James Love (1721–1774) was thepseudonym of British poet, playwright and actorJames Dance. He is best known for his poemCricket: An Heroic Poem (1744).
Son ofGeorge Dance the Elder, who worked as an architect and city surveyor, Love was himself a cricketer, being a member ofRichmond Cricket Club. Richmond was a leading club in the 1740s and Love may have representedSurrey too. However, no details have survived of his playing career.[1]
He was also likely the founder of theTheatre Royal inRichmond upon Thames, which he managed from 1766 to 1773. In 1763, atDrury Lane in London, he played the role ofFalstaff, for which he became best known as an actor, his authorial pseudonym serving also as his stage name. In 1766 he played his signature role in a new play,William Kenrick'sFalstaff's Wedding, intended as a sequel toHenry IV, Part 2. He performed, too, in bothDublin andEdinburgh, of which he was a sometime manager. Invited toTheatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1762, he retained a connection to it for the rest of his life.
As a writer, Love met success with such Rome-inspired Pantomimes asThe Witches; or, Harlequin Cherokee (1762),The Rites of Hecate; or, Harlequin from the Moon (1763) andThe Hermit; or, Harlequin at Rhodes (1766), in addition toCricket. His earliest work wasPamela (1742).
He is famous within sporting circles for hisCricket: An Heroic Poem (1744), whose line "The strokes re-echo o'er the spacious ground" has been quoted in theOxford English Dictionary. Its subtitle reads thus: "Illustrated with the Critical Observations of Scriblerus Maximus. To which is Added an Epilogue, call'd 'Bucks Have at Ye All'. Spoken by Mr. King, at theTheatre Royal in Dublin, in the Character of Ranger, inThe Suspicious Husband."
On 4 July 1745, theDaily Advertiser advertised it at 1/-. A footnote to the publication adds that it was "[p]rinted for W Bickerton at the Gazette in the Temple Exchange near the Inner Temple Gate, Fleet Street."
According to the cricket historianH.S. Altham, the poem "should be in every cricket lover's library" and "his description of the game goes with a rare swing"[2]
Love was also the brother ofGeorge Dance the Younger, who took on the same occupation as his father. It is probable that both the Younger and the Elder helped to construct the Richmond Theatre. According to Dorothy Stroud, "references to the building are vague and two of them, while agreeing as to sponsors, differ as to the name of the designer. A third gives it to [David]Garrick and it is evident that there was a good deal of confusion as to the various participants."[3]
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