Edward Stirling (playwright)

Edward Stirling (April 1809 – c. September 1894) was an English stage manager, actor and dramatist. He published around 200 works for the stage, many being adaptations of works by popular authors, notably Charles Dickens, Walter Scott and Harrison Ainsworth, often within days of the novel's publication.[lower-alpha 1] He married Mary Anne Stirling (1815–1895), an actress who went on to a long and illustrious career as Mrs Stirling.[2]

Edward Stirling in 1838

History

Stirling was born Edward Stirling Lambert in Thame, Oxfordshire, and started working life as a banker's clerk. Around age 20 he began his stage career first as an actor in the provinces, then as actor/stage manager at the Adelphi, London for Frederick Henry Yates, later took on production at other theatres, finally at Drury Lane.

Writing

His first successful work for the stage was Sadak and Kalasrade, a spectacular drama.

Apart from his original plays he "adapted" the latest novels of Dickens and other authors for the stage. His adaptation of The Cricket on the Hearth played at the Adelphi for over 90 performances. Among his numerous titles were:

Other titles include

  • Above and Below
  • The Anchor of Hope; or the Seaman's Star
  • Bachelors Buttons
  • Barnaby Rudge (Dickens)
  • The Battle of Life (Dickens)
  • The Bluejackets; or, Her Majesty's Service
  • The Bohemians; or, The Rogues of Paris
  • The Bould Soger Boy
  • The Cabin Boy
  • Captain Charlotte
  • The Children in the Wood; or, Harlequin Nobody
  • A Christmas Carol; or, Past, Present, and Future (Dickens)
  • Clarisse; or, The Merchant's Daughter
  • The Cricket on the Hearth; or, A Fairy Tale of Home (Dickens) T. W. Robertson produced another version.
  • The Fortunes of Smike; or, A Sequel to Nicholas Nickleby (Dickens)
  • The Giant of Palestine
  • Grace Darling; or, The Wreck at Sea
  • The Hand of Cards
  • Harlequin Blue Beard; or, The Fairy of the Silver Crescent
  • Industry and Indolence; or, The Orphan's Legacy
  • Jane Lomax; or, A Mother's Curse
  • The Jockey Club
  • Knight of the Dragon and the Queen of Beauty
  • Lestelle
  • The Little Back Parlour
  • The Love Gift; or, The Trials of Poverty
  • A Lucky Hit
  • The Miser's Daughter (Harrison Ainsworth)
  • Nicholas Nickleby; or, Doings at Do-the-Boys Hall (Dickens)
  • Norah Creina
  • The Old Curiosity Shop; or, One Hour from Humphrey's Clock (Dickens)
  • Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress (Dickens)
  • On the Tiles
  • Popping In and Out
  • Rifle Volunteers; or, Riflemen! Riflemen! Riflemen! Form!
  • The Rose of Corbeil; or the Forest of Senart
  • The Serpent of the Nile; or, The Battle of Actium
  • The Tower of London; or, Og, Gog, and Magog (Harrison Ainsworth)
  • Ulrica; or, The Prisoner of State
  • Wanted a Wife; or, London, Liverpool and Bristol
  • The Wreck at Sea; or, The Fern Light
  • Yankee Notes for English Circulation (Dickens)[7][8]

In 1881 he published a memoir: Old Drury Lane – Fifty Years' Recollections in 2 volumes, which at least one critic enjoyed[9] but another found worthless as a history.[10]

Marriage

Stirling married the actress Miss Fanny Clifton[2] (1815-1895) in 1832[11][12][13] Born Mary Ann Hehl, she was a daughter of Captain Hehl, a military secretary at the War Office.

Her career blossomed when she took Helen Faucit's part in the role of Clara in Lytton’s play Money. Their daughter, Miss Fanny Stirling, made her appearance on the stage about 1860, and gained some reputation as an actress. (Elsewhere her name is given as Pamela Stirling.)[14] Mrs. Stirling retired from the stage in 1886, her last appearance being at The Lyceum as Martha in Faust in 1890.[15]

In 1894, six weeks after Stirling's death, she married Lieut-Colonel Sir Charles Hutton Gregory, a well-known civil and military engineer.[16] She was 79 years of age and he was 78. The wedding was covered sympathetically by all the newspapers, whereas Stirling's death received no mention at the time, and later only in reference to this marriage, and in the most unflattering terms.[17]

Notes and references
  1. He was able to produce his "pirated" plays so promptly due to the way Dickens and others published novels: by instalment in the newspapers. Dickens reacted against these clumsy adaptations by appointing Tom Taylor as his "official" dramatist.[1]
  1. "Stage Gossip". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 25, 293. Victoria, Australia. 3 September 1927. p. 14. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. Knight, Joseph (1898). "Stirling, Mary Anne" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 54. pp. 381–383.
  3. "Theatre Royal". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 6, 523. Victoria, Australia. 6 May 1867. p. 5. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "Amusements". The Leader (Melbourne). Vol. XLI, no. 1124. Victoria, Australia. 14 July 1877. p. 18. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Victoria Theatre". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. LXXVIII, no. 12, 516. New South Wales, Australia. 1 July 1878. p. 5. Retrieved 21 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Amusements". The Star (Melbourne). Vol. IV, no. 277. Victoria, Australia. 21 November 1859. p. 3. Retrieved 14 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. Philip V. Allingham. "Edward Stirling (1809-94): Dramatist, Adapter, Actor, and Stage Manager".
  8. Carolyn Williams. The Cambridge Companion to English Melodrama. p. 177.
  9. "Current Literature". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 10, 920. Victoria, Australia. 18 June 1881. p. 4. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. "Titles and the Stage". The Goulburn Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 7 May 1897. p. 6. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. Elisabeth Kumm. "Stirling, Mrs". Theatre Heritage Australia. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  12. "Music and Drama". The Telegraph (Brisbane). No. 6, 888. Queensland, Australia. 14 November 1894. p. 5. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. "Obituary". Launceston Examiner. Vol. LVI, no. 1. Tasmania, Australia. 1 January 1896. p. 6. Retrieved 22 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. "Paris from Day to Day". The Age. No. 28, 485. Victoria, Australia. 10 August 1946. p. 28. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. "Music and Drama". The Telegraph (Brisbane). No. 6, 915. Queensland, Australia. 15 December 1894. p. 5. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. "Greenroom Gossip". The Australasian Hebrew. Vol. I, no. 14. New South Wales, Australia. 21 February 1896. p. 237. Retrieved 22 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. "London Table Talk". The Express and Telegraph. Vol. XXXI, no. 9, 300. South Australia. 10 November 1894. p. 6. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
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