The Works of John Dryden, Volume XI: Plays: The Conquest of Granada, Part I and Part II; Marriage-à-la-Mode and The Assignation: Or, Love in a Nunnery

The Actors

T H E A C T O R S This page intentionally left blank The Actors 547 We do not know how the plays in this volume were first interpreted on the stages of Bridges Street and Lincoln's Inn Fields. But the survival of cast lists in first editions of the plays can help us to guess, however unreliably , at aspects of early interpretations. Something, indeed, can be gleaned from comparing the roles assigned to players in each of the three new dramas by Dryden in the seasons of 1670-1673. The Company Beeston, George1 Bell, Richard 2 Boutell, Elizabeth Burt, Nicholas Cartwright, William Cox, Elizabeth Eastland, Mrs. Gwyn, Nell Haines, Joseph Harris,William(?)3 Hart, Charles James, Elizabeth Knepp, Elizabeth Kynaston, Edward Littlewood, John Lydall, Edward Marshall, Rebecca Mohun, Michael Powell, Martin Reeves, Anne Slade, Betty Uphill, Susanna Watson, Marmaduke Wintershall, William The Conquest of Granada Ozmyn Duke of Arcos Benzayda Abenamar Halyma Almahide Zulema Almanzor Isabella Boabdelin King Ferdinand Abdalla Lyndaraxa Abdelmelech Gomel Esperanza Hamet Selin Marriage A-la-Mode Melantha Hermogenes Palmyra Palamede Amalthea Leonidas Argaleon Doralice Rhodophil Philotis Beliza Artemis Eubulus Polydamas The Assignation Laura Camillo Mario Violetta Benito Aurelian Sophronia Hippolita Prince Frederick Lucretia Duke of Mantoua Ascanio IHighfill (I, 413-419) corrects Van Lennep in regard to Beeston's first name; it wasGeorge, not William, Jr. 2 Richard Bell, an actor who played secondary roles, was killed in the fire that destroyed the Bridges Street Theatre on 25January 1672. SeeHighfill, I, 1-2. 3 Van Lennep lists a "William (?) Harris" as playing the role of Zulema in 548 The Actors We can see from the table that eight of the twenty-four actors named appeared in all three plays, four appeared in two, and twelve in only one. The Conquest of Granada's cast list names twelve men and six women; the play also calls for messengers, guards, and attendants, as well as the unlisted role of Alabez and the listed but unassigned role of Don Alonzo d'Aguilar. Marriage A-la-Mode and The Assignation both list fourteen roles. Marriage A-la-Mode assigns seven parts to men, seven to women, and there is, additionally, the unlisted role of Straton. The Assignation lists eight parts for men, those of Fabio and Valerio being unassigned, and six parts for women, one of them, Anne Reeves's Ascanio, being a breeches role. The role of Frontona—"Lady Fruiterer"—is unlisted. Certain inferences can be drawn from the statistics alone. The scope of each action—even the genre of each play—is declared by the size of the cast deployed and the ratio of male to female roles. The heroic dimension and military bearing of The Conquest of Granada obviously demand a fuller stage4 and a more masculine one than does the romantic intimacy of Marriage A-la-Mode, whose comic poise requires that almost every Jack shall have his Jill or, at least, that the stage should offer a picture of sexual balance . Evidently, however, all three of these plays were designed for the size of the company that produced them,5 and although there were surely walk-on parts and crowd scenes in the ceremonies and encounters of The Conquest of Granada and in the nocturnal Roman carnivalof The Assignation , there is no evidence of the doubling of important roles which had been a feature of and a necessity for Shakespeare's company. Nevertheless, Shakespeare's playhouse shares with Killigrew's and Dryden's the intimate interrelationships of writing, business, and production as well as the sense that particular roles were conceived with particular performers in mind; moreover, both repertory companies provide systems of cross-references which extend our response to plays beyond their texts and to the craft of acting itself. Before inquiring, however, into possible significances of such combinations as Hart's Almanzor and Palamede, Mohun's Rhodophil and Mantoua, or Boutell's Benzayda and Melantha, we need to recall other specific conditions of Restoration companies which at times possibly, at other times evidently, influenced the creation and distribution of plays and roles. Conquest of Granada. No Harris appears in the King's Company roster for the following 1671-72 season, but a Joseph Harris is listed in the King's Company in the 1673-73 roster. See Van Lcnnep, pp. 174, 177, 186, 198. 4 The grandiose size of cast for heroic drama is satirized in The Rehearsal...