h 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
have made him ponder it well during a trip he made abroad at the time,
and Boker, meanwhile, must have been cutting the cloth to suit the
actor's ideas. Barron, one of Barrett's biographers, claims that "Mr.
Barrett saw great possibilities in the work, and with his practical
assistance the play was suitably changed, new situations were
effected, a more picturesque colouring was given the scenes and story,
and all that was repellant in the too close following of Dante [!]
was removed." The play was given by Barrett, at Haverly's Theatre,
Chicago, on September 14, 1882, Otis Skinner playing _Paolo_, and
Marie Wainwright appearing as _Francesca_. In Winter's estimate of the
performance, we find the dominant characteristics being "moderation"
and "balanced growth." He says of _Lanciotto_: "Alertness of the brain
sustained it, at every point, in brilliant vigour, and it