AustLit

Note by S. R. Simmons in the front of the facsimile copy of the 1876 edition: '...In the [Marcus Clarke] Memorial Volume [1884], [Hamilton] Mackinnon says: "Besides the unfinished libretto ('Queen Venus') the prolific writer left the plots and a portion of the matter of the following: 'Reverses' an Australian Comedy, almost completed..."

'No mention is made of this in his list under the title of 'The Complete Works of Marcus Clarke' which follows the biography on pages 63-64; nor does the list figure again with the revised biography in the two later volumes mentioned: yet Mackinnon mentions other unfinished works.'

'Who would expect to find a work "almost completed" made into a printed book? Yet here it is printed and bound with a title page which declares it to be copyright, but with no word as to it being unfinished, and no explanation as to why it was put into print. One can only surmise that Clarke put the work in the printer's hands intending to supply the concluding portion, and left the blanks under the headings for stage directions to be filled in by hand according to production requirements.'

'It will be noticed that while Acts One and Two occupy 20 pages each, and Act Three 17 pages, Act Four only reaches to 11 pages. Mac's [Mackinnon's] "almost completed" suggests that Clarke had only to bring about the denouement in the Fourth Act to complete the play. (It ends abruptly). But to a novice it would appear that the denouement could hardly be brought about in the 9 pages required to complete the 4th Act. No mention is made anywhere as to the number of Acts projected for this piece... The original work will be found between the printed orange cover as here presented.'