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Promptbook for a production of As you like it, marked for stage manager, prepared by James Taylor?, [between 1844 and 1905?].

Taylor, James, 1834-1905, annotator.; Container of (work): Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. As you like it.; Sprague, Arthur Colby, 1895-1991, correspondent.; Downer, Alan S., 1912- former owner, addressee, signer.; Carson, William G. B. (William Glasgow Bruce), 1891-1976, correspondent.
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Title
Promptbook for a production of As you like it, marked for stage manager, prepared by James Taylor?, [between 1844 and 1905?].
Produced
[United States?] : [James Taylor?], [between 1844 and 1905?]
Description
approximately 174 pages in various pagings ; 16 cm + 1 letter (1 sheet)
Associated name
Taylor, James, 1834-1905, annotator.
Sprague, Arthur Colby, 1895-1991, correspondent.
Downer, Alan S., 1912- former owner, addressee, signer.
Carson, William G. B. (William Glasgow Bruce), 1891-1976, correspondent.
Note
Title devised by cataloger.

Printed pages interleaved with blank pages.

Shattuck asserts that this promptbook was copied from one of John Moore's promptbooks of As you like it, which Moore had created based on William Macready's arrangements (possibly by way of one of George Ellis' transcriptions of Macready), or possibly Alfred Bunn's (Macready's successor at Drury Lane).

Not in Shattuck's Shakespeare promptbooks.
Folger-specific note
Microfilm reproductions of many Shakespeare promptbooks at the Folger are available in the series Film Acc. 579. Consult the index (Folger PR 3091 S28) for specific reels.
Condition
Conserved April 2017
Cited/described in
Shattuck, Charles H. Mr. Macready produces As you like it, page [7]
Includes
Container of (work): Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. As you like it.
Related item
As you like it
Genre/form
Promptbooks.
Interleaved copies (Provenance)
Letters (correspondence)
Geographic name
London (England), event place.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England -- London.

Call number
PROMPT AYLI 48
Folger-specific note
Promptbook marked for stage manager. Manuscript note on printed title page: "Marked from Drury Lane [P.B.?] 1842." Autograph at head of Act 1: "James Taylor." Annotations in ink throughout, in similar hand to "James Taylor" autograph, including several sketched staged diagrams. Autograph, flyleaf: Alan S. Downer, 29 Sept 45. Pasted into front cover: letter (manuscript in blue ink) from Arthur Colby Sprague to Alan S. Downer speculating on the friendship between James Taylor and George Becks, another actor. Publisher's brown leather binding, spine stamped in gold. Accompanied by a typescript letter from William G.B. Carson to Alan S. Downer, dated March 31, 1957, thanking Downer for letting him examine the promptbook, and speculating on the connections between William Macready's and Charles Kean's arrangements (a mutual stage manager, George Ellis). Acquired from Inlibris, 2014.

Curatorial file available (oversize).
Folger accession
268754