Gather ye, to meet The Dickens Girl, here to tell you about cosplay performances, 1906-style.

Arabella Allen, also known as The Dickens Girl, talks here in the July 1906 edition of Cassell's Magazine (found hiding on my bookshelf) about her approach to becoming Dickens' finest.

The first mention I can find of her is a citation from L'Universel in 1903; the last is an advertisement for her mid-billing in a show at the Newport Empire in South Wales, in 1908.

"Arabella Allen" is a character from The Pickwick Papers. I wonder who she really was?

Marvels in "Make-Up": Apparently her transformation into the male characters was so convincing, the teenager "adopted the plan of 'making up' on the stage" to prove she was not replaced by a male actor.

The photographs are fantastic, and the costuming is quite something. The descriptions are as Dickensian as the characters; writing and interview is by Joseph F. Heighton (about whom I can, similarly, find precious little, in the moments I spent searching not-too-far).

"Allen" explains that, in discussion with her parents, it was decided she should take on male characters to set herself apart from her music hall peers. Success was "practically stipulated".

"Sometimes I get a little discouraged when an audience does not seem to appreciate a character, in studying which I have probably spent a great deal of time and trouble. But my mother tells me that I must have faith and confidence in myself."

'Twas ever thus, I think.

I always enjoy such detailed glimpses into the ways in which the past was...not such a different country after all. I hope you enjoyed this small thread; please do share; if you know any more about 'The Dickens Girl' I'd love to hear it.