[ London Times ]
This newspaper, most correctly known simply as The Times, began publication in 1785 and continues to this day.
The May 6, 1826 edition of The Times carried the following brief review of a stage adaptation of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe's famous 1719 novel. As is mentioned here at The Cultured Newf in regards to an 1803 play entitled The Caravan, which featured a Newfoundland jumping into water on stage to rescue a child, the popularity of that play, and especially of the dog, led to the frequent inclusion of dogs in other dramatic works on the British stage as well. In this particular case, we learn that the play of Robinson Crusoe had been adapted specifically to include a Newfoundland dog (which, probably needless to say, did not exist in the original novel).
COVENT-GARDEN THEATER
The melodrama of Robinson Crusoe was revived here last night for the gratification of the holyday folks. It has undergone no changes since its last appearance, excepting the introduction of some good scenery by Grieve, and the addition of a very meritorious Newfoundland dog to the dramatis personae. The only fault that we have to allege against the drama is, that it bears too little resemblance to the novel, and the latter holds so sacred a place in one's recollection, that any deviation from it looks like a heresy. The parts were all very creditably filled. Mr. Farley, the chief end of whose being seems to be that he should act the heroes of melodrama, was perfectly at home in his old accustomed goatskins. The younger Grimaldi did Friday almost as well as his father could; and the Newfoundland dog barked and acted in a way that might make many a Christian player blush and wish himself a dog. The underlings indulged to the utmost in the priviledge which the holydays and their parts gave them, of discharging their small arms, and after a running fire had been kept up through every scene, the catastrophe was brought about (for the peculiar amusement of the lovers of noise and smoke) by a broadside from the ship, which was so cleverly directed as to blow away rocks and forests and make a clearance to the very shore! It is not, perhaps, the most intellectual exhibition that was ever beheld; but after seeing Julius Caesar, with Mr. Warde as Brutus, and Mr. Cooper as Cassius, there is marvellous comfort in a melodrama which contains nothing more offensive and tiresome than negroes and gunpowder.