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Lecture 19: Repton in a Flap (ENGL 333)
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Lecture 19: Repton in a Flap (ENGL 333)
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Lecture 19: Repton in a FlapMarch 3rd, 2023
Culture
This is a culture which deeply involves singing and printing.
● Martin Luther creates the protestant reformation (used the printed book) – the Catholic
Church maintained control of the Bible (because it was hand-printed)
○ Printing allowed for more Bibles which undermined the Catholic Church (which
allowed for the democratization of the Church)
History of the movable book is so marginalized that we need to look at Garden blogs.
Repton
Humphry Repton (1752-1818) is famous for his so-called “red books,” which were proposal for
landscaping projects that Repton prepared for his client based on watercololur sketches that he
did of the estate.
● These sketches used flaps (or “slides,” as Repton called them) to demonstrate the
“before” and “after”
Repton began by painting the view of a site as he envisaged it after his proposed improvements,
then, on a separate sheet, painted its present state, cutting this second painting into a shape just
big enough to hide the improvements when overlaid on the first.
● The second sheet was then glued to the side of the painting and folded carefully to form a
moveable flap.
● When flat, it blended in with the rest of the background in the first painting, but when
lifted the benefits of Repton’s suggestions became abundantly clear.
● Sometimes if the “improvements” suggested were substantial there might even be two
flaps to lift, one on either side of the painting.
Theatre
The transformation of a dull “today” to a potentially exciting “tomorrow” simply by lifting a
paper flap was seen not just as a good sales technique but on a par with the lifting of a curtain on
stage to reveal a new scene.
● Repton’s old friend, William Marshal, wrote that his red books turned “rural
improvement” into “rural pantomime”
● We might take that asx a bit of an insult: after all, pantomime is comic, a childish and
rather silly sort of Christmas show.
● It didn’t have the same connotations in the 18th century, and was a much more adult form
of entertainment.
Pantomime developed from Commedia dell’arte, a kind of itinerant street theatre originating in
Italy in the 16th century.
● Popularized in Britain in the early 18th century by an actor/impresario named John.
● Rich, who introduced it to the London stage, made the figure of Harlequin the star.
○ Harlequin was a light-hearted, imaginative, well-informed but artful servant, who
often suggested, influenced, or sometimes thwarted the plans of his master.
London had a virtual monopoly of theatre until the mid-eighteenth century.
● During Repton’s lifetime, its reach and influence spread widely, with theatres being built
in towns and cities all across Britain.
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