| Item Description: | Michael Laird, bookseller, description: Large folio (74 x 25.5 cm). Old folds, some creasing or slight fraying along edges, but overall in very good antiquarian condition. An extremely rare witness to the earliest and most important of production of its kind. According to recent scholarship, Astley's "The Brave Cossack; or Perfidy Punished" presented -- for the first time -- highly coordinated and fast-pasted equestrian action en masse; the horses themselves became *the* focus of attention, as the final battle scene presented a thrilling display of a troop of horse at full speed. The primary locus and inspiration for equestrian drama, or hippodrama, came from this performance. Astley's Amphitheatre, built by former cavalryman Philip Astley (1742-1814). By 1811 equestrian entertainments had grown so popular at Astley's that the patent theaters were compelled to hire Astley's performers and horses so that they too, could offer hippodramas -- on the same bills with tragedies featuring Sarah Siddons and J.P. Kemble -- to fill depleted coffers. (SOURCE: Kim Marra, 2012). People across the social spectrum either owned or worked around horses and were dependent on them for their livelihoods and transportation. The animals themselves and how to manage them were subjects of keen widespread interest. "The amazing equestrian displays put on by the Astleys and later by Ducrow had the fascination of watching someone do superbly something which the spectator knew well enough about to know how difficult it was." (SOURCE: Bratton & Traies, 1980). This large 199-year old poster advertises original May 1807 performances of "The Brave Cossack." The plot for this military drama is outlined in detail on the playbill, was “several months in preparation,” and incorporated “splendid scenery, extensive machinery, &c. interspersed with various nouvelle combats on foot and horseback (conformable to the costume of the country).” The spectacle boasted “uncommon evolutions, by various parties of infantry; particularly by the Cossack cavalry on real horses, and exhibiting on a new invented gradation stage platform work, an extensive field of battle, principally taken from the well-contested attack on the Devil’s Bridge.” Featuring theatrical horsemanship on a scale previously unimagined, "The Brave Cossack" exerted a seminal influence on the development of the popular British equestrian spectacles, which spread -- through Astley's hippodramas -- to New York and Paris. Rzepka argues that "The rage for hippodrama was, for the first decade [of the 19th-century] confined to Astley's [Royal Amphitheatre] and Hughes's [Royal Circus] venues, with Astley coming to dominate by 1807 with the production of "The Brave Cossack." "The Brave Cossack" seems to have had an unintended effect on public driving habits as well as theatrical taste. Within two years, the "Four-in-Hand" mania had made the London streets hazardous to pedestrian, passenger and horses alike. (SOURCE: Rzepka, 2016; Saxon, 1968). LITERATURE: Early English Hippodramatic performances have received considerable scholarly attention of late, for which see Charles J. Rzepka’s “Bang-Up! Theatricality and the ‘Diphrelatic Art’ in De Quincey’s ‘English Mail-Coach’” in: Selected Studies in Romantic and American Literature, History, and Culture (Routledge, 2016), p. 68. The Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature (Blackwell, 2012): vol. 2 (H-Re) “Equestrian Drama” by Kim Marra, (for Astley, and see especially pp. 431-2 for “The Brave Cossack”). See also Arthur Hartley Saxon, “Enter Foot and Horse; a History of Hippodrama in England and France (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968). Marius Kwint, "The Circus and Nature in Late Georgian England" in: The History of Leisure, ed. Rudy Koshar (London, 2002), pp. 46 et seq. Jacqueline Bratton and Jane Traies, "Astley's Amphitheatre" (London: Chadwyck-Healey, 1980) remains indispensible. |
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