Shakespeare and European Heroics

This prompt book, which notes stage movement, sound or light cues, and any cuts or additions to the text, is open to the funeral scene in Julius Caesar, and contains observations by retired comic actor and stage manager Becks in red ink with additional stage directions (marked in black) from an 1883 performance. It was used for an elaborate and long-running production that starred E. L. Davenport as Brutus and Lawrence Barrett as Cassius. Julius Caesar was the most popular and produced of Shakespeare's plays in the 19^th century, probably because it had three major male roles.

Prior to this production of Julius Caesar, Barrett had had an extended engagement at the California Theatre in San Francisco. In 1886 Barrett formed a long-term and profitable partnership with fellow actor Edwin Booth in which they toured the nation, sometimes separately and sometimes together, in a predominantly "classical" repertory, to glowing reviews. A versatile actor, Davenport was equally adept at playing broad farcical characters, melodramatic villains, and tragic heroes. His Brutus was perhaps his finest Shakespearean role.

Becks expanded the prompt book collection that he had received from actress Laura Keene and added supplementary stage directions and other annotations in crimson ink. The Becks Bequest was given to the Library in 1904.

"I told you in my last [letter] that the theatre here was roofless and otherwise unfit for use. It was little better Tuesday night.… At ten o'clock, a half-scene and a red sheet were drawn aside and the play (Othello) began, to about seventy-five people in hats, overcoats and heavy fur wraps.… Next day, we tried Caesar for a matinee.… One scene (a street) served for the Capitol, Brutus' tent, the Forum and the Fields of Philippi -- about sixteen cold boys and girls in front. Last night, we had some stoves, a tarpaulin cover for a roof, several scenes and played Hamlet to about two hundred people. The house should not have been opened for three months, but the wealthy had vowed it should open this week with Booth and Barrett, and having paid us a large certainty, and sold a great many tickets at five dollars per head, the promise was kept with only the delay of one night.…"

— Edwin Booth, writing to his daughter Edwina from Kansas City, October 27, 1887