A Prompt Copy of Dryden's Tyrannic Love
Henry Hitch Adams
THE Folger Shakespeare Library has a prompt copy of Dryden's
Tyrannic Love
[1] which is worth recording because it
can throw some light on the theatrical practice and on the
production methods of the King's Company, and possibly on
the manner in which they revived their plays after the
disastrous fire of 1672 had destroyed their stock of
scenery, costumes, and, presumably, acting scripts.
The prompt copy consists of a normal quarto of the second
edition of Tyrannic Love (1672),
and it is my assumption that this particular quarto
represents the prompt book for the King's Company, which
would have had to prepare a new one after the destruction
of their entire properties by the fire on January 25,
1671/2. Dryden had revised this second edition by adding
thirty-nine lines and reviewing the whole.[2] Unless the 1672 edition were chosen
simply because it was most readily available, its use as a
prompt copy may imply that an effort was made by someone
who knew his business to secure the best text. The Folger
quarto has been bound in boards and is generally in good
condition. The lower quarter of leaf A4 has been cut away,
but the Prologue and the Cast of Characters, which appear
on this leaf, are intact. On several pages a few letters,
and on one page a few words, of the manuscript notations
have been cut away by the binder.
Three hands appear in the volume. Hand A, written in ink which
is now brown, is a neat, regular hand of the late
seventeenth or early eighteenth century. It looks
something like the hand of a professional scribe, but the
character of the notations, which are more extensive than
any others in the volume, reveals him to be an educated
man, probably not connected with the theatre. His
notations consist of poetic scraps, both in English and in
Latin, and a few lines and speeches copied from the text.
Hand B, written in a faded brown ink, is immature and
sprawling; apparently the writer was using the book as a
model from which to practice writing. Hand C, written in
ink which is still very black, is an old-fashioned,
seventeenth-century hand, clearly belonging to the
prompter or stage manager. From the markings in Hand C,
the only ones worth recording, we can get a fairly good
notion of how Tyrannic Love was
produced after 1672.
The stage direction of the opening scene is a curious one in
the printed text, for it reads "A Camp
or Pavillion Royal," as though Dryden had left
the actual setting up to the producers. It is clear that
the latter alternative was used, for C's notes specify
that "Staires" and a "Greate Dore" shall be used in this
scene. At the opening appears the manuscript notation "The
Curten drawes & Discovers,"[3] followed by the
stage direction as printed. The play thus opened to a
crowded stage with some representation of a Pavillion
Royal. The impending entry of the army at the line, "And
this way travels, shews some Army near," is heralded by a
"Flourish very short." Albinus' exit at the next line is
"to ye Staires," and his reentry is
marked "Flourish agen" (p. 4 [338]). A Flourish follows at
Charinus' speech, "I am not for a slothful envy born/I'll
do't this day, in dire Visions scorn." Another occurs at
Porphyrius' entry attended, "Flourish agen at ye Greate Dore" (p. 5 [338]).
After the tribute to Porphyrius and the beginning of the
complicated love intrigue, the printed stage direction
calls for a dead march within. This is amended by the
prompter to read "Dead March at Greate Dore," and Albinus'
entry, presumably through the "Greate Dore," is marked by
"Agen Dead March" (p. 6 [340]). The remainder of the act
contains no further entries in Hand C except for the
notation "Call ye Musique" at the
end of the act.
Act II shows no mark of the stage manager's notations except
for the word "Musique," written before the printed
direction "Exit" at the end of the act.
Act III returns to the Pavillion Royal where we have the great
door and the stairs, but again the only notation is
"Musique" at the end of the act.
In Act IV the setting is the Indian Cave. According to C, it
is represented
by "The bl[ack]
Curten,"
[4] and an attempt is
apparently made to bring off some of the mysterious
quality by sound effects, as we find the note "Call y
e Thund[er]" written in at
Placidus' statement, "Remember you oblige an Emperour."
Four lines further down appears "After y
e Thunder ca[ll] for y
e
Song" (p. 29 [360]). The song must be one of those used to
tempt St. Catharine to the ways of love, as at least one
of the three songs is necessary for the plot, but all the
songs have been marked out, together with the rest of the
Elysium scene. The omissions are marked by vertical lines
and by the manuscript note, "The rest is left out." This
notation appears opposite the printed line, "Fram'd all of
purest Atoms of the Air." The scribbled word "Exeunt"
shows that the stage was cleared for some abridged version
of the temptation scene.
[5] At the end of the cut
appears a long entry in Hand C, part of which has fallen
victim to the binder's shears, but which can be
tentatively reconstructed as "Before Placid [enters shut
???? y
e]/Black & sett up y
e State."
[6] What has
happened here is by no means clear. The omitted scene is
one in which St. Catharine is tempted by the infernal
spirits and saved from weakening by her guardian angel.
Yet it is clear from the call for the song, and from
Placidus' line, "How doubtfully these Specters Fate
fortell," which C has marked "Enter Placid," that some
kind of representation of the temptation scene was
presented. It seems likely that it was played against a
drop of some color other than black, which then closed
down for the remainder of the scene in the Indian Cave.
The note to set up the state was, I feel, a direction that
the state was to be prepared behind the black curtain,
during the progress of the remainder of Act IV, in
preparation for Act V.
The scene which has been cut here is, curiously enough, one
about which we know a good deal. The original scene
picture-drop had been the subject of litigation between
the King's Company and one Isaac Fuller, a painter, who
had been commissioned to prepare a scene of "Elysium" for
the original production of Tyrannic
Love in 1669. In final settlement with him,
the company had been forced to pay him the sum of
£335 10s.[7] After the destruction by
fire of the Theatre Royal in Bridges Street on January 25,
1671/2, the King's Company lost almost all their stock of
scenery and costumes, and the company was in shaky
financial condition. In fact, the losses from this fire
eventually caused them to be swallowed up by the Duke's
Company in the so-called Union in 1682. It would seem
highly
likely that, after the fire, the
company would restage a play which had been as popular as
Tyrannic Love,
[8] but it seems equally unlikely that
they would again expend a large sum of money for a scene
which at best was brief on the stage and which could not
conceivably be used for any other play. On this basis, the
probability is strong that the Folger prompt copy
represents the manner of presentation of the play after
the fire, and that it was prepared as a substitute for the
manuscript or original prompt copy which had doubtless
perished in the flames.
[9]
Although Act IV contains no further entries except for the
customary "Musique," Act V has another point of interest.
It opens with the notation "Draw ye
Curten & Sett up ye wheele."
Another note on the same page states, "U ye
Chy Chayre at ye head of ye Stage" (p.
48 [376]). Letters in italics have been crossed out). This
chair is probably for Maximin to occupy during the
execution spectacle. On the death of Valerius, after
Maximin "Spurns the body," according to the printed stage
direction, appears the manuscript notation, "Caryded off"
(p. 59 [387]), a necessary direction, as the scene
immediately opens to disclose the spectacle of Berenice on
the scaffold. In this scene there is one important
manuscript stage-direction which moves the entry of
Valeria up eighteen lines so that she enters on the cue,
"But yet remember me when you are dead." This early entry
has much to recommend it, for it enables Valeria, who is
in love with Porphyrius, to overhear him and Berenice
exchanging their vows of eternal love on the scaffold. At
no other point in the play has Valeria discovered the
identity of her rival for Porphyrius, yet after she has
stabbed herself, she says, thinking she sees Porphyrius,
who has left the stage, "Is Berenice still more fair than I?" Berenice
and Porphyrius have been reassuring each other that they
will meet in Heaven, and if Valeria has not overheard
this, then her desire to "sigh her Soul into her Lover's
Eyes" has less meaning than if it is interpreted as a
desire to be in heaven first to beat Berenice there. This
early entry, then, has considerable textual weight, and is
the last significant notation of C, since the only other
entry of his is "Musique" at the end of the play, but
before the Epilogue.
After the death of Betterton, Tyrannic
Love seems to have been dropped from the
repertory, and the prompt copy may have passed into the
possession of A. This would seem to be the natural line of
descent, as A
was still enough
interested in the play to fill the volume with notes and
poetic comments. At some subsequent time B had access to
the volume and completed the marking.
Although the prompter's notations are not so numerous as we
might wish, two significant changes were made: the cutting
of the Elysium scene, and the early entry of Valeria in
Act V. This copy, then, is of some importance for an
editor or student of this play.
Notes