Jerrold Reeves as 'Esculapius'

A carte-de-visite portrait of the actor Jerrold Reeves. An inked inscription in the lower margin reads: ‘Mr Reeves as Esculapius.’

Æsclepius is the Greek god of medicine.

Jerrold Reeves played 'Esculapius' at the Lyceum in an extravaganza by F.C. Burnand titled The Olympic Games, or, The Major, The Minor, and the Cock-a-Doodle-Doo.

‘The piece itself is one of the most extravagant of extravaganzas, and abounds in puns, good, bad, and indifferent. […] The songs and choruses, which were numerous, were characterised by considerable humour and burlesque parody. Many of them were encored. The extravaganza was received with the most complete success, if the frequent applause of the audience be taken as a test of that fact’ (Evening Standard, London, 23 April 1867).

‘Mr Jerrold Reeves played a small part, (Aesculapius) with much quaint humour’ (Illustrated Times, 4 May 1867).

‘Mr Reeves infuses considerable character into the personation of Æsculapius’ (The Era, 28 April 1867).

Reeves’s debut the previous year had been noticed by a few reviewers:

‘The very small part of Froth was played with much intelligence and spirit by a young actor called Jerrold Reeves. He played also in […] and really seems to promise well’ (Lady’s Own Paper, 1 December 1866).

‘A new and rather humourous [sic] member of the company [at the Olympic] is Mr Jerrold Reeves, who plays a sergeant’ (Illustrated Sporting News and Theatrical and Musical Review, 6 October 1866).

I can find no mention of him in a newspaper after 1867. It seems that Esculapius was his final role. Nor can I find any mention of him in any official record (censuses, births, deaths, marriages, wills) so I presume that ‘Jerrold Reeves’ was his stage name. Possibly he was a ‘Gerald’ who decided to spell his name differently in order to make it more memorable.

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.