In the General Introduction to volume one of Shakespearean
Prompt-Books of the Seventeenth Century (1960) I suggested a
connection between the so-called Padua prompt-books of
Macbeth, Measure for Measure, and The
Winter's Tale and Sir Edward Dering's group of amateur actors who
are known to have taken part in a performance of Fletcher's Spanish
Curate between 1622 and 1624.[1] Evidence now appears which
makes the
Dering provenience questionable, though still not impossible. This evidence
is furnished by a prompt-book of Shirley's Love's Cruelty
that employs a copy of the quarto of that play published in 1640.
[2]
An examination of the Love's Cruelty prompt-book
shows
beyond question that the same prompter-reviser is at work as in the Padua
Macbeth and Measure for Measure. The
handwriting
is the same and the principal distinguishing characteristics noted for the two
Padua prompt-books are present: no indication of scene settings;
non-anticipative calls; indication of the act break; short horizontal line to
mark exact point of entry; promptcalls enclosed between horizontal
lines.[3] There is also a further link
offered by actors' initials. On sig. E1 the role of the Juggler is assigned to
'T [S]' (cf. Macbeth, IV.ii.139, where 'T S' plays the
Doctor),[4] and on sig.
F1v the
role of the Servant is assigned to 'Mr H' (cf.
Macbeth,
IV.ii.64, where 'Mr H[e]wit'[5]
plays the part of a Messenger).[6]
Moreover, the same kind of
imperative warning notation ('Bee [ready] / Duke [?Eubella] / Seb:
[?Court]') appears on sig. I2 as that found twice in the Padua
Measure
for Measure (IV.iii. and V.i.259).
The comparatively late date, 1640 or after, of the Love's
Cruelty prompt-book makes association with a group of amateur
actors performing in the early 1620's difficult to accept. If we add to this
discrepancy the professional appearance of both the Padua and Shirley
prompt-books, an aspect of the problem to which I called attention in my
earlier discussion of the Padua prompt-books,[7] it would seem that some other
more likely
provenience should be sought.
A survey of what may be called the proprietary rights in the four
plays yields nothing helpful. Macbeth and Measure for
Measure do not appear in the lists of plays belonging to a particular
company after 1623, although both must at one time have been considered
the property of the King's Men. The Winter's Tale, on the
other hand, was still in their performing repertory as late as 1633/4, when
it was revived for Court performance by that company. Love's
Cruelty, originally the property of Queen Henrietta's company, was
specially assigned in 1639 to the King and Queen's Young Company.[8] Obviously no suggestive pattern
emerges
here, and, in any case, it is unlikely that proprietary companies would have
used marked printed copies when they presumably had possession of the
original manuscript prompt-book.
Internal evidence of provenience in the four prompt-books is slight.
It consists of two names and several initials: 'Mr Carlile'
and 'Mr
Carl,' 'Mr H[e]wit' (presumably the same as
'Mr H' in
Love's Cruelty), 'Mr K,'
'Mr G,' 'E H,' and 'T S.'
It may be recalled that the Dering group satisfied three of these (John
Carlile, Thomas Slender, and Mr. Kemp) and that a 'Hugett' was among
Dering's acquaintances.[9]
Unfortunately, an examination of the pre-Restoration records[10] for professional companies or
professional
actors yields nothing which satisfies the evidence as well. The possible
candidates for the roles of 'Mr K' and
'Mr G' are, of course, far
too numerous to be individually helpful, but it may perhaps be significant
that the records of the Prince Charles's company in the 1630's reveal an
Andrew Cane (often spelled Kane), a Henry Gradwell, and a Robert Huyt
(a possible spelling of
Hewit) and that there was an Ezechiall Heath, who is described as "a boy
of Andrew Keynes."[11] Since Heath,
alas, died in October of 1639, he can have had no connection with the
production of the post-1640 Love's Cruelty, although he may
still be considered a shadowy possibility for the 'E H' who played a Servant
in the Padua Macbeth. That an actor of Cane's or Gradwell's
seniority should be assigned to such comparatively small roles need raise
no problem. Doubling was common, particularly on provincial tours, and
anyone not immediately concerned at that point in the play with a major
role could be called on to fill in. Hence, one may infer, comes the practice
of indicating the actor playing the bitpart
— an attempt to keep the prompter informed as to who should be
called
for what was otherwise a nameless and characterless role.
This group of three (or four?) Prince Charles's men exhausts, so far
as I can determine, any possibly significant association of names —
the
Dering group excluded. It is pointless to pursue 'Mr K'
and 'Mr
G' further. Apart from the somewhat prematurely defunct Heath, the only
other known actor with the initials 'E H' was Edward Horton, a boy actor
associated with the King's company in 1629-30. Nothing is known of his
later career.[12] For the initials 'T S'
three actors may be mentioned: Thomas Swinnerton, Thomas Sands, and
Thomas Seabrook. The consistent omission of 'Mr' before
'T S' in
both Macbeth and Love's Cruelty would seem
to
exclude Thomas Swinnerton, a senior actor and leader of a provincial
company from 1616.[13] Of Thomas
Seabrook nothing is known, except that he had some connection with the
shadowy Lady Elizabeth's company of 1628.[14] Thomas Sands, however,
appears to have been a boy actor as late as 1635 and may, perhaps, be
considered a more likely candidate for 'T S.'[15] The most apparently promising
name,
'Mr Carlile' or 'Mr Carl,' yields nothing,
apart from the Dering
group and a Thomas Carlile who appeared in an amateur production of
Peter Hausted's Rival Friends given by Queens College,
Cambridge in 1631/2.[16] No
professional actor of that name is known before the Restoration, and the
James Carlile, who finished his apprenticeship in 1682, is much too late,
in my view, to be associated with these prompt-books.[17]
It must be clear by now, I think, that any alternative to the Dering
provenience must remain, lacking new evidence, a matter of guesswork. As
such an alternative I suggest that these four prompt-books belonged to some
kind of splinter group touring in the provinces or abroad shortly before the
closing of the theatres in 1642 or during the interregnum.
