Mr. Mason in James Sheridan Knowles’s ‘William Tell’, 19th July 1830, Theatre Royal, York Street

On the 19th of July 1830, an advertisement for the Theatre Royal, York Street, in that day’s Herald, page 3, announced that Mr. Mason would be playing the title-role, in James Sheridan Knowles’s celebrated tragedy, William Tell.

 

The five-act play, had its first performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on the 11th of  May 1825. Knowles’s dedication of the published work to General Mina, “Illustrious Man”, is dated the 6th of May 1825.

 

For an assessment of the play, and Knowles, please see Marc H. Lerner, ‘Performing William Tell in the Transatlantic World’, Transatlantic Revolutionary Cultures, 1791-1861, edited by Charlotte A. Lerg and Helena Toth, 2018.

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, January 2020.