[ John Baldwin Buckstone, actor and playwright? ] Set of manuscript parts for an adaptation of Bulwer-Lytton's 'The Last Days of Pompeii', fifteen of them carrying the name of the actor or actress.

A total of 97pp., mostly 4to, with a further four slips. Around thirty separate parts, unbound. Written in at least two hands. In fair condition, with light signs of age and wear. Fifteen of the parts (mostly from the first act) carry the name of the actor or actress at the head: 'Mr Bland', 'Mr Jonas', 'Mr. Gray', 'Mr Howard', 'Miss Barratt', 'Mr Webster', 'Mrs Baker', 'Mr Bedford', 'Mr. Lynne', 'Mr F. Lloyd', 'Mr Hailes', 'Mrs Ridgway', 'Mr Ridgway', 'Mr Hailes', 'Mr. P. C'. Bulwer-Lytton's book was published in 1834, and was an enormous success. Buckstone's musical drama based on the book was performed at the Adelphi in December 1834; and an adaptation by Edward Fitzball at the Royal Victoria in 1835. Nicholas Daly, in 'The Demographic Imagination and the Nineteenth-Century City' (CUP, 2015), states that 'the manuscript of Buckstone's play is not in the Lord Chamberlain's collection in the British Library: either it was never licensed or the copy submitted for license was lost'. A number of the actors named were at the Adelphi at the time, and the watermarked dates on some of the paper may suggest that the material in this collection is related to a revival, possibly with a changed ending.