Catherine Gore, "the best novel writer of her class and the wittiest woman of her age" (London Times 4 February 1861:5) was the undisputed leader of the Silver-Fork school of fashionable fiction. Universally acknowledged as a witty conversationalist, Mrs. Gore exploited her keen ear for dialogue not only in narrative fiction but in a dozen plays, ten of which were immensely popular on the commercial British stage between 1831 and 1844. Ranging from one-act farces to five-act comedies, Gore's dramatic oeuvre constitutes a major document of feminist theatrical history, the work of a woman playwright cited by Ellen Donkin as the first long-term theatre professional after Elizabeth Inchbald or Hannah Cowley in the nineteenth century (31).

The year 1835 was an especially productive period for Gore the playwright. On 10 January, The King's Seal, written in collaboration with James Kenney, began an eleven-performance run at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane to mixed reviews. Six months later, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket ran The Maid of Croissey; or, Theresa's Vow for thirty-eight performances beginning 20 July, and the authoress found her greatest triumph to date not in historical spectacle or the bon ton, but in the idyllic dreamworld of a simple village melodrama. Although the critical reaction to the play did not match the popular response, The Maid of Croissey went into at least eight published editions during the author's lifetime. Barely five months later, Mrs. Gore added to her successes with her next play, a spectacular comedy-drama set in pre-revolutionary France entitled King O'Neil; or, The Irish Brigade. The manuscript of the play bears the subtitle, "The Reign of an Hour" which was altered in performance to advertise the presence of the stage Irishman portrayed in the play. Published in two acts, but originally performed as a three-act play, King O'Neil began its seven-performance run at Covent Garden on 9 December 1835, with the following cast:

Louis XV—Mr. G. Bennett
Duke of Richelieu—Mr. Pritchard
Count Dillon—Mr. H. Wallack
De Burgh—Mr. Fredericks
Captain O'Neil—Mr. Power
Sir Henry Arundel—Mr. J. Webster
Rafe—Mr. Williams
Usher—Mr. Bender
First Officer—Mr. Collett
Servant—Mr. Beckett
Waiter—Mr. James
First Creditor—Mr. Huckell
Second Creditor—Mr. Morris
Third Creditor—Mr. Bannister
Countess Dillon—Mrs. W. West
Duchess of Mailly—Miss Kenneth
Marchioness de Clermont—Miss Taylor.

Apartment at an inn in Versailles
Saloon in the Chateau of Count Dillon
Terrace of the Royal Gardens
Mess room of the Royal Irish Brigade
Vestibule of the Salle de Mars at Versailles

The popular and critical response to the play was exceptional, ranging from the very brief plaudit in The Athenaeum: "A three act comedy by Mrs. Charles Gore, entitled 'King O'Neil,' was performed for the first time on Wednesday. It was well received by the audience, who laughed at Mr. Power throughout, and applauded at the end" (12 December 1835: 932), to the extensive analysis in the Times, calling the play a "decided success." Because the reviewer found, the character of Captain O'Neil boldly and broadly drawn, and honestly funny, Mrs. Gore was charged with having received "considerable assistance from some hand well experienced in the department of farce" (10 December 1835: 3), and credited only as having adapted the play from some unidentified French original. The New Monthly Magazine countered by claiming the play was entirely of English origin, and praised the author's attempt at originality: "Mrs. Gore's little comedy called King O'Neill [sic], which is exceedingly diverting in itself, and fifty times more pleasant for being really of English origin. Mrs. Gore's example of writing original dramas ought to incite others to an occasional effort, and we trust it will" (46.1:110).

While Mrs. Gore's previous attempt at the stage-Irishman in The School for Coquettes was censured by the critics, both in the writing and in the playing, the character of Captain O'Neil, in the hands of Tyrone Power, emerged as the quintessential portrait of an Irish soldier. The New Monthly Magazine called Power's performance, "one of the most finished portraitures of Irish character that has ever been rendered—it unites the broadest caricature with absolute truth and reality." The Times dubbed the actor, "the life and soul of the piece—full of whim, archness, and vivacity. When he had anything good to say, it was given with that indescribable drollery which immediately called the risible faculties into full play, and when he had not, he embellished his nothings with looks so redolent of comedy that they produced an almost equal effect." However, the dangers attending such an exquisite performance were noted in the New Monthly Magazine: "There are many advantages in writing for such a comedian as Power—but there is this disadvantage, that the piece, however popular, can only be acted while he is in the theatre." During the 1830s, this might have been construed as true since the actor and play were inseparable throughout the period; but the longevity of the play on the American stage, 1846-1858, without Power, and a London revival in 1867, suggests that Mrs. Gore's work could stand on its own.

As usual, the other performers were judged competent. H. Wallack was praised for exhibiting "strong feeling" and Miss Taylor was said to have acted "tolerably well." Only Mr. W. H. Williams was censured for his portrayal of the foppish valet, Ralph, with the Times concluding, "We hope, when the piece is again performed, that the part may either be omitted, or that some person with less offensive assurance and confidence, and a little more talent, may be placed in it." The role was not omitted from future productions, though the actor ceased to be associated with the play following the initial run.

Though often criticized by many modern critics for "extolling the virtues of male domination and female submission" in her novels (Blain, Clements, and Grundy 443), Mrs. Gore took a very different stance regarding women in her plays. Although her first dramatic poem, The Bond (1824) follows the more-or-less standard pattern of Gothic melodrama with its long-suffering heroine and Byronic lover, the later plays—especially those written in 1835—vary the traditional formula to include strong, noble, active women who seek to control their destinies on their own terms. Even though the ultimate success or failure of their attempts lies in the hands of male authority, the women of The King's Seal, Maid of Croissey, and King O'Neil actively and heroically pursue their objectives, assuming an equality with men not always present in Mrs. Gore's novels. Such equality is subtly given emphasis in Act 2, scene 2 of King O'Neil when De Burgh's inebriated toast, "The land of our gallant forefathers," is completed by O'Neil's immediate reply: "And of our gallant foremothers!".

John Franceschina
The Pennsylvania State University

John Franceschina, associate professor of theatre history at the Pennsylvania State University, is the author of Sisters of Gore, Gore On Stage, Homosexualities in the English Theatre from Lyly to Wilde, Duke Ellington's Music for the Theatre, the Dramatic Works of the Marquis de Sade, and the forthcoming Women and the Profession of Theatre 1810-1860, and Against the Grain: a Social History of Theatre.

Notes

1. In her dissertation, "Catherine Frances Gore, the Silver-Fork school and 'Mothers and Daughters': True Views of Society in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain," Rebecca Lynne Russell Baird gives the following list:

London: Chapman and Hall [1835].
Dick's Acting National Drama, vol. 7.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1838.
Webster's Acting National Drama, no. 84. Chapman and Hall, 1839.
The Acting National Drama, vol. 7, edited by Benjamin Webster. Chapman and Hall [1840].
Dick's standard plays, no. 461. London, [188-]. (back)

Works Cited:

• Baird, Rebecca Lynne Russell. "Catherine Frances Gore, the Silver-Fork school and 'Mothers and Daughters': True Views of Society in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain." Unpublished Dissertation. University of Arkansas, 1992.
• Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1990.
• Donkin, Ellen. Getting into the Act: Women Playwrights in London, 1776-1829. London: Routledge, 1995.
• Dwinell, Jeanine. "Gender Issues in the Plays of Catherine Gore." Unpublished Thesis. Florida State University, 1993.
• Gore, Mrs. Charles [Catherine]. King O'Neil. London: Dicks' Standard Plays No. 461, n.d.
• ———. King O'Neil. London: Webster's Acting National Drama, No. 84, n.d.
• ———. King O'Neil. Add. Mss. 42933 (7), ff. 161-196b.