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A Book of the Play by Dutton Cook

D >> Dutton Cook >> A Book of the Play




"Hold! are you mad? you damned confounded dog,
I am to rise and speak the epilogue!"

"This diverting manner," "Philomedes" proceeds, "was always practised
by Mr. Dryden, who, if he was not the best writer of tragedies in his
time, was allowed by everyone to have the happiest turn for a prologue
or an epilogue." And he further cites the example of a comic epilogue
known to be written by Prior, to the tragedy of "Phaedra and
Hippolita," Addison having supplied the work with a prologue
ridiculing the Italian operas. He refers also to the French stage:
"Since everyone knows that nation, who are generally esteemed to have
as polite a taste as any in Europe, always close their tragic
entertainment with what they call a _petite piece_, which is purposely
designed to raise mirth and send away the audience well pleased. The
same person who has supported the chief character in the tragedy very
often plays the principal part in the _petite piece_; so that I have
myself seen at Paris Orestes and Lubin acted the same night by the
same man."

This famous epilogue to "The Distressed Mother" is spoken by
Andromache, and opens with the following lines, which are certainly
flippant enough:

I hope you'll own that with becoming art
I've played my game and topped the widow's part!
My spouse, poor man, could not live out the play,
But died commodiously on his wedding-day;
While I, his relict, made, at one bold fling,
Myself a princess, and young Sty a king.

Of this address the reputed author was Eustace Budgell, of the Inner
Temple, whose name is usually found printed in connection with
it--"the worthless Budgell," as Johnson calls him--"the man who calls
me cousin," as Addison used contemptuously to describe him. In
Johnson's Life of Ambrose Philips, however, it is stated that Addison
was himself the real author of the epilogue, but that "when it had
been at first printed with his name he came early in the morning,
before the copies were distributed, and ordered it to be given to
Budgell, that it might add weight to the solicitation which he was
then making for a place." It is probable, moreover, that Addison was
not particularly anxious to own a production which, after all, was but
a following of an example so questionable as Prior's epilogue to
"Phaedra," above mentioned. The controversy in "The Spectator" was,
without doubt, a matter of pre-arrangement between Addison and Steele,
for the entertainment of the public and the increase of the fame of
Philips; and the letter of "Philomedes," which with the epilogue in
question has been often ascribed to Budgell, was probably also the
work of Addison. For all the rather unaccountable zeal of Addison and
Steele on behalf of their friend, however, the reputation of Philips
has not thriven; he is chiefly remembered now by the nickname of
Namby-Pamby, bestowed on him by Pope, who had always vehemently
contested his claims to distinction. As Johnson states the case: "Men
sometimes suffer by injudicious kindness; Philips became ridiculous,
without his own fault, by the absurd admiration of his friends, who
decorated him with honorary garlands which the first breath of
contradiction blasted." Johnson, by-the-way, had at the age of
nineteen written a new epilogue to "The Distressed Mother," for some
young ladies who designed an amateur performance of that still-admired
tragedy. The epilogue was intended to be delivered by "a lady who was
to personate the ghost of Hermione."

But although protests were now and then, as in the case of "The
Distressed Mother," raised against the absurdity of the custom, comic
epilogues to tragic plays long remained in favour with the patrons of
the stage. Pointed reference to this fact is contained in the epilogue
spoken by the beautiful Mrs. Hartley to Murphy's tragedy of "Alzuma,"
produced at Covent Garden in 1773:

Our play is o'er; now swells each throbbing breast
With expectation of the coming jest.
By Fashion's law, whene'er the Tragic Muse
With sympathetic tears each eye bedews;
When some bright Virtue at her call appears.
Waked from the dead repose of rolling years;
When sacred worthies she bids breathe anew,
That men may be what she displays to view;
By fashion's law with light fantastic mien
The Comic Sister trips it o'er the scene;
Armed at all points with wit and wanton wiles,
Plays off her airs, and calls forth all her smiles;
Till each fine feeling of the heart be o'er,
And the gay wonder how they wept before!

To Murphy's more famous tragedy of "The Grecian Daughter," Garrick
supplied an epilogue, which commences:

The Grecian Daughter's compliments to all;
Begs that for Epilogue you will not call;
For leering, giggling, would be out of season,
And hopes by me you'll hear a little reason, &c.

The epilogue to Home's tragedy of "Douglas" is simply a remonstrance
against the employment of "comic wit" on such an occasion:

An Epilogue I asked; but not one word
Our bard will write. He vows 'tis most absurd
With comic wit to contradict the strain
Of tragedy, and make your sorrows vain.
Sadly he says that pity is the best
And noblest passion of the human breast;
For when its sacred streams the heart o'erflow
In gushes pleasure with the tide of woe;
And when its waves retire, like those of Nile,
They leave behind them such a golden soil
That there the virtues without culture grow,
There the sweet blossoms of affection blow.
These were his words; void of delusive art
I felt them; for he spoke them from his heart.
Nor will I now attempt with witty folly
To chase away celestial melancholy.

Apart from the epilogues that pertained to particular plays, and could
hardly be detached from them, were the "occasional epilogues," written
with no special relevancy to any dramatic work, but rather designed to
be recitations or monologue entertainments, that could be delivered at
any time, as managers, players, and public might decide. Garrick, who
highly esteemed addresses of the class, was wont, in the character of
"a drunken sailor," to recite a much-admired "occasional epilogue."
Early comedians, such as Joe Haines and Pinkethman, now and then
entered upon the scene, "seated upon an ass," to deliver "an
occasional epilogue," with more mirthful effect. Extravagances of this
kind have usually been reserved for benefit-nights, however. In Tom
Brown's works, 1730, there is a print of Haines, mounted on an ass,
appearing in front of the stage, with a view of the side boxes and
pit. An "occasional epilogue" was delivered in 1710, by Powell and
Mrs. Spiller, "on the hardships suffered by lawyers and players in the
Long Vacation."

For some years before their extinction, epilogues had greatly declined
in worth, although their loss of public favour was less apparent. They
were in many cases wretched doggerel, full of slang terms and of
impertinence that was both coarse and dull. With a once famous
epilogue-writer--Miles Peter Andrews, who was also a dramatist,
although, happily, his writings for the stage have now vanished
completely--Gifford deals severely in his "Baviad." "Such is the
reputation this gentleman has obtained for epilogue writing, that the
minor poets of the day, despairing of emulating, are now only
solicitous of assisting him--happy if they can obtain admission for a
couplet or two into the body of his immortal works, and thus secure to
themselves a small portion of that popular applause so lavishly and so
justly bestowed on everything that bears the signature of Miles
Andrews!" A few lines make havoc of quite a covey of "bards" of that
period:

Too much the applause of fashion I despise;
For mark to what 'tis given and then declare,
Mean though I am, if it be worth my care.
Is it not given to Este's unmeaning dash,
To Topham's fustian, Colman's flippant trash,
To Andrews' doggerel, when three wits combine,
To Morton's catchword, Greathead's idiot line,
And Holcroft's Shug Lane cant, and Merry's Moorfields whine, &c.

Criticism was not mealy-mouthed in Gifford's day.

The "tag" appears to be following the epilogue to oblivion; for though
it is difficult to differentiate them, the tag must not be confused
with the epilogue, or viewed as merely an abbreviated form of it. As a
rule, the epilogue was divided from the play by the fall of the
curtain, although this could hardly have been the case in regard to
the epilogue mentioned above, delivered by "Mrs. Ellen," as Dryden
calls her, after the tragedy of "Tyrannic Love." But the tag is
usually the few parting words addressed by the leading character in a
play, before the curtain descends upon it, to "our kind friends in
front," entreating their applause. The final _couplets_ of a French
vaudeville, it may be noted, usually contained an appeal of this kind;
otherwise, tags, and epilogues are alike eschewed upon the French
stage. But this "coming forward" of the player, to deliver his tag, is
a practice of old date. The concluding speech in Massinger's "New Way
to Pay Old Debts," addressed to the audience, and commencing--

Nothing wants then
But your allowance--and in that our all
Is comprehended--

is, according to the old stage direction, to be spoken by Wellborn
"coming forward." So also Cozimo is directed to "come forward," to
address to the audience the last lines of "The Great Duke of
Florence."

Epilogues have rarely been employed as supplementary acts, continuing
and completing the action of a play, as prologues in modern times have
been converted into introductory chapters, explanatory of events to be
presently exhibited upon the scene. Yet the interminable drama of
"Marie Antoinette," by Signor Paolo Giacometti, in which Madame
Ristori was wont to perform, presents an instance of this kind. "Marie
Antoinette" is in five acts, with a prologue exhibiting the queen's
life at Versailles, in 1786, and an epilogue showing her imprisonment
in the Conciergerie, and her march to the guillotine in the custody of
Samson the executioner.

* * * * *

The epilogue spoken, the entertainments are indeed terminated. The
audience move from their seats towards the portals of the playhouse.
The lights are being extinguished; the boxes are about to be covered
over with brown-holland draperies; the prompter has closed his book
and is thinking of moving homewards.

It remains for us only to interchange "Good-byes"--and to separate.

THE END.

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