The Bride of Abydos (Dimond)
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The Bride of Abydos is a drama in 3 acts written by William Dimond and based on Lord Byron's same-titled poem. It was staged on 5 February 1818 at Drury Lane and published the same year by Richard White in London. It was one of three Dimond's plays whose action takes place in Turkey, the other two being Abon Hassan (based on 1001 nights) and Aethiop, or the Child of the Desart.[1] In the first edition the drama is called "a tragic play", while in the second (printed in London by Thomas Hailes Lacy) it is labelled as "a romantic drama". Dimond's play had an influence on Percy Bysshe Shelley's Hellas.[1]
Byron's poem was too short to make a full-length play of it, and Dimond made many additions to it. Furthermore, he found the final too gloomy and catastrophic and substituted it by an incident from Byron's another poem, The Corsair.[1] All these changes were explained by the author in the Preface.
For the first performance the scenery was made by Greenwood and the music was composed by Michael Kelly (it included an opening chorus, 8 songs, a duet, a bass solo, and a glee). There were also dances.[1]
Roles[edit]
| Role | 1818 Drury Lane |
1836 Belfast |
1840 Sheffield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giaffier Pacha of Abydos |
H. Johnston | T.H. Lacy | Johnson |
| Selim his supposed son |
Kean | G.V. Brooke | T.H. Lacy |
| Mirza Pirate of the Isles |
Pope | Whyte | Norton |
| Osman Bey The timariot chief |
T. Cooke | Eburne | H. Bedford |
| Hamet Osman's page |
Bellchambers | Earnshaw | |
| Hassan Governor of the haram |
Holland | Cunningham | Cunningham |
| Murteza | Barnard | Connor | Symondson |
| Zoran | Coveney | Hind | |
| Bensalla | Kent | Davis | |
| Muley Pirate |
Smith | Marquis | McMahon |
| Chebib Pirate |
J. Smith | Thompson | |
| Azein Pirate |
Woolf | Hall | |
| Zuleika The Bride of Abydos |
Mardyn | W. Burroughs | C. Pope |
| Zobeide Zuleika's attendant |
Bland | Cunningham | Cunningham |
| Oneiza Zuleika's attendant |
Cubitt | Earnshaw | |
| Canzade Zuleika's attendant |
Hughes | A. Mercer | |
| Safie Zuleika's attendant |
Halford | J. Cooke |
External links[edit]
- William Dimond (1818). The bride of Abydos, a tragick play. R. White.
- William Dimond (1866). The Bride of Abydos, a tragick play, in three acts, etc. Thomas Hailes Lacy.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d Jacqueline Mulhallen (2010). The Theatre of Shelley. Open Book Publishers. pp. 193–197. ISBN 978-1-906924-30-0.
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