Tragedian G.V. Brooke (1818–1866), regarded as the generational successor to Edmund Kean (1787–1833), began a ‘farewell season’ at the New Theatre in Birmingham on Monday 24 July 1854. The Birmingham Journal (22 July 1854) announced his appearance as Sir Giles Overreach in Philip Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts ‘previous to sailing for California and Australia’. He was supported by members of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane stock company, including George Bennett, Alfred Rayner and his young charge Fanny Cathcart (1833–1880). During the first week they also gave The Hunchback, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, The Lady of Lyons and Richelieu; with Othello,1 The Wife, Hamlet, Macbeth and The Stranger were scheduled to follow. The season closed on Saturday 19 August.
During the same week, George Coppin (1819–1906), the Australian comedian and entrepreneur, had occupied the nearby Theatre Royal (taking his benefit on Friday 18 August with ‘a tolerably good house’). At some point during the week Coppin met by chance with Brooke’s agent, John Hall Wilton2 (1820–1862) at a Birmingham hotel. Coppin and Brooke, both mid-thirties, were subsequently reacquainted. Coppin had been a member of the Sheffield Theatre stock company when Brooke gave his Hamlet in November 1837.3 Within twenty-four hours a deal was struck: Brooke had already intended a tour to America, but was easily persuaded by the terms offered by Coppin to go to Australia first, en route to California.
On 3 September 1854, The Era revealed that G.V. Brooke had made an engagement with George Coppin to tour the colonies and to give 200 nights; the fee would be £10,000 and, in addition, Coppin would cover expenses for ‘himself and four’ others to go. Fanny Cathcart was one, announced to play his leading female characters. Her father signed her contract on 14 September: she would be away for two years, and accepted a fee of £20 per week, plus board and lodgings.
Fanny and Robert Heir, c.1860. Photo by Davies & Co., Melbourne
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
G.V. Brooke, 1860s. Photo by Melbourne & Sydney Photographic Co.
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
Frances (Fanny) Cathcart, the daughter of actor and theatre manager James Leander Cathcart (1800–1865), made her stage debut aged 12 at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1845 appearing in the last scene of Romeo and Juliet (with her brother J.F. (James) Cathcart (1827–1902)) at her father’s benefit; by 1850 she had progressed, and played Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice at the same house alongside Miss Cuttriss’s Portia and the Shylock of Mr Paumier. In May 1852, Fanny and her father, were engaged as a stock players at W.R. Copeland’s Royal Amphitheatre in Liverpool.
Having concluded his first tour to America, Brooke arrived home from Boston to Liverpool on 20 June 1853. Had he attended the Royal Amphitheatre that evening he would have seen James Anderson’s Hamlet with Fanny playing Ophelia. Four months’ later he returned to Liverpool and played a short season at the Royal Amphitheatre. Brooke and Fanny Cathcart appeared together for the first time in The Hunchback (he giving Master Walter, she Julia) on 25 October. By the end of the week, Miss Baker (who had played Desdemona on the previous Monday) appears to have been supplanted and Fanny played Ophelia to Brooke’s Hamlet (for his Benefit) on Friday 28 October. While the Liverpool Mercury (1 November 1853) only found her performance ‘interesting’, Brooke was more impressed and offered Fanny her big break: she made her first London appearance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (alongside Brooke) on 30 January 1854, as Tarquinia in John Howard Payne’s Brutus; or, The Fall of Tarquin (1818). She had only just turned 21 (on 3 August) and, still considered under age, was then living under the guardianship of Brooke and his wife Marianne.
Map of London—1855
Based on his agreement with Coppin, The Era also suggested that Brooke ‘intended to add to the party a gentleman to act seconds’ and that ‘a lady for high comedy’ was also contemplated.
Coppin and Brooke then performed together for a short season (11–23 September) at Brooke’s home theatre, the Queen’s Royal Theatre,4 Dublin. Brooke had made his staged debut at the same house in 1833, taking over from an indisposed Edmund Kean as William Tell. It was here, Bagot reports, that the men renegotiated their contract: instead of a fixed fee, Brooke was to receive for each night’s performance a guaranteed minimum of twenty-five pounds sterling, in addition to one-half of the net receipts’. Then crossing back to Southampton, Coppin sailed home to Australia on the steamship Argo (‘a very efficient German band … enlivened the departure) on 4 October. Brooke, meanwhile, returned to London and gave a farewell season at Drury Lane (2–11 October) followed by a week at The Theatre in Cambridge (12–15 October).
On 5 October The Times reported that Mr Robert Heir5 (1832–1868) had been added to the entourage (his agreed fee was £10 per week).6 Previous to her departure from England, Fanny, with the approval of her father, made it known to Brooke that she and Heir were engaged to be married. Heir’s inclusion in the touring party to play second gentleman (notwithstanding his limited experience) may have been to appease his leading lady. In the meantime, however, Heir was contracted to T.C. King’s company and at this time performing at the Theatre Royal in Dublin: on 23 October he played Cassio to King’s Othello and Mr J.H. Rickards’ Iago; in the same week Heir played Iago (his debut in the role) to Rickards’ Othello. Consequently, Heir was unavailable to join the company for their planned departure from Plymouth to the Australian colonies on 25 November.
In Heir’s stead, in the first instance to cover the second gentleman roles but also to act as stage manager, Richard William Younge (1821–1887) was included in the announcement that appeared in both The Liverpool Mercury (6 October) and The Era (15 October); an actress for ‘high comedy’ was not engaged.
Younge, three years younger than Brooke, was currently a member of the stock company at Messrs Johnson and Nelson Lee’s City of London Theatre in Bishopsgate Street. Ironically, on 8 October, the company presented the first of a week-long program of The Slaves of London; or, The By-road to Transportation to close the season.
Brooke had resolved to take a short tour on the Continent previous to embarking for Australia and initially declined an offer from Messrs Johnson and Nelson Lee for yet another valedictory engagement for twelve nights at the City of London Theatre. But after a ‘numerously signed requisition of reputable and influential residents in the district’7 and ‘in deference to this highly flattering expression of public opinion,’ Brooke gave up his holiday and made his first appearance at Younge’s home theatre in the east end on Monday 16 October, and attracted capacity houses for the entire twelve nights in The Lady of Lyons, Othello, The Hunchback, Virginius, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Richard III, The Wife and The Stranger. He was supported by Fanny Cathcart, and his second man was Alfred Rayner; Younge is not mentioned in the notices.
Now complete, Coppin’s iron theatre—constructed by Fox and Henderson, the builders of the Crystal Palace—sailed for Melbourne on Monday 23 October.
Brooke then played a farewell season for, and with, Fanny Cathcart (6–21 November) at her home theatre, The Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool. Richelieu was an addition to their current repertoire. His second men for these final appearances were Mr B. Baker and Mr Loraine; again, Richard Younge is missing from despatches.
Richard Younge, nonetheless, was amongst the cohort that gathered at Millay Pier at Plymouth on Saturday 25 November 1854. His party, that comprised Mr and Mrs Brooke, their dog and two servants, Fanny Cathcart and John Hall Wilton, embarked on the new steamship Pacific that departed at 4pm, bound for Melbourne, via the Cape of Good Hope, anticipating the passage to take 60 days (or less).
*****
Richard Younge’s selection is curious; Brooke had not worked with him, nor is there any evidence that Brooke had seen the 33-year-old actor on the stage, notwithstanding that he had been highly regarded as ‘the talented leading actor of Mr [W.R.] Copeland’s establishment’8 (The Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool) for three years. The actors shared much of the same repertoire; a heavy emphasis on Shakespeare, but also more contemporary works favouring plays by Edward Bulwer-Lytton and fellow Irishman—and cousin of R.B. Sheridan—James Sheridan Knowles. There is no evidence of Younge’s experience as a stage manager, although accumulating new repertoire under Copeland must have been enlightening.
Otherwise Brooke could have chosen from the best and most reliable support in the United Kingdom: his recent Iagos, for example, included (in the provinces) Mr Loraine (Theatre Royal, Liverpool); Mr Powrie (Theatre Royal, Glasgow); Mr G. Melville (Theatre Royal, Bristol); Mr Swinbourne (Theatre Royal, Leicester); or (in London) Alfred Rayner (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) or Thomas Mead (who made his house debut at Drury Lane in the same month as Fanny Cathcart, and appeared with them both in the performance given on 6 February). Brooke also had the choice of two outstanding actor/stage mangers in E Stirling (Drury Lane) or W. Searle (City of London Theatre).
Richard William Younge was born on 8 July 1821 in Liverpool, Lancashire to actors Richard Younge (1793–1846) and his wife Sarah Elizabeth (née Lee), both of whom were members of the stock company at the new Theatre Royal, Liverpool.
Younge Snr made his London debut at the Theatre Royal, Dury Lane, opposite Edmund Kean, in Richard III in January 1823. During his thirteen-year tenure in London he also played Iago to Kean’s Othello, and Edmund to the great tragedian’s Lear (at the noteworthy production in late 1836 that restored Shakespeare’s tragic ending).
Richard, Younge’s first son, was baptised in 1827 with his brother Frederick George Younge (1825–1870) at St James' Church, in the then upwardly mobile residential parish of Islington in north London; a third son, Frances (Frank) Rusden Younge (1829–1871) arrived two years later.
Over the next decade, the three boys were schooled in cosmopolitan city life and the theatre. Richard Jnr made his stage debut on 6 July 1837—two days before his 16th birthday—at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle playing Albert in William Tell, alongside his father on a tour of the provinces.
Younge Senior was also a friend and professional colleague of James Cathcart; he played Cassius to Cathcart’s Brutus in Julius Caesar (at the Theatre Royal, Sheffield) in 1841; at the same house, they also appeared together in Cymbeline, Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Younge Snr was back at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, and played the Ghost, when 24-year-old G.V. Brooke, ‘a young man of great promise … on the eve now of sterling abilities’, made his debut as Hamlet on 31 January 1842; Julia Bennett played Ophelia.
Richard’s younger brother Frederick (known as Fred) made his stage debut aged 19 as Sir Richard Ratcliffe in Rowe’s play of Jane Shore; or, the Unhappy Favourite at Mr Holmes’s Theatre Royal, Taunton in April 1844. Over the next five years he was engaged at the City of London Theatre (under Mr R. Honner), the City Theatre, Manchester (where he played Richard III) and, in 1848, gained the reputation as ‘the favourite comedian’ at the Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool (under Mr H. Coleman). Fred appeared alongside James Cathcart at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1850 immediately prior to taking up a three year engagement with Messrs Phelps and Greenwood at the Theatre Royal, Sadler’s Wells; he made his debut as the Gravedigger to Phelps’s Hamlet in August 1850, and over his time with the company made a distinguished contribution as a comedian in productions of Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, Henry VIII and Timon of Athens.
Richard Younge Snr died on 17 November 1846. His legacy to his sons came in the form of an address, entitled ‘The Defence of the Drama’, delivered following a performance at Lincolnshire (of Cumberland’s comedy The Wheel of Fortune):
The aim and object of dramatic representation is merely to give that originality of thought and quickness of perception to our universal intelligences that can only be acquired by a knowledge of ourselves, and of the varied feelings, wishes, emotions, and inclinations, with which when you leave this area all present will be more or less actuated; here human nature is but cast in a fresh mould, aided by art, and reproduced in more captivating lineaments that the moral may have more effect. The drama is to the feelings and affectations the same as history to the events of society or philosophy to the laws of nature. The parent, the brother, the sister, the child, the friend, and the lover, are the proud and endearing names that link society with all that is holy in love, and revered in affection upon this earth; they therefore form the material elements of dramatic power and influence, and some of these relations have been brought before your notice in the representation of this evening. … (The Era, 9 June 1850)
At the time, his eldest son Richard, now 25, had gained a positive reputation as a reliable ‘jobbing’ actor on the provincial theatre circuit, having scored significant appearances at the Richmond Theatre, Surrey; the Theatre Royal, Whithaven; the City Theatre, Manchester; The Theatre, Scarborough; and the Adelphi Theatre in Edinburgh, where it was reported in The Caledonian Mercury of his appearance in Peake’s comedy The Climbing Boy (4 September 1848) that ‘Mr R. Younge was, as always, the gentleman in whatever he has to do’. Richard then joined Mr and Mrs Pollock at the Theatre Royal, Aberdeen where he was ‘leading man’ from early 1849, opening the season as Fabian in The Black Doctor. Richard gave ‘truthfulness and vigour’ to his debut appearance as ‘the melancholy Dane’ (The Era, 11 November 1849) at North Shields; on the same program, he was ‘very effective and picturesque’ as the Maniac in Wilks’s drama Michael Earl; or, The Maniac Lover.
The following year, Richard and his younger brother Frank (also now an actor) were living together in ‘digs’ and working in Scarborough (July–October). On his departure, ‘a magnificent sword was presented to Mr R. Younge, tragedian … by the admirers of his talent’. (The Era, 5 January 1851). Richard then joined Messrs Powrie, Wyndham and Charles Romer in the stock company at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh presenting, over the following three months, a repertoire that included The Honeymoon, Lavater, The Rivals, Speed the Plough and Rob Roy.
In November 1850, soon after his thirtieth birthday, Richard returned home to Liverpool and was engaged by the influential W.R. Copeland at the Royal Amphitheatre. His first appearance was opposite Messrs Wyndham and Murray in The Vicar of Wakefield. Tutored by Copeland, Richard took on leading roles: Macbeth; Othello and Iago (to Henry Farren’s Othello); the Ghost (to Farren’s Hamlet); Rolla (Pizarro); Ford (The Merry Wife’s of Windsor; to Harker’s Falstaff); The Corsican Brothers; Faulkland (The Rivals) and supporting roles for Farren and Louisa Howard in William Tell, Katherine and Petruchio, The Hunchback, The Devil and Doctor Faustus and, the rarely seen, Antony and Cleopatra.
The Royal Amphitheatre, cnr Great Charlotte Street and Queen’s Square, Liverpool was built by Andrew Ducrow in 1825 and opened the following year; it had a capacity for 3,000 patrons. The venue was erected for both equestrian and dramatic exhibitions. The building was purchased by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1884. The building was destroyed by fire in 1933 and replaced by the Royal Court Theatre in 1938.
So it was that Richard Younge Junior was already an accomplished and senior house-player at the Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool when Fanny Cathcart and her father joined the company. On 10 May 1852, James Cathcart played Iago to E.L. Davenport’s Othello; Richard Younge ‘gave a correct and interesting representation of Cassius. This gentleman is a true Shakespearean actor’. The Era (16 May 1852) also suggested that the W.R. Copeland’s company had ‘been considerably strengthened by the addition of Mr Cathcart and his daughter, Miss Fanny Cathcart … who are deserved favourites here’. Six weeks later, on 31 June, Fanny played Ophelia to Barry Sullivan’s Hamlet, James Cathcart played the Ghost, Richard Younge played Laertes, and, adding to the familiarity, Younge’s brother Frederick played—at a stretch at 27 years of age—Polonius.9
Fanny and Richard appeared regularly together over the next six months in both Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Othello) and other popular pieces (Pizarro, Jane Shore) until Younge took up a contract in January 1853 to play for a season at Liverpool’s new Royal Park Theatre (under Mr R. Edgar)10 in leading roles (Fazio, Sir Giles Overreach, Richelieu and Lavater). Six months later, Younge then progressed to the east end of the metropolis and the stock company at the City of London Theatre (Lessees Messrs Johnson and Nelson Lee). He made his debut at the Bishopsgate Street house, coached by stage manager—the ‘keeper of the book’ William Searle—in Wildfire Dick, The Gipsy Horse Stealer; or, The Murder at the Old Chateau in July 1853. He remained with the company until the close of the winter season in October 1854.
So, perhaps a more likely scenario for Richard Younge’s inclusion in Brooke’s tour down-under was yet more intense pressure from his leading lady to secure a familiar face as chaperone when she was so far from home and waiting for her fiancé to arrive.
Left: The City of London Theatre (architect Samuel Beazley)—Mr Cockerton was the lessee when the venue opened in March 1837 with Edward Sterling’s adaptation of Charles Dicken’s Pickwick Club. John Johnson and Nelson Lee took over the lease in 1848 (following a major refit four years earlier). Right: Richard William Younge, 1860s. Original photo from Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne, cropped and enhanced by John Senczuk using AI.
The steamer Pacific, transporting its theatrical exports and 88 other souls, made good time and arrived at the Port of Cape Town on 29 November. After some pressure by those in authority the actors gave impromptu ‘readings’ of Othello, The Lady of Lyons and The Stranger at a small garrison theatre in the barrack, with the inclusion of a number of gentlemen amateurs who volunteered their services. Of the three plays, Younge had no previous experience of one—Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s romantic melodrama The Lady of Lyons (1838)—but the readiness of the presentation suggests that he, Brooke and Fanny Cathcart had already begun preparing their Melbourne repertoire.
The progress across the Indian Ocean, however, was delayed when, only fourteen kilometres from port, a defective paddle and a shortness of coal necessitated their return to Cape Town harbour for twenty-four hours. Their onward journey to King George Sound was further hampered by poor weather. This was particularly galling for Coppin in Australia, who had already begun major marketing campaigns in both Melbourne and Sydney anticipating Brooke’s arrival in mid-January. The setback added twenty-five days to the journey and the entourage arrived into Hobson’s Bay at 10 in the morning of Thursday 22 February 1855.11
Queen’s Theatre, c.1880s— illustration by Albert Charles Cooke (1836–1902). The Queen’s Theatre (originally the Queen’s Theatre Royal) was opened on 21 April 1845 under the management of Francis Nesbitt; George Coppin made his Australian debut in the venue in 1845 in The Lady of Lyons. State Library Victoria, Melbourne.
Coppin, with members of the Queen’s Theatre company, greeted the party when they disembarked at the government jetty at Sandridge, after which they were carried by coach the six kilometres to the Prince of Wales Hotel in Flinders Lane.
Their arrival in the colony coincided with a big news day: the first appearance of Timothy Hayes, Raffaello Carboni, with eleven other ‘rebel prisoners’, before His Honour the Chief Justice, all charged with high treason for their involvement in the Eureka skirmish the previous November.
The following evening the new arrivals attended Coppin’s benefit, giving Richard Younge the opportunity to experience both the venue and the assembled stock company, headed by Charles F. Young (1819–1874) and J.P. Hydes (co-lessees and principal actors). Described by Coppin as ‘a very versatile actor’, Charles Young arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from Yorkshire in 1843. He married his Tasmanian wife Jane (Eliza) (née Thomson) in 1845, and in the same year commenced his association with Coppin, playing Claude Melnotte in The Lady of Lyons at the Queen’s Theatre Royal, Melbourne. While waiting for the tardy imported artistes to arrive, Charles and Eliza led the ensemble at the Queen’s in hastily arranged productions of the burlesque Rolla of Ours; or, The Shameful Goings on of the Spaniards in Peru; 102!; or, the Veteran and His Progeny; The School for Scandal and A Thirst for Gold; or, Sea of Ice, the latter providing Coppin’s benefit (announced to be under the patronage of G.V. Brooke) on Friday 23 February.
The company rehearsed all day Saturday and, in a remarkable gesture of welcome, Jeeve Brooke led his orchestra from the Queen’s Theatre in a candlelit procession, down Queen Street to the Prince of Wales Hotel in Flinders Lane, to serenade the international guests at 9 pm. To the strains of Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’, Locke’s music from Macbeth, and airs from The Tempest, Brooke was called to the balcony of his suite to acknowledge the ‘many respectable citizens with their ladies’, the crowd, estimated by The Argus (26 February 1855) to number 1,000 (Brooke wrote to his mother that the crowd was 2,000). Fanny Cathcart and Richard Younge were also encouraged to appear.
In reality, in the absence of any pre-publicity advertising his arrival, no one knew who Richard Younge was, his name only appeared alongside Brooke’s in that morning’s edition of The Argus announcing his debut as Iago. In the advertisement in the same paper, Younge is mistakenly referred to as being ‘from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane’.
As was traditional for Brooke, he opened the season at the ten-year-old Queen’s Theatre with Shakespeare’s Othello on Monday 26 February. The following Wednesday, The Argus review (28 February 1855) believed that the cast ‘was almost as strong as could have been the case in any theatre out of London.’ [My emphasis.] They praised Younge as ‘an actor of considerable reputation in the English provinces’, and concluded that
Mr R. Younge is decidedly a great acquisition to the colonial stage; his Iago is an exceedingly clever conception, and although somewhat deficient in physique, he is evidently a competent and practised actor.
His appearance, judging by later reviews, was regarded as limiting and hampered his progress. It was addressed in blunt terms some years later when the Ballarat Star (19 September 1860) agreed that ‘Mr Richard Younge is an excellent actor, a finished dramatist in every way’, but clarified that ‘he cannot look a hero, dress as he may, and especially, he cannot speak the language of a hero in true stage style’.
Others in the company—included Mr Burford (Cassio), Mr J.P. Hydes (Rodrigo), Mr Rogers (Brabantio), Miss Fanny Cathcart, ‘a favourite English actress’ (Desdemona) and Eliza Young (Emilia)—were registered by the paper as the major players in support. Mr Hooper, Mrs J.P. Hydes, Mrs Thom and Charles Young were additional unlisted members of the ensemble.
Over the next four weeks in Melbourne the company played Monday to Friday evenings, Saturdays given over to rehearsals. Younge played second to Brooke in productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Younge took the part of Laertes), Richard III (Henry, Earl of Richmond) and Macbeth (McDuff); Brooke’s more contemporary repertoire included drama and comedy: there were dramatic performances in Sheridan Knowles’ Wife: A Tale of Mantua (Younge gave Leonardo) and Virginius (1820) (Icilius); August von Kotzebue’s The Stranger (Baron Steinfort); George Soane’s Rob Roy, the Gregarach (1818) (The Dougal Creature); Calcraft’s The Bride of Lammermoor (1824) (Hayston of Bucklaw), but some comic relief was provided in Sheridan Knowles’s The Hunchback (1832) (Sir Thomas Clifford) and Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts (Wellborn). The Stranger, Virginius and The Bride of Lammermoor were new repertoire for Younge, of the remainder all—apart from Laertes and McDuff—were his debut performances in the roles.
The critical responses from The Argus to Younge’s characters were tepid: his ‘very clever reading’ of Iago … is not quite up to our idea of the character’; he fell ‘lamentably short of our idea of Macduff, and gave no notion of the stalwart and true-hearted soldier Shakespeare made the character’. They thought his ‘Baron Steinfort was as gentlemanly as it ought to be’, but acknowledged that his ‘Leonardo was … a very clever performance’, and that his interpretation of Icilius was ‘easy and graceful, and merited the applause bestowed upon it’. His comic turns, unfortunately, were perceived as more uninspiring: while he was ‘an excellent Wellborn’, he ‘did at any rate ample justice to that mysterious being Sir Thomas Clifford’.
For a young, middle-career actor with an upward trajectory in London and highly regarded in the provinces, the antipodean response from the press must have been dispiriting. Fortunately, he was more generously received by the consistently packed houses.
The season concluded in Melbourne on Friday 23 March (with Virginius, for Brooke’s benefit). The company then progressed to the Theatre Royal in Geelong for a week, where J.P. Hydes had taken out the lease. Brooke opened with Othello on Monday 26 March. The plays selected were remounts of those presented in Melbourne—supplemented by the inclusion of George Coppin in minor roles—but introducing for the first time The Lady of Lyons (Younge ‘well represented’ the villain, Beauseant) on Tuesday 3 April. Younge, inexplicably, chose not to appear when the principals were called at the conclusion of the performance; according to The Argus, (4 April 1855) he either ‘did not hear his name, or declined to come before the curtain’. In the Hamlet performed the following evening—where Coppin gave his Polonius—Younge surrendered Laertes to Mr Chapman and, instead, assumed the less demanding role of the Ghost. My suspicion is that it was at this point, he assumed the greater responsibility as the Stage Manager for the company, and in order to provide him sufficient time to prepare the texts, the burden of the larger roles were reduced; another new addition to the repertoire, William Tell, was just announced to launch their return season in Melbourne. Meanwhile, the local critic was kinder to Younge, noting that as the Earl of Richmond he was ‘much applauded, and played his part in a masterly manner’.
After nine nights in Geelong, the stock company travelled back to the metropolis and presented the antipodean premiere of William Tell (a translation of the 1804 play by Friedrich Schiller, much curtailed, presumably by Younge; Younge played Michael) on Easter Monday, 9 April, at the Queen’s Theatre.
Coinciding with the company’s return to Melbourne, was the arrival of Coppin’s ‘iron theatre’ by the George Marshall. Press reports suggested that, as the site had been selected (on the southeast corner of Stephen [later Exhibition] and Lonsdale Streets), the building would be ‘erected within a month’.
Also newly disembarked was Robert Heir, reunited with his fiancé Fanny Cathcart after four months’ separation. He made his Melbourne debut, under contract to Brooke, as Icilius (previously Younge’s role, who now played Dentatus) in Virginius on Wednesday 11 April. Heir’s particular fach was juvenile tragedy, ‘a role’, advised The Argus (9 April 1855), ‘which has hitherto had no representative in the colonies’. Presumably this was referring to Heir’s youth: at 23 he was ten years Younge’s junior, and, contractually, replaced him as second gentleman (earning £2 more a week).
But Younge’s preoccupation was now diverted, more gainfully occupied with dramaturgy and logistics rather than his own acting ambitions. Over the next three weeks Younge stage-managed the introduction of additional repertoire: Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (Younge played Antonio) and Romeo and Juliet (Friar Lawrence); Bulwer-Lytton’s Richelieu; or, The Conspiracy (Baradas); and R.B. Sheridan’s adaptation of von Kotzebue’s tragedy Pizarro in Peru; or, The death of Rolla (Pizzaro); there were also revivals of The Lady of Lyons (Beauseant); Richard III (Henry Earl of Richmond) and Macbeth (McDuff); along with The Stranger (Baron Steinfort). Younge staged, but did not appear in Douglas Jerrold’s The Rent Day (1832) and The Honeymoon and the revival of A New Way to Pay Old Debts (Heir taking over as Wellborn). Younge also rehearsed Coppin into a range of roles: Gobbo, Sieur de Beringhen, the First Witch, and Jacques (in The Honeymoon). When he did perform the critic from The Argus appeared to have softened: ‘Mr R. Younge’s Antonio [in Merchant of Venice] was a neat and highly satisfactory performance;’ in Richelieu, ‘he was, on the whole, an excellent Baradas, although we have some objection to his making the villainy of the character so very transparent’; while he only did ‘ample justice to the language and action’ as Pizarro; as Friar Lawrence, a character role for Younge, he ‘spoke the noble language which the author has put into the mouth of the character with correct emphasis and well-ordered judgement’.
The Company attended on site when Brooke laid the foundation stone of Coppin’s New Olympic Theatre on 18 April 1855.
The Melbourne run concluded on Friday 4 May. All up 19 productions were introduced to local audiences over ten weeks; and three other productions (including John Howard Payne’s The Tragedy of Brutus; or, The Fall of Tarquin (1818)) were in active preparation. Throughout the season, The Argus began to acknowledge Younge’s ‘careful attention to details which has so eminently distinguished the preparation of the pieces in which Mr Brooke has appeared’.
Map of Melbourne, 1855, engraved by David Tulloch. State Library Victoria, Melbourne.
Coppin, Younge, Cathcart and Heir, and Brooke’s entourage, travelled together heading north on the steamer City of Sydney on Saturday 5 May. They arrived at Pyrmont Wharves on Tuesday 8 May and were all accommodated at Petty’s Family Hotel.
As was tradition, Othello launched the season at the Royal Victoria Theatre on Thursday 10 May. Younge had Wednesday to get acquainted with Mr Torning’s stock company and venue. For the first time, the commentary in the press alluded to Younge’s credentials and his heritage:
Iago will be represented by Mr Richard Younge, the son of an old and talented member of Drury Lane Theatre; the contemporary of, and fellow-labourer with Edmund Kean, Macready, Charles Young, Charles Kemble, Warde, Wallack, and other distinguished actors of his day. To the son, many old friends of the father will give a cordial greeting.—The Sydney Morning Herald (10 May 1855)
Younge’s performance as Iago was, according to The People’s Advocate (12 May 1855),
Elaborate, definite, and Shakespearean—it formed the dark colouring of the dramatic picture—free from violence and exaggeration—effective and truthful. It was worthy of his talented Sire—further praise we could not give.
Petty’s Hotel, on the corner of York, Clarence and Jamieson Streets, Sydney. State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, PIC/11548/34 LOC PIC Album 42.
The ten-week season Coppin offered Sydney audiences included all of the repertoire seen in Melbourne, each remount now advertised as ‘under the direction of R. Younge’. While he continued to appear is subsidiary roles, his performance as Coliatinus at the premiere of Brutus; or, The Fall of Tarquir was noted:
This admirable actor, it would appear, does not object to the delineation of a minor part. The example he modestly sets, is a good one, and we trust will be a lesson to less talented artistes.—The People’s Advocate (16 June 1855)
Otherwise, as explained by The Sydney Morning Herald (2 June 1855), ‘Mr Younge has been confided the duty of directing the getting up of the plays selected by Mr Brooke, and his long and intimate acquaintance with the details of stage business is fully demonstrated’.
Of the six new works Younge produced for Brooke at the Royal Victoria Theatre, three were Shakespeare. Henry IV Part One was introduced on Tuesday 29 May. Brooke played Hotspur, Heir the Prince of Wales and Younge gave Henry IV. The Australian premiere of King John followed on Monday the following week, with Brooke as Philip the Bastard and Younge—seemingly in his preferred role—as the vain and cruel villain John. Younge staged Brooke’s King Lear on Monday 9 July; Heir played Edgar, Younge gave Edmund. In the final week of the tour, however, most attention was focussed on Coppin’s re-appearance in the farce of the Wandering Minstrels that concluded the program! Indeed, Coppin would appear all week, and took his benefit on the final night of the season on Friday 13 July, with the introduction of The Irish Attorney; or, Galway Practice in 1777. This piece was also staged by Younge, as were the other new repertoire pieces: Thomas Morton’s The Angel in the Attic (1843) (Younge played Michael Magnus) and Black-Eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs (1829), the comic play by Douglas Jerrold (Blue Peter). This brought Younge’s repertoire responsibility up to a total of 26 major plays (not counting the ancillary short farces that complemented the lineup).
There was, however, no escaping the poor results of a season that had mixed critical and poor financial returns. Both the press and audiences in the harbour city appeared frustrated by not only the marketing hype undertaken by Coppin since January, but also the delay in Brooke’s arrival in Sydney. Both attendance and a positive critical response were less than expected. After some heat generated in The Sydney Morning Herald, courtesy of a Letter to the Editor—by one signed ‘Z’—a few weeks into the season, Coppin himself responded:
I attribute the want of enthusiasm on the part of the public, to an unnecessary excitement created before Mr Brooke’s arrival—the general depression of the times, and the great neglect he has received at the hands of the daily journals, who have certainly not done their duty to the public, or to Mr Brooke’s great ‘histrionic fame.’—The Sydney Morning Herald (24 May 1855)
Brooke subsequently ‘declared war against the daily press’. The Herald felt the need to respond ‘that we attribute the popular disaffection towards Mr Brooke, less to the indifference of the Sydney daily press, than to the singularly injudicious course adopted by Mr Torning [and Coppin]; firstly in upholding that gentleman to public ridicule, by the sickening adulatory announcements of, and preparations for, his advent; and secondly, by increasing the prices of admission to the theatre’. (As reported in Bell’s Life in Sydney, 26 May 1855.)
While Brooke’s public appeal was on the wane in Sydney, Younge’s appeared to be on the rise. After The Stranger was advertised for Fanny Cathcart’s benefit, and King Lear for Brooke’s, both in the last week of the season, Bell’s Life in Sydney (7 July 1855) noticed some neglect on Coppin’s part:
Whilst on the subject of benefits, we cannot avoid expressing a hope that Mr Younge will not be forgotten by the public. We have not heard that it is intended for him to have a complimentary night, but it ought to be so, and we trust it will. He labours hard both on the boards and behind the curtain, and we are much indebted to his taste and stage knowledge for the excellent arrangements made at this theatre during Mr Brooke’s engagement.
Someone signing himself ‘Q’ wrote to The Herald (10 July 1855):
… The termination of Mr Brooke’s engagement in Sydney is announced, and with it sundry benefits, among which, however, one does not see the name of Mr Richard Younge. … He unquestionably deserves some public recognition of his arduous services, and a hint to the management should and, it may be hoped, with suffice.
But when the final night came, it was Coppin took his benefit on Friday 13 July, in The Irish Attorney; or, Galway Practice in 1770; Younge was responsible for the production. Following the curtain, Coppin spoke and expressed ‘his self-gratulations at being associated with so distinguished an actor as Mr Brooke; and he adverted in warm terms to the manner in which the cast of the various dramas produced since Mr Brooke’s arrival had been filled by Miss Cathcart, Mr Heir, and above all to Mr R. Younge, under whose able direction all the pieces in which Mr Brooke had appeared were put upon the stage’.
The following day, on Saturday 14 July, Coppin announced a return season for Brooke in Sydney and that he would provide a complimentary benefit for Richard Younge and that ‘with the permission of G.V. Brooke, Fanny Cathcart and Robert Heir would ‘prolong their stay for the express purpose of assisting Mr Young by their talent’. The People’s Advocate appreciated the gesture ‘with feelings of infinite gratification’.
Accompanied by Brooke and his wife, Coppin then embarked the City of Sydney heading south. On the same day, Fanny Cathcart and Robert Heir were married at St James’ Church, Sydney.
Their marriage was made public after Younge’s benefit performance of As You Like It at the Royal Victoria on Monday 16 July. Fittingly, Heir played Orlando, Cathcart gave Rosalind …
Wedding is great Juno’s crown;
O blessed bond of board and bed! …
As You Like It 5.4
Younge played the melancholic Jacques. He was honoured, moreover, when J.G. Griffiths12—a longtime friend and colleague of his father—agreed to make a guest appearance to conclude the program as Jock Howison in the musical comic drama Cramond Brig; or, The Gud Man of Ballangeich. Younge appeared alongside him as ‘the Gud Man’.
On the following evening, Mrs Heir appeared at the theatre to enable a committee of gentlemen to present her with a testimonial (in the form of a handsome diamond ring). Following the presentation, Younge sang a Patriotic Song—that he’d also written—to salute the departure of the British Guards from London for the Crimea.
Richard Younge, with the Heirs, left for Melbourne aboard the Telegraph on Wednesday 18 July. He would have, no doubt, contemplated the headwind of his experience over the previous six months in the antipodes, and inflated by the expectation of the prospects of his new position: Stage Manager at George Coppin’s new iron theatre, The Olympic, due to open on Monday 6 August 1855.
To be continued
Endnotes
1. It was during this season, on 5 August, that Brooke gave his first performance as Iago, to George Bennett’s Othello.
2. Wilton began his career in the military before turning to the theatre where he was highly regarded and known as ‘the Napoleon of agents’ and had a reputation as ‘a most skilful tactician in this peculiar line’. He was an agent for P.T. Barnum, he represented Jenny Lind and General Tom Thumb in England and America; as well as Brooke, Wilton introduced Jacobs the Wizard, the Wallers, Sir William and Lady Don and Barry Sullivan to the Colonies. He died aged 42 at Tattersall’s Hotel in Pitt Street, Sydney—‘in embarrassed circumstances’—a few days before Christmas in 1862. Notwithstanding his disagreement with Brooke, Wilton was much respected, ‘not alone for his genuine good humour and good feeling, but for his scrupulous attention and fidelity to all engagements into which he entered’. (Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December 1862, p.13)
3. Coppin played Barnardo and Osric.
4. The season opened with Brooke giving his Richard III, Fanny played Queen Elizabeth; Coppin appeared in The Turnpike Gate, as Crack the Cobbler.
5. Robert James Heir was born in Westmorland, in North West England, the second of four children to labourer/comedian James Heir and his wife Jane, a launderess.
6. Interestingly, The London Weekly Chronicle (16 September 1854) had announced that ‘among the English artists who will visit the United States during the winter are … Miss Cathcart … and Robert Heir’.
7. A copy of the Requisition, including the full list of signatories, was printed in The Times, 12 October 1854.
8. William Robert Copeland (1810–1867), late manager of the Bolton and Ulverstone Theatres, Theatre Royal, Lancaster, and acting manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, arrived in Liverpool, Merseyside in November 1842 to manage the Royal Liver Theatre. His wife performed in the stock company that included Mr and Mrs F. Conway, Mr T. Lee and Mr C. Marshall. Copeland became the sole lessee and manager of the Royal Amphitheatre in November 1843. From 1851 he simultaneously managed Liverpool’s Theatre Royal.
9. Frederick Younge married Emma Jane Corri at St Mark’s, Dublin on 19 December 1852
10. The Royal Park Theatre, in Parliament Street was opened Monday 27 September 1852; the lessee was Mr R. Edgar, of the Wigan and Preston theatres, and the last lessee of the Liver Theatre, Liverpool (on this site). Tragedian Charles Pitt was engaged to inaugurate the venue.
11. Bagot (p.188) gives the date of arrival as 23 February 1855; Brooke himself, writing to his mother, confirms the arrival as Thursday 22 February 1855.
12. Griffiths had been the General Manager of the Royal Victoria from January 1850, until his retirement on 26 June 1854. At this time, however, he was General Manager of the Prince of Wales Theatre, Castlereagh Street, Sydney.
