Bill, The.
An Unpublished Pro-Suffragist Play By Lady Randolph Churchill:
Working Typescripts
and Related Material
Preserved By Her Husband
[Churchill, Lady Randolph.] Bill, The by Mrs. George Cornwallis West. [London: Mr. Alfred Wareing, circa 1913].
12 vols., folio typescripts; most 11” x 14” but some slightly smaller; bound in worn grey cardboard; triple-hole punched at the margins (not affecting text); most ribbon-tied at the
margins; some corrections.
Boxed together with:
Programme: Royalty Theatre, Glasgow…Mr. Aldrew Wareing’s Repertory season….Monday, 31st march, 1913, last six nights, Only Matinee—Wednesday, 2nd April, at 2, The Bill. A Comedy in Four Acts, by Mrs. George Cornwallis West (Lady Randolph Churchill).
Folio; one printed sheet folded to make four pages; printed in red and black on heavy cream paper; top edge slightly soiled; creased horizontally previously folded horizontally but flattened out nicely; one small (less than 1”) closed tear to the right edge of the horizontal fold, not affecting the text.
Boxed together with:
Autograph letter signed and Typed letter signed by Lady Churchill, as Mrs. Cornwallis-West, [February?]-April, 1913.
Three working typescripts of Lady Churchill’s important and bold suffrage play, the second of her two plays, both of which starred the renowned Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Each typescript complete in four acts—not three, as were ultimately performed—each act separately bound in paper, punch bound and some string-tied, and two of the three sets with the stamp, “Theatre Royal / The Property of Alfred Wareing / Huddersfield.”
The first set all bear Wareing’s initials in pencil, circled, on the cover, and his copious pencil notes internally as he struck out superfluous text and inserted many stage directions. Each volume of the second set is signed by Lady Churchill with her initials “GCW” [Mrs. George Cornwallis-West]; the cover of Act I bears a note in ink: “First performed at The Royalty Theatre Glasgow on march 26th 1913. Parts of it broadcast in 1942.” Each act includes a handful of line additions and / or changes in her hand, and the first two acts include several related clippings affixed inside the covers. The third set, unstamped and unsigned, simply bears the typescript attribution statement that appears in all the others, as well: “Typed by:—E. & E. Rowan. 53, West Nile Street / Glasgow.”
Together with a program for The Bill, printing a cast of characters, schedule of acts, and announcement for the April 7th performance of The Importance of Being Earnest: A trivial comedy for serious people, by Oscar Wilde. These items take up relatively little space in the program, and are surrounded on all sides, on both interior pages and the lower panel of the second page, with advertisements of local vendors. Though The Bill was advertised as written by “Mrs. George Cornwallis West,” “Lady Randolph Chuchill” appears in parentheses on the program beneath.
Together with two letters from Lady Churchill to Wareing—signed by her as Mrs. G. Cornwallis-West. The first, undated except for “28th—likely February, or March, 1913—sends good luck to the cast, adding, “Don’t let them overact when they get familiar with the words!” The second, dated April 22, 1913, reveals her willingness to promote her own work. After noting that another of her plays has been rejected by the St. James, she discusses other theater personalities and their productions, and returns to her own efforts, in promoting The Bill and other work:
I went to see Mr. Mayer this morning and had a long talk with him. He says that the “Yellow Jacket” is looking up, and he thinks he probably will be able to go on with it, but it may only be just a spurt. He is making every effort for it, advertising, etc. My own opinion is that it will get better instead of worse, I see that Norman McKinnel is going to do “Strife” at the Comedy. I shall be very interested to see how that goes and whe
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