Item 60 - Letter from Bache Matthews to W. W. Greg

1 single sheet

Flat 1, Milford House, 117 Hurst Street, Birmingham.—The terms ‘book’ and ‘plot’ are still used in technical senses in the theatre.

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Transcript

Flat 1, Milford House, 117 Hurst Street, Birmingham
19. 3. 32.

Dear Sir,

“Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses”.

On page 193 you say “Exactly how late the use of Book as a technical term survived is not very clear.” It occurs to me that you may be interested to know the† it is still used among actors. It is not written; the prompt copy is no longer headed “The Book of The Farmer’s Wife”, but it is nearly always referred to in the theatre as “the Book”. A nervous actor, uncertain of his part, will enquire anxiously “Who’s on the Book to-night?” And a stage manager will instruct his assistant to take over the control of the stage by telling him to “hold the Book”. Is it possible that the expression “To hold the book” is a survival of the old term “book-holder”? In the “Short Glossary of Theatrical Terms” compiled by my friend W. G. Fay {1}, one finds—“Hold the Book”.—Is to take the prompt copy of the play and prompt the actors.”

The “Plot” is also in everyday use in the theatre, though it has changed somewhat from its Elizabethan ancestor. Every play has its “Scene plot”, “Property plot” and “Lighting plot”. The two latter are not so very different in appearance from the old ones. The sheet is divided into scenes, and, in the one case the moveable properties, in the other case the lighting, are given, in order, for each scene. The scene plot is generally a ground plan of each “set”.

I feel that I am presumptuous in offering information to so exact a scholar as you, but there are many stage terms that are little known, I think, outside the theatre, and some of them may have been in use as far back as the period in which you are particularly interested.

With grateful thanks for the enjoyment and information I have derived from your books.

Yours very truely†,
Bache Matthews

Dr. W. W. Greg,
Park Lodge,
Wimbledon Park,
S.W.19.

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{1} Full stop supplied in place of a comma after ‘W’.

† Sic.

(Formerly inserted in Greg's copy of Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses (1931) (LL 023 G 101).)

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2020.