allusion to the duchess’s case but the main offense taken by the Duchess of Kingston were the personal similarities between her and the character of Lady Kitty. Both were widows who moved to France after their husbands had died. Lady Kitty was portrayed as putting on shows of excessive grief when in public and her reluctance in the play to marry her husband was a satire on how the Duchess of Kingston’s husband was reluctant to marry her.
 * //A Trip to Calais, or The Capuchin //**

Because //A Trip to Calais// was a satire on the Duchess of Kingston, who was facing trial for bigamy, Samuel Foote became the object of a newspaper smear campaign that accused him of being a sodomite. The attacks against Foote were printed in the //Public Ledger,// which was edited by the Reverend William Jackson, who was also the duchess’s personal secretary. Under the laws of the Stage Licensing Act of 1737, the play was suppressed by the Lord Chamberlain. Although the play was banned from being performed, it underwent vast cuttings and was put on stage in 1776 under the title of //The Capuchin.//

Although the war for American Independence was underway in 1776, it is clear that the eyes of Great Britain were also focused on the happenings within its own English society. This can be seen in the trial of the Duchess of Kingston and Samuel Foote’s play, //A Trip to Calais//. During this time, Foote was trying to satirize the duchess and expose her folly. This is similar to a comedy of manners where the play is satirizing a certain behavior as a way to instruct the audience on the societally correct and incorrect ways to conduct oneself. It seems as though Foote’s efforts to satirize the duchess was an attempt to bring her mistakes into the public light to serve as a comedy of manners.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Conclusions **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Foote was used to the protection of the Lord Chamberlain’s office so the suppression of his play and denial of a license set a precedent for Foote. I believe that this controversy reveals the nature of the British society during this time. It shows that even someone as celebrated and respected as Samuel Foote cannot target his satire at a well-known member of the aristocracy. The dispute between the duchess and Foote revealed that she maintained more privilege than he did, which resulted in suppression of his play. One reason for why he was able to have //The Capuchin// performed was because he cut the character of Lady Kitty Crocodile out completely.

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">The Gentleman’s Magazine //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">offered a critique of the play and reviewed it as “far from the most perfect of Mr. Foot’s comic dramas.” They also went on to describe the quality of the play by stating,

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">“The piece has several good strokes in it, though not that high seasoning which might have been expected from the attic falt of //Aristophanes//—we conceive that the comedy has suffered much from the cast cuttings it underwent, in order to pass muster at the Lord Chamberlain’s office, since it was offered for approbation, under the title of the Trip to Calais” (The British Theatre. p. 400).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">The controversy surrounding //A Trip to Calais// serves as an example of the privilege and authority of the upper-class and of what can happen when a playwright targets members of the aristocracy.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">- **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Works Cited: **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">"Cover." //The Gentleman's Magazine: and historical chronicle, Jan.1736-Dec.1833// 46 (1776) //ProQuest.// Web. 9 July 2015.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Foote, Samuel. “A Trip to Calais; a Comedy in Three Acts.” Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale. University of Maryland College Park. 9 July 2015

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Kinservik, Matthew. "Satire, Censorship, and Sodomy in Samuel Foote's "The Capuchin" (1776)." //The Review of English Studies//. 217th ed. Vol. 54. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. 639-660. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">“The London Stage, 1660-1800: a Calendar of Plays, Entertainments & Afterpieces, Together With Casts, Box-receipts And Contemporary Comment.” [1st ed.] Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">"THE BRITISH THEATRE." London magazine, or, Gentleman's monthly intelligencer, 1747-1783 45 (1776): 398-400. ProQuest. Web. 9 July 2015.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">"THE BRITISH THEATRE." London magazine, or, Gentleman's monthly intelligencer, 1747-1783 45 (1776): 453-5. ProQuest. Web. 9 July 2015.