Promptbooks

The Folger collection includes over 1,800 promptbooks, about half of which are for Shakespearean productions. Strictly speaking, “promptbooks” are printed play texts marked up prior to performance in order to indicate for the stage prompter the cuts, changes, additions, entrances and exits, and other stage business he is to follow in conducting the performance. Other marked-up play texts, also called promptbooks, provide evidence not of a prompter’s on-stage work, but of prior preparation.

Promptbooks at the Folger

Before searching for promptbooks housed at the Folger Shakespeare Library, please read the article Researching promptbooks at the Folger for background information on resources.

The two best ways to search for promptbooks in Hamnet are:

• Select the Call Number Left-Anchored option on the Basic Search tab (or the Call Number option on the Advanced Search tab), and search for PROMPT. This will return all items assigned a promptbook collection call number.
• Select the Subject & Form/Genre Browse option on the Basic Search tab (or the Form/Genre option on the Advanced Search tab), and search for "Promptbooks".

For best results, combine the two searches using "OR" in the Advanced Search tab.

Pages 72 and 73 of David Garrick's 1772-1773 Hamlet promptbook. PROMPT Ham. 16.

PROMPT Ham. 16 - David Garrick's preparation of Hamlet

This "preparation promptbook" for David Garrick’s controversial revision of Hamlet for the 1772–73 season is not yet ready to be acted—or prompted—from but helps establish many of the radical changes Garrick made to Shakespeare’s play. In working on this version, Garrick did not use his own previously-published acting edition, first printed in 1763. Instead he marked up a 1747 copy of the standard text of the time (the version by Robert Wilks and John Hughs) and in some places pasted in leaves from his own 1763 text. Garrick divided the acts differently while reinstating over six hundred lines to the first three acts. But his most extensive changes were to condense the fourth and fifth acts where he deleted not only the popular gravediggers’ scene but also the fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet. Instead of this “rubbish” (as he called these scenes), Garrick considered multiple possible endings.

Cataloging promptbooks

This article is currently a draft.

As of fall 2016, Folger staff catalog all promptbooks as unique items, regardless of whether we own other non-promptbook copies of the same printed edition. If an edition is extensively marked with general production notes, or for a particular character, assume it is a promptbook. The presence of only minor annotations may not be enough to call something a promptbook; check with your supervisor if uncertain.

Create a new record in Connexion for each promptbook. (If we do not have any unmarked copies of the print edition on which it is based, make sure we don't have holdings on the record of the print edition in OCLC.)

• Create a devised title for the promptbook, in the following pattern: Promptbook for a production of [play] at [theatre], marked for [actor] in the role of [character], prepared by [preparer], ‡f [date of preparation]
• Include the formal title(s) as printed and/or written on the item as an added title in a 246 field.
• Add a 500 note: "Title devised by cataloger."
• If the Folger holds non-promptbook versions of the same printed edition, indicate this with their call numbers in a 590 note. Add a reciprocal note to the non-promptbook version record, indicating the existence of the promptbook copy.
• Include a 510 note if the promptbook is present in Shattuck or Langhans, following their standard citation forms. If the item is not listed in one of these sources, add a 500 note (e.g., "Not in Langhans."). This will ensure that any points of discrepancy or disagreement among the primary reference works are made apparent to researchers.

510 4 ‡a Shattuck, C.H. Shakespeare promptbooks: OTH, ‡c 20.

510 4 ‡a Langhans, E.A. Eighteenth century British and Irish promptbooks, ‡c pages 12-13.

• Add genre term “Promptbooks” for all items marked in manuscript for performance. This includes promptbooks proper, marked copies, preparation copies, rehearsal copies, and partbooks (see E.A. Langhans' Eighteenth century British and Irish promptbooks : a descriptive bibliography for definitions).

655 7 ǂa Promptbooks. ǂ2 rbgenr

• Add other genre terms as appropriate, e.g.:

Interleaved copies (Provenance) ǂ2 rbprov

Cast lists. ‡2 rbgenr

Acting editions. ‡2 rbgenr

• Add a 751 field for event place (assume this is the theater where the play was presented, unless there is strong evidence that the play was not ultimately produced).
• Add a 752 field for the place of creation (assume this is the theater where the play was presented, unless it is known to be otherwise).

• Trace prompters, annotators, and theaters, if known.
  • Make a personal name added entry for known or suspected prompter or annotator in a 700 field with a subfield ǂe "annotator," unless the name is already traced in a general 100 or 700 field.
  • Make an added entry for the theater for which a specific performance is marked. If this information comes from a source other than the manuscript, note of the source of your information in a 500 field.
• Add a name-title heading for the play.

700 12 ‡i Container of (work): ‡a Shakespeare, William, ‡d 1564-1616. ‡t Romeo and Juliet

• If the copy is marked for a particular character, or contains extensive notes about their costuming, etc., add subject headings for that character.

600 10 ‡a Shakespeare, William, ‡d 1564-1616 ‡x Characters ‡x Romeo.

600 10 ‡a Romeo (Fictitious character)

• Add copy-specific notes in an 852 ‡z:
  • Begin ǂz with the phrase "RESTRICTED--SPECIAL PERMISSION REQUIRED."
  • Indicate markings and annotations, giving the annotator whenever known.
  • Indicate which play(s) are marked, if in a collected edition.
  • Example 852 field:

852 8 ǂb DeckC-Rare ǂh PROMPT Cor. 1 ǂj cs1633 ǂz RESTRICTED--SPECIAL PERMISSION REQUIRED. Promptbook, checked by George W. Lewis for Tullus Aufidius. Outer margins trimmed, affecting some ms. notes; interleaved. In ink on page [9] and facing interleaf: Marked as played at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, July 29th 1845, Geo. W. Lewis. In ink on title-page: Theatre Bowery Prompt Book 1841 June. Manuscript cast list. "Order of procession as done at the Walnut St. Theatre. 1845" on interleaves facing pages 31-33. Autograph of W.M. Foster on page 46; autograph of George Becks on title-page. Black cloth boards; black leather spine with gold title. Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Folger.