''A Woman's Revenge, or a Match in Newgate'' is a 1715

comedy play Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy endin ...

by the British writer

Christopher Bullock Sir Christopher Llewellyn Bullock, KCB, CBE (10 November 1891 – 16 May 1972), a prominent member of the Bullock family, was Permanent Under-Secretary at the British Air Ministry from 1931 to 1936. Appointed at the age of 38, he remains one o ...

. It was originally performed as an

afterpiece An afterpiece is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction, the full-length play, and concluding the theatrical evening.p24 "The Chambers Dictionary"Edinburgh, Chambers,2003 This short comedy, farce, o ...

to another work '' The Lucky Prodigal''. With its

Newgate Prison Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, t ...

setting and cynical references to corruption, it could be regarded as a precursor to

John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peac ...

's hit ''

The Beggar's Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satiri ...

'' of a decade later.Fisher p.143 The cast included William Bullock as Thinkwell,

John Thurmond John Thurmond (died 1727) was a British stage actor. To distinguish him from his son, also an actor named John, he is sometimes called John Thurmond the Elder. His earliest known stage performance was in 1695, when he played in '' Cyrus the Grea ...

as Bevil, Christopher Bullock as Vizard and

Sarah Thurmond Sarah Thurmond or Sarah Lewis ( – 1762) was a British actress. Life Sarah Lewis was born in Epsom although the date is unknown. Her first appearances were at Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields at the end of 1711 in Greenwich where she met J ...

as Corinna. George, Prince of Wales attended the first performance.

References

Bibliography

* Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1992. * Fisher, Tony. ''Theatre and Governance in Britain, 1500–1900''. Cambridge University Press, 2017. * Nicoll, Allardyce. ''A History of Early Eighteenth Century Drama: 1700-1750''. CUP Archive, 1927. 1715 plays Plays by Christopher Bullock West End plays Comedy plays {{18thC-play-stub