Hutcheon identifies as ‘historiographic metafiction’ those pieces of fiction that expose that our cultural perception of past events is changing and malleable (129). Even though Hutcheon’s theory of historiographic metafiction has been mainly applied to fiction from the post-modern era, certain elements of historical inspiration can be traced back to fiction from the Victorian period. In this article, I propose to turn to the popular theatre of the mid-Victorian period to scrutinize the manipulation of historical female figures, paying close attention to the representation of Lucrezia Borgia as a strong-minded woman. To do so, I analyse the mid-nineteenth century as a moment for asking questions about feminine identity, feminist movements, and alternative representations of female history. By turning to lesser-known mid-Victorian popular plays by H.J. Byron, Charles Matthews, and Leicester Buckingham I will further contribute to an ongoing archaeological task of recovering lost female voices and interpretations from our recent past.

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, Britain would boast of an economic and social prosperity, improving both national and international transport and tourism. However, certain social issues such as the Woman Question, or the altercations in the colonies raised questions about the Empire’s stability. In London, galleries, museums, and theatrical stages, would reproduce images of the colonies to satisfy the people’s appetite for the foreign. In these, mobile women were usually reduced to stereotypical characters. Thus, we can find a clear categorization of the female traveller: on the one hand, the faithful wife who accompanies her husband, and, on the other, the wild, undomesticated female (Ferrús 19). This article scrutinises women’s position and representation as travellers during the Victorian period. With this purpose in mind, we analyse two comedies written by English playwright Tom Taylor (1817-1880) for London’s stages: The Overland Route (Haymarket 23 February 1860) and Up at the Hills (St. James’s Theatre 22 October 1860). The plays’ setting (colonial India) offers us the opportunity to further discuss gender ideology and its relationship with travel during the mid-Victorian period.

During the nineteenth century, theatregoing became the favoured entertainment of both the lower and upper classes in London. As Davis (1994, 307) suggests, the plays were a “mirrored reflection” of society, and they had the ability to reflect important socio-political issues on stage, while also influencing people’s opinion about them. Thus, by turning to the popular stage of the mid-century we can better understand social issues like the Woman Question, or the tensions around imperial policies, among others. As such, this article scrutinises the ways in which Victorian popular drama influenced the period’s ideal of femininity by using stock characters inspired by real women’s movements. Two such cases are the “Girl of the Period” and the “Fast Girl”, protofeminists that would go on to influence the New Woman of the fin-de-siècle. We analyse two plays from the mid-century: the Adelphi’s Our Female American Cousin (1860), by Charles Gayler, and the Strand’s My New Place (1863), by Arthur Wood. As this article attests, popular plays like these would inadvertently bring into the mainstream the ongoing political fight for female rights through their use of transgressive female characters and promotion of scenarios where alternative feminine identities could be performed and imagined.

En este artículo repasamos la vida de Priscilla Horton (1818-1895), actriz y gerente de teatro del siglo xix más conocida como Mrs. German Reed. A menudo olvidada en los volúmenes dedicados al estudio del teatro victoriano, su trayectoria nos permite descubrir la situación social de las actrices de la época y las dificultades a las que debían hacer frente. Sin embargo, a diferencia de muchas otras, Horton disfrutó del favor de sus contemporáneos gracias a su talento sobre los escenarios. Además, su matrimonio con Thomas German Reed (1817-1888) y la posterior creación del Gallery of Illustration en Regent Street, Londres, le otorgó un nuevo estatus de patrona de las artes y de mujer refinada. Junto a su marido, Horton impulsó un nuevo género a mediados del siglo xix, el «entretenimiento de salón» o drawing-room entertainment, atrayendo incluso a la élite que consideraba el teatro como vulgar e inmoral. Palabras clave: Priscilla Horton, Mrs. German Reed, actriz victoriana, teatro inglés victoriano, entretenimiento de salón.

El origen del personaje tipo del buen salvaje o «noble savage» se remonta a 1672, cuando John Dryden atribuyó cierta cualidad de pureza o libertad al salvaje que vivía ajeno a la civilización. Más adelante, el filósofo francés Jean Jacques Rousseau (1754), definió al buen salvaje como un ser inocente y no corrupto. Aunque el buen salvaje ha sido principalmente representado como hombre, también existen figuras femeninas que siguen el mismo patrón. El presente artículo pretende arrojar luz sobre la representación de la buena salvaje en el teatro de sensaciones o «sensation drama» de Londres a mediados del siglo XIX. Tras revisar la figura del buen salvaje, sus alternativas femeninas y su consiguiente iconografía, se ofrecen dos estudios de caso: Cahontas, the Delaware’s Daughter (1860) y The Prairie Flower (1860). Las protagonistas de estas obras de ambientación western nos permitirán explorar la representación y percepción pública de la buena salvaje.