CHAPTER II

The Early Drama, 1756-1860

UR native drama, even though it antedated the novel and the short story, has practically no history until the latter half of the eighteenth century. The first drama written in this country which is now in existence, the satirical farce, Androborus, was printed, it is true, in 1714. It was by Governor Richard Hunter' of New York, but as he was an Englishman, the interest in his work is limited to its representation of local conditions. Androborus was not acted, and had no influence in the development of an acting drama. The two forces which seem to have led to the production of a native play upon the stage were the indirect influence of the early performances of masques and of dramatic odes and dialogues at the colleges, and more directly, the acting of the first regular company of professional players.

The earliest college exercise, including original composition, that has survived, is Francis Hopkinson's revision of The Masque of Alfred, originally written by Thomson and revised by Mallet in 1751, which deals with the invasion of England by the Danes. It was performed, according to Hopkinson's statement, several times during the Christmas holidays of 1756-7 in the College of Philadelphia.3 Hopkinson's original lines number more than two hundred, besides a new prologue and epilogue, and new scenes are introduced so that the masque may be considered as in large measure original. What makes

2

'For a description of Androborus, see Ford, P. L., The Beginnings of American Dramatic Literature in The New England Magazine, Feb., 1894, New Series, vol. IX., No. 6, p. 674.

See The Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 and 27 Jan.; 3 and 10 Feb., 1757, for a detailed account of the Masque, giving Hopkinson's lines.

Now the University of Pennsylvania.

it of special interest is the fact that Thomas Godfrey, our first dramatist, who grew up under the tutelage of William Smith, Provost of the College, and who was a close friend of Hopkinson, was in all probability prompted to write by witnessing this and similar early attempts at dramatic composition."

Among these college exercises others that have survived are 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, 23 May, 1761, the dialogue being by the Rev. Dr. William Smith, the first Provost, and the ode by Francis Hopkinson. A similar exercise on the accession of George III was performed at the public commencement on 18 May, 1762. The epilogue on this occasion was by the Rev. Jacob Duché, Hopkinson's classmate and afterwards chaplain of Congress. A similar entertainment, The Military Glory of Great Britain, was performed at the commencement in the College of New Jersey, 29 September, 1762, while there is evidence of dramatic interest at Harvard College if not dramatic authorship as early as 1758.3

2

Of more direct influence, however, on early dramatic writing, were the performances of plays by the company under David Douglass. There seem to have been theatrical performances in this country since 1703,4 but the permanent establishment of professional acting dates from the arrival of Lewis Hallam and his company from England in 1752. This company acted in Philadelphia in 1754, where Godfrey doubtless saw them, and it was to this company after its reorganization under Douglass in 1758 that he offered his play, The Prince of Parthia, which he had finished before the end of 1759. It was not performed at this time, but was acted on 24 April, 1767, at the Southwark Theatre, in Philadelphia, according to an advertisement in

'For Hopkinson, see also Book I, Chap. IX.

Now Princeton University.

› Matthews, Albert, Early Plays at Harvard, Nation, vol. xcvIII, no. 2542, p. 295, 19 March, 1914.

4 Sonneck, O. G., Early Opera in America, 1915, p. 7. See also, for the beginning of theatrical companies, Daly, Charles P., When Was the Drama Introduced in America? 1864, reprinted in Dunlap Soc. Pub., Ser. 2, vol. 1, 1896; Ford, P. L., Washington and the Theatre, Dunlap Society Pub., Ser. 2, vol. vIII, 1899. For earlier performances by amateurs, see Bruce, P. A., An Early Virginia Play, Nation, vol. LXXXVIII, no. 2276, p. 136, 11 Feb., 1909, and Neidig, W. J., The First Play in America, Nation, vol. LXXXVIII, no. 2274, p. 86, 28 Jan., 1909.

The Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser of 23 April, which contains a list of the players who were to take part. Godfrey did not live to see his play, but died in 1763, two years before it was published. This play, the first written by an American to be produced by a professional company, is a romantic tragedy, laid in Parthia about 200 B.C., and is written in blank verse of a flexible and dignified character. It is no unworthy beginning for American dramatic poetry, but it led at the time to no school of writing. It is interesting, however, to note that at a later period the most significant literary drama in this country was produced in the field of tragedy to which The Prince of Parthia belongs.

The Pre-Revolutionary period was purely a tentative one. The work of Charlotte Lenox, who was born here but whose plays were written and played in England, hardly concerns us, while such plays as Ponteach, by Major Robert Rogers (1766), or The Disappointment of Col. Thomas Forrest (1767), since they were not acted, fail to be significant, however tragic the recital of Indian wrongs in the former or however comic the hoax described in the latter may be. The Conquest of Canada, performed at the Southwark Theatre in Philadelphia, 17 February, 1773, has been sometimes referred to as "the second American play," but its author, George Cockings, was an Englishman, who wrote the play while in Boston, and it is in any case of little value either in matter or form.

On 20 October, 1774, the Continental Congress convened and passed a recommendation in its Articles of Association— that the colonists "discountenance and discourage all horse racing and all kinds of gaming, cock fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays and other expensive diversions and entertainments. Douglass and his "American Company," which had occupied the theatres in the colonies for almost a quarter century, left for the West Indies and the first period in the history of the American drama was closed.

During the Revolution a number of political satires were written, none of them, however, in strict dramatic form. The most important are The Adulateur (1773) and The Group (1775), by Mrs. Mercy Warren, of Boston, The Fall of British Tyranny (1776), by John Leacock, and the anonymous farce The Blockheads (1776), which has been attributed to Mrs.

Warren, but which internal evidence indicates is not by her. They paint the Tory officeholders and the British soldiers in very unflattering colours, but in no worse hues than the satirists on the loyalist side portray their enemies in such products as The Americans Roused in a Cure for the Spleen (1775?) or The Battle of Brooklyn (1776). There is no conclusive evidence that any of these were acted, though on the title page of The Group it is represented "as lately Acted, and to be Reacted, to the Wonder of all Superior Intelligences Nigh Head Quarters at Amboyne.' The literary quality is not remarkable in any event, although Mrs. 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.1

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. 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.

In that year, dramatic performances were given by the American Company in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Annapolis. There was a more decided interest in things theatrical, but most important was the production in New York on 16 April, 1787, of The Contrast by Royall Tyler,the first American comedy to be produced by a professional company. As had been the case with Godfrey, the local company served as the inspiration for Tyler. The theme of the play is the contrast between simple native dignity as typified in Colonel Manly and imported foppery and follies represented by Dimple, Charlotte, and Letitia. The most important character, however, is that of Jonathan, the servant of Manly, who is the prototype of a For Mrs. Warren see also Book I, Chap. IX.

long succession of stage Yankees. Tyler also wrote a comic opera in two acts, May Day in Town or New York in an Uproar, performed 18 May, 1787, in New York, and after his return to Boston produced a dramatic satire entitled A Georgia Spec, or Land in the Moon, aimed at the rage for speculating in the Georgia lands of the Yazoo Purchase. It was played in Boston and New York in 1797.1

Important historically as Tyler was, this period is dominated by the personality of William Dunlap, whose first acted play, The Father, performed in New York on 7 September, 1789, was a comedy of manners inspired by the success of The Contrast. The success of this play and that of his drama Leicester, the second, American tragedy, played first under the title of The Fatal Deception, on 24 April, 1794, inspired him to go on. According to his own statement he wrote fifty plays "and other pieces unpublished," most of which were acted successfully. These include tragedy, comedy, melodrama, farce, opera, and interlude. He is especially significant as an adaptor of German and French plays, and it was through him that Kotzebue was introduced to the American stage. His first adaptation from Kotzebue, The Stranger, played on 10 December, 1798, was from an English version, but the success of this led him to study German, and he adapted and produced at least thirteen plays of Kotzebue, the most significant being False Shame, played in 1799, and The Virgin of the Sun and Fraternal Discord, both acted in 1800. He also adapted Zschokke's Abaellino in 1801 with great success, while his earlier adaptation of Schiller's Don Carlos in 1799 had been a failure. He did not neglect American themes, however, and one of his most popular plays, André (1798), afterwards rewritten as The Glory of Columbia (1803), represents the Revolutionary period. His career as manager of the American Company from 1796 to 1805 and the influence he had upon the development of the stage at that time make it fitting to close this period with the date at which financial difficulty forced him to shut his doors. He became connected with the theatre again from 1810 to 1811 and wrote even after that, but his later contribution was comparatively

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.