John Clute at the SF Encyclopedia describes the short play as “almost predictive of H. G. Wells’s 1053 } The Time Machine,” with Eloi-like upper classes and Morlock-like lower classes—but apart from having such future beings, there are no actual time phenomena in the play. However, the play does mention mechanical horses, steam porters, and automata secretaries who, among other things, write notes of condelences and/or congratulations (sometimes mixing them up).
—Michael Main
It is amusing to look at the descriptions of manners as they existed in those times.

Tags

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Variants

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  1. “A Dialogue for the Year 2130: Extracted from the Album of a Modern Sibyl,” as by the author of Granby, in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXX, edited by Frederic Mansel Reynolds (Hurst, Chance, and Co., and R. Jennings, late 1829) [We know of no performance of this short play.].
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Thomas Henry Lister as by the author of Granby

Indexer Notes

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  1. Debut Release—The ISFDB reports that the first publication was a “1928 Christmas gift annual, pp. 249–64, under the heading (third line, all caps) ‘BY THE AUTHOR OF GRANBY.’” This description is an exact match for the publication of the play in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXX (which the ISFDB also cites), so we assume this is what their note refers to. According to several sources, the Keepsake volumes for each year were published at the end of the year (November or December) prior to the cover date, so we have listed this MDCCCXXX volume with a publication date of late 1829. See, for example, see the 1829 bibliography of Mary Shelley at [https://books.google.com/books?id=8Zr6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT73&lpg=PT73&dq=review+of+The+Keepsake+for+MDCCCXXX+%22The+Mourner%22&source=bl&ots=b_fcNYbIwR&sig=ACfU3U1RGUCNfg_VYrrKc2vgEG-CWMxOBQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiF2t7PrNbxAhXH-J4KHSZWC8sQ6AEwA3oECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=review%20of%20The%20Keepsake%20for%20MDCCCXXX%20%22The%20Mourner%22&f=false].