This volume of two previously unpublished plays by the English radical John Thelwall (1764-1834) is a fascinating supplement to earlier studies documenting Thelwall's prolific and parlous writing career and to the literary trope, or myth, that coalesced from the tragic story of the American princess Yarico. The editors offer the farce Incle and Yarico (1787) and the comic opera The Incas (1792) not only to augment Thelwall's growing canon, but also, to illuminate his spirited disdain of inequality, slavery, and imperialism. Rejected respectively by the theater managers George Colman the Elder and Thomas Harris, these pieces expose the reach of one radical's high idealism. Perhaps the prospective discovery of other lost manuscripts or publications will inspire scholars to search the archives for texts that similarly recover eighteenth century humanitarian earnestness from the hostility of modern scholarship.
The editors provide a general introduction, introductions specific to the plays, lists of textual variants, glosses, and a list of texts for further reading. Glosses to Incle and Yarico are exceptionally generous; for instance, they include a very extensive explanation of the term nibbees, which are ropes made from lianas (which are woody vines). Surprisingly, Felsenstein overlooks Incle's error in attributing horns to the wild "Guanicos". On the other hand, Scrivener proves few glosses to the Incas, so a reader is at a loss with respect to various unexpected references: to the aspen, a non-native tree, to the sacrificial lamb, to Faulkland's chains, and so on. Defining the limits of Thelwall's knowledge regarding South American natural history and American cultures would surely have warranted the extra effort.
Despite these few quibbles, the volume stands as an unexpected and exciting contribution to eighteenth century literary studies: not only is Thelwall precipitated from relative obscurity, but he also reemerges with two charmingly radical plays that will doubtless soon encourage new scholarship in cultural and literary studies.
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