Arthur Hobson Quinn

“ Here, too, we turn back to our first comedy, The Contrast, for the beginning of the type, but while we note in 1841 the production of a “cutting satire upon fashionable life” [28] in the comedy of Saratoga Springs, which was very successful, it was not until the production of Fashion by Anna Ogden Mowatt on 24 Mawatt on 24 March, 1845, at the Park Theatre in New York that we can chronicle a social satire of any distinction. ”

“ With the coming of peace, the feeling against plays began to lessen. Lewis Hallam, the younger, returned to Philadelphia in 1784, and when he was coldly received there took to New York the reorganized American Company that was to be so closely associated with the history of the drama in that city. From the point of view of the production of dramatic writing, however, nothing is worthy of record until 1787. ”

“ On 9 September, William Dunlap’s Yankee Chronology was played in New York, while on 28 September, the opening night, a play was on the stage in both Boston and Philadelphia. Clapp tells us [22] that “in the early days of the theatre, every public event of sufficient importance was immediately dramatized, and during the progress of the war, the spirit was kept up by the frequent production of pieces in honour of our naval victories.” ”

“ Types of Drama. It is not to be supposed that dramatic talent was limited to Philadelphia. Epes Sargent and Julia Ward Howe in Boston, Nathaniel Parker Willis of Boston and New York, Charlotte Barnes Conner and Anna Ogden Mowatt of New York, and George H. Miles of Baltimore, to mention only a few, wrote plays that were definite contributions to literature as well as practically adapted for the stage. ”

“ The very prominence of New York and its proximity to Europe, however much they added to its theatrical prestige, hindered the development of the drama. The succession of English actors who were brought over as “stars” resulted in little encouragement to native writers, while in Philadelphia, under the encouragement of Edwin Forrest and others, a group of dramatists arose whose work became widely known both at home and abroad. For the year 1829–30 Durang lists nine plays by American writers, among them Pocahontas by George Washington Custis and John Kerr’s first draft of Rip Van Winkle. ”

“ Romantic Comedy. In romantic comedy, there was very little that could compare with the achievement in romantic tragedy. The Deformed, played in 1830, by Richard Penn Smith, has some real merit, though it owes much to Dekker. Tortesa, The Usurer, by N. P. Willis, was played by J. W. Wallack in 1839 in New York and later in England, where Lester Wallack played Angelo to his father’s Tortesa. It is an excelent play, and the last act, in which the usurer rises to the dignity of self-sacrifice, is especially appealing. ”

“ Mrs. Conner alone tasks Pocahontas to England, where she dies. Of the colonial dramas, Barker’s Superstition (1824) and R. P. Smith’s William Penn (1829) seem the most significant.
As was natural, the Revolution was the most appealing theme. Practically every great event from the Boston Tea Party to the Battle of Yorktown was dramatized. The treason of Arnold and Andrès capture was a favourite theme and it is to our credit that Andrè usually is a heroic figure. [20] Marion and Franklin were also favourites, but everyone else runs a bad second to Washington so far as the stage is concerned. ”

“ In 1829 Forrest produced the Indian play of Metamora by John Augustus Stone, an actor who lived during his creative period in Philadelphia. The play was a bit bombastic and the speeches of Metamora show a curious mixture of Indian and Ossian, but they are at times very effective and some of the phrases of this play became bywords in the mouths of the people.
§ 11. The Philadelphia Group: R. M. Bird, R. P. Smith, Conrad, Boker. Forrest also inspired Robert Montgomery Bird of Philadelphia to write The Gladiator in 1831. ”

“ Plays. In our first comedy, The Contrast, Tyler developed the stage Yankee in Jonathan, and though J. Robinson’s Yorker’s Stratagem (1792) and Barker’s Tears and Smiles (1807) contain Yankee characters, it was not till The Forest Rose, by Samuel Woodworth, was placed on the stage in 1825 that a Yankee character was developed which permanently held the boards. The part of Jonathan Plowboy was played afterward by Henry Placide, G.H. Hill, Joshua Silsbee, and others. In the preface [24] to the play it is stated that Silsbee played Jonathan for over one hundred consecutive nights in London. ”

“ Among plays of which record of performance has been kept, about four hundred in number, the largest group would be that of comedy, and it was from this group that the most significant plays form the point of view of stage development evolved. ”

“ George H. Mile’s prize play of Mohammed, performed in 1851, and Leonor de Guzman and Francesca da Rimini of Boker belong also to this group. Even in the historical tragedies, however, it is the unhappy lot of the main character and the interest of the unfamiliar that hold the attention rather than the background, and there is no clear line to be drawn between those which are historical and those which are not. To the latter class belong Bird’s Broker of Bogota, and a tragedy of peculiar interest, Octavia Brigaldi, by Mrs. Conner, in which she acted in the title role in 1837. ”

“ Chanfrau had made a number of imitations of firemen before on the stage, and the play was, therefore, a growth. It is melodramatic, but there is a reality about the scenes in the dives and streets that points forward rather than backward. Baker continued in New York as It Is (1848) to exploit Mose, and the interest in that form of play was capitalized immediately by other writers and actors. Philadelphia as It Is appeared in 1849, and in Boston George Campbell produced in I848 a local drama in which a scene in a police court was introduced. ”

“ The Realistic New York Drama. Another interesting development is represented in the local drama representing actual conditions, frequently of lower life, in the larger cities. The date of the first production of such a play would be hard to determine. Dunlap [25] speaks of Life in New York, or The Fireman on Duty, before 1832. As early as 1829 Hackett appeared in a play called The Times or Life in New York, in which he acted a Yankee character. ”

“ Warren at times writes a blank verse of considerable distinction, but their chief interest lies in their close relation to the great conflict they represent. [8]
The authority of Congress, except when ratified by action of the several states, did not extend beyond a recommendation to discontinue plays, but with the exception of a brief season in 1778 at the Southwark Theatre in Philadelphia, the activities of the Baltimore Company which began in 1781, and the later ventures of Ryan’s Company in New York, the wishes of Congress were generally respected. ”

“ The character of Febro in The Broker of Bogota, energetic, with a middle-class mind but courageous and with a passion for his children, is admirably conceived. Bird was also known as a novelist, and one of his romances, Nick of the Woods, dramatized by Louisa Medina in 1838, proved to be one of the most successful melodramas of the time. ”

“ J. H. Payne. Payne, unlike Barker, represents foreign influence. From 1806 when his Julia, or The Wanderer, was acted in New York, his dramatic work consisted largely of adaptation from English, French, and German sources. His complete bibliography [11] record sixty-four plays, of which nineteen were published. His most significant work was done in the field of tragedy, such as his Brutus, first played in London in 1818, or in comedy like Charles II, first performed in London in 1824, while the bulk of his work is composed of melodrama or farce. ”

“ Such titles as The Dry Goods Clerk of New York (1851) , The Seamstress of New York (1851) , New York by Gaslight (1856) , The Poor of New York (1857) , Life in Brooklyn, its Lights and Shades, its Virtues and Vices (1858) illustrate the nature of the species perhaps sufficiently, while Mose in California (1849) and Mose in China (1850) show how cosmopolitan that gentleman became.
§ 18. Social Satire. Much more important from the artistic standpoint were the comedies proceeding by means of social satire. ”

“ Dunlap’s importation of the domestic drama of Kotzebue had also its effect. Some of the dramas of this class, notably Noah’s Wandering Boys, played first in Charleston in 1812 under the title of Paul and Alexis, were vastly popular. Most important in this class was the genesis of Rip Van Winkle. As early as 26 May, 1828, Thomas Flynn seems to have played a version of Rip Van Winkle in Albany. ”

“ This version was very popular and was afterward played in New York. A Later play by Charles Burke is an adaptation of this one, with certain changes, notably the preservation of Dame Van Winkle, and the final version of Boucicault and Joseph Jefferson the younger is a development in its turn from Burke’s play.
§ 21. Domestic Drama; Farce. The farce as a species of comedy in the broader sense has already been spoken of in connection with the treatment of certain comic themes. ”

“ A Play [melodrama] in Three Acts. Boston, n. d.; New York, n. d. (French, No. 242.) (Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, 2 Feb., 1857.)
——De Soto, the Hero of the Missippi. Tragedy. MS. lacking part of De Soto. (Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, 19 Apr., 1852.)
——Senor Valiente. A Comedy. In Five Acts. Boston, n. d. [1859] ; New York, n. d. (Niblo's Garden, New York, 18 April, 1859; Holiday Street Theatre, Baltimore, 1859; Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, 1859.)
Mowatt (Ritchie) , Anna Cora Ogden. Plays. Rev. ed. Boston, 1855. ”

“ The Dunlap Society, 1899. Ser. 2, vol. 8.
Hutton, Laurence. Curiosities of the American Stage. 1891.
Ireland, J. N. Records of the New York Stage from 1750 to 1860. 2 vols. 1866–67.
Moses, M. J. The American Dramatist. Boston, 1911.
—— Famous Actor–Families in America. n. d. [1906] .
Phelps, H. P. Players of a Century. A Record of the Albany Stage. Including notices of prominent Actors who have appeared in America. Albany, 1880.
Rees, James. The Dramatic Authors of America. Philadelphia, 1845.
—— The Life of Edwin Forrest. Philadelphia, n. d. [1874] . ”

“ The World's Own. Boston, 1857. New York, 1857.
See COLLECTIONS. (Played as Leonore at the Chambers Street Theatre, New York, 16 March, 1857.)
——Hippliytus. MS. (Written for Edwin Booth in 1864 but not played. Performed 24 March, 1911, Tremont Theatre, Boston, by Margaret Anglin.)
Humphreys, David. The Widow of Malabar; or, The Tyranny of Custom: A Tragedy. Pub. in Miscellaneous Works, 1790. (By the American Company in Philadelphia, 7 May, 1790.)
Humphreys, David. The Yankey in England. n.p., n.d. [Connecticut, 1815.] See also the Bibliography to Book I., Chap. IX.
Hunter, Richard. ”

“ White, Thomas J. Notes on the Provincial literature of Pennsylvania. Proceedings of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. 1.
Smith, William. Thomas Godfrey. American Magazine, vol. 1, pp. 602–604. Philadelphia, 1758.
Tyler, M.C. A History of American Literature during the Colonial Times. II, 244–251. 1978.
Hopkinson, Francis, and Smith, William. An Exercise, containing a Dialogue and Ode sacred to the memory of his late gracious Majesty, George II. Performed at the public commencement in the College of Philadelphia, May 23, 1761. Philadelphia, 1762. Rptd. in Works of Francis Hopkinson. ”

“ I36, II Feb., 1909, and Neidig, W.J., The First Play in America, Nation, Vol. LXXXVIII, no. 2274, p. 86, 28 Jan., 1909.↑ For Mrs. Warren see also Book I, Chap. IX.↑ For Tyler, see also Book I, Chap. IX, and Book II, Chaps. III and VI.↑ A complete bibliography of Dunlap records sixty-five plays. See Bibliography.↑ See Bibliography.↑ (X) See Durang, C., History of the Philadelphia Stage, Second Series, Chap. III, and Wemyss, F.C., Twenty-Six Years of the Life of an Actor-Manager, vol.I, p.74.↑ Ireland, Records of the New York Stage, vol.I, p.483.↑ (X) See also Book II, Chap. ”