The Lottery (play)

After Fielding returned to work for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he wrote The Lottery. It was a companion piece, in the form of ballad opera, that first ran on 1 January 1732 alongside of Addison's Cato. The piece contained 19 songs and was a collaboration with "Mr Seedo", a musician. It is uncertain as to when Seedo first started working with Fielding, but he may have started with Fielding during 1730 at the Little Haymarket theatre. The play was successful and was performed 15 times during January. Fielding altered the play on 1 February 1732 by removing four songs and adding seven midway through the play. The revised form ran for 14 more nights during that season and was put on each year until 1740 and occasionally thereafter until 1783. The play was published 7 January 1732 by Watts. ==Cast==

Cast of characters: • Lovemore – Charles Stoppelar • Chloe – played by Kitty Clive • Jack Stocks – played by Theophilus Cibber • Ticket Renter – played by John Harper ==Plot==

Fielding's prologue begins with his definition of various genres and his understanding of "Farce", even though many of his works are more ballad opera than actual farce: :As Tragedy prescribes to Passion Rules, :So Comedy delights to punish Fools; :And while at nobler Game she boldly flies, :Farce challenges the Vulgar as her Prize. :Some Follies scarce perceptible appear :In that just Glass, which shews you as you are. :But Farce still claims a magnifying Right, :To raise the Object larger to the Sight, :And shew her Insect Fools in stronger Light. Lovemore loves a girl named Chloe. Instead of accepting him as a suitor, Chloe travels into London with the hope that she will win a 10,000 pound lottery prize. She convinces herself so much of this fate that she begins to boast of having a fortune already. Jack Stocks, a man wanting that fortune, takes on the identity of Lord Lace and seeks her in marriage. It is revealed that the ticket was not a winner. Lovemore, a man who has romantically pursued her through the play, offers Stocks 1,000 pounds for Chloe's hand, and the deal is made. In the revised edition of the play, more characters are added who desire to win the lottery and there is a stronger connection made between Chloe and Lovemore. The revised version ends with Jack, her husband at the time, being paid off to no longer have claim to Chloe as his wife even though everyone knows that she did not win. ==Themes==

The Lottery pokes fun at the excitement surrounding the lottery held during the fall of 1731. In particular, Fielding mocks both those who sell or rent tickets and those who purchase the tickets. Fielding expects that his audience understands how the lottery operated and focused on how gambling cannot benefit gamblers. This was not the only time Fielding relies on the lottery system; he also includes ticket vendors in his play Miss Lucy in Town and in his novel Tom Jones. ==Sources==

The play was a success and earned Fielding a great deal of money. F. Homes Dudden believed that "The Lottery, with its well-drawn leading character, its clever little songs, and its humorous yet biting criticism of lottery abuses, scored an immediate success, and, indeed, for many years continued to be a favourite with the public." Edgar Roberts emphasises the importance of The Lottery as the play that "set the pattern for his ballad operas during the next three years at Drury Lane: happy, lightly satirical, and for the most part nonpolitical." Robert Hume believes that the play was a "rollicking little ballad" and that the revised version "is a major improvement". ==Notes==