DIDO’S LAMENT A tale about the making of the opera Dido and Aeneas PETER STICKLAND GREY SUIT EDITIONS COPYRIGHT © 2007 PETER STICKLAND The author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. Published 2007 in Great Britain. GREY SUIT EDITIONS, 33 Holcombe Road, London N17 9AS. www.the-room.org.uk This work is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. ISBN 1 903 006 04 X A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. The drawing on the front cover is by Louise Blair and the drawing opposite is by Cordelia Blair-Stickland. Both were inspired by a drawing of Dido and Aeneas by Guido Reni, circa 1620. Book design and layout by Dennis Mariner. Printed and bound by the Alden Group, Oxford. For Ron and Mary Stickland DIDO’S LAMENT I would like to express my grateful thanks to Joy Flanagan who read and discussed numerous versions of this tale. I also thank Robin Jones, Andrea Parry, Janey Sharratt and Amikam Toren for their enthusiasm. I thank George Lawson for dancing to Henry Purcell and George Gajek for dancing to the fool. I am indebted to Guillermo Rozenthuler for his intense musicality, the Song and Voice Group for singing, Frankie Bailey at the Literary Consultancy for criticism, Peter Beardsell for sharing insights, Jonathan Fordham for editorial advice and Dennis Mariner for the book design. 4 DIDO’S LAMENT Principal Characters Nahum Tate Writer and librettist Henry Purcell Composer Eliza Ashton Nahum’s mistress Josias Priest Choreographer; Head of the School Cecelia Priest Wife of Josais; also Head of the School Frances Pieters Young lady attending school Anna Pieters Young lady attending school Amy Pieters The Mother of the young ladies Ellen Fairweather Nahum’s housekeeper Harry Fairweather Ellen’s son Horace Heveningham Nahum’s friend Mary Heveningham Horace’s wife Thomas Boteler (Buttons) Nahum’s friend Thomas Flatman Nahum’s friend The Duchess de Mazarin The King’s Consort and Stylist John Blow Master of the King’s music Thomas Killigrew Director of the Theatre Royal Belinda Perryman Mary’s friend Faithful Tate Nahum’s brother DIDO’S LAMENT 6 DIDO’S LAMENT Prologue “Friendship’s the privilege of private men, for wretched greatness knows no blessing so substantial.” Nahum Tate ‘A city of refuge and the mansion house of liberty.’ That’s how John Milton described London and indeed there is something great about this city. It appears in all respects to have the love of heaven directed at it. My early years were spent in Dublin and moving to London was a revelation to me. Ireland is a turbulent place where one person is set against another and where trust is not a thing you can count on, but in London there are too many differences for conflicts to cause lasting division. The sociability here maybe at times rough-hewn, but it is sociable despite that, and if London’s reputation for noise and mayhem cannot be overestimated it is nonetheless the sound of excited life that greets me each morning. I live on the north side of The Strand, just west of St. Clements Church. It is often so crowded that it is hardly possible for a horse or a carriage to pass along it. The throng is like a pageant and I take in this great show from my bedroom window as though I were viewing a play from a theatre box. The inhabitants of this town have great humour, they openly express their love for each other and they have a passion for discourse. They are the most ingenious crowd you could wish to meet and they possess an extraordinary ability to invent new ideas. Music, architecture, literature and science all flourish here as though it is natural for them to do so and I throw myself at every opportunity I have for learning. I came here 7 DIDO’S LAMENT as a poet and there is no finer place to practice my art and engage my ambition to become Poet Laureate. This of course may be too much to ask, but the very thought of it drives me along and encourages my will to work. I am Nahum Tate and I am very proud that my name is beginning to be associated with some literary acclaim. This achievement has not been easy, for I lack the private income that is essential for those with an ambition like mine. These days a great deal of my time must be taken up with journalism. I write translations, pastorals, paraphrases, prologues, epilogues and a host of other categories that defy description. I write for magazines and journals on subjects as wide apart as morality, religion, science and history. If writing journalism is not sacrifice enough, I must also direct my love of poetry to sleep so that I can concentrate on gaining some recognition. It was John Dryden who encouraged me in this. ‘You must be in the theatre if your desire is to meet people and gain attention,’ he told me. I followed his advice faithfully and for the past four years I have dedicated myself to writing plays. I started by adapting Shakespeare’s King Lear, which proved to be a difficult task. Shakespeare wrote the most wonderful collection of jewels imaginable and it was almost impossible to find passages where he had left these jewels unstrung or even under-polished. My primary ambition was to reward Cordelia for the love she bestowed upon her father, so I set about giving her a decent future, but as Cordelia’s presence in the play increased so the Fool’s presence diminished and before long I had no room for him. Losing the Fool was a heavy price to pay. I gained rapturous applause, but my notoriety was founded on Cordelia’s happy marriage to Edgar rather than my poetic excellence. I have much to learn. Borrowing from historic sources is fashionable in the theatre, but even with something as safe as history one has to tread carefully. Audiences are the most fickle of God’s creatures and for a playwright to ignore popular taste is commercial suicide. All theatre, as far as London audiences are concerned, should display glamorous costumes and spectacular stage effects and if there is a theme that is prized above all others, then that DIDO’S LAMENT theme is ‘love’. Further more, if a playwright has the skill to satirize love in a light-hearted manner then his works will be applauded above all others. So here is a pretty pass, for this I fear is where my ambition may yet fall apart. Humour in every part of my life I have, but when it comes to writing funny lines I cannot do it to save my life. Despite the happy ending, King Lear is still a tragedy. After my first success I went looking for another great work with love as its theme. Humour I did not find, but I did discover Christopher Marlowe’s play, Dido, Queen of Carthage. It is based upon that part of Virgil’s Aeneid where Aeneas arrives on Dido’s shore. It is a majestic play and I knew that the story of this royal couple would please today’s audiences. I did not wish to follow Marlowe or Virgil too closely, or to fill the stage with gods who play with mortals and bring about their downfall, so I used the story to explore the themes of envy and greed. When it was finished I showed it to John Dryden and Thomas D’Urfey. John insisted that I could not possibly lay my cheeky hands on one of the great legends of the age and Thomas claimed that I was tampering with a work that is rooted in literature’s Holy Ground. In short, I was advised to dig for my plots elsewhere. I could not afford to be seen as an arrogant upstart, lacking any form of modesty, so I changed the characters names, set the play in Sicily and called it Brutus of Alba. Thomas Betterton was very taken by it and he made an elaborate production of it at The Dukes Theatre in Dorset Garden. With this success my confidence was beginning to grow, but if my ability to gain attention in the theatre is achievable, my ability to make a living at it continues to be a struggle. Despite the vast amount of journalism I engage in, my income remains paltry and I need to supplement it by teaching. I teach poetry and literature at a boarding school for young ladies in Leicester Fields. Josias Priest runs the school with his wife, Cecelia. It has an excellent reputation and it is much sought after by the nobility and the gentry. Mr. Priest is famous in the theatre for his talent as a dancer and choreographer, so music and dancing figure highly on the curriculum. Social etiquette, deportment, English literature and French are also important subjects, but scant attention is paid to anything else. 9 DIDO’S LAMENT It is an unusual place for me to work, but it has one great virtue, it is the place where I met Henry Purcell.