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The Two Gentlemen of Verona

the restoration of admission at half-price. A more faithful presentation of Shakespeare's text occurred at Covent Garden on April 13, 1784; and in January, 1790, John Philip Kemble gave three performances of the original play at Drury Lane. On April 21, 1808, at Covent Garden, Kemble presented Victor's version, with alterations of his own. Somewhat later the play was degraded into an opera by Frederic Reynolds, and produced at Covent Garden on November 29, 1821, and on numerous subsequent dates. Shakespeare's own play was revived at Bath on March 23, 1822, and at Drury Lane, by Macready, on December 29, 1841. Charles Kean is said[1] to have produced it both in England and in America during the period 1840–1850, and during the following decade Samuel Phelps gave performances at Sadler's Wells.

During recent years notable productions have been achieved by Osmund Tearle at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1890, by Augustin Daly in New York and London in 1895, and by J. H. Leigh at the Court Theatre, London, in April, 1904. In observance of the Shakespeare Tercentenary, members of the University of Wisconsin gave two performances of the play in May, 1916.

  1. Cf. Harold Child, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, edited by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and John Dover Wilson (Cambridge, 1921), p. 106. I have found no other statement concerning these performances by Charles Kean.