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The Devil to Pay (1732) - Charles Coffey
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Background
The Devil to Pay is an adaptation of Thomas Jevon’s play The Devil of a Wife (1686). Nearly fifty years later, the ballad opera appeared at Drury Lane with Charles Coffey and John Mottley each responsible for half of the three acts. However, a much shorter and more well-received one-act version, edited by Theophilus Cibber, is represented in the printed libretto.
Today Coffey is generally the only name widely attached to The Devil to Pay. The opera’s popularity is attested by the frequent performances and a translation into German, which contributed to the development of the Singspiel.
Bibliography
Title from title page: THE / DEVIL to PAY; / OR, THE / WIVES Metamorphos’d. / AN / OPERA.
Genre: Ballad opera
Composer: Charles Coffey, d. 1745
Librettists: Charles Coffey and John Mottley
Libretto based on: Thomas Jevon’s play The Devil of a Wife (1686)
Premiere: London, Drury Lane, 6 August 1731
Print in the UNT Collection: London: J. Watts, 1732
For further reading on The Devil to Pay, see:
Fiske, Roger. “Coffey, Charles.” Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy. [Accessed 11 May 2004]. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
________. English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
Hughes, Leo and A. H. Scouten, ed. Ten English Farces. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1948.
Physical
Dimensions: 19.5 x 12 cm.
Conservation: Foxing; cockling; bleed-through and some bleed-across; some pencil marks.
Binding: Marble paper on board with dark brown leather binding that reads "Coffey - The Devil to Pay - 1732."
Comments: North Texas property stamps; dealers plate with historical information regarding opera pasted inside front cover.