copy made, in 1855, for E.L. Davenport, as has already been done
elsewhere in print. I have preferred to use the text finally prepared
by Boker for his published plays, this being the one which met with
his approval. In 1882, Lawrence Barrett, with the aid of William
Winter, prepared an acting version of "Francesca," and it was this
which Mr. Otis Skinner used, when he revived the piece in 1901.

A notice in The New York _Tribune_ for 1882 suggests that when E.L.
Davenport first essayed "Francesca da Rimini," in 1855, it was in
one-act. I can find no corroboration of this statement. The play-bill
here reproduced specifically announces a _five_ act tragedy, and it
is to be inferred that the form of the play, as given at the Broadway
Theatre, New York, September 26, 1855,[B] was the only one used by
him. Winter claims that as _Lanciotto_, Davenport was "unimaginative,
mechanical, and melodramatic," and that the whole piece "proved
tedious." This is strange, considering the heroic and romantic
characteristics in Davenport's method of acting. It may be that he
attempted Boker's play because of his interest in the development
of American drama. He had assisted Mrs. Mowatt in her career as
playwright, and, during his full life, his name was identified with
Boker's "Calaynos," George H. Miles's tragedy, "De Soto, the Hero
of the Mississippi," and Conrad's "Jack Cade." But the concensus of
opinion is that Boker's "Francesca da Rimini," as given by Davenport,
was a failure.

An examination of the cast in the Davenport program with the cast as
it was when Boker issued the play, indicates that the text must have
been considerably changed, and certain characters omitted, when,
at the suggestion of Winter, Lawrence Barrett promised to revive it
during the summer of 1882. The scholarly turn of Barrett's mind must