‘The North-west Passage, or voyage finished’: a polar play and musical entertainment
Among the collections of the Scott Polar Research Institute is the manuscript of the New Georgia Gazette , a newspaper completed on board ship during William Edward Parry's first expedition in search of a North-west Passage, 1819–20. The expedition stimulated much interest at home partly for it...
| Published in: | Polar Record |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1982
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400004484 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400004484 |
| Summary: | Among the collections of the Scott Polar Research Institute is the manuscript of the New Georgia Gazette , a newspaper completed on board ship during William Edward Parry's first expedition in search of a North-west Passage, 1819–20. The expedition stimulated much interest at home partly for its achievement in discovering half of the North-west Passage, and for its novelty as the first expedition deliberately to spend a winter in high Arctic latitudes. It is thus no great surprise that, after the expedition's return home, a printed version of the Gazette was published, for it provides a vivid insight into life on board ship during that unprecedented Arctic winter. However, at the back of the original manuscript of the newspaper is a play written during the expedition under the title, The North-west Passage, or voyage finished , which was not included in the publication. The reason for its exclusion is not given, but it cannot have been due entirely to the dissatisfaction of Parry, who was happy enough to refer to it in his narrative of the expedition (Parry, 1824, p 127), or to its lack of success, since it was most favourably reviewed at the time of its performance. Nor was the play ever entirely forgotten. In Jules Verne's novel, Les aventures du Capitaine Halteras (1861, part 2, p 426) Dr Clawbonny comments ‘Parry composa lui-meme pour les fetes de Noel une comedie tout a fait en situation; elle eut un immense succes et était intitulee Le Passage du Nord-Ouest ou la Fin du Voyag’ . Paul-Emile Victor (1968, p 223) also mentions the play's existence, but it was only very recently that this full text of the play was rediscovered at the back of the original Gazette. The manuscript of the play is neatly handwritten in an unknown hand and occupies 19 pages measuring about 20×32 cm. |
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