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Contemporary Ecclesiastical Reactions to Home’s Douglas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Henry R. Sefton
Henry R. Sefton*
Affiliation:
King’s College, University of Aberdeen
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Extract

It is not entirely clear whether the man in the gallery who cried out, ‘Whaur’s yer Willie Shakespeare noo?’ was being facetious, but the audiences both in Edinburgh and in London gave the tragedy Douglas by John Home- an enthusiastic reception. The Reverend Alexander Carlyle, better known as Jupiter Carlyle from his fine appearance, noted in his Anecdotes and Characters:

The Play had unbounded Success for a Great Many Nights in Edinr and was attended by all the Literati, and most of the Judges, who except one or two had not been in use to attend the Theatre. The Town in Gen was in an uproar of Exultation, that a Scotchman had written a Tragedy of the First Rate and that its Merit was first Submitted to their Judgment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 28: The Church and the Arts , 1992 , pp. 355 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1992

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References

1 Emslie, McDonald, ‘Home’s Douglas and Wully Shakespeare’, Studies in Scottish Literature, 2 (1064), pp. 128–9 Google Scholar.

2 Carlyle, Alexander, Anecdotes and Characters of the Times, ed. Kinsley, J. (London, 1973), p. 58 Google Scholar.

3 Morren, N., Annals of the General Assembly 1752-66 (Edinburgh, 1840), pp. 112–16 Google Scholar.

4 Morren, , Annals, pp. 116–22 Google Scholar.

5 Carlyle, , Anecdotes, p. 159 Google Scholar.

6 Morren, , Annals, pp. 122–7 Google Scholar.

7 Home, John, Douglas, ed. Parker, G. D. (Edinburgh, 1972), p. 40 Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., p. 59.

9 Morren, , Annals, pp. 127–9 Google Scholar.

10 Carlyle, , Anecdotes, pp. 159, 161 Google Scholar; Morren, , Annals, p. 124 Google Scholar.

11 Brunton, George and Haig, David, Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice (Edinburgh, 1832), pp. 498–9, 523–5 Google Scholar.

12 Carlyle, , Anecdotes, p. 159 Google Scholar.

13 Ibid., p. 162.

14 Ibid., p. 161.

15 University of Edinburgh, Laing MS II 6202.

16 Petrie, Alexander, A Compendious History of the Catholic Church from the year 600 until the year 1600 (The Hague, 1662), p. 385 Google Scholar.

17 The Address is supposedly ‘by a layman of their Communion’.

18 Laing MS II 6204.

19 Laing MS II 972.

20 Carlyle, , Anecdotes, p. 161 Google Scholar.

21 Morren, , Annals, p. 124 Google Scholar.

22 Carlyle, , Anecdotes, p. 164 Google Scholar.