Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/409

 11 S. X. Nov. 21, 1914.1

NOTES AND QUERIES.

403

The above-mentioned particulars I am ready at any time to substantiate ; and I deduce from them the following summary correction of the errors in your statement, adding the several itciu-i of average income (curates' salaries only deducted) :

Kempthorne Prebendary of Lichfield 6

CHocester, St. Michael's Rectory .. 140

St. Mary de Grace curacy has no existence

Nni-t bleach 130

(rloccster Infirmary Chaplaincy .. 40

Pivstoii Vicarage, resigned 12 years ago

Wi'ilmore Vicarage, never mine at all

The total income

I receive it with thankfulness. I covet no m<> iv. This year my salary from the Infirmary has been advanced to 601., unsolicited by me ; 1 li;i\c also advanced my curate's salary to 90Z. Pluralities in the abstract I do not advocate. But in my own case, and perhaps in many more on your list, the result is, that instead of probably t\v<> working clergymen, there have been three viz., one at Northleach, and two at St. Michael's ; to s;iy nothing of two ministers, instead of one, for the patients of the Infirmary.

I am, Sir, &c., Glocester, August. JOHN KEMPTHORNE.

ROLAND AUSTIN. (To be continued.)

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS

HOLCROFT.

(See ante, pp. 1, 43, 83, 122, 163, 205, 244, 284, 323, 362.)

1791. " The Road to Ruin ; a comedy as it is acted at the Theatre Royal, Co vent Garden. By Thomas Holcroft. London : printed for J. Debrett, opposite Burlington House, Picca- dilly, 1792." Octavo, 4 + 1-100 pp.

This play was produced 18 Feb., 1791, and " received with distinguished applause " (Oulton, 2: 106). It was the most successful of all of Holcroft's dramatic pieces. (Cf. Mrs. Inchbald's Preface, and Hazlitt, ' Comic Writers of the Last Century,' closing para- graphs.) Concerning its initial appearance at the summer theatre in the Haymarket, 13 Aug., 1798, Holcroft says in his diary ('Memoirs,' p. 193) that that was the only theatre in the kingdom where it had not been acted at least fifty times, excepting, of course, Drury Lane and the Opera -House, where custom prevented. Curiously enough, the book was announced in the February,

1792, number of The Universal Magazine (90: 159). The Prologue and Epilogue were reprinted in the 1791 ' Annual Register ' (p. 413). It received, for a play, the exceptional honour of several pages in the July, 1792, number of The English Review (20: 9). Another notice appeared in The Monthly Review for March, 1792(7: 332).

Following is a list of editions, sources of my information being indicated in parentheses, and an asterisk signifying that I have- examined the copy with some care :

Second Edition, London, 1792. Octavo- (' D.N.B.' ; B.M.C.).

Fourth Edition, London : Printed for J. Debrett, opposite Burlington House, Picca- dilly, 1792. Octavo, 4 + 1-100 pp. (*)

Fifth Edition, London, 1792. Octavo- (' D.N.B.' ; B.M.C.).

Sixth Edition, London, 1792. Octavo (' D.N.B.' ; B.M.C.).

Ninth Edition, London, 1792. Octavo- (' D.N.B.' ; B.M.C.).

A New Edition. London : Printed by A. Strahan, Printers Street, for T. N. Longman and O. Rees, Paternoster Row, 1802. Octavo, 2 +3-80 pp. (*)

An Edition. London : Sherwood and Bowyer, 137, Strand, 1844. Small 16mo, 4+3-92 pp. (*> P. 92: " Thorns, Printer, Warwick Square.

Reprints were made in collections as follows : Mrs. E. Inchbald, ' The British Theatre,' 1808 ; Oxberry, 'The New English Drama,' 1818; ' The London Stage,' 1824; Mrs. E. Inchbald, 'The British Theatre/ 1824; J. Cumberland, 'British Theatre,' 1829 ; ' The Acting Drama,' 1834 ; ' Lacy's- Acting Editions of Plays,' 1850, &c. ; ' The British Drama, Illustrated,' 1864 ; ' The- British Drama ' (J. Dicks), 1864 ; ' French's- Acting Drama,' No. 49, New York, n.d. ; Lea's ' British Drama ' ; and Dicks's ' Stan- dard Plays,' No. 8, 1883.

Lacy's " Acting Edition,"

" The Road to Ruin. A comedy, by Thomas

Holcroft, author of &c., &c., &c Thomaa

Hailes Lacy, 89, Strand (opposite Southampton Street, Covent Garden Market), London," octavo, 6+0-80 pp.,

contains the original cast, the Covent Garden- cast of 15 Sept., 1840, and the Drury Lane cast of 18 Oct., 1842, and an " Introduction " by William Hazlitt. This was culled from Hazlitt's MS. notes in his personal copy one of the few books belonging to Hazlitt which he did not sell, and which did not disappear (cf. W. C. Hazlitt, 'Memoirs of William Hazlitt,' 1867, 2: 272).

In addition to French's reprint, I have located but three American editions : " The Road to Ruin : a comedy as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden. By Thomas Holcroft. London : Printed. Now York : Reprinted for Berry and Rogers, No. 36, Hanover-Square. 1792," octavo, 6+7- 78 +2 pp.,

in the New York Society Library ; " The Road to Ruin, a comedy in five acts. By Thomas Holcroft. As performed at the theatres- Philadelphia and New York. Second American Edition. From the prompt-book by per- mission. Cooper, manager (New York). New