Frederick Wilton's Prompt Book, Performance of "The Octoroon" at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, London, July 5, 1871

Frederick Wilton's Prompt Book, Performance of "The Octoroon" at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, London, July 5, 1871

Frederick Wilton's Octoroon promptbook, from the Britannia Theatre, held at the University of Kent Templeman Library, is constructed from a copy of the published four-act edition (as performed at the Adelphi in London in 1862) and also contains additional pages with handwritten notations inscribed in at least two obviously different hands that, along with the printed script, account for three or four different possible endings. Inscribed in ink on pages 6-7 is the notation "Time, first night, own benefit, July 5, 1871, Act 1 began 9:30 . . . Act 4 ended 11:57 total 2h. 27m." According to the notes written onto the otherwise final blank pages, this version of The Octoroon concluded when George rushed onto the boat where M'Closky has taken Zoe. Crossing to centre stage, George attacked M'Closky while proclaiming "His life or mine! Zoe once in my arms, I'll bear her away to England where there is but one blood--that which beats in the hearts of honest men & loving women." This line echoes, almost exactly, the published reports from both the Saturday Review and the Illustrated London News, of Boucicault's "new" British ending performed a decade earlier, of which there is no published or previously located account. This page is important therefore, in revealing portions of that long-missing script.

July 5, 1871