W. T. Moncrieff's 'Farcical Comedy' Sam Weller; or the Pickwickians opened at the Royal Strand Theatre in 1837 in a production directed by William John Hammond (1797–1848)[1] and that ran for 80 performances before touring the provinces.[2] The production was memorable for the Alfred Jingle of John Lee and the Sam Weller of Hammond.[3][4] In the same year a production opened in New York and Philadelphia where it had a good run despite poor reviews.[5]
Dickens complained against this adaptation[2] with Moncrieff defending his plagiarism in a long advertisement on the playbill in which he stated, 'Late experience has enabled him to bring Mr. Pickwick's affairs to a conclusion rather sooner than his gifted biographer has done, if not so satisfactorily as could be wished, at all events quite legally.'[1][6] While Moncrieff had apologised to ‘Boz’ in his notes on the playbill this failed to placate Dickens, who caricatured Moncrieff as the 'literary gentleman' and actor-manager Vincent Crummles in his novel Nicholas Nickleby "who had dramatized in his time two hundred and forty-seven novels, as fast as they had come out – some of them faster than they had come out".[7] Moncrieff's response was to plagiarise Nickleby in another production in 1839.[1]
At least four productions of Pickwick were being performed on the London stage while the novel was still being serialised, with Moncrieff's adaptation described as the most successful.[8] As the title suggests, Moncrieff decided to focus on Sam Weller, the main comic character in the novel, rather than on Samuel Pickwick himself.[9][10][11]
The play had a revival at the New Strand Theatre in May and July 1838 with largely the original cast.[12][13]
The play was adapted in 1850 by Thomas Hailes Lacy as The Pickwickians; or the Peregrinations of Sam Weller as a comic drama in three acts in prose.[8][14]
Original cast
Mr Pickwick (a single gentleman of Fortune, Founder of the Pickwick Club, seeking adventures in pursuit of Knowledge) - Mr A Younge
Augustus Snodgrass, Esq., MPC (corresponding associate of the Pickwick Club) - Mr Melville
Mr Weller, sen. (A long short stage Coachman) - Mr H Hall
Job Trotter (A very dubious character attendant on Mr. Jingle) - Mr Attwood
Master Joseph Dumpling (A Corpulent young Gentleman, addicted to cold pudding and Somnambulism, officiating about the person of Mr. Wardle ) - Mr A Richardson
Mr Stiggins (the Shepherd - fond of Mrs. Weller's Pine-apple Rum-and-Water) - Mr Searle
Honorable Simon Slumkey; Horatio Fizkin, Esq.; Rackstraw, a patent Cabman; Dogsflesh, a Waterman; Canteen, a Suttler; Alleycampain, his man; Two-Good, a Drunken Liberal; Catnach, a Ballad Singer; Allpine, a Match Seller; Roker, a Turnkey; Grammer; and numerous other characters by Messrs Dearlove, Burton, Searle, Chapman, &c. &c. and numerous Supernumeraries engaged for the occasion.[1]
Miss Rachel Wardle - Sister of Mr Wardle - a maiden lady late in her Climacteric, in love with Mr. Alfred Jingle, and Mr. Tupman - Mrs Johnson
Miss Isabella Wardle - Daughter of Mr Wardle, laying siege to the heart of Mr. Winkle - Miss Hammond
Miss Emily Wardle - her Sister, Sympathising with Mr. Snodgrass - Miss Daly
Mrs Bardell - A Widow letting furnished lodgings, having an eye on Mr. Pickwick - Mrs Melville
Mrs Leo Hunter - Looking out for Lions - Miss E Hamilton
Miss Tabby - Proprietress of Dilworth House Establishment for Young Ladies - Mrs H Hall
Mary Summers - Housemaid to Mr. Wardle, keeping company with Mr. Samuel Weller - Miss Petifer
Miss Lucretia Kitchener - Cook to Miss Tabby - Miss Brookes
Mrs Barclay, Landlady of White Horse, Boarders, Visitors, Servants, &c. &c.[16]
Grego, Joseph (ed). 'Pickwick on the Stage', Pictorial Pickwickiana: Charles Dickens and his Illustrators, Vol. II, London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd. (1899), p. 9