Persuasions #12, 1990 Pages 67-68
The Theatre in Southampton MARY BELLE SWINGLE Laguna Beach, CA The façade of the theatre in Southampton appears in a print entitled
SOUTHAMPTON, published in London by T. Woodfall, Villiers Street, Strand and
dated February 1, 1805.1
This is the theatre as it looked when Jane Austen, her sister and
mother, and Martha Lloyd lived in that city from 1806 to 1809. The theatre was not far from the Austens’ home
in Cattle Square and was, in turn, not far from the historic quay where Henry
the Fifth’s army left for Agincourt and the Pilgrims sailed in the Mayflower.2 The scale of the theatre’s façade may be
gauged by the five figures the artist has drawn in the street scene, among them
two gentlemen greeting one another and, perhaps to show that this was a city on
the sea, a woman holding a basket with lobsters for sale. In a letter from Castle Square dated November
21, [1808], Jane wrote to Cassandra at Godmersham Park:3 Our
brother4 we may perhaps see in the course of a few days – & we
mean to take the opportunity of his help, to go one night to the play. Martha ought to see the inside of the
Theatre once while she lives in Southampton …. Then follow the telling words: “& I think she
will hardly wish to take a second veiw.”
There is no reference to the theatre’s exterior and the modest façade
may not have been considered worthy of a comment or a “second veiw.” But it may be inferred from the words “ought
to see the inside” [italics added] that the Southampton theatre, seen
from the street as in this print, was familiar to Jane Austen, her family, and
friends. NOTES 1 [James
Winston]. Theatrical Tourist, A
Collection of Views with Historical Accounts of the Principal Provincial
Theatres … By a Theatrical Amateur.
London, 1805. 2 Anne-Marie Edwards. In the Footsteps of Jane Austen. Second edition. Southampton, 1985. 3 Jane
Austen. Letters to her Sister Cassandra
and Others, ed. by R.W. Chapman.
Second edition. London, 1952. 4 Ibid., notes to page 233. Chapman says the brother was probably James. |