THE
STRIPLING:
A TRAGEDY.
IN FIVE ACTS.
WRITTEN IN PROSE.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The following Play was written when Master Betty, known by the name of the Young Roscius, was in the highest favour with the public, and before I had seen him perform; but, upon after consideration, was not offered to the theatre. It appears to me, in reading it again, after a long lapse of years, to be a Play not ill suited to a very young actor, at the beginning of his career; being in prose, and having, I hope, no false, overstrained passion in it, to mislead him into ranting or exaggerated expression, either as to gesture, voice, or face.
Were there more characters of simple nature, adapted to young actors, to be found in our dramatic stores, they would not at first acquire those bad habits which so often prevent their after excellence. And the public would, in this early stage of their progress, receive from them a rational entertainment; for, surely, to see a boy assuming the warlike air and tormenting jealousy of Othello, or the delicate and complicated feelings of the Prince of Denmark, scarcely deserves that name.
The story of the Play is in some measure taken from a melancholy event which took place many years ago in Glasgow, yet still within the recollection of some of its present inhabitants. A young man, whose father was in prison, and about to be tried for a capital offence,—his fate depending on the single evidence of one person, which it was believed must prove fatal,—fired through a window at night, and killed the dreaded witness. The father's life was by this means spared, and the son was executed for the criminal act, though it was perpetrated from the strongest feeling of filial affection, being himself in no degree implicated in the guilt of his father.
PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.
MEN:
Arden.
Young Arden.
Robinair.
Bruton.
Humphry, an old Servant in the Family of Arden.
Morgan, }
Robert,} Servants.
Gaolers, Servants, Countrymen, &c.
WOMEN.
Mrs. Arden.
Madaline.
Scene, in London and the Vicinity.