Libretto: 1886 and 1888

1: 1886, First Version

This is the original version, performed when the show opened on 23 December 1886.

A digitised copy is available online from the Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University: Click Here
Note: the title page and blank pages on verso of illustrations are not shown in this scan.
A second copy at Princeton (in the Parrish Collection) is also available online: Click Here

The cover is annotated above the title “First Edition, under revision”.

Page 31, Act II begins with the short Mirror Scene, removed in the Revised Versions. Click Here to see this page.

Variant Covers:

Left: First Edition, Under Revision
Front cover printed in dark brown ink
No advertisement on the back cover.
Image courtesy of Jon Lindseth
(Lindseth Collection now at Christ Church, Oxford)

Right: First Edition, Under Revision
Front cover printed in black ink
Advertisement for Chlorodyne on the back cover.
Image courtesy of Richards Collection

2: 1886, First Revised Version

This version lacks the cover annotation “First Edition, under revision”.

Copies are held in the British Library and in the Lindseth Collection at Christ Church, Oxford.

At the end of the text on page 54 is the print number 3-18-1-87, believed to indicate print run 3, made on 18 January 1887.

Major changes include the removal of the looking-glass scene at the beginning of Act 2 (First edition page 31, Revised editions page 29), adding more verses to ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ with the appearance of oyster ghosts who give them indigestion and dance a hornpipe (Revised editions pages 40-41), giving the White Knight more dialogue and a new song, ‘The Waits’ (Revised editions pages 49-51). Believed to have undergone minor amendments and been replaced very quickly by the Second Revised Version.

Page Images:

Pages 48-49: Click Here (Image courtesy of Jon Lindseth - Lindseth Collection now at Christ Church, Oxford)

Pages 50-51: Click Here (Image courtesy of Jon Lindseth - Lindseth Collection now at Christ Church, Oxford)

Page 54 (with print number): Click Here (Image courtesy of Jon Lindseth - Lindseth Collection now at Christ Church, Oxford)

Front Cover:

Image courtesy of Jon Lindseth (Lindseth Collection now at Christ Church, Oxford)

3: 1886, Second Revised Version

This is believed to be the version performed from late January 1887 at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre, London, through to the end of the provincial tour in August 1887.

A PDF file, scanned from a copy in the Richards Collection is available on this website: Click Here

This version retains the major changes made in the first revision, but differs in smaller details e.g. the scene between Alice and the White Knight (pages 49-51).

Known variant print numbers are 5-24-1-87, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and un-numbered.

Front Cover:

Image courtesy Richards Collection

Note that the 1886 reprinting of the fifth edition (79th to 83rd thousand) of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland changed the verses of ‘‘Tis the voice of the Lobster’ to those of the stage version, as mentioned in the preface to A Bibliography of the Works of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) by Charlie Lovett (LCSNA, 2024 [in press]).

Libretto: 1888

Henry Savile Clarke made further significant changes for the 1888 revival. The banqueting scene at the end of Act II saw the addition of more dialogue for the Red and White Queens with Alice, and a new song — the ‘Fish Riddle’, whilst the song ‘To the Looking-Glass World’ was replaced by the shorter ‘Sound the Festal Trumpets’ (pages 54-56).

A variant edition was printed for use as acting copies by performers etc. with identical text, but printed on larger, thicker paper, one side only and lacking a cover.

Note that all three editions of The Lewis Carroll Handbook, and the 1928 Parrish Collection Catalogue, all refer to versions dated 1889. However, at least one of these references is a typographical error relating to the 1898 Opera Comique production; there is no 1889 printing of the libretto at Princeton University (where the Parrish Collection now resides) and no copies have been identified elsewhere.

A digitised version of the 1888 libretto is available online from the Parrish Collection, Princeton University: Click Here

Covers:

Left: Front Cover

Right: Back cover with advertisement for Ridge’s food, parodying ‘You are old, Father William’.

Images courtesy of a private collection

Further information on the revisions:

‘Savile Clarke’s Alice in Wonderland – A Dream Play, or the Case of the Crucial Comma.’
By Selwyn H. Goodacre and Jeffrey Stern
In: JabberwockyIssue 65 (Vol. 15, Nos. 1 & 2), Winter/Spring 1986, pages 7-13.

Alice on Stage
By Charles C. Lovett
Meckler, 1990.

‘A note on Savile Clarke’s Alice in Wonderland: A Dream Play for Children, including a newly identified third edition‘
By Jon Lindseth
In The Carrollian, Issue 22, Autumn 2008, pages 25-30.

‘Through the Looking-Glass, and what Henry Savile Clarke did there.’
By Catherine Richards and Clare Imholtz
Chapter 31 in Through the Looking-Glass. A Companion
Peter Lang, Oxford, 2024 [in press].

These pieces all make specific reference to the revisions made to the play. For a more detailed bibliography visit the Introduction page.

Libretto: From 1898

1898 Revival

In 1898, the operetta was revived at the Opera Comique. A small 20-page booklet containing most of the song words, and imitating the overall formatting of the earlier editions, but without the speeches and stage directions, was published by producer and actor Arthur Eliot (printed by Richard Clay and Sons, Limited).

Variant printings are known with and without the phrase “by arrangement with Mr Edgar Bruce” on the front cover and title page. Charles C. Lovett, in Alice on Stage (Meckler, 1990), suggests that the phrase was removed for the second printing.

Front cover and title page of the booklet of song words (version that does not refer to Edgar Bruce.)

Images courtesy of a private collection

Click Here to view the full booklet.

For digitised versions of both variant printings from the Parrish Collection, Princeton University: Click Here

Post 1898

Although it is clear from theatre programmes and contemporaneous reviews that the libretto underwent further revisions after the deaths of Henry Savile Clarke and Charles Dodgson, no later versions have been located to date.

The First Edition, Under Revision has been reprinted (without the verses/songs) in Appendix B of Lovett’s Alice on Stage.

The Alice on Stage reprinting was the basis for a translation into Japanese by Yu Okubo in 2009. Available free at the digital library, Aozora Bunko: Click Here

The revised version of ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ with the oyster ghosts and three additional verses, was reprinted in The Walrus and the Carpenter, edited by Dayna McCausland, with illustrations by Gene King, being the 1999 Chapbook of the Lewis Carroll Society of Canada.

Walter Slaughter’s Orchestral Score

The original production of Alice in Wonderland was supported by a full orchestra. The only known surviving orchestral score is in the J. C. Williamson Collection, held by the National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia. The renowned impresario J. C. Williamson acquired the Australian rights in the summer of 1901 and produced versions for Christmas 1901-1902 and 1906-1907.

The Catalogue Number is MUS JCW 004/1-2, comprising 2 boxes of individual scores (conductor’s score and a full range of orchestral instruments, all in manuscript) plus some commercially available song-sheets for pieces that were interpolated into the production. Click Here for the entry in the National Library of Australia catalogue

This score is the subject of new and extensive research by Matthew Demakos — for an overview, see ‘The Newly Identified 1887 Score for the Alice Operetta’ by Matthew Demakos in Knight Letter, the Journal of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, Number 112, Spring 2024 pp.14-26.

The scores in the Williamson Collection are hybrid, consisting largely of material from the time of the original productions during Dodgson and Clarke’s lifetime, but with additional music written by Walter Slaughter specifically for Seymour Hicks’ revival in 1900, and further edits made for the Australian shows. Unlike previous recordings (which are known, or presumed, to be based upon the vocal-piano score first published in 1906), Demakos has begun to create recordings that use Slaughter’s own orchestral scores. These recordings - using software samples supplied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra - bring us much closer to what Dodgson himself would have heard during the performance. The following recordings (with videos that allow you to follow the score, note by note) have been produced by Matthew Demakos for the Lewis Carroll Resources Website.

The Opening Chorus

To hear and view the reconstructed orchestral score Click Here

To read a commentary by Matthew Demakos Click Here

Father William

To hear and view the reconstructed orchestral score, alongside animated Magic Lantern images Click Here

To read a commentary by Matthew Demakos Click Here

To view the orchestral score edited by Matthew Demakos Click Here

The Executioner’s Chorus

To hear and view the reconstructed orchestral score Click Here

To read a commentary by Matthew Demakos Click Here

To view the orchestral score edited by Matthew Demakos Click Here

The Mirror Scene (Act II)

For a presentation by Matthew Demakos on the reconstructed orchestral score Click Here

Vocal & Piano Score: 1906

The only known printed, commercially available music is a vocal and piano score published by the newly-amalgamated firm, Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew Ltd., London, 1906. The publication coincided with Seymour Hicks’ revival at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London for Christmas 1906, with Marie Studholme as Alice. The score is based upon Hicks’ modifications to the libretto made in conjunction with Aubrey Hopwood, with additional music specially written by Walter Slaughter, and first performed for Christmas 1900. The score includes new songs (‘Naughty Little Bunny’, ‘Tell me, Hatter’ and ‘When the Wind is in the East’) and omits others such as ‘The Waits.’

The two “supplementary” songs at the end of the book (and none of the others) were each published as individual music sheets:

Flowerland. Song from Alice in Wonderland
Lyricist unknown, Music by Walter Slaughter, published by Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew Ltd., London, 1906.
A copy is held by the British Library, London, UK, catalogue number h.3832.b 24.

Naughty Little Bunny Song
Words by Aubrey Hopwood, Music by Walter Slaughter, published by Boosey & Co., London, 1901.
A copy is held by the British Library, London, UK.

The vocal score (with song words) was published by Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew, London, 1906, and the 2/6 version can be accessed at IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) Click Here

Variants

Several printings are known, all dated copyright 1906

1. Soft cover in black and white on sepia, with drawings of Alice holding the Pig Baby, and other Wonderland characters. Signed in monogram (possibly PH). Price 3/-. Copies are held by the British Library (date-stamped 24 De 1906), and by the Bodleian Library (date-stamped 28.3.1907).

2. Soft cover printed in colour with Alice in a pale pink dress, peeping from behind a tree at other Wonderland characters. Signed W. George. Versions have been identified priced 2/6 and 6/- (and the 2/6 version also marked up by hand to 3/6) Specific dates of publication are currently unknown, although advertisements for the Christmas 1910 revival refer to the “Dainty new edition of the Vocal Score now ready. Price 2s 6d. net, of all musicsellers or the publishers ...” [The Daily Telegraph, 31 Decemebr 1910 p.10].

A further edition has been identified, dated copyright 1906 and copyright renewed 1934. This copy, also with the cover by W. George, is priced 6/-.

Variant Cover Images:

Left: Cover by "PH". Image courtesy of Private Collection.

Right: Cover by W. George. Image courtesy of the University of Southern California Cassady Carroll Collection.

Related Images:

Left: Photographic postcard of Ellaline Terriss in costume
Richards Collection postcard no. 0005

Right: Photographic postcard of Marie Studholme in costume
Richards Collection postcard no. 1866

Note the similarity between the image of Alice on the music cover (above right) and these photographs.

Later Compositions

Other music was composed specifically for later productions of the play. This includes:

“Betty”

An intermezzo composed by Marjorie Slaughter and dedicated to Ellaline Terriss’s daughter, Betty.

Played during the intermission of the 1906 revival.
Published by Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew Ltd., London, 1906.

“Wonderland”

An intermezzo composed by Marjorie Slaughter

Played during the intermission of the 1909 revival. Published by J. B. Cramer & Co. Ltd., 1909.
A copy is held by the British Library, London, UK. Catalogue number h.3283.pp.(19.)

“The Jabberwock’s Patrol”

Composed by Archibald Benwell for Stedman’s Company.

Played during the interval. Published by George Withers & Sons, London, 1909.
A copy is held by the British Library, London, UK. Catalogue number h.3283.bb.(11.)

“Mr. Jollyboy”

A dance intermezzo composed by Marjorie Slaughter.

Played during the interval of the 1913 revival. Published by Frank Howard, 8 Exeter Street, Strand, W.C.

“The Oyster Song”

A song with words by A. Horsepool and music by Marjorie Slaughter.

Sung by Hayden Coffin in Act II in the 1913 revival.

Recordings of Walter Slaughter’s music for the Savile Clarke production of Alice in Wonderland

There are no known recordings of the many productions of Alice in Wonderland that took place between 1886 and 1930. However, recordings of excerpts have been made more recently, and are available. They are listed here, chronologically.

25 April 1941, His Master’s Voice, Ann Stephens as Alice

Music is by Walter Slaughter (but the text is adapted by Edward P Genn).

Scene: Introduction and Caterpillar

Song: You Are Old, Father William
www.youtube.com

Scene with Duchess and Cheshire Cat

Song: Speak Roughly to your Little Boy
Song: Cheshire Cat
www.youtube.com

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

Song: When the Wind is in The East
[extra song written by Walter Slaughter & Aubrey Hopwood for Seymour Hicks’ revival in 1900]
www.youtube.com

Scene with the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle

Song: Beautiful Soup
www.youtube.com

Scene with Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Song: The Mulberry Bush
Song: Tweedledum and Tweedledee
www.youtube.com

Scene with Humpty Dumpty and Finale

Song: Humpty Dumpty
Song: Wake, Alice, Wake!
www.youtube.com

30 May 1945, His Master’s Voice, Ann Stephens as Alice

Most of the music is by Walter Slaughter (but the text is adapted by Edward P Genn).

Scenes with the White King and with the Lion and the Unicorn

Song: Nobody [by Walter Tilbury, 1903]
Song: The Lion and the Unicorn
www.youtube.com

Sound the Festal Trumpets and scene with the with Red and White Queens

Song: Sound the Festal Trumpets
Song: Wake, Alice, Wake!
www.youtube.com

1987, Musical Recordings made by Alexandre Reverend

The book, Lewis Carroll and Music by Alexandre Reverend, published by Syndicat du Wonderland, 1987, discusses a variety of aspects of Lewis Carroll and music. It is accompanied by a cassette that includes selected recordings of Walter Slaughter’s music for Alice in Wonderland. These are also available on the associated website, Lewis Carroll et la musique.

Direct link to the list of all musical recordings: areverend.free.fr

Links to specific recordings:

Song: How Doth the Little Crocodile
areverend.free.fr

Song: Father William
areverend.free.fr

Music: Entrance of the Duchess
areverend.free.fr

Song: Jabberwocky
areverend.free.fr

Song: Tweedledum and Tweedledee
areverend.free.fr

Music: Oyster Scene
areverend.free.fr

Music: No.6 Dressing up for Battle (Tweedledum and Tweedledee)
areverend.free.fr

Disney Archive Collection

Alice in Wonderland Laserdisc, music and songs recorded 1947 and released 22 November 1995. In addition to a remastered edition of the full-length cartoon, this laserdisc features a considerable amount of background material, including a section on “Demos of songs and some deleted songs.” Although uncredited, 16 of these are recognisable as Walter Slaughter’s music with a Disney arrangement (voice with piano accompaniment). All the original pieces can be found in the published piano and vocal score of 1906, listed as follows:

Act I no 4 Song - Duchess - “Speak roughly to your little Boy”

Act I no 5 Duet - Alice and Cheshire Cat - “Cheshire Pussy”

Act I no 6 Song - “So they say”

Act I no 6a March [instrumental]

Act I no 7 Chorus - “Gavotte of Cards” Song [words - "Dancing gaily on the green ... ” were added by 1900, post-1888 revival]

Act I no 7 “Gavotte of Cards” Dance section [instrumental]

Act I no 7a Entrance of Executioner [musical introduction]

Act I no 8 Executioner’s Chorus

Act I no 12 Finale - “’Not Guilty,’ I declare”

Act II no 4a Entrance of Walrus and Carpenter [musical introduction]

Act II no 5 Oyster scene [the first two lines of music that follow on from 4a]

Act II no 5 Oyster scene - “The Carpenter is sleeping ...” [single verse by the 1st Oyster]

Act II no 7 Song - “Humpty Dumpty”

Act II no 8 Chorus - “Humpty Dumpty fallen down”

Act II no 9 Chorus - “Lion and the Unicorn”

Act II no 10 Song - “When the Wind is in the East” [added for the 1900 revival]

2013, Colin Johnson

The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive website (British Musical Theatre section) has the music as individual digital files created by Colin Johnson; click for each individual piece of music (no words).

www.gsarchive.net

21 February 2020, University of Kent Cecilian Choir

This adaptation, by Dr Daniel Harding, Deputy Director of Music, was produced as part of the University of Kent’s celebration of the bi-centennial of Sir John Tenniel’s birth. It uses Savile Clarke’s libretto (edition unspecified) and Walter Slaughter’s music (from the vocal and piano score, published by Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew Ltd.). The production was based upon Act I (Wonderland) only. The music has been adapted for a chamber quartet rather than a full orchestra. Some sections of the libretto (and some characters) have been cut, and the Finale of Act II, which reprises the music at the opening of Act I, added to the end, to make it a complete piece with a proper ending. Although the main focus is upon the music, the performance is enacted, in costume, making it the closest to the original play.

Link to the performance (running time one hour): Click Here

Full details of this production inclucing images, cast, commentary on the music can be found on the website created by the University of Kent Music Departent: Click Here

23 April 2023, Ensemble Oper@Tee at KUMST Strasshof, Vienna, Austria

This adaptation, translated into Austrian German by Alice Waginger, is derived from the First 1886 Revised Version of the libretto, sourced from the British Library, and the 1906 vocal and piano score sourced from IMSPL. Some dialogue and songs have been edited out, and the performance is given by a cast of six actors, accompanied by a keyboard. For further information, see the Productions section.

The performance on 23 April was recorded and is available on YouTube Click Here (running time 90 minutes)

Note:

As far as can be determined, all the above recordings (even when orchestrated) are derived from the 1906 published piano/vocal score.

For Matthew Demakos’ work to create sound recordings that include all the instruments included in the original manuscript orchestral scores, see the Orchestral Score section.