Comic Acting and Portraiture in Late-Georgian and Regency England

For not only did actors appear in illustrations such as William Hogarth's of The Beggar's Opera and Johann Zoffany's and Henry Fuseli's of Macbeth but also in periodicals such as the Monthly Mirror, the Mirror of the Stage and the British Stage, in grand publications such as John Bell's The British Theatre and Daniel Terry's British Theatrical Gallery, and in commonplace print shops in the form of individual likenesses and caricatures. While most scholarly attention has centered thus far on the great Shakespearean actors of the 18th and early 19th centuries, particularly those proficient in high tragedy, Comic Acting and Portraiture in Late-Georgian and Regency England surveys images of actors talented in low comedy-standout players such as Ned Shuter, Thomas Weston, Thomas King, John Edwin, William Parsons, John Liston, John Bannister, Joseph Munden, John Emery, and Charles Mathews. Because portraiture and caricature imitated nature through illustrations of the material body, rather than elevating nature through the kind of portraiture realized in Joshua Reynolds' late-century grand style, neither would achieve high social status. While Comic Acting and Portraiture in Late-Georgian and Regency England could be even more explicit in its aims and objectives (its enumerative and meandering style can sometimes leave the reader searching for argumentative direction) and could have featured a sustained analysis of the gendered plight of female comedians and of other key figures such as Joseph Grimaldi (arguably the most popular low comedian of the Regency era), it is nonetheless a compelling and vital addition to a burgeoning field of inquiry.