Author: Goodhall, James
Biography:
GOODHALL, James (fl 1754-72)
Although Goodhall is not a common name, this author has not been identified with any certainty. His only other known publication is Florazene: or, The Fatal Conquest which was printed in Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1754. In that book the author’s address to his readers states that he was nineteen when he began writing the play. It is possible he was the James Goodhall baptised in Tinwell, Rutland, on 28 July 1729. If so, he was the son of William Goodhall, Esq., and his wife Susannah. Goodhall’s adaptation of King Richard II was published in Manchester. The preface calls the author “a Stranger to the World of Letters” and describes how the play was offered to David Garrick (q.v.) who rejected it on the grounds that only Shakespeare’s original should be performed. Goodhall contends that his revisions address the play’s acknowledged flaws; he also omits the onstage depiction of the king’s death, deeming it unsuitable for a more refined audience. Changes to the play are marked typographically in the text. A James Goodhall died in Rochdale, Lancashire, and was buried at St. Chad’s, Rochdale, on 3 Jan. 1773; possibly this was him. (ancestry.co.uk 7 Oct. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 7 Oct. 2024; Charles R. Forker, Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition. Richard II [1998])