by Annette Rubery | Jan 20, 2022 | Book review, Theatre History
Dr Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds, Wikimedia Commons. Celebrity was still a relatively new concept in the eighteenth century. Often seen as an ignoble version of ‘fame’ or ‘glory’, celebrity has its roots in Grub Street, where it flourished in the rich soil of...
by Annette Rubery | Dec 12, 2021 | Theatre History
David Garrick by Nathaniel Dance-Holland. © Folger Shakespeare Library. Pantomime has a long and complex history but was well underway as a form of popular entertainment in Britain by the middle of the eighteenth century. With its roots in commedia dell’arte, it...