Characters and Setting
- Principal roles:
- MacGregor, a wealthy Scottish lord (bass)
- Mary (Maria), his daughter (soprano)
- Margaret, her wet-nurse (mezzo-soprano)
- Earl Douglas, Maria's fiancé (tenor)
- William Ratcliff (baritone)
- Minor roles:
- Lesley, Ratcliff's friend (tenor)
- Robin, a vagrant (bass)
- Tom, a vagrant (baritone)
- Betsy, a servant at the tavern (soprano)
- Servants, wedding guests, swindlers, robbers (chorus)
Read more about this topic: William Ratcliff (Cui)
Famous quotes containing the words characters and, characters and/or setting:
“Unresolved dissonances between the characters and dispositions of the parents continue to reverberate in the nature of the child and make up the history of its inner sufferings.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.”
—Clifford Irving (b. 1930)
“The trees stand in the setting sun,
I in their freckled shade
Regard the cavalcade of sin,
Remorse for foolish action done,
That pass like ghosts regardless, in
A human image made....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)