Celebrate Poe
Celebrate Poe
A Star is Born
Episode 236 - A Star is Born is the first of two episodes that deal with the influence of William Shakespeare (the anniversary of his birthday was earlier this week.). The first episode deals with the influence of Shakespeare's plays (and acting in general) on the marriage of David and Eliza Poe. Using some original information that I doubt you will find anywhere else, I would like to point out how Eliza Poe was the "star" of the family using the Shakespearean roles she played (compared to the roles that David played.)
Intro to “Come Rest in This Bosom" music
Welcome to Celebrate Poe - My name is George Bartley, and this is Episode 236 - A Star is Born. I apologize if you tuned in expecting another episode about Inception and Poe’s dream works, but I remembered that William Shakespeare was supposedly born on April 23, and christened on April 26 - so I hope I can get this out near that date.
As I understand it, the custom in England was to baptize or christen a baby 3 days after their birth, so we understandably celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday 3 days before the date he was christened - a date we DO have records for. By the way, when Celebrate Poe finishes looking at Shakespeare’s influence on Poe - hopefully after the next episode - this podcast will return to the complex topic of the motion picture Inception and Poe’s dream works.
Now William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is also traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. - This date, has proved especially appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on the same date in 1616. Of course to say that Shakespeare influenced English and American literature - especially drama - is an understatement - so today Celebrate Poe will briefly look at some of the ways where Shakespeare influenced Poe’s parents, and how an examination of Shakespeare’s works on the marriage of David and Eliza Poe indirectly affected their marriage. I did a spreadsheet to support my claims about David and Eliza in what might be one of the nerdiest things you have ever heard. In the next episode of Celebrate Poe, I want to look at some of the ways that Shakespeare influenced Poe himself.
GREENSLEEVES
I was into Poe for years before I began to appreciate the nature of the productions in which Poe’s parents acted. David and Eliza Poe, like most of the actors during early American theatre, were members of a repertory company - in other words, the Poes were engaged in what has to be one of the hardest forms of acting.
You see, acting in a repertory company is not like learning a role and playing just that one part while you keep it fresh in your mind - a repertory company - such as the one that David and Eliza acted in - required the actors to have hundreds of roles ready to perform - usually with several plays ready to perform at any given time. A Broadway actor might learn a role and perform every night for months - sometimes memorizing hundreds of lines and spending hundreds of performances fine tuning those lines - but the Poes did not have that luxury. They were often expected to learn a great deal of Shakespeare - the most in demand form of drama in the United States - for the most part, David Poe learned smaller parts - that was basically all he was capable of - sometimes he was so drunk that he had trouble standing on stage. Eliza Poe, on the other hand, was the ingenue - instead of a silent servant, she would play a leading role like Juliet - a role that certainly required a great deal more work, but also made her the 19th century equivalent of a traveling theatre star.
But first, I’d like to take a minute to look at some of the unique theatrical attitudes regarding performing Shakespeare in the 19th century. When it came to drama, William Shakespeare was king. Theatres and theatrical scenery became ever more elaborate in the 19th century, and the acting editions used were progressively cut and restructured to emphasize more and more the soliloquies and the stars, at the expense of pace and action. Performances were further slowed by the need for frequent pauses to change the scenery, creating a perceived need for even more cuts in order to keep performance length within tolerable limits; it became a generally accepted maxim that Shakespeare's plays were too long to be performed without substantial cuts - so it is quite possible that any Shakespearean parts played by David or Eliza Poe would have been edited. The platform, or apron, stage, on which actors of the 17th century would come forward for audience contact, was gone, and the actors stayed permanently behind the fourth wall or proscenium arch, further separated from the audience by the orchestra.
Through the 19th century, a roll call of legendary actors' names all but drown out the plays in which they appear: Sarah Siddons (1755–1831), John Philip Kemble (1757–1823), Henry Irving (1838–1905), and Ellen Terry (1847–1928). To be a star of the legitimate drama came to mean being first and foremost a "great Shakespeare actor", with a famous interpretation of, for men, Hamlet, and for women, Lady Macbeth, and especially with a striking delivery of the great soliloquies.
Now, the great Arthur Hobson Quinn, who authored what is perhaps the best biography of Poe, has compiled a great list of the plays that David and Eliza starred in - and while many of the plays the plays are not familiar to us today, a look at the more famous Shakespearean roles tell us a great deal about the dynamics of Poe’s parents and their relationship.
I took a spreadsheet - this is where it really gets nerd like - and entered the Shakespearean roles that David and Eliza played, the number of lines in each role, and compared the size and importance of each part (I know there are no small parts, just small actors, but stick with me, and I think you will see where I’m going with this.)
In my spreadsheet, I used the total number of lines that each part has in the written version of the play. Now I know that a play such as Hamlet is over 4 1/2 hours long, but most acting versions are cut down to half that length. I doubt there is anyway to know HOW MUCH a director from that period cut down the play, so I used the complete version of each part for comparison purposes.
David Poe, in six years on the stage, played 137 parts. But many of those were parts where he just stood there. Nineteen were from Shakespeare - Edmund in King Lear is 79 lines, Hrstensio in The Taming of the Shrew is 70 lines, Laertes in Hamlet is 62 lines, the Duke of Albany in a production of King Lear is 58 lines, Rosencrantz in Hamlet is 40 lines, Decius Brutus in Julius Caesar is 37 lines - don’t confuses this with the part of Marcus Brutus with over 700 lines, Ferdinand in The Tempest is 31 lines, Mantano in Othello is 24 lines, Bernardo in Hamlet is 19 lines, Salinio in The Merchant of Venice is 18 lines, Duncan in Macbeth is 18 lines, the Duke of Austria in King John is 16 lines, Donalbain in Macbeth is 3 lines, and Sir. Richard Vernon in Henry IV, Volusius in Coriolanus, and Ratcliff in Richard III are all non-speaking parts - Altogether that is an average of 27 lines per play. The one part I left out was Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing for 139 lines. That one throws everything off, and is the exception. By the way, Amazon Prime has the great 1993 version of Much Ado About Nothing with Denzel Washington as Don Pedro.
In other words, most of David Poe’s roles were comparatively small.
And if you are still with me - thank you.
I couldn’t find a description or review of David Poe Jr. on stage, but I did run across a review from 27 September 1809 where David Poe Jr. played the part of Alonzo - “By the sudden indisposition of Mr. Robertson, the entertainments announced for the evening necessarily gave place to the preceding. Mr. Poe was Mr. R's substitute in Alonzo; and a more wretched Alonzo have we never witnessed. This man was never destined for the high walks of the drama; — a footman is the extent of what he ought to attempt: and if by accident like that of this evening he is compelled to walk without his sphere, it would bespeak more of sense in him to read the part than attempt to act it; — his person, voice, and non-expression of countenance, all combine to stamp him — poh! et praeterea nihil.” And for those of us who don’t know Latin - et praterea nil means sound without substance, a voice and nothing else, or tedious talk - and I have never heard Poh used as a compliment.
In a footnote to this criticism, the magazine's editor offered a few words of mitigation, “Here, as well as in some other passages of the Theatrical Register, our correspondent is too acrimonious; and I must take the liberty to differ from him, in some measure, respecting Mr. Poe's talents, who, if he would take pains, is by no means contemptible” -
Sounds like he was damning him with faint praise - imagine if you were an actor, and a review said about your performance - if he would try, he might not be contemptible - as though you damming someone with faint praise. Now remember, this was at a time when most journalists went out of their way to be complimentary and not overly critical, so David Poe must have been pretty bad.
Eliza, on the other hand, had many roles in musicals and comedies - she was evidently an incredibly talented singer and comedian. In her 16 years on the stage, she played over 200 parts. Regarding Shakespearen roles, - and this will be over in 14 parts - she also starred as Desdemona in Othello for 165 lines, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet for 118 lines, Regan in King Lear for 73 lines, Ophelia in Hamlet for 58 lines, Ariel in The Tempest for 45 lines, Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice for 36 lines, Cordelia in King Lear for 31 lines, - just 7 more - Jessica in The Merchant of Venice for 26 lines, the Prince of Wales in Richard III for 19 lines, Valeria in Coriolanus for 14 lines, Mopsa in A Winter’s Tale for 13 lines, Blanch in King John for 9 lines, - almost over - the Duke of York in Richard III for 6 lines, and Prince John in Henry IV as a non-speaking part. So in comparison to David’s 27 lines a part, Eliza had 44 lines for each part - in other words - with the exception of Much Ado About Nothing, her parts had almost twice as many lines. She was obviously the superior actor - acting was in her blood, and the stage was her element since childhood. In other words, Eliza was the star.
In fact, according to wikipedia, throughout the 19th century, Romeo and Juliet had been Shakespeare's most popular play, measured by the number of professional performances, and I am sure that Eliza Poe would have been a fantastic Juliet. I can just imagine Eliza acting on stage:
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name.
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy:
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand nor foot
Nor arm nor face nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O be some other name.
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.
And there is a great soliloquy in Othello, Act 4, Scene 2 that Eliza Poe as Desdemona would have delivered - and this will be the final example of one of Eliza Poe's soliloquies.
In this soliloquy, Desdemona expresses her unwavering love for Othello, even in the face of his harsh accusations. Despite the hurtful words he has spoken, she remains devoted to him. The monologue reveals her innocence and virtue, emphasizing her tragic fate in the play.
Alas, Iago,
What shall I do to win my lord again?
Good friend, go to him. For by this light of heaven,
I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel.
If e’er my will did trespass ‘gainst his love,
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed,
Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense
Delighted them in any other form,
Or that I do not yet, and ever did,
And ever will—though he do shake me off
To beggarly divorcement—love him dearly,
Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much,
And his unkindness may defeat my life,
But never taint my love. I cannot say “whore”—
It does abhor me now I speak the word.
To do the act that might the addition earn,
Not the world’s mass of vanity could make me.
Now one way of looking at an actor’s talent is to look at other actors who have played the same part - in other words, is this a juicy role where the actor makes a big impression? Eliza played some incredibly showy parts - roles that were later played by some of the greatest or most popular actresses of all time. In 1964, Dame Maggie Smith of Downton Abbey played Desdemona opposite Sir Lawrence Olivier in Othello. Maggie Smith had earlier won a Tony for the Broadway version. In 1996, Claire Daines played Juliet opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo and Juliet. In 1983, the late great Dame Diana Rigg (of The Avengers and later Game of Thrones) played Regan in King Lear with Sir Lawrence Oliver. Several years ago, Daisy Ridley of the Star Wars franchise played a version of Ophelia from Hamlet in a movie called Ophelia. And in 1996, Kate Winslet from Titanic played Ophelia in a star-studded four and a half version of Hamlet. These are all showy roles that require an extremely talented actress - and Eliza Poe played all these parts.
About the only showy part that David Poe Jr. played was Don Pedro - a part that was played by Keanau Reeves in the 1993 version of Much Ado About Nothing. And to be honest - I looked through several versions of Much Ado About Nothing, and while Much Ado DOES have some really showy soliloquies, in my opinion, Don Pedro just has basic lines that don’t really say much. In other words, in my opinion, Don Pedro comes across as a character who does not have that much going for him, and is rather boring. (I have a good friend who has played Don Pedro, and I hope he is not listening.)
After all is said and done, you might deduce that the situation sounds like something from a 19th century A Star is Born - the wife is extremely talented and well-received, while the self-destructive husband becomes less and less popular.
The dynamics between accomplished wife and unhappy husband could not have been easy for David to handle. They were in the same profession, but she was easily twice as talented and successful. Most husbands, especially in the early 1800s, would not be able to deal with the situation. In fact, David Poe was to later desert the family.
And despite her occasional popularity, Eliza Poe was barely earning enough to get by.
The next episode in this podcast will deal with a look at how Shakespeare influenced Edgar Allan Poe, as well as an examination of some Shakespearean lines from Poe’s notes - when I first saw those lines in Poe’s original document, my inner reaction was probably like that of a teenage girl at a Taylor Swift concert - except that I did not make any noise or pull out a cellphone.
Sources for this episode include Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Dwight R. Thomas and David K. Jackson, Edgar Allan Poe: The Man by Mary E. Phillips, Edgar Allan Poe by George E. Woodberry from the American Men of Letters series, and Life of Edgar A. Poe by Eugene L. Didier,
I encourage you to ask questions from the character of Mr. Poe - or even myself - at celebratepoe@gmail.com There no need to include your name, unless you specifically say you want a shout out. I do have quite a few questions from my days at History Alive as Poe - but I want to deal with the subjects that YOU are most interested in.
Again, that’s celebratepoe@gmail.com And please subscribe to this podcast so you will not miss any episodes of Celebrate Poe.
Well, thank you very much for making it this far, as we take a deep dive into the life, times, and influences of America’s Shakespeare, and how he has influenced our world.
Now I’d like to end with a version of “Nobody Coming to Marry Me” I arranged using Garageband . This music was Eliza Poe’s big hit on stage.
NOBODY COMING TO MARRY ME
