Elizabeth Polack

Elizabeth Polack was an English playwright of the 1830s, notable for having been described by chroniclers of the period as England's first Jewish woman melodramatist.

Life and works

Few historical records survive which detail Elizabeth Polack's life. Although neither the year nor place of her birth (or death) have been noted, documentation of her activity as a playwright active in London between 1830 and 1838 remains for posterity. Contemporary records credit her with five plays, only two of which, Esther, the Royal Jewess; or The Death of Haman and St. Clair of the Isles; or The Outlaw of Barra, have survived. Alberti, or, the Mines of India was performed at the Royal Pavilion on 10 May 1834 and then believed to be by Polack.[1] Esther, with a story taken from the Old Testament, a version of the tradtitonal Jewish Purimshpil and considered in its time to be a type of an "Exotic East" melodrama, was successfully produced in 1835 at London's Royal Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel in the East End[2] (the Pavilion was later a centre for Yiddish theatre in London).[3] St. Clair (1838), based on an 1803 novel by Elizabeth Helme, met, however, with a very modest reception. It is apparently the source of the melodramatic cliché, "Foiled again!".[2]

Polack's aunt, Maria Polack, was one of the first Jewish women writers in England.[4] Polack may have been a relation of Joel Samuel Polack, the first Jewish settler of New Zealand. Joel's biographer writes that he lived with his sister in Piccadilly when he first returned to England; that sister may have been Elizabeth.[5]

Plays by Elizabeth Polack
  • Alberti; or The Mines of India (no copy known to exist)[6]
  • Angeline; or The Golden Chain (no copy known to exist)
  • Woman's Revenge (1832; attributed by some sources to John Howard Payne)
  • Esther, the Royal Jewess; or The Death of Haman (1835)
  • St. Clair of the Isles; or The Outlaw of Barra (1838)

References
  1. "Royal Pavilion Theatre". Morning Advertiser. 12 May 1834. p. 3.
  2. Conway (2012), p. 104
  3. "We Understand". Waterford Chronicle. 26 December 1835. p. 3.
  4. Hartley, Lucy; Batchelor, Jennie (2018). The History of British Women's Writing, 1830–1880. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-137-58465-6.
  5. Franceschina, John Charles (1997). Sisters of Gore: seven Gothic melodramas by British women, 1790-1843. Taylor & Francis. pp. 227–284. ISBN 9780815317814.
  6. "Royal Pavilion Theatre". Morning Advertiser. 12 May 1834. p. 3.

Sources
  • Conway, David (2012). Jewry in Music. Cambridge: Cambridge UUniversity Press ISBN 9781107015388
  • Franceschina, John. "Introduction to Elizabeth Polack's Esther". British Women Playwrights Around 1800, 11 paragraphs. 15 October 2000.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.