The Hunchback Part 1

The Hunchback.

by James Sheridan Knowles.

INTRODUCTION

James Sheridan Knowles was born at Cork in 1784, and died at Torquay in December, 1862, at the age of 78. His father was a teacher of elocution, who compiled a dictionary, and who was related to the Sheridans. He moved to London when his son was eight years old, and there became acquainted with William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb. The son, after his school education, obtained a commission in the army, but gave up everything for the stage, and made his first appearance at the Crow Street Theatre, in Dublin. He did not become a great actor, and when he took to writing plays he did not prove himself a great poet, but his skill in contriving situations through which a good actor can make his powers tell upon the public, won the heart of the great actor of his day, and as Macready's own poet he rose to fame.

Before Macready had discovered him, Sheridan Knowles lived partly by teaching elocution at Belfast and Glasgow, partly by practice of elocution as an actor. In 1815 he produced at the Belfast Theatre his first play, _Caius Gracchus_. His next play, _Virginius_ was produced at Glasgow with great success. Macready, who had, at the age of seventeen, begun his career as an actor at his father's theatre in Birmingham, had, on Monday, October 5th, 1819, at the age of twenty-six, taken the Londoners by storm in the character of Richard III Covent Garden reopened its closed treasury. It was promptly followed by a success in _Coriola.n.u.s_, and Macready's place was made. He was at once offered fifty pounds a night for appearing on one evening a week at Brighton. It was just after that turn in Macready's fortunes that a friend at Glasgow recommended to him the part of Virginius in Sheridan Knowles's play lately produced there. He agreed unwillingly to look at it, and says that in April, 1820, the parcel containing the MS. came as he was going out. He hesitated, then sat down to read it that he might get a wearisome job over. As he read, he says, "The freshness and simplicity of the dialogue fixed my attention; I read on and on, and was soon absorbed in the interest of the story and the pa.s.sion of its scenes, till at its close I found myself in such a state of excitement that for a time I was undecided what step to take. Impulse was in the ascendant, and s.n.a.t.c.hing up my pen I hurriedly wrote, as my agitated feelings prompted, a letter to the author, to me then a perfect stranger." Bryan Procter (Barry Cornwall) read the play next day with Macready, and confirmed him in his admiration of it.

Macready at once got it accepted at the theatre, where nothing was spent on scenery, but there was a good cast, and the enthusiasm of Macready as stage manager for the occasion half affronted some of his seniors. On the 17th of May, 1820, about a month after it came into Macready's hands, _Virginius_ was produced at Covent Garden, where, says the actor in his "Reminiscences," "the curtain fell amidst the most deafening applause of a highly-excited auditory." Sheridan Knowles's fame, therefore, was made, like that of his friend Macready, and the friends.h.i.+p between author and actor continued. Sheridan Knowles had a kindly simplicity of character, and the two qualities for which an actor most prizes a dramatist, skill in providing opportunities for acting that will tell, and readiness to make any changes that the actor asks for. The postscript to his first letter to Macready was, "Make any alterations you like in any part of the play, and I shall be obliged to you." When he brought to the great actor his play of _William Tell_--_Caius Gracchus_ had been produced in November, 1823--there were pa.s.sages of writing in it that stopped the course of action, and, says Macready, "Knowles had less of the tenacity of authors.h.i.+p than most writers," so that there was no difficulty about alterations, Macready having in a very high degree the tenacity of actors.h.i.+p. And so, in 1825, _Tell_ became another of Macready's best successes.

Sheridan Knowles continued to write for the stage until 1845, when he was drawn wholly from the theatre by a religious enthusiasm that caused him, in 1851, to essay the breaking of a lance with Cardinal Wiseman on the subject of Transubstantiation. Sir Robert Peel gave ease to his latter days by a pension of 200 pounds a year from the Civil List, which he had honourably earned by a career as dramatist, in which he sought to appeal only to the higher sense of literature, and to draw enjoyment from the purest source. Of his plays time two comedies {1} here given are all that have kept their place upon the stage. As one of the most earnest dramatic writers of the present century he is ent.i.tled to a little corner in our memory. Worse work of the past has lasted longer than the plays of Sheridan Knowles are likely to last through the future.

H. M.

THE HUNCHBACK.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

(AS ORIGINALLY PERFORMED AT COVENT GARDEN IN 1832.) _Julia_ Miss F. KEMBLE.

_Helen_ Miss TAYLOR.

_Master Walter_ Mr. J. S. KNOWLES.

_Sir Thomas Clifford_ Mr. C. KEMBLE.

_Lord Tinsel_ Mr. WRENCH.

_Master Wilford_ Mr. J. MASON.

_Modus_ Mr. ABBOTT.

_Master Heartwell_ Mr. EVANS.

_Gaylove_ Mr. HENRY.

_Fathom_ Mr. MEADOWS.

_Thomas_ Mr. BARNES.

_Stephen_ Mr. PAYNE.

_Williams_ Mr. IRWIN.

_Simpson_ Mr. BRADY.

_Waiter_ Mr. HEATH.

_Holdwell_ Mr. BENDER.

_Servants_ Mr. J. COOPER.

Mr. LOLLETT.

ACT I.

SCENE I.--A Tavern.

On one side SIR THOMAS CLIFFORD, at a table, with wine before him; on the other, MASTER WILFORD, GAYLOVE, HOLDWELL, and SIMPSON, likewise taking wine.

_Wilf_. Your wine, sirs! your wine! You do not justice to mine host of the Three Tuns, nor credit to yourselves; I swear the beverage is good!

It is as palatable poison as you will purchase within a mile round Ludgate! Drink, gentlemen; make free. You know I am a man of expectations; and hold my money as light as the purse in which I carry it.

_Gay_. We drink, Master Wilford. Not a man of us has been chased as yet.

_Wilf_. But you fill not fairly, sirs! Look at my measure! Wherefore a large gla.s.s, if not for a large draught? Fill, I pray you, else let us drink out of thimbles! This will never do for the friends of the nearest of kin to the wealthiest peer in Britain.

_Gay_. We give you joy, Master Wilford, of the prospect of advancement which has so unexpectedly opened to you.

_Wilf_. Unexpectedly indeed! But yesterday arrived the news that the Earl's only son and heir had died; and to-day has the Earl himself been seized with a mortal illness. His dissolution is looked for hourly; and I, his cousin in only the third degree, known to him but to be unnoticed by him--a decayed gentleman's son--glad of the t.i.tle and revenues of a scrivener's clerk--am the undoubted successor to his estates and coronet.

_Gay_. Have you been sent for?

_Wilf_. No; but I have certified to his agent, Master Walter, the Hunchback, my existence, and peculiar propinquity; and momentarily expect him here.

_Gay_. Lives there anyone that may dispute your claim--I mean vexatiously?

_Wilf_. Not a man, Master Gaylove. I am the sole remaining branch of the family tree.

_Gay_. Doubtless you look for much happiness from this change of fortune?

_Wilf_. A world! Three things have I an especial pa.s.sion for. The finest hound, the finest horse, and the finest wife in the kingdom, Master Gaylove!

Gay. The finest wife?

_Wilf_. Yes, sir; I marry. Once the earldom comes into my line, I shall take measures to perpetuate its remaining there. I marry, sir! I do not say that I shall love. My heart has changed mistresses too often to settle down in one servitude now, sir. But fill, I pray you, friends.

This, if I mistake not, is the day whence I shall date my new fortunes; and, for that reason, hither have I invited you, that, having been so long my boon companions, you shall be the first to congratulate me.

[Enter Waiter]

_Waiter_. You are wanted, Master Wilford.

_Wilf_. By whom?

_Waiter_. One Master Walter.

_Wilf_. His lords.h.i.+p's agent! News, sirs! Show him in!

[Waiter goes out]

My heart's a prophet, sirs--The Earl is dead.

[Enter MASTER WALTER]

Well, Master Walter. How accost you me?