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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
In recent works on eighteenth-century drama and theatrical practices, Aaron Hill's Zara has received passing attention because of its notable longevity. The play did make theatrical history of a sort in that it was one of only three which were presented for more than twenty consecutive years during David Garrick's tenure at Drury Lane as manager (1747–76). Zara, with its twenty-three consecutive seasons, was surpassed only by Hamlet and Benjamin Hoadly's Suspicious Husband in unbroken performance, both of the latter, having achieved twenty-nine consecutive seasons. But mere longevity and consecutiveness of performance cannot force the play upon the attention of today's students of the history of the drama. What perhaps can, however, is the hitherto unrecorded fact that for a considerable portion of its history in Garrick's theater and for years afterward it was not Hill's play but Garrick's own adaptation that was popular. Furthermore, it is an adaptation which sheds interesting light on Garrick's dramatic methods and increases his stature as a careful reviser of older plays.
1 Harry W. Pedicord (The Theatrical Public in the Time of Garrick, New York, 1954), for example, notes its 64 performances in 23 seasons.
2 Several other plays were performed without a break during their runs under Garrick's supervision, but for much shorter periods. The Clandestine Marriage, acted for 10 consecutive seasons, and A Peep Behind the Curtain, acted for 8, were the closest competitors of the hardy three. Among other long-run plays at Drury Lane during Garrick's managership, 10 were presented annually except for a single year's break in continuity. These include Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing, Rowe's Tamerlane, The Beggar's Opera, The Conscious Lovers, Coffey's The Devil to Pay, Murphy's The Way to Keep Him, Colman's The Jealous Wife, Van-brugh's The Provok'd Wife, and Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem. See Dougald MacMillan, Drury Lane Calendar, 1746–1776 (Oxford, 1938).
3 In the appendix to his Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, 3rd ed. (London, 1781), ii, 414–419.
4 E.g., Pedicord's excellent book (n. 1, above) and James J. Lynch's Box, Pit, and Gallery (Berkeley, 1953).
5 All of Garrick's revisions of lines and additions are included but for 5 single words, even though not all of his omissions are followed. See below, p. 232.
6 Gentleman's Mag., v (May 1735), 279; Biographia Dra-matica (London, 1812), iii, 429; Barker's Complete List of Plays (London, 1803), p. 336; John Egerton's Theatrical Remembrancer (London, 1788), p. 171.
7 Preface to Zara in Bell's 1791 British Theatre, xiii, xi.
8 Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, 1st ed. (London, 1780), i, 136.
9 Annals of the English Stage from Thomas Betterton to Edmund Kean (London, 1864), i, 323–324.
10 Biographia Dramatica, iii, 430–431.
11 Daily Journal, Daily Post and General Advertiser, Daily Advertiser.
12 Daily Post and General Advertiser, 2 June 1735.
13 Allardyce Nicoll lists only 5 performances for this group between 29 May and 18 June (History of Early Eighteenth-Century Drama, 1700–1750, Cambridge, 1925, p. 336).
14 Daily Post and General Advertiser, 9 July 1735.
15 Although the first edition of Zara (1736) lists Este as Orasmin, each of the 14 bills in Daily Post and General Advertiser lists Turbutt for that part.
16 Life of Garrick, i, 137.
17 “Drury Lane Chronicle During Garrick's Management, 1747–1776,” in Percy Fitzgerald's Life of David Garrick (London, 1868), ii, 475.
18 MS Diary in the Folger Shakespeare Library.
19 Cross estimated a house of £320 for this benefit, one of the highest recorded for the period.
20 How well Zara fared under Garrick's management may be seen by comparing its average annual receipts with representative average annual receipts at Drury Lane. The selected monthly receipts given by Pedicord (Theatrical Public, Appendix B, p. 185) include 4 seasons which are useful for comparison. Pedicord's figures (all in round numbers) for 1758–59 average just over £157, whereas Zara that season (Treasurer's Account Books) averaged more than £202. For 1763–64 the year's average (round numbers) is £164 as compared with Zara's £236; for 1772–73 the average is £183 to Zara's £202; for 1774–75 the house average is £194 to Zara's £219.
21 William Hopkins' Diary No. 12, reprinted by MacMillan, Drury Lane Calendar, p. 117 (n. 2, above). James Cradock tells an anecdote of the performance which Rousseau witnessed. After Garrick had played both Lusignan in Zara and Lord Chalkstone in his own Lethe as the afterpiece, Rousseau complimented the actor by saying, “I have cried all through your Tragedy, and laughed through all your Comedy, without being at all able to understand the language” (Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs, London, 1826–28, i, 206).
22 Voltaire's line is, “Et la Cour de Louis est l'azyle des Rois.”
23 Samuel Foote, The Roman and English Comedy Consider'd and Compar'd (London, 1747), p. 21.
24 Ibid., p. 22. George H. Nettleton, in the bibliography appended to Ch. iv, Vol. x, of the CHEL lists 13 separate Voltaire adaptations between 1734 and 1776, most of which thrived (pp. 493–494).
25 I have used as basic texts Garrick's prompt copy, Hill's edition of 1763, the Bell edition of 1776, and Zaïre, in the Collection complelte des œuvres de M. de Voltaire, 1st ed. ([Geneva], 1756), Vol. viii. I have also examined the texts of 1736, 1752, 1759, 1760 (in Hill's 2-vol. Dramatic Works, Vol. ii), 1762 (Dublin), 1769, 1775, the Bell edition of 1791, and Mrs. Inchbald's British Theatre version of 1808. In my text Roman numerals indicate acts, Arabic numerals, lines.
26 Voltaire's passage is as follows:
Zayre!… I'infidelle…. afrès tant de bienfaits!
J'aurais d'un oeil serein, d'un front inaltérable,
Contemplé de mon rang la chüte épouvantable:
J'aurais su, dans l'horreur de la captivité,
Conserver mon courage & ma tranquilité;
Mais me voir à ce point trompé par ce que j'aime!…
Corasmin
Eh ! que prétendez-vous dans cette horreur extrême? Quel est votre dessein?
27 The line is not in Voltaire.
28 Voltaire's text is as follows:
Oui, grand Dieu, tu le veux, tu permets que je voye; Dieu, ranime mes sens trop faibles pour ma joye. Madame… Nerestan… Soutien-moi, Chatillon… Nerestan, si je dois nommer encor ce nom, Avez-vous dans le sein la cicatrice heureuse Du fer dont à mes yeux une main furieuse…. 29 Following Hill's 1. 293.
30 The Private Correspondence of David Garrick, ed. James Boaden (London, 1831–32), ii, 35.
31 The Bell text uses Garrick's emendation, “My Miseries have worn me, more than Age,” for Hill's “Yet, Misery has worn me, more than Age” (ii, 172) and Garrick's “O my Misguided daughter” for Hill's “Oh my misguided child!” (ii, 303). In the prompt version Garrick had in both instances decided to retain Hill's reading.
32 Isaac Reed Diaries, 1762–1804, ed. Claude E. Jones (Berkeley, 1946), p. 44 and passim.