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When Knights Were Bold

by Harriet Jay and Robert Buchanan
The plot of . . . “When Knights Were Bold,” is more or less original as modern comedies go. It circles round the love affair of a man and a maid. In the first act, a very twentieth century one, the hero, despite the pronounced encouragement of the heroine, fails to screw up his courage to the proposing point. When alone he can declare his love manfully enough, but in the maid’s presence he becomes as shy as an early Victorian school miss. As the curtain falls, he writes himself down as an ass, takes a big drink, smokes a cigarette, and—dreams.

Act II represents the dream. It is the medieval age—the age of chivalry, of bold, bad barons and gallant knights. An ancestor of the hero is one of these latter. His love story is depicted vividly. There is nothing lackadaisical about the lovemaking. The bold knight finally seizes the maiden in his arms and carries her off bodily to the altar in the face of strenuous opposition.

In act III the twentieth century again appears. There hero wakes up and follows, so far as modernity will let him, the example of his ancestory shown him in the second act.

— San Francisco Call, 14 December 1906

Sadly, we haven’t tracked down the script (possibly because it was never published), but we know from several reviews that the modern day Sir Guy loathes the very mention of days of old.
DEBUT
When Knights Were Bold (at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, UK, 17 September 1906).
VARIANTS
2 English variants
TRANSLATIONS
Translations to Danish, Dutch, German
DERIVATIVE WORKS
  1. When Knights Were Bold by Frank Miller (early screenwriter), directed by Maurice Elvey, (at movie theaters, UK, May 1916).
  2. Il cavaliere del silenzio [writer unknown], directed by Oreste Visalli, (at movie theaters, Italy, June 1916).
  3. When Knights Were Bold [writer unknown], directed by Tim Whelan, (at movie theaters, UK, February 1929).
  4. When Knights Were Bold by Douglas Furber and Austin Parker, directed by Jack Raymond, (at movie theaters, London, 19 February 1936).
TAGS(SPOILERS!)
Time Periods Themes Real-World Tags
TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)
  1. From 1906 ⋙ to AD 1196. Round trip. Note: Sir Guy de Vere and company, possibly in a dream.
INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)
  • Credits—We list <a href='Robert_Buchanan'>Robert Buchanan</a> as an uncredited author based on the analysis at <a href='http%3A%2F%2Fwww.robertbuchanan.co.uk%2Fhtml%2Fknights.html'>robertbuchanan.co.uk</a>.
  • Variants—The data on the translations is from <a href='http%3A%2F%2Fwww.robertbuchanan.co.uk%2Fhtml%2Fknights.html'>robertbuchanan.co.uk</a>, with verification of the Oslo performance at the <a href='https%3A%2F%2Fnl.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FWhen_knights_were_bold'>Norwegian Wikipedia</a>. However, we don’t really know whether these were English performances or in the language of the city where it was performed (or in the case of <em>Blandt bolde riddere</em> possibly a Danish performance in Norway). The only information on the translators given at those sites is that <a href='Siegfried_V._Lutz'>Siegfried V. Lutz</a> translated a published version of <em>Die golden Ritterzeit</em> in 1910, but we don’t know if this was also the 1910 play performed in Vienna.