Manuscript, in a single hand, of a promptbook of Macbeth, written in an interleaved copy of a printed edition of the play. The handwritten notes provide stage directions; scene descriptions; and sound and lighting directions; as well as directions for unnamed characters. The notes also provide explanations for dramatic choices, such as the comment concerning Banquo's murderers, "These are disbanded officers & must therefore be represented as gentlemen not common cutthroats." Occasionally the writer has drawn diagrams of actors' positions or images of scenery; and at the end of the volume, he provides several detailed directions for combat sequences, including one for the final fight between Macbeth and Macduff, involving shoulder blows, leg blows, head blows, groans, and lunges.
Description:
Binding: machine-grain morocco. Pasted on front cover: a printed ticket which reads "Mr. Chas. Pitt Theatre Royal Sheffield. Machbeth." and On flyleaf: engraving of a scene from Macbeth.
Subject (Name):
Macbeth,--King of Scotland, 11th cent.--Drama, Pitt, Charles Dibdin, Shakespeare, William,--1564-1616.--Macbeth, Shakespeare, William,--1564-1616--Dramatic production--History, and Shakespeare, William,--1564-1616--Stage history--Sources
Subject (Topic):
English drama--17th century, Promptbooks, Stage fighting, Theater--Production and direction--United States, and Theater--United States--19th century
BEIN Zm Sh13 Copy 2: With frontispieces (portraits) and 37 engraved plates. and v. 1. The tempest ; Two gentlemen of Verona ; Midsummer-night's dream ; Merry wives of Windsor ; Twelfth-night -- v. 2. Much ado about nothing ; Measure for measure ; Love's labour's lost ; Merchant of Venice -- v. 3. As you like it ; All's well that ends well ; Taming of the shrew ; Winter's tale -- v. 4. Comedy of errors ; Macbeth ; King John ; King Richard II ; King Henry IV, pt. I -- v. 5. King Henry IV, pt. II ; King Henry V ; King Henry VI, pt. I-II -- v. 6. King Henry VI, pt. III ; King Richard III ; King Henry VIII ; Troilus and Cressida -- v. 7. Timon of Athens ; Coriolanus ; Julius Cæsar ; Antony and Cleopatra -- v. 8. Cymbeline ; Titus Andronicus ; Pericles, prince of Tyre ; King Lear -- v. 9. Romeo and Juliet ; Hamlet, prince of Denmark ; Othello, the moor of Venice ; Glossary.
