Islamic India Restored: El Hyder and Tippoo Saib at the Royal Coburg Theatre

Seven days after Aldridge’s second (and final) Coburg performance in Amherst’s The Death of Christophe, King of Hayti (1821), the theatre programmed William Barrymore’s drama of Indian patriotism, El Hyder, or, The Chief of the Ghaut Mountains (1818). ¹ El Hyder, together with H. M. Milner’s Tippoo Saib; Or, The Storming of Seringapatam (1823), contextualizes the Royal Coburg’s commitment to exploring issues concerning Britain’s gradually extending empire. Whereas The Death of Christophe was an example of a drama popular both in terms of its performance longevity and the ‘Go it Jerry!’ songs it spawned, it failed to engage with the longer term implications of developments in the Caribbean region – although it had the beneficial effect of providing an effective training vehicle for Ira Aldridge.