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Notes
1 The song “Proud of Your Boy” was co-opted as the namesake for the far-right extremist group, the Proud Boys. A seemingly odd choice, the song bears little resemblance to the established values of the group, as its lyrics espouse the tender love of a son who misses his mother and wants to change his errant ways to make her proud rather than anything resembling cultural politics or the group’s efforts to defend the media’s supposed attack on masculinity. Coaston (Citation2020) suggests that the group borrowed the song’s title initially as a joke, as the group does not permit women and purports to promote Western values through often violent means.
2 Galland’s French translation, Les milles et une nuits, was published in twelve volumes from 1704 to 1717. Based on Galland’s edition, the first English translation appeared in 1706 and became popularly known as The Arabian Nights.
3 There is no written version of the story before Diyab’s and no existing written text today, and scholars have discredited the few manuscripts claiming to be original as actually produced from Galland’s French translation rather than inspiring it (Marzolph Citation2019). Madeline Dobie (Citation2008) further explains that Galland’s journals indicate that, in March 1709, he met Diyab (referred to as Hanna in the journals) who reportedly told him thirteen tales, which he later sketched in his journal entries, including the beginnings of Ali Baba, though originally titled “Hogia Baba.” Galland then reworked five or six for inclusion in The Nights. Dobie further notes that Galland’s journal omits many details of his direct exchanges with Diyab, though the writings suggest that he did present Galland with handwritten copies of many stories, including Aladdin, but there are no remaining versions of these writings.
4 See Arata (Citation2012) for a discussion on the production of Edward Lane’s translation of The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Many of the children’s books were also elaborately illustrated. For instance, Routledge and Sons produced an Citation1875 edition illustrated by Walter Crane, which can be viewed at the University of Florida’s digital archives. Marketers also capitalized on the success of Aladdin on stage, with toy books produced as early as 1816 (Warner Citation2011).
5 Only the libretto of O’Keefe’s wildly popular play, renowned for spectacle, remains today. O’Keefe’s production differed from other eighteenth-century pantomimes as the familiar characters of Harlequin and Columbine primarily appear only in the second act rather than mingling with the fairy tale characters of the first act. Rather, the first act of Aladin [sic] features more of the magic and spectacle such as the liberation of the genie from the lamp. The second act with the Harlequinade characters was transported back to London (Schacker and O’Quinn Citation2022).
6 See Jane Moody’s Citation2007 Illegitimate Theatre in London, particularly Chapter 1, “The Invention of Illegitimate Culture,” pp. 10–47.
7 Though ostensibly produced as children’s entertainment, pantomimes were well attended by adults as well, including notable Victorian figures such as John Ruskin, Lewis Carroll, and Matthew Arnold (Richards Citation2010).
8 The 1737 Licensing Act was amended by the Theatres Act 1843 (later repealed by the Theatres Act 1968, which abolished censorship on stage). The new law restricted the Lord Chamberlain’s ability to prohibit productions and allowed more opportunities for non-patent theatres to produce plays.
9 As Karl Sabbagh (Citation2013) notes, pantomimes today are mainstays of the British Christmas and New Year season. In 2004, fifteen different productions of Aladdin appeared throughout the United Kingdom.
10 Delarivier Manley’s Almyna (1706) – which was one of the earliest theatrical responses to the Arabian Nights (Kuti Citation2013, 332) – Nicholas Rowe’s Tamerlane (1701), and John Dryden’s All for Love (1677) were all highly popular early dramas with Eastern settings, a tradition that continued throughout the eighteenth century on the British stage. See also Bridget Orr’s Citation2001 Empire on the English Stage 1660–1714.
11 For instance, George Colman and Michael Kelly’s Bluebeard (1798) production cost over £2,000 and was complete with moving skeletons, bleeding walls for the Blue Chamber, and a train of paper mâché elephants (Burwick Citation2009). Colman and Kelly’s production at Drury Lane was produced in many ways to rival the elaborate spectacle of O’Keefe’s popular Aladin [sic] at rival theatre Covent Garden. Colman and Kelly’s play is the first instance in which the fairy tale character, Bluebeard, is portrayed as Turkish, as they wished to capitalize on the success of Oriental dramas on stage. The character originated in Charles Perrault’s French fairy tale, La Barbe Bleue (1697). See Kuti Citation2013.
12 See 20 April 1813 Morning Post review reprinted in Schacker and O’Quinn Citation2022. They also include illustrations from nineteenth-century toy theatre productions of Aladdin, which give a good indication of staged productions’ scenery. For more on toy theatre and Aladdin (along with additional illustrations), see MacDonald Citation2021. See too Marina Warner’s (Citation2011) helpful note on the audience’s eager anticipation of the dramatic scenery of the Turkish Garden and the Cave of Albumanzor in an 1831 production of Aladdin in Bury St. Edmunds.
13 In the rest of the story, the mother appears in scenes when the genie of the lamp is discovered and bestows them with ample food (though she recommends Aladdin dispose of the lamp as she wants little to do with genies) and when she goes to the sultan with lavish gifts to present Aladdin as a suitor for Princess Badroulbadour. After the engagement, the story’s narrative largely concerns the building of the great palace, the magician’s revenge in reclaiming the lamp and transporting the palace and Aladdin’s wife to Africa, Aladdin’s plot to kill the magician and rescue his wife, and the magician’s brother’s attempts at revenge.
14 The libretto lists the following vocal characters: Doctor Magician, Monster, Kaliel, Landlord, Potter, Zoreb (son to Kaliel), and Coach-maker. Aladin [sic] does not appear to have a vocal role in the production. A 1788 review printed in Schacker and O’Quinn Citation2022 presents a summary of the plot that details Aladin’s escapades before the Harlequinade began in the second act.
15 See Songs, Recitatives, Duets, and Choruses, &c. in The Fairy Opera of Aladdin (Citation1826). Though Bishop was a productive composer, Aladdin was his only full-length opera, though it does contain spoken dialogue. It was intended to rival Carl Maria von Weber’s Oberon playing at Covent Garden (Carr and Temperley Citationn.d.). Reviews were mixed: one claims, “the opera … is a failure … Mr. Bishop … has evidently failed. There were some pleasing airs throughout the opera, but none bearing any distinct and peculiar characters of beauty or originality; the overture was more elaborate than effective. Aladdin has been played several nights, but is now, we believe, wholly withdrawn” (“Monthly View” 1 June Citation1826, 44). Of the music, another review claimed that though “the composition of the whole [overture] is superior to the generality of Mr. B.’s overtures … it is ineffective” as it lacks “tact in this species of writing” (“Monthly View” 1 July Citation1826, 45). A more positive review explained that the play was “well received, and if not equal to some of his other pieces, [was] by no means unworthy of his genius” (The Ladies’ Monthly Museum Citation1826, 4). The play appears to have run at Drury Lane only for a short time.
16 It is unclear from the libretto and the score if Zeenab is on stage for this number or if Aladdin is singing apostrophically to his mother. She is not mentioned explicitly in either, so it is probable that the number is a solo.
17 The circumstances differ, though, as Aladdin’s mother is deceased in Disney’s version. What remains the same is Aladdin’s desire to act in a way that makes her proud despite that he feels he has “wasted time,” may be “slow for [his] age,” and is “messin’ up, screwin’ up” at times. Despite people saying he is “a louse and loafer” and a “rotten kid,” he will still make her proud and be more than these descriptions (“Proud of Your Boy” Citation2022). My point is that a playwright using idealized maternity to guide audience sympathies remains consistent.
18 Farley’s 1813 production follows the Galland plot very closely. Aladdin’s mother, called Widow Mustapha, appears as an important and vocal character in Acts I and II, lamenting Aladdin’s laziness, being duped by the Abenazac the magician, rejoicing at Aladdin’s return home after she feared him dead, and helping to arrange his union with the Princess by presenting gifts to the sultan. Audiences do see genuine emotion from Widow Mustapha, as she laments “my eyes are drowned in tears for the loss of my poor boy!” and upon his return, she passionately exclaims, “My poor boy! I had given you up for lost – Happy am I to enfold you once more in these arms!” (Farley Citation2022, 100). Farley’s play was particularly successful with Farley himself playing the magician and noted actress Marie Kemble as Aladdin (Burwick Citation2009). As with O’Keefe, Farley emphasizes Aladdin’s (now reformed) morals through his generosity of giving money to his mother.
19 Gould (Citation2011, 59) writes specifically about Robinsonades and how Victorian stagings often looked not to Defoe’s original 1719 novel but to previous staged iterations, enacting a “freeing of Crusoe from the bounds of Defoe’s text.”
20 Though Wilson’s argument concerns plays produced in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, his larger argument about how the British stage was vehicle for national ideas is a convincing one. The plays I examine in the nineteenth century continue in this established tradition of the link between the theatre and the nation.
21 Richards (Citation2015) dates the Pantomime Dame on stage back to 1731, suggesting that the trope would have been familiar to nineteenth-century audiences.
22 Women on stage became more common than ever before in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and they often portrayed both women and men’s roles, particularly if the role was of a young boy. “Breech roles” (actresses wearing pants while portraying men) were quite popular and considered quite titillating for the audience who could see the shape of women’s legs.
23 For example, costumes and makeup in late nineteenth-century productions were simultaneously over-the-top and highly lauded. The Daily News (Citation1861) praised the makeup as “almost sufficient of itself to ensure the success of the piece.” Photographs housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection (Citationn.d.) showcase the elaborate – and often humorous – costuming: one of H. Nye Chart from the mid-nineteenth century, for instance, shows him clad in an oversized, heavily embellished tunic with gauzy leggings and holding a too-small parasol. The famous photograph of Dan Leno performing as Aladdin’s Mother at Drury Lane in 1896 shows him in brightly colored and mismatched floral tunic and striped skirt (Victoria and Albert Museum Citationn.d.).
24 For further reading, see Senelick Citation2000 and Tracy Davis Citation1991.
25 By contrast, the Vizier’s son and suitor for the princess is named Pekoe, named for a higher caliber imported black tea.
26 Marie Wilton, later Bancroft, was a tremendous success, appearing at the Strand Theatre first in 1858. Charles Dickens reportedly lauded her Principal Boy performance in Maid and the Magpie for her expert craft and how much like a boy she seemed (Bratton Citation2013).
27 See Bratton Citation2007 as well as Richards Citation2015, esp. 29–33, and Radcliffe Citation2010, esp. 122–124. Some stagings, of course, downplayed the sexualized elements.
28 For further reading, see Jim Davis Citation2014, and Senelick Citation2000, esp. 242–246 and 262–265.
29 In Byron’s play, the name is spelled “Twankay,” so I have retained that spelling when referring to Byron’s play specifically.
30 I read it this way in particular because Aladdin was Galland’s addition to Nights, not a translation of an existing Arabic manuscript and likely embellished. See Arata (Citation2012), and Marzolph Citation2019 for further reading.
31 Referred to by The Illustrated London News as “the prince of modern pantomime inventors” (24), Blanchard dazzled audiences with scenery “of remarkable novelty and beauty” (The Era Citation1865) and “dazzling effect … where the large stage is seen ‘ablaze’ with splendour” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Citation1865). Of the 1886 revival featuring Mr. Harry Nicholls as the Widow, reviewers lauded his acting and dancing as being “genuinely comical … and whose imitation of the dancing of a well-known burlesque actress gave rise to immense enthusiasm” (The Era Citation1886) such that “the audience would never tire” (Punch, or the London Charivari Citation1886). The reviews for the 1886 revival of Blanchard’s play identify her as the Widow Twankey rather than Widow Ching-Ching in the 1865 production.
32 After Widow Twankey explains how the evil magician does not bear a family resemblance, once he indicates his wealth, she reflects in an aside, “‘Money galore!’ Away suspicious qualms, of course ’tis he – come to a sister’s arms!” (Byron Citation1861, 16).
33 Notably, a male actor (Al Braatz) portrays Aladdin, which has become more common in twentieth- and twenty-first-century stage adaptations. The cross-dressed Widow remains a perennial favorite.
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Amy Elliot
Amy Elliot is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Tampa. Her research primarily focuses on Victorian fiction, representations of women, and children’s literature.