When Tyrone Guthrie rescued Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great from three centuries of theatrical oblivion, he raised several issues—some intentionally, some not—touching on the play's, and Marlowe's, adaptability to the modern stage and pertinence to the modern temper.

In September 1776, General Sir William Howe's troops took possession of New York City, having badly defeated Washington's forces in the Battle of Long Island. Howe, who had accepted his assignment in America with the greatest reluctance, set about making life as pleasant as possible for himself and for those around him. He had grown greatly concerned about the morale and comfort of his troops in a city that, compared to London, was little more than a backwater. Howe wrote to Lord George Germain, Secretary of State for the American Colonies, in England: “The troops had been so much harassed in the course of the last campaign, that I could not but wish that no manoeuvre of the enemy might hinder them from enjoying that repose, in their winter quarters, which their late fatigues rendered necessary, and their services entitled them to expect.”

Ben Webster's management of the Haymarket Theatre from 1837 to 1853 was one of the longest and most successful theatrical ventures of the mid-nineteenth century. As one contemporary journalist put it, “the mere fact of a management lasting nearly sixteen years is in itself remarkable. At Drury Lane a management of as many months would approach the miraculous.” In addition to mere length, Webster's tenure was notable for the production of original plays, with 212 premièring under his management. These included such works, well-known in their time, as Tom Taylor and Charles Reade's Masks and Faces, Douglas Jerrold's Time Works Wonders, Westland Marston's Strathmore, and Bulwer-Lytton's Money. In fact, Webster's willingness to produce full-length original tragedies and comedies led the Theatrical Journal to label him one of the “few that have of late years laboured to uphold the legitimate drama.” Although Webster's management is remembered primarily for these original plays produced by a strong, balanced company, even a cursory examination of his managerial policies shows that he was plagued by that bane of all mid-nineteenth-century managers, the star system. In fact, his ability to cope with the system and eventually to master it was undoubtedly a major reason for his success, since Webster was then able to devote his energies to the original plays that brought him managerial fame. The purpose of this essay is to trace Webster's struggle with and mastery of starring actors.

An inquiry into eighteenth-century American scene painting must draw upon sources other than painter's renderings, since few are known to survive. The most promising source other than printed descriptions, barren at best, are the non-theatrical landscape and topographical (view) paintings of America's early scenic artists. No employment of these materials is possible, however, until the parameters of the relationship between easel and scene painting have been established.

To write about theatrical entertainment in Canada before the Confederation is to enter a relatively unfilled field. In the absence of a fully documented account of stage presentations, historians like Jean Beraud and Murray D. Edwards have tended to underrate the frequency and quality of performances in assembly rooms and makeshift theaters in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and slighted the crucial role of strolling players in the growth of the theater in British North American provinces. One of the topics still to be investigated is the pioneering work of a trio of actor-managers—Edward Allen, John Bentley and William Moore—who arrived in Montreal from the United States early in 1786 and deserve recognition for founding Canada's first professional company, which gave evenings of entertainment along the lines of London companies. In his history of Montreal theater, Franklin Graham recorded a performance by Allen and Company in 1786, and E. Z. Massicotte uncovered a lease signed by Edward Allen in 1787, but neither explored further. Pierre Georges Roy who compiled data about theatrical performances in Quebec City from the Quebec Gazette and Quebec Mercury began his investigations in 1790 and missed the earlier events.