Pre-Draft Notes

ACT I: Open at drawing-room; London; introduce Ruthven & Aubrey (Miss Aubrey?); seduction by R, unknown by A; end w/ R & A departing for Rome
ACT II: Rome; Greece; end w/ return to london, R apparently dead
ACT III: A's return to London; R's appearance as the Earl of Marsden, "remember your oath"; close at wedding of R & Miss Aubrey? keep original ending?

CHARACTERS

  • Lord Vincent Ruthven (Earl of Masden): "dead grey eye"; gets women to seduce him, not vice-versa; does not aid those who have fallen, but those who never rise (modern terms: he'd give a bum money for liquor, not for food); claims the vagabonds are more insistent when asking for charity; curse on R's generosity; has travelled extensively
  • William Aubrey: orphan (parents died in childhood); one sister; great wealth, "looked after" by guardians (rather than looking after him?); "cultivated his imagination more than his judgment"; naïve; intrigued by R, or by his own notions of R; sees R as self-absorbed
  • Miss Aubrey: Aubrey's sister; 18 years old; bit of a firebrand
  • Ianthe: in Athens, tells A stories of vampires, A falls in love w/ her; killed by R
  • Aubrey's guardians?
  • Ianthe's parents, Greek villagers: discover death of Ianthe
  • Lodon socialites, Lady Mercer: attempts to seduce R
  • Doctor, Frail old woman, Guards: attend to Aubrey in Act III
  • Suitors of Miss Aubrey: rivals of the "Earl of Marsden"
  • Guides, Robbers: accompany R and A on their travels (see Byron?)

GENERAL NOTES

  • Both R & A arrive on the London scene around the same time (R a little earlier)
  • A approaches R for travel advice, R ends up offering to accompany A on his travels
  • R and A arrive together in Rome, lose track of each other, A's letters to home (sister, guardians); A starts journal that he continues on his return (easy device for soliloquies)?
  • Scene of confrontation in Rome (pg. 11), A leaves & goes to Athens, meets Ianthe
  • I tells A all sorts of stories of her youth, moves eventually to "the supernatural [vampire] tales of her nurse"
  • Rainstorm, pgs. 13 & 14, "Again baffled!"
  • Travel stops: Rome, Athens, –R dies–, Naples (or Smyrna/Izmir?), Rome
  • Injury of R, see pp 4 & 5 in Byron: R & A with guides, get shot at; they escape, then last paragraph on p 4 ensues
  • Some part in act I, A should search for info about R

 

  is copyright © 1998 by Glen Eric Reed.

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