University of Virginia Library

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 ye Thund[er]" written in at Placidus' statement, "Remember you oblige an Emperour." Four lines further down appears "After ye Thunder ca[ll] for ye 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 ???? ye]/Black & sett up ye 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