University of Virginia Library

New Evidence on the Provenance of The Padua Prompt-Books of Shakespeare's Macbeth, Measure for Measure, and Winter's Tale
by
G. Blakemore Evans

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.

Notes