%/"Yl & A \ T/^T"^ yxr^ r T v TTT* s (OMANGEOFTHE W'jf*^ A ~!L 7 r '/TrVT Tl"^ A -r ^i ^TT 1 ^ r A \lVx/liN t\D The Romance of the American Theatre JOSEPH JEFFERSON AS RIP VAN WINKLE See page 327 Frontispiece THE ROMANCE OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE BY MARY CAROLINE CRAWFORD Author of "Old Boston Days and Ways," " Romantic Days in the Early Republic," etc. Illustrated BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1913 Copyright, 191S, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. All rights reserved Published, October, 1913 THE COLONIAL PRESS C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. 8. A. FOREWORD THERE exists no complete history of the American theatre. William Dunlap, in 1832, put out what he called a history of the American theatre; but 1832 was more than eighty years ago, and Dunlap 's history, though honest in intent, was far from accurate in con- tent. Some thirty years ago George Seilhamer began to give to the world what promised to be an authentic history of the American theatre, the sources of infor- mation which he used being chiefly the files of Colonial and Revolutionary newspapers; three volumes had been issued and the story brought up to 1800 when Mr. Seilhamer died. No soul yet has been found brave enough to take up this task where it was then laid down. Brander Matthews, Lawrence Hutton, William Winter and, more recently, Montrose Moses have, however, made noteworthy contributions to the literature of this subject and to them, as to Seilhamer, Dunlap, and many others the present volume is deeply indebted. One reason why the theatre in America has failed to receive adequate historical treatment is because little or no care had been given to the preservation and con- servation of theatrical records. Of collectors along this 4 1C 191 Foreword line there have been many, but to collectors, as to the rest of us, death comes inevitably; and then the intelli- gent hoardings of a lifetime are likely to be ruthlessly scattered. So it was with Augustin Daly's priceless collection and so it has been with nearly every other. Only Allan A. Brown of Boston, Massachusetts, seems to have appreciated the enormous help which a rich theatrical collection might prove to research workers if deposited in a central place and made immediately ac- cessible. His collection is now in the Boston Public Library, where I have been permitted to use it while it was undergoing the process of cataloguing; for accord- ing me that privilege the curators of the library have my warm thanks as does, also, Charles Knowles Bolton of the Boston Athenaeum. To the J. B. Lippincott Com- pany, the Houghton MifHin Company, to Moffatt, Yard and Company, to the Macmillan Company, who brought out Modjeska's memoirs, and to the publishers of the ^autobiographies of Madame Ristori, Ellen Terry and Tommaso Salvini my gratitude is also due, chiefly for quotation privileges more specifically indicated in the body of the book; there will be found also, men- tion of many other sources of information to which I am glad to give credit. And now a word or two concerning the method I have followed. Since even so eclectic a historical survey as the one here presented could not be contemporary in treatment the fairest way to approach the development of the American theatre seemed to me to be from the standpoint of dominant personalities and general ten- vi Foreword dencies. This was also the natural method for the reason that, for many years, the actors were the theatre, x^ Conditions of American life being primitive, too, at the beginning, there was, necessarily, a great deal of colour and movement bound up in the very practice of the actor's profession. Even to-day " going on the stage " is regarded as something of an adventure. How much more full of romantic possibilities must, therefore, have been the actor's career in an age when there were no railroads or telegraph lines, no theatrical agencies on Broadway, and when only a few large cities had regu- larly established theatres. Then to enter upon this field of work was literally to start exploring a wild and hazardous country. The chance of success was a des- perate one in earlier times, and the weary probation, with its long delays and hardships, was calculated to dis- hearten all but the strongest souls. Yet many there were brave men and plucky women who dared all this for the sake of the work they loved; I hope this book may bring freshly to mind the names and the merits of several such. TheTgreatest neec ^ f ^ e American theatre, to-day, is for intelligent, high-minded actors recruited from the ranks of the rising generation. Playwrights of this stamp we now have thanks very largely, I think, to the inspiring courses on The Technique Of The Drama given by Professor George Pierce Baker at Harvard University. But it must be evident to every thoughtful person that nobility of soul is well-nigh indispensable in a player who is to interpret adequately life's great emo- vii Foreword tions. That celebrated English actress, who had gener- ously undertaken to train a beginner in the role of a princess neglected by the man she loved, was justified in feeling absolute discouragement when to her impulsive exclamation: " Suppose the emotion real; how would you act if slighted by the man you devotedly loved? " there came the languid reply: " I should get another lover as quickly as I could." A girl of Anglo-Saxon stock pos- sessing such a fatal defect of nature as this could, of course, give nothing of value to the world, and this real actress, who was also, a real woman, had the sense to know it at once. All the great American actresses have been real women; and of Edwin Booth and Joseph Jef- ferson among the men, it might certainly be said that they were sans peur et sans reproche. Americans who love the theatre should see to it that the memory of players of this character is kept green, and that their private virtues as well as their stage triumphs are ex- tolled. The profession of the player should be recog- nized as a noble and worthy one in America as it has come to be in England. Then we shall again have players of high character on our stage; then and not until then will the hardy products of our social- minded young playwrights make of the American theatre the force for real Democracy that it must ultimately become. M. C. C. Boston, August, 1913. VUl CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE xT^SForeword v \wl. Players and Playhouses of the Eighteenth Century ! *-*"il. Early Ups and Downs of the Theatre in the v South . 44 [/III. Rise of the Theatre as an American Institu- tion 80 IV. The Curious Adventures of Certain Early English Stars 118 V. The Entertaining Observations of the First Charles Ma thews 142 VI. Two Great English Tragedians whom we Welcomed Gladly 159 VII. dwiEJl2 st as Actor and Man . . . 173 VIII. A Player who Inspired a Song and Another who Composed One 210 IK. Forrest's Enemy, Macready, and Some Stars who Came after Him 226 Early Nineteenth Century Audiences . .250 XI. Rachel and Fechter 266 XII. Visiting Stars of a Later Day . . . .286 .XIII. Edwin Booth: " Hope of the Living Drama " 310 IX -o CHAPTBIT- ' ' PAGE >_ ( XIV. j}ome of Booth's more Distinguished Contem- poraries 3 2 7 XV. The Theatres of New York and the Drama of To-day 355 Index 4oi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle Frontispiece FACING PAGE Nance Oldfield 8 Peg Woffington 9 David Garrick and His Wife 16 From the painting by Hogarth Oldest Known American Playbill 17 The French Opera House, NewOrleans, Erected in 1860 70 " Perdita " Robinson 71 From the painting by Romney Drury Lane Theatre, London 80 John Gilbert as Sir Peter Teazle 81 A Scene from " The Contrast " 94 From a drawing by Dunlap Interior of the first Park Theatre, New York, Built in 1798 95 Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, about 1800 ... 95 Federal Street Theatre, Boston 114 Haymarket Theatre, Boston 115 Three Great Richards 128 Edmund Kean as Othello 1 29 After a drawing from life by John William Gear A " First Night " at the second Park Theatre, New York, in 1822. The elder Charles Mathews is shown on the stage 144 From a water-color drawing made by John Searle for William Bayard, Esq., in the possession of the New York Historical Society xi List of Illustrations FACING PAGE Exterior of the Park Theatre, New York 145 From a drawing by C. Burton William Augustus Conway 160 Thomas Abthorpe Cooper 161 Edwin Forrest 192 From a photograph by Brady William C. Macready as Shylock 193 Edwin Forrest as King Lear 206 Guests of the Forrest Home. Photographed by the Philadelphia Press on Forrest's birthday anniver- sary, 1913 207 John Howard Payne 224 After a daguerreotype by Brady Mrs. John Drew as Mrs. Malaprop 225 The Mother of Edgar Allan Poe 225 William C. Macready 228 Fanny Ellsler 229 From a drawing by W. K. Hewitt Master Joseph Burke 229 After a drawing by T. Wageman Frances Anne Kemble 234 From the painting by Thomas Sully, made in '832, in the possession of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Mrs. Siddons as Lady Macbeth 235 After the painting by Harlow John Philip Kemble as Hamlet 235 After the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence Madame Vestris as Olivia in " John of Paris " 248 Lotta as The Marchioness 248 Maggie Mitchell as Fanchon 249 Tyrone Power 254 After a drawing by D'Orsay Old National Theatre, Portland Street, Boston 255 Howaud Athenaeum, about 1865 255 Rachel 278 After the painting by G. H. Lehmann xii List of Illustrations FACING PAGE Rachel as Phedre 279 Fechter as Hamlet 279 Adelaide Ristori as Mary Queen of Scots 290 Tommaso Salvini as Othello 291 Alia Nazimova 294 Richard Mansfield as Cyrano de Bergerac 295 Modjeska as Rosalind 298 Modjeska as Queen Mary 299 Sir Henry Irving 306 Ellen Terry as Portia 307 Ellen Terry as Marguerite 312 Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Hamlet 313 Edwin Booth as Hamlet 318 John Wilkes Booth 319 Edwin Booth 324 The " Royal Couch of Denmark " 325 E. A. Sothern as Lord Dundreary 334 Matilda Heron 334 E. L. Davenport, the elder 335 Fanny Davenport 335 Charlotte Cushman 344 Mary Anderson 344 Mrs. de Navarro (Mary Anderson) 345 Lawrence Barrett 348 John Drew, the elder, as Sir Andrew Ague-Cheek 349 Dion Boucicault as Con in " The Shaughraun " 370 James W. Wallack 371 From the portrait in the Players' Club, New York The Wallack Company of 1863 374 Lester Wallack as Benedick 375 Ada Rehan in " Taming of the Shrew " 380 Adelaide Neilson in " Romeo and Juliet " 380 xiii List of Illustrations FACING PAGE The Daly Company in 1884 381 Denman Thompson as Joshua Whitcomb in " The Old Homestead " 384 W. E. Burton as Autolycus 385 Henry and Thomas Placide as the Two Dromios . . . 385 xiv THE ROMANCE OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE CHAPTER I PLAYERS AND PLAYHOUSES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY " LAST week I buried Mrs. Nance Oldfield very willingly and with much satisfaction." It was in these somewhat equivocal words that the Reverend Dr. Parker of the Established Church recorded his relation to the then recent obsequies of England's best-beloved actress. Nance Oldfield was not a virtuous woman as we of to-day count virtue, yet Queen Caroline was on intimate and friendly terms with her. Nance Oldfield had no proper social standing, as do many of our pres- ent-day actresses, yet on the terrace at Windsor she was often to be seen walking with the respectable con- sorts of dukes and calling countesses and the wives of English barons by their Christian names. Moreover, when Nance Oldfield died, she received, by burial i f the American Theatre within the walls of Westminster Abbey, such honour as no actress had ever received before nor has been ac- corded since. 1 The public could not have thronged more eagerly to her funeral had she been a real queen instead of a mimic one, nor could she have had men of greater distinction for her pall-bearers. All of which is of interest to us, as showing that in England of the eight- eenth century a great actress who chanced to be also a lovable woman was not held too closely to ac- count for little lapses from the standard of Caesar's wife. Nance Oldfield's father had been a gentleman, but she was the humble apprentice of a seamstress when Captain Farquhar, a London man-about- town, dis- covered her at her aunt's inn, on a quiet summer evening late in the seventeenth century, reading aloud to her mother from a rattling comedy of Beaumont and Fletcher. The smart captain promptly assured the girl that she was a born actress, and she as promptly retorted, amid blushes of delight, that to go upon the stage had long been the dream of her life. Then Far- quhar talked of her to a friend who had the ear of Rich, the famous manager, and soon she found herself a mem- ber of the company at Drury Lane, with an assured salary of fifteen shillings a week. Four years later (1696) Colley Cibber himself assigned to her the role of 1 The custodian of the Abbey informs me, however, that Mrs. Gar- rick, who was a dancer before her marriage, lies in the south transept with her husband and that in the Abbey cloisters no less than three actresses are buried: Mrs. Betterton, wife of Thomas Betterton of Drury Lane Theatre, Mrs. Bracegirdle (d. 1748), and Ann Crawford (d. 1801). The Romance of the American Theatre Lady Betty Modish in his " Careless Husband," and for the first time in the history of the English stage the part of a lady of fashion was appropriately played. It was then not so very long since women were a startling novelty on the English-speaking stage. The female parts were always taken by boys until after the Restoration, credit being due to Sir William Davenant for opening to women, in 1662, the economic opportunity represented by the profession of the actor. The place which marked this interesting development was Sir William's Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the " vehicle " employed, a drama called the " Siege of Rhodes," in which Mrs. Saunderson, as " the first fe- male actress that ever played for hire before the public in England," took the part of the heroine. That the public was by no means of one mind concerning this innovation is very clear from various comments to be found in the books of the period. Tom Nash in his " Pierce Penilesse " highly commends the English stage in that it has not had " courtesans or women act- ors " such as were then to be found abroad. But, on the other hand, there are extant the ravings of a certain Dr. Reynolds, who had published in 1593 a foaming in- vective against stage plays, one reason for his objections being that the boys who wore the dress of women on the stage were wont to ape the airs of women off the stage. A classic case which is often cited in this connection is that of Edward Kynaston, the last beautiful youth who figured in petticoats on the stage. Colley Gibber 3 The Romance of the American Theatre relates that Kynaston was still playing the woman both off the stage and on even after King Charles II had begun to lend his royal support to the theatre. Once, he tells us, his Majesty, " coming a little before the usual time to a tragedy, became impatient that the play did not at once begin. Whereupon the stage manager, rightly judging that the best excuse for their default would be the true one, fairly told his Majesty that the queen was not shaved yet. The King, whose good humour loved to laugh at a jest as well as to make one, accepted the excuse, which served to divert him until the male queen could be effeminated. In a word, Kynaston at that time was so beautiful a youth that the ladies of quality prided themselves on taking him with them in their coaches to Hyde Park in his theatrical habit, after the play; which, in those days, they might have sufficient time to do, because the plays then were used to begin at four o'clock." The real reason why women were given parts in the plays of the Restoration period seems to have been not a moral one at all, however, but was attributable, as Disraeli hints, to the fact that " the boys who had been trained to act female characters before the Resto- ration had grown too masculine during the suspension of the theatre to resume their tender office." In any case, women were now on the stage to stay, and it was in large measure due to their presence there that the ob- scenity of the early English comedies gradually became unacceptable to the public. A beautiful girl, like Nance Oldfield, playing with 4 The Romance of the. American Theatre spirit yet without exaggeration the part of a clever, high-mettled woman, was a distinct novelty, therefore. " Who should act genteel comedy perfectly," asks Walpole, " but people of fashion who have sense? Actors and actresses can only guess at the tone of high life, and cannot be inspired with it. Why are there so few genteel comedies, but because most comedies are written by men not of that sphere. Etherege, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Gibber wrote genteel comedy because they lived in the best company; and Mrs. Oldfield played it so well because she not only followed but often set the fashion." Gibber had despaired, indeed, of ever finding an actress who could realize his idea of Lady Betty Modish, when good fortune threw Nance Oldfield in his way. Then he no longer had any qualms but finished the piece at once. When he brought it out, he had the almost unprecedented generosity to declare that he owed the success of the play wholly to the gay and brilliant girl who was cast for its leading part. " And not only to the uncommon excellence of her acting," as he explained, " but even to her personal manner of conversing." Many of the most effective sentiments in the play, he insisted, were Mrs. Oldfield 's own, simply dressed up by him " with a little more care than when they negli- gently fell from her lively humour." As time passed, Nance Oldfield became the original creator of no less than sixty-five comedy characters. Her salary at the height of her career reached three hundred guineas, exclusive of benefits, on which occa- 5 The Romance of the American Theatre sions gold was fairly showered into her lap. Tragedy parts, too, she played with pronounced success, though she never enjoyed these so much, hating, as she often said, to " have a page dragging her tail about." In private life, as well, she was averse to the role of tragedy queen, accepting quite simply the affection offered her by Maynwaring, a rich bachelor connected with the government, and comforting herself quite as simply with General Churchill, brother of the Duke of Marl- borough, when Maynwaring died. In this latter con- nection marriage appears to have been at least thought of, thus causing Queen Caroline one day to remark to the actress: " I hear, Mrs. Oldfield, that you and the Gen- eral are married? " To which there came from Nance the dry retort: " Madam, the General keeps his own secrets! " Yet society never rejected this its favourite, and her sons, Maynwaring and Churchill, to whom she bequeathed the bulk of a fortune amassed, it is in- teresting to note, more by their mother's exertions than by any generosity of their respective fathers - mourned her earnestly and openly when she died. The distinction between Nance Oldfield's love affairs and those of certain well-known actresses who had preceded her appears to have been that they were founded on sentiment, not on interest, and society was not slow in making the distinction. Moreover, there was none of that tittle-tattle concerning this actress's relations with the gallants behind the scenes l that we find earlier l She used to go to the playhouse in a chair attended by two foot- men, and she had little or nothing to do with the others of the company and their followers. The Romance of the American Theatre in regard to Nell Gwyn and later with Peg Woffington as its heroine. The delectable " Diary " of Pepys is full of snap-shots of the theatre in the seventeenth century. From few other sources, indeed, can we obtain such choice bits of information regarding the manners and customs of that day, both before and behind the curtain. Early in January, 1663, when the Duke of York and his wife honoured a play of Killigrew's by their presence, Pepys writes himself down as much shocked by " the imperti- nent and unnatural dalliances " of the royal pair, " there before the whole world, kissing of hands and leaning one upon another." How differently did Cromwell's daughter, Lady Mary, conduct herself in her box at Drury Lane with her husband, Viscount Falconbridge! The looks and dress of this lady elicit only praise from Pepys. " Her modest embarrassment as the house began to fill and spectators gazed too steadily upon her, causing her," he writes approvingly, to " put on her vizard . . . which of late has become a great fashion among the ladies." No " vizard," however, was allowed to conceal the charms of Nell Gwyn when she gossiped with the diarist. The constant presence of " her kind " in the front of the house was a cherished feature of the times, as was the invasion of the green-room by the gallants of the day. Dr. Doran, whose " Annals of The Stage " present us with an incomparable description of theatrical habits of this and the succeeding century, declares that the tiring-rooms of the actresses were then open to any of 7 The Romance of the American Theatre the fine gentlemen who frequented the house. " They stood by at the mysteries of dressing, and commented upon what they beheld and did not behold with such breadth and coarseness of wit, that the more modest or least impudent ladies sent away their little hand- maidens. The dressing over, the amateurs lounged into the house, talked loudly with the pretty orange girls, listened when it suited them, and at the termination of the piece, crowded again into the tiring-rooms of the most favourite and least scrupulous actresses. The wits loved to assemble, too, after the play was done, in the dressing-rooms of the leading actors with whom they most cared to cultivate an intimacy. Much company often congregated here, generally with the purpose of assigning meetings where further enjoyment might be pursued." The curious intimacy between the great world and the world of the theatre is strikingly illustrated in the fact that one of the big successes of the early eighteenth century was the play " Jane Shore," the persecuted heroine of which had once condescended to be the mis- tress of King Edward IV. This work contains many moving passages, even when read with the eye of to-day, and its last act, in which the fair Jane is shown wandering from door to door, a starving victim of Gloster's black revenge, must have provided magnificent opportunities for the powers of a gifted actress. Though Nance Old- field did not like to play tragic parts, this character proved a great triumph for her. Rowe * himself trained 1 Nicholas Rowe was a politician as well as the poet laureate of Eng- land in the reign of George I. At one time under-secretary to the 8 NANCE OLDFIELD See page i PEG WOFFINGTON See page Q The Romance of the American Theatre her in the reading of it, and she never failed to move her audience to tears by her mimic sufferings and sorrows. During the last act, bread was wont to be thrown down from the gallery as a tribute to the realism of her hunger, and no attache of the theatre ever interfered. This was a slight interruption compared to a riot, or to that incident recorded by Pepys when " a gentleman of good habit, sitting just before us, eating some fruit in the midst of the play, did drop down as dead; but, with much ado, Orange Moll did thrust her finger down his throat, and brought him to life again." The ability to play " Jane Shore " acceptably re- mained for several generations the test of a successful actress; and it is conceded by all writers of the period that in this role Peg Wofnngton " did not admit of competition with Mrs. Oldfield." *But in most parts Peg Woffington shone as the bright particular star of the eighteenth century stage. Not to understand her relation to the players and plays of the time would be to fail to comprehend the hold which the theatre had on Englishmen of that day. Margaret Wofnngton and David Garrick! What names to conjure with, though here we may not do more than touch very briefly on their romantic personal histories, merely mention in passing the enduring ' im- petus that they gave to the traditions of good acting, Duke of Queensberry, he studied Spanish in hope of obtaining a foreign appointment through Halifax. The latter, however, only congratulated him on being able to read Don Quixote in the original! " Jane Shore " was brought out February 2, 1714. Its author died in December, 1718, and was buried in the poets' corner of Westminster Abbey, oppo- site Chaucer. The Romance of the American Theatre and then cross the stormy seas as their contempo- rary, Hallam, was soon to do and devote ourselves to the somewhat arid history of the early theatres in America. Peg Woffington made her stage debut about 1725 at a variety theatre of Dublin, in a basket carried by Madame Violante, a tight-rope dancer, as she made her perilous passage across the stage and caused delicious cold shivers to run down the spines of her gaping audi- tors. Peg was the child of a journeyman bricklayer, then dead, and of a vigorous mother, still living. The mother took in washing for the support of the family. Between the fair Margaret's debut and a later day, when she actually acted for Madame Violante in a Lilliputian troupe, her profession was that of selling " halfpenny salads " about the streets of Dublin. Thus she found it easy to play hoyden parts, when these fell to her lot. But, being a natural-born actress, she acquitted herself with no less success as Ophelia when, on February 12, 1734, she first essayed this role at the Dublin Theatre Royal. Though only fifteen at this time, Peg is affirmed to have been well-grown and tall. Already, too, she was a stunning beauty, with splendid dark eyes under strongly marked brows, and an expression of archness which was well set off by her unpowdered hair and the lace cap or flat garden hat to be seen in her numerous portraits. Moreover, she had in some way or other learned to bear herself like a lady, and could use a fan with great dexterity, or make in most impressive fashion the sweeping courtesy of the " manners " comedy. In 10 The Romance of the American Theatre addition to which she had a wit equal to the best of the gallants who flocked to her tiring-room. It was Peg Woffington's wit and the dash with which she set it off that enabled her to act with tremendous success the " breeches " part of Sir Harry Wildair in Farquhar's " Constant Couple." And it was the pro- digious drawing power of Woffington in the role of this lively rake which gained for her a hearing with the all- powerful John Rich (1740), then manager of the Covent Garden in London. 1 That season she played Sir Harry Wildair no fewer than twenty times and always to crowded houses. Which meant much more then than it would now, inasmuch as the Londoners of that day required a constantly changing bill, theatre-going at that period being confined to a comparatively small section of the population. This is the time when we find Walpole declaring Peg " much in vogue," and Conway asserting that " all the town is in love with her." Yet it is with Drury Lane rather than with Covent Garden that we chiefly associate Peg Woffington, for 1 A writer in the Dublin Review has pictured very graphically their first meeting. " The great manager, when Woffington first saw him, was lolling in ungraceful ease on a sofa, holding a play in one hand and in the other a teacup, from which he sipped frequently. Around him were seven and twenty cats of all sizes, colours and kinds. Peg Woffing- ton was astounded at the sight. Rich, to her mind, had for years been the greatest man in the world. The menagerie of grimalkins, amid which he lay so carelessly, was so different an environment from her con- ception of the study of the Covent Garden theatre-manager, that she was embarrassed into silence. Rich, in his turn, was equally confused by the beauty of his visitor, and lay staring at her for a long time be- fore he recollected his courtesy and offered her a chair. Standing be- fore him was a woman whom he afterward declared to be the loveliest creature he had ever seen." II The Romance of the American Theatre it was there that she fell in with David Garrick, then just rising to fame. Garrick's boyhood had been passed at Lichfield, where his mania for acting had seriously interfered with his application to school studies. His father (of French descent) was a captain in the English army, who had married the daughter of a Lichfield vicar. Because of this church connection, David's stage mania was frowned down from the first. It was consid- ered vastly more respectable for him to go into the busi- ness of wine-selling, of which one of his uncles had made a great success. Yet the lad was not starved on his play- loving side, for his father's friends, knowing his passion for the theatre, often treated him to a journey to Lon- don on purpose that he might feast at the playhouse. Thus the lad had been enabled to see all the great players of the time from the gallery, long before he had the opportunity to mingle with them on the stage. In time, however, that opportunity came also. For, leaving Lichfield and its cramping influences behind him, young Garrick set out, in 1737, in the company of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who had been his tutor, to try his fortune in the great city. Garrick's resources were increased about this time by the death of an uncle, who bequeathed to him a thousand pounds; but Johnson, who had only his tragedy of " Irene " as a means of ad- vance, long worshipped comfort from afar. Later, Garrick was able to produce this tragedy for his old friend. David's debut on the professional stage was made in 12 The Romance of the American Theatre the provinces and under an assumed name. His first London engagement was in the fall of 1741 at the theatre in unfashionable Goodman's Fields. He came on between two parts of a concert in what the playbills announced as "The Life and Death of Richard HI." "Yet from the moment the new actor appeared," says Doran, " his auditors were enthralled. They saw a Richard and not an actor of that personage. Of spectators he seemed unconscious, so thoroughly did he identify himself with the character. He surrendered himself to all the requirements, was ready for every phase of passion, every change of humour, and was as wonderful in his quiet sarcasm as he was terrific in the hurricane of the battle-scenes. Above all, his audiences were delighted with his ' nature.' Garrick spoke not as an orator, but as King Richard himself might have spoken in like circumstances. The chuckling exultation of his So much for Buckingham! ' was long a tradition on the stage. His points, indeed, occurred in rapid suc- cession." At the beginning Garrick drew a pound a night for all this, but soon he was sharing profits equally with the management, and his salary, when he went to Drury Lane, in May, 1742, was fixed at 600 per annum. Garrick was twenty-six at this time and Peg Woffing- ton two years younger. Their mutual attraction was inevitable. He had not been a month at Drury Lane, playing (among other things) Lear to her Cordelia, when he found himself deeply in love with the Irish beauty and inditing to her such verses as: 13 The Romance of the American Theatre " Were she arrayed in rustic weed, With her the bleating flocks I'd feed, And pipe upon mine oaten reed To please my lovely Peggy. With her a cottage would delight, All's happy when she's in my sight, But when she's gone 'tis endless night All's dark without my Peggy." The following June they were both in Dublin, play- ing in the new theatre to which they had been hastily summoned by the manager Duval, to counteract the rival attractions at the Theatre Royal of Colley Gibber's daughter-in-law and of that admirable actor, Quin, who figures in Charles Reade's novel, " Peg Woffington." Their success was so enormous and the sanitary conditions of the time so vile that they achieved the doubtful honour of spreading an epidemic, christened the " Garrick Fever," among the Dubliners who thronged to see them act during that sultry summer. It was at this time that Nance Oldfield's famous part, Lady Betty Modish, was added to the Woffington repertory. The following winter found the two brilliant players back in London, frankly sharing a household and the expenses thereof. One month Peggy paid the bills, the other month Davy. During Peg's month the tea was very strong, " as red as blood " if we may trust Dr. Johnson; and it was very likely because the actress could not remember to change her recipe when Davy's pay-month came around, that her housemate soon began to grumble quite unpleasantly about the size of the 14 The Romance of the American Theatre bills. There is considerable evidence that Garrick, though a brilliant artist, had a soul not above candle- ends. 1 Some chroniclers of the time declare that Garrick once offered marriage to Peg Woffington. Murphy says that he had even gone so far as to buy the wedding- ring and try it on her finger, but that as the inevitable hour approached, his native caution asserted itself. Peg, rallying him on his glumness, then drew out the confession that he was " wearing the shirt of Deianira," whereupon she told him with fine spirit to put off that irritating garment and never see her more " except in the course of professional business, or in the presence of a third person." Which proposition Davy accepted with unheroic alacrity! It was agreed that the presents which she had given him should be returned; and they all were, with the notable exception of a pair of diamond shoe-buckles, which, Davy asserted, he kept because 1 Samuel Rogers preserves, as coming from Foote, one story about Garrick's parsimony which is truly delicious. The actor, it appears, " had invited Kurd to dine with him at the Adelphi, and, after dinner, the evening being warm, they passed up and down in front of the house. As they passed and repassed the dining-room windows, Garrick was in perfect agony, for he saw that there was a thief in one of the candles which was burning on one of the tables; and yet Kurd was a person of such consequence that he could not run away from him to prevent the waste of his tallow." Over against this story it is only fair, however, to weigh Johnson's testimony to Boswell that " Garrick is a very liberal man, sir. He has given away more money than any man in England. There may be a little vanity mixed but he has shown that money is not his first object." The truth of the matter appears to be that, along with his artistic temperament, Garrick had an admixture of shopkeeper's thrift derived from his French ancestry. All about him he saw player- folk, who, after periods of great prosperity, had hardly a shilling to bless themselves with when the evil days descended. He did not propose to go out like that if he could prevent it by watching candle-ends! 15 The Romance of the American Theatre of his sentimental attachment to them. The enemies of the actor declare, however, that he could not bear to part with anything having so much intrinsic value. The lady whom Garrick did marry was Mile. Eva Maria Violette, 1 who worshipped him, living and dead, and to whom he appears to have been a very good hus- band. To the tremendous talent of this actor all the con- temporary critics bear enthusiastic record. Kitty Clive was one night seen standing in the wings, weeping and scolding alternately at his power. Angry at last at finding herself so affected, she turned on her heel, cry- ing in the downright fashion of the day: " Damn him, he could act a gridiron! " It is said that in his King Lear, Garrick's very stick acted. Charles Dibdin asserts that the man never ceased to act whether on the stage or off, and relates that he would occasionally, for the benefit of his friends, go through what he used to call his rounds, by standing behind a chair and con- veying into his face every kind of passion, blending one into the other. " At one moment you laughed, at another you cried; now he terrified you and presently you conceived yourself something horrible, he seemed so terrified at you. Afterwards he drew his features into the appearance of such dignified wisdom that Minerva might have been proud of the portrait; and then 1 This lady, though a dancer, was a protegee of Lord and Lady Burton, through whom the best houses were open to her. Robertson's " David Garrick " is said to have been founded on an incident of her love for Garrick. Certain it is that Lady Burton capitulated and settled 6000 upon the bride. 16 DAVID GARRTCK AND HIS WIFE From the painting by Hogarth See page 16 , November 12, By a Company of COMEDIANS, At the New-Theatre, in NaffaU'Sfreef, This Evening, being the 1 2th of November, will be prefented, (By particular Defire) ' An Hiftoncal P/ay t cali'd, King RICHARD III CONTAINING The Diftfefles and Death of King Henry the Vlth ; the artful Acquifition of the Crown by Croob-iacKd Richard ; the Murder of the two young Princes in the Tower ; and the memorable Battle of Bo/worth-Field } being the laft that was fought betweea theHoufes of Tori and Lancajler. Richard, King Hemy by by Prince Eikuard, by Dufceofror*. by Earl of BJcbmoiut, by Duke of Norfolk, by Lord 5f Perfons whatever to be admitted behind the Scenes. B. Gentlemen end Ladies that ckufe Tickefs, may have tbetrt at Mr. ParkerV and Mr. GaineV Printing-Offices, Money will be taken at the DOOR. To begin at 6 o'Clock. OLDEST KNOWN AMERICAN PLAYBILL The Romance of the American Theatre degrading yet admirable transition he became a driveller. In short, his face was what he obliged you to fancy it age, youth, plenty, poverty, everything it assumed." Goldsmith goes so far as to declare of Garrick, that " On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only that when he was off he was acting." Dr. Johnson's pronouncement about his old friend: " Here is a man who has advanced the dignity of his profession; Garrick has made a player a higher char- acter," 1 is borne out by the honour once paid to this actor at the hands of Parliament. It happened that he was the sole occupant of the gallery in the Commons, one night of 1777, during a very fierce discussion between two members, one of whom, noticing his presence, moved that the " gallery should be cleared." Burke thereupon sprang to his feet, and appealing to the House in that strain of eloquence which Americans particularly have reason to remember, argued that Garrick, the great mas- ter of oratory, one to whom they all owed much and to whom he, Burke, felt the deepest indebtedness, be ex- empted from the general order that strangers leave the house. Fox and Townshend followed in similar vein, characterizing the ex-actor (for Garrick had by this time 1 Writing of Garrick's death, Hannah More says: " I can truly bear this testimony to his memory, that I never witnessed in any family more decorum, propriety and regularity than in his; where I never saw a card, or even met (except in one instance) a person of his own pro- fession at his table, of which Mrs. Garrick, by her elegance of taste, her correctness of manners and very original turn of humour, was the bright- est ornament." 17 The Romance of the American Theatre been many years off the stage) as their " great pre- ceptor." Whereupon David Garrick was permitted to remain in the House of Parliament after the House had been cleared. Garrick, of course, was a wonderful stage manager as well as an incomparable actor. And he was also a playwright of no mean ability, as Americans early dis- covered. His farce, " The Lying Valet/' was one of the first pieces put on in the South by those confusing companies of " Virginia Comedians," for whom con- flicting historians variously claim histrionic precedence in America. That Garrick was being played at Annap- olis three months earlier than the date long accepted as the natal day of American drama is, however, easily demonstrable. For in the Maryland Gazette of June 1 8, 1752 may be read the following: By Permission of his Honor, the PRESIDENT At the New Theatre in Annapolis by the Company of Comedians from Virginia, on Monday, being the 22nd of this instant, will be performed THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, likewise a Farce called THE LYING VALET To begin precisely at 7 o'clock. Tickets to be had at the printing office. Box, los. Pit, 73. 6d. No person to be admitted behind the scenes. 18 The Romance of, the American Theatre N. B. The Company immediately intend to Upper Marlborough, as soon as they have done performing here, where they intend to play as long as they meet with encouragment and so on to Piscataway and Port To- bacco. And hope to give satisfaction to the Gentlemen and Ladies in each place, that will favor them with their company. Dunlap, generally accepted as the historian of the American stage, from the appearance of his book l in 1832, until 1888, -when George O. Seilhamer in his ex- haustive work on the beginnings of the drama in America came along and proved that " most of Dunlap 's history was fiction/ 7 did not realize, apparently, that Garrick was thus related to early American drama. For Dunlap was perfectly satisfied with his own firm belief that the drama was introduced into this country by William Hallam, the successor of Garrick at Good- man's Field Theatre, who in 1752 formed a joint stock company which he sent to America under the manage- ment of his brother, Lewis Hallam. The first play ever acted in America was the " Merchant of Venice," Mr. Dunlap confidently asserted, and this was given by the Hallam Company on September 5, 1752, at Williams- burg, then the capital of Virginia, in an old storehouse which had been converted into a theatre. Seilhamer proves, however, that plays were being acted in the South, as has been shown, some time before the advent 1 " A History of The American Theatre," by William Dunlap, New York, 1832. 19 The Romance of the American Theatre of the Hallams; and proves, too, that both in New York and in Philadelphia regularly established companies were performing plays at least two years before the Hallams came over. Credit is due to an eminent jurist, the late Charles P. Daly, 1 for finding traces of even earlier theatrical performances in America than any of these. He dis- covered 2 evidence, from an advertisement, of the existence of some kind of theatre in New York, nineteen years before Hallam arrived in this country. This advertisement reads as follows: "To be Sold at Reasonable Rates, all Sorts of Household Goods, viz. Beds, Chairs, Tables, Chests of Drawers, Look- ing Glasses, Andirons and Pictures as also several sorts of Druggs and Medicines, also a Negro Girl about 16 years of age, has had the small-pox and is fit for Town or Country. Enquire of George Talbot, next Door to the Play-House." (New York Gazette, October T 5> Z 733-) That this theatre had opened December 6, 1732, with Farquhar's comedy, " The Recruiting Officer," a long overlooked paragraph in the New England and Boston Gazette of January i, 1733, has since established. Seilhamer stoutly maintains that dramatic history in America began with the production of Addison's " Cato " in Philadelphia in August, 1749, quoting in 1 " When Was The First Play Produced in America? " by Charles P. Daly. 2 T. Allston Brown claims to have published in the New York Clipper, seventeen years earlier than the appearance of Judge Daly's article, the discovery that the first theatre in America was opened in 1732. 2O The Romance of the American Theatre support of his assertion the following entry in a manu- script journal left by John Smith, a son-in-law of James Logan: "Sixth month (August) 22d, 1749. Joseph Morris and I happened in at Peacock Bigger's, and drunk tea there, and his daughter being one of the company who were going to hear the tragedy of Cato acted, it occasioned some conversation in which I expressed my sorrow that anything of the kind was encouraged." The background of this pioneer dramatic undertaking was " Plumstead's Store/' and the company appears to have been made up, in part at least, of actors who had had some experi- ence in England. There is every reason to suppose that it was this same little band of Thespians who, on March 5, 1750, gave in New York the first professional performance of Shakespeare which can be indisputably ascribed to America. In the Weekly Postboy of February 26, the company announced their arrival from Philadelphia and stated that a room on Nassau Street had been taken for a playhouse. The play chosen for the initial pro- gram was Colley Gibber's version of " King Richard III," Thomas Kean acting the part of the humpbacked tyrant. This season was not a long one, though a variety of pieces were played, and at its close there were given a number of benefits, one of them being for the Widow Osborne, described in an advertisement as a person who had met " with divers late Hardships and Misfortunes " for which it was hoped that " all Chari- table Benevolent Ladies and others will favor her with their Company." Not yet, however, was the drama 21 The Romance of the American Theatre to be accorded a cordial welcome in New York, and neither the Widow Osborne nor Thomas Kean found their slender purses notably fatter after this season of The Hallams had scarcely better luck when they arrived a little later. " As our expedition to New York seems very likely to be attended with a very fatal consequence/' their statement in the contemporary press sets forth, " and ourselves haply censured for undertaking it without Assurance of Success; we beg leave humbly to lay a true State of our Case before the worthy Inhabitants of this City; if possible endeavour to remove those great Obstacles which at present lie before us, and give very sufficient Reasons for our Appearance in this part of the World, where we all had the most sanguine Hopes of meeting a very different Reception; little imagining that in a City, to all Appearances so polite as this, the Muses would be banished, the works of the immortal Shakespeare, and others, the greatest Geniuses England ever produced, denied Admittance among them, and the instructive and elegant Entertainment of the Stage utterly protested against; When, without Boasting, we may venture to affirm that we are capable of sup- porting its Dignity with proper Decorum and Regu- larity. " In the Infancy of this Scheme it was proposed to Mr. William Hallam, now of London, to collect a Com- pany of Comedians and send them to New York and the other Colonies in America. Accordingly he as- sented and was at a vast expense to secure Scenes, Cloathes, People, etc. etc. And in October, 1750, sent over to this Place Mr. Robert Upton, in order to obtain 22 The Romance of the American Theatre Permission to perform, erect a Building, and settle everything against our Arrival; for which Service Mr. Hallam advanced no inconsiderable Sum. But Mr. Upton, on his Arrival, found here that Sett of Pretenders With whom he joined and, unhappily for us, quite neglected the Business he was sent about from Eng- land. For we never heard from him after. " Being thus deceived by him the Company was at a Stand till April, 1752 when, by the persuasions of sev- eral gentlemen in London and Virginia Captains, we set sail on board of Mr. William Lee and arrived, after a very expensive and tiresome Voyage at York River on the 28th of June following; where we obtained Leave of His Excellency the Governor and performed with universal Applause and met with the greatest Encouragement; for which we are bound by the strong- est Obligations to acknowledge the many repeated In- stances of their Spirit and Generosity. We were there eleven Months before we thought of removing; and then, asking Advice, we were again persuaded to come to New York by several Gentlemen etc. whose Names we can mention but do not think proper to publish. They told us that we should meet of a genteel and favorable Reception; that the Inhabitants were gen- erous and polite, naturally fond of Diversions rational, particularly those of the Theatre: Nay they even told us there was a very fine Play-house Building and that we were really expected. This was Encouragement sufficient for us as we thought and we came firmly as- sured of Success; but how far our Expectations are answered we shall leave to the Candid to determine, and only beg leave to add, that as we are People of no Estates, it cannot be supposed that we have a Fund sufficient to bear up against such unexpected Repulses. A Journey by Sea and Land, Five Hundred Miles, is not 2 3 The Romance of the American Theatre undertaken without Money. Therefore if the worthy Magistrates would consider this in our Favor that it must rather turn out a publick Advantage and Pleas- ure, than a private Injury, They would, we make no Doubt, grant Permission and give an Opportunity to convince them we were not cast in the same Mould with our theatrical Predecessors; or that in private Life or publick Occupation we have the Affinity to them." This manifesto, though inordinately long, has here been quoted entire, because it is the first known con- tribution to that voluminous literature for and against the theatre which began to be written during the in- fancy of the American d^rama and did not utterly dis- appear until the middle of the last century. Endless variations of such titles as " The Theatre, the High Road To Hell " may be found in any library well equipped with Americana. Quite mild, indeed, in comparison with some of these Philippics, is the statement made by President D wight of Yale College in his " Essay On The Stage " (1824) that " to indulge a taste for play- going means nothing more nor less than the loss of the most valuable treasure, the immortal soul. If man be determined," he continues, " at so great a price, so im- mense a loss, to indulge the gratifications of his unhal- lowed desires, and yield obedience to the precepts of false morality, he is the murderer of his own soul! " Undoubtedly the Hallams were more blamable than any other single family of the seventeenth century for encouraging this form of soul-slaughter. It would be interesting, therefore, if we could show them to have 24 The Romance of the American Theatre possessed a very high standard of personal morality and to have been fine artists into the bargain. But little or nothing is known about them. Hallam was a well-known name in English theatrical circles of the day, and many writers have on this account assumed that the Mrs. Hallam who came to America was the same one who played at Covent Garden and that the ad- mirable Drury Lane * actor, whom Macklin acciden- tally killed in the course of a dispute about the owner- ship of a wig, rose from the dead to conduct theatrical enterprises in America years later. As a matter of fact the first generation of Hallams in this country were not at all distinguished as actors, either here or in Eng- land. But they are, of course, entitled to distinct credit for the courage and persistence with which they carried on their dramatic pioneering in a new country. Dunlap tells us that during the passage over, the pieces which had been selected, cast, and put in study before em- barkation were regularly rehearsed on the deck of the Charming Sally, and about this he was very likely right, for he had his information from Lewis Hallam, then a lad of twelve. Rehearsals on the deck of a vessel far out at sea is the kind of a thing a lad of twelve would be likely to remember accurately, even when an old man. Not so greatly to be trusted, however, is Lewis's statement regarding the location in Williamsburg of the building his father soon fitted up as a theatre, a building " so near the woods that the manager could 1 Drury Lane and Covent Garden, the two " patent theatres " of London, long had a monopoly of the serious drama. 2 5 The Romance of the American Theatre stand in the door and shoot pigeons for his dinner, which he more than once actually did." Of the in- terior aspect of this theatre and of the acting that there went on we shall have more to say in the chapter treat- ing particularly the ups and downs of the drama in the South. Suffice it here then to chronicle one interesting incident relating rather to the audience than to the play- ers, in the course of this Williamsburg season. From a letter in the Maryland Gazette of November 17, we learn that the " Emperor of the Cherokee nation with his Empress and their son, the young Prince, attended by several of his Warriors and Great Men and their Ladies," adjourned from a session with the Governor to see at the theatre " the Tragedy of Othello and a Pantomime Performance which gave them great sur- prise as did the fighting with naked Swords on the Stage, which occasioned the Empress to order some about her to go and prevent them killing one another." Hallam's lengthy letter about his grievances, which he circulated upon his arrival in New York, accom- plished something of what its author had in mind when he indited it; that is, it succeeded in gaining for him finally the permission to perform which had been re- fused at first. From September 17, 1753, to March 18, 1754, the Hallam Company performed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening. The Shakespeare of- fered consisted of " Romeo and Juliet," " Richard III." and " King Lear " only; but Garrick, Cibber, Farquhar, Addison, Rowe, Steele, Fielding and Congreve were also included in the repertory, this efficient body of players The Romance of the American Theatre evidently proving themselves as acceptable in comedy as in tragedy, and as good in farce as in both other dramatic forms. The English rule of a farce or panto- mime as an afterpiece to the play was rigidly followed at this time. When the New York season closed, in the spring of 1754, Lewis Hallam took his company to Philadelphia. With no little difficulty permission was obtained to give twenty-four performances in the Quaker City on condition that nothing indecent or immoral should be presented and th$ same warehouse which had pre- viously been used by Thomas Kean's associates was again rented from William Plumstead. Mr. Plumstead had been born a Friend but early in life he had become an Episcopalian. Thus he was eligible for the convivial- ities of the famous fishing club, " the Colony in Schuyl- kill," and was free to subscribe to the first dancing assembly in Philadelphia, held in 1748. Moreover, he was himself a magistrate. Almost providential for the players appears to have been the unique personal equipment of William Plumstead, sole owner of a build- ing adapted to theatrical exhibitions! Yet it should not be supposed by this that Lewis Hallam had a very large sum of money to share with his brother William, when the projector of the company came over from England, in the middle of the Philadel- phia season, to divide the spoils. America in the Hallam period had an English population of a million only according to Dr. Franklin's estimate of 1751 and as this was scattered from Maine to Georgia, comparatively 27 The Romance of the American Theatre little of it was available for theatrical patronage in the four towns of Williamsburg, Annapolis, New York and Philadelphia, where the company had thus far played. Philadelphia in 1754, though a leading city on the American continent, was not yet any more prepared than New York to become the permanent home of the drama. Moreover, there was in Philadelphia one cir- cumstance which militated strongly against the im- mediate success of the stage. This, says Seilhamer, " was the fact that Philadelphia was proud of its scien- tific and literary pre-eminence in the Colonies. The golden youth of the metropolis, emulating the solid attainments of Dr. Franklin, affected to regard the lectures of Professor Kinnersly on electricity and his practical experiments at the Academy as more instruct- ive and entertaining than the exhibition of stage plays by a company of strolling players." After Philadelphia the Hallam Company dissolved. When we meet them next, four years later, Mrs. Hallam has become Mrs. Douglass, having married the new manager after the death of her first husband during a sojourn of the family on the island of Jamaica. Young Lewis Hallam is now the company's leading man in all save the heaviest roles; these were assigned to Mr. Harman, the husband of Colley Gibber's granddaughter, who was also a member of the Douglass Company. During the months of November and December, 1758, this company played in New York, their headquarters being a new theatre built by Douglass on what was then known as Cruger's Wharf. Again there was trouble 28 The Romance of the American Theatre with the Magistracy, however, and it must have been with a sigh of relief that the company betook itself to Philadelphia in the spring of 1759. But here, also, there were legal difficulties as well as annoying delays over the opening of the new theatre which the indomitable Douglass had managed somehow to erect on Society Hill. By the summer and autumn of 1759, good things were none the less being presented, notably " Hamlet " and " Macbeth " for the first time in America. Another interesting bill was that put on the night of Mr. Douglass's benefit, with Lewis Hallam playing Romeo to his mother's Juliet. So far as we know this is the only instance in stage history where the immortal lovers of Verona were impersonated by mother and son. Leaving to the Southern chapter the subsequent ad- ventures of these players in Maryland, we come now to their invasion of New England, in the summer of 1761. Here for the first time we meet the " Moral Dialogues," under cover of which many good New Englanders of the eighteenth century long enjoyed the drama without experiencing a single prick of con- science. A NEWPORT PLAYBILL King's Arms Tavern, Newport, Rhode Island. On Monday, June 10, at the Public Room of the above Inn, will be delivered a Series of MORAL DIALOGUES, in Five Parts, Depicting the Evil Effects of Jealousy and other Bad Passions, and Proving that Happiness can only Spring from the Pursuit of Virtue. Mr. DOUG- 29 The Romance of the American Theatre LASS will represent a noble and magnificent Moor named Othello, who loves a young lady named Desde- mona, and after he has married her, harbors (as in too many cases) the dreadful passion of jealousy. Of Jealousy, our being's bane, Mark the small cause, and the most dreadful pain. MR. ALLYN will depict the character of a specious villain, in the regiment of Othello, who is so base as to hate his commander on mere suspicion, and to impose on his best friend. Of such character, it is to be feared, there are thousands in the world, and the one in ques- tion may present to us a salutary warning. The man that wrongs his master and his friend, What can he come to but a shameful end? MR. HALLAM will delineate a young and thoughtless officer, who is traduced by Mr. Allyn, and getting drunk, loses his situation, and his general's esteem. All young men, whatsoever, take example from Cassk). The ill effects of drinking would you see? Be warned and keep from evil company. MR. MORRIS will represent an old gentleman, the father of Desdemona, who is not cruel, or covetous, but is foolish enough to dislike the noble Moor, his son-in- law, because his face is not white, forgetting that we all spring from one root. Such prejudices are numerous and very wrong. Fathers beware what sense and love ye lack, 'Tis crime, not color, makes the being black. MR. QUELCH will depict a fool, who wishes to become a knave, and trusting one gets killed by him. Such is the friendship of rogues take heed. 3 The Romance of the American Theatre When fools would knaves become, how often you'll Perceive the knave not wiser than the fool. MRS. MORRIS will represent a young and virtuous wife, who being wrongfully suspected, gets smothered (in an adjoining room) by her husband. Reader, attend; and ere thou goest hence Let fall a tear to hapless innocence. MRS. DOUGLASS will be her faithful attendant, who will hold out a good example to all servants, male and female, and to all people in subjection. Obedience and gratitude Are things as rare as they are good. Various other dialogues, too numerous to mention here, will be delivered at night, all adapted to the improve- ment of the mind and manners. The whole will be re- peated Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets, six shillings each, to be had within. Commencement at 7, conclusion at half-past ten, in order that every spectator may go home at a sober hour and reflect upon what he has seen before he retires to rest. God save the king And long may he sway East, North, and South, And fair America. Following the presentation of this disguised " Othello," the company went from Newport to Providence, en- countering in the latter city even greater opposition than they had met before. Immediately, indeed, there was passed " an Act to Prevent Stage Plays and other Theatrical entertainments within this Colony." The 3 1 The Romance of the American Theatre reason alleged for the passage of this Act was that the- atre-going occasioned " great and unnecessary expenses," besides discouraging industry and frugality, and tended likewise to increase " Immorality impiety and contempt of religion." The reasons behind the Providence Act are almost exactly the same as were set forth that same year as a result of an attempt to establish a playhouse in New Hampshire. The petitions pro and con pre- sented in the latter case make very interesting reading. " Province of New Hampshire To His Excellency Benning Wentworth, Esq., Governor and Commander- in-Chief in and over His Majesty's Province of New Hampshire The Petition of sundry of the inhabitants of Portsmouth, in the Province of New Hampshire humbly shews, " That the subscribers understand that there has been a proposal made by one of the actors of the plays, sometime since at Newport, but more lately at New York, to erect a play-house here sometime hence; and that there is a petition presented to your Excellency to inhibit and prevent the same: " Now, your petitioners, being informed that the said actors act no obscene or immoral plays, but such as tend to the improvement of the mind and informing the judgment in things proper to be known, in a civil and well-regulated society: Your petitioners pray your Excellency not to discourage, but rather forward, the same, and your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray, etc." Signed by Matthew Livermore, George Meserve, Theodore Atkinson, Jr., Joshua Brackett, John Went- worth (afterwards governor) and forty other persons. 32 The Romance of the American Theatre To prohibit the plays there came promptly a counter- petition signed by Henry Sherburne, Eleazer Russell, John Penhallow, John Newmarch, and thirty-five others, all of whom were honestly persuaded that such " sundry entertainments of the stage," as might be given in the town " would be of very pernicious consequences, not only to the morals of the young people (even if there should be no immoral exhibitions) by dissipating their minds, and giving them an idle turn of attachment to pleasure and amusement, with other ill effects which there is the greatest reason to fear from such enter- tainments in a place where they are a novelty." An even larger group, including the five selectmen, Samuel Hale, Clement Jackson, Daniel Warner, Mark H. Wentworth, George Boyd, Richard Wiburd, John Downing, Samuel Cutt, Jacob Sheafe, Thomas Chad- bourn, and more than one hundred and fifty others, represented in still another petition, that the " inhab- itants thereof " would lose not only their morals but their servants if the players were permitted to come to town. For, " as the poor will always imitate the richer," they argued, " every servant in town will soon turn player! " To avert these many and great dangers, it was enacted in the House of Representatives on June 5, 1762, that the players be not made welcome to Portsmouth, " at least at this time." The reasons alleged were " Because when such entertainments are a novelty, they have a more peculiar influence on the minds of young people, greatly endanger their morals by giving them a turn for 33 The Romance of the American Theatre intriguing, amusement and pleasure, even upon the best and most favorable supposition, that nothing con- trary to decency and good manners is exhibited; yet the strong impressions made by the gallantries, amors, and other moving representations, with which the best players abound, will dissipate and indispose the minds of youth, not used to them, to everything important and serious; and as there is a general complaint of a prevailing turn to pleasure and idleness in most young people among us, which is too well grounded, the enter- tainments of the stage would inflame that temper. All young countries have much more occasion to encourage a spirit of industry and application to business, than to countenance schemes of amusement and pleasure." Which was, very likely, a perfectly valid reason for prohibiting plays in New Hampshire in June, 1762. This early " attempt to introduce stage plays in New Hampshire " seems to have eluded the notice of both Dunbar and Seilhamer, very likely because nothing came of it. To writers whose primary concern is the development of the theatre, Douglass succeeding was, of course, far more interesting than Douglass when he failed. David Douglass was not a person to be easily dis- couraged. Between his two campaigns in Rhode Island, he had obtained permission from the lieutenant- governor of New York, Cadwallader Golden, " to build a theatre to perform in this city the ensuing winter." Thus it came about that on Beekman Street, a short distance below Nassau, on the south side of what was 34 The Romance of the American Theatre then called Chapel Street, was erected New York's third theatre, in which a season opened on November 19, 1761, and lasted five months, opposition being all the while bitter and determined. To-day we may follow the controversy in the columns of Parker's Gazette. " Philodemus " is the first contributor, charging that all ladies who attend the theatre are lacking in modesty, and declaring that the habit of play-going has often developed amorous tendencies in the hearts of good women. To which " Amanda " answers, on the four- teenth of December, that so far as she can recall, only one play, " The Fair Penitent," presented vice alluringly. And then, after the manner of woman in argument, she proceeds to call her opponent names. " Philodemus " must be an " impudent fellow," she declares, " some super-annuated animal that has past his grand climac- teric, whose earlier time of life has been employed in luxury and debauchery, and now being satiated, con- cludes that all is vanity and every pleasure criminal." The piqued " Philodemus " thereupon queries of " Amanda " which is the best teacher, the playhouse or the Bible, going on to retort, out of his wounded self- esteem, that " Amanda " is herself a " strolling player! " So the war of words goes merrily on, the letters which attacked the drama being, however, as the publisher of the Gazette admitted, very well paid for. No better index to the attitude of the times towards plays and players may be obtained than by perusing the files of these pre-Revolutionary papers. The adverti- sing columns of the day offered an easy means of com- 35 The Romance of the American Theatre munication between the manager and his public, and Mr. Douglass seized with avidity upon the service they could render him. One notice, aimed at the vice of crowding the stage during the performance, which had been copied in this*country from the pernicious custom then prevalent in England, reads as follows: " Com- plaints having been several times made that a number of gentlemen crowd the stage and very much interrupt the performance, and that it is impossible that the act- ors,|when thus obstructed, could do that justice to their parts they otherwise could, it will be taken as a particular favor if no gentleman will be offended that he is abso- lutely refused admittance at the stage door, unless he has previously secured himself a place in either the stage or upper boxes." Another curious advertisement printed in Game's Mercury a few days after the close of the season of 1761- 1762, shows that the gallants who disregarded this rule laid themselves open to unpleasant consequences; for there may be found a card which proves that " the egg as a vehicle of dramatic criticism came into use early in this Continent." Seilhamer, however, declares that the eggs referred to in the card probably expressed dis- approbation not of the actors, but of the " beaus of the period who with their powdered wigs, long, stiff-skirted coats, and waistcoats, with flaps reaching nearly to their knees, silk stockings, short-quartered shoes, and silver or paste buckles," were in the habit of crowding the stage and so interfering with the gallery's view of the play. Now for the card: " Theatre in New York, May 36 The Romance of the American Theatre 3, 1762. A Pistole Reward will be given to whoever can discover the person who was so very rude as to throw Eggs from the Gallery upon the stage last Monday, by which the Cloaths of some Ladies and Gentlemen were spoiled and the performance in some measure inter- rupted, D. Douglass." It was not until five years later, indeed, that New York received a play-acting company with entire cor- diality. Then began the successful career of the theatre in John Street, which for a quarter of a century remained the background of all New York's most creditable dramatic efforts. In appearance there was little that was imposing in this Temple of the Muses. It was approached from the sidewalk by a covered passage some sixty feet long, made of rough wooden materials; inside, it was con- structed principally of wood, painted red. It had two rows of boxes, a pit and a gallery, and when the seats were all sold at the prices then current, could bring in a-s much as eight hundred dollars a night. The stage was as large as most stages of that day, and there were dressing-rooms and a greenroom in the shed adjacent to the theatre. For a description of the house as it looked when reopened after the Revolution, we turn to a passage in the first American play produced in New York and the first comedy by an American that was American in theme. This play, called " The Con- trast," was written by Judge Tyler of Vermont, and in it one of the characters, the original Brother Jonathan of the stage, happens in at the theatre in John Street 37 The Romance of the American Theatre when " The School for Scandal " was there the bill. But let us give his experiences in his own words. " Jenny So, Mr. Jonathan, I hear you were at the play last night. Jon. At the play! Why, do you think I went to the devil's drawing-room? Jenny The devil's drawing-room? Jon. Yes, why, ain't cards and dice the devil's devices? And the playhouse, where the devil hangs out the vanities of the world on the tenter-hooks of tempta- tion? . . . You won't catch me at a playhouse, I war- rant you." v To the question, however, as to where he was at six o'clock the night before, Jonathan says that while wandering around in search of innocent diversion, he " saw a great crowd of folks going into a long entry that had lanterns over the door so I asked a man if that was the place where they played hocus pocus? " Being assured that hocus pocus tricks might there be witnessed, Jonathan " went right in, and they showed me away clean up to the garret just like meeting-house gallery. And so I saw a power of topping folks, all sitting around in little cabins, just like father's corn-crib, and then there was such a squeaking of the fiddles and such a tarnal blaze of the lights, my head was near turned. At length people that sat near me set up such a hissing hiss like so many mad cats, and then they went thump, thump, thump, just like our Peleg thrashing wheat, and stampt away just like the nation and called out for one Mr. Langolee I suppose he helps act the tricks." In the midst of all this, Jonathan goes on, " they lifted up a great green cloth and let us look right into the next neighbor's house. Have you a good many houses in New York made in that 'ere way? 38 The Romance of the American Theatre Jenny Not many. But did you see the family? Jon. Yes, swamp it, I seed the family. Jenny Well and how did you like them? Jon. Why, I vow, they were pretty much like other families ; there was a poor good-natured curse of a husband and a sad rantipole of a wife. . . . Yes and there was one youngster, they called him Mr. Jo- seph; he talked as sober and as pious as a minister; but, )ike some ministers I know, he was a sly tike in his heart, for all that; he was going to ask a young woman to spark it with him and the Lord have mercy on my Soul she was another man's wife." For a categorical description of this 1767-1768 season at John Street the reader is referred to Seilhamer. Inasmuch as that author has devoted three large tomes to a history of the American stage in the eighteenth century, it is obvious that we can give here nothing more than a few amusing incidents connected with the stage at this period. One such was the attendance of the Indian chiefs at the playhouse when " King Richard III " was given early in the season, and their compli- mentary presentation of a war dance when they next came to town in April, out of appreciation for the enjoy- ment they had derived on their previous visit. At the bottom of the advertisement for this latter occasion may be found the following note: " The Cherokee Chiefs and Warriors, being desirous of making some re- turn for the friendly Reception and Civilities they have received in this city, have offered to entertain the Public with the War Dance, which they will exhibit on the stage after the Pantomime. It is humbly presumed that 39 The Romance of the American Theatre no part of the audience will forget the proper Decorum so essential to all public Assemblies, particularly on this Occasion, as the Persons who have condescended to con- tribute to their entertainment are of Rank and Conse- quence in their own country." Such extraordinary attractions as these notwith- standing, Mr. Douglass found himself almost bankrupt when this season in New York closed, and again he was obliged to go to Philadelphia to recoup. Nor was it very different in New York the following season, though on one night the Masons, and on another the " Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick " took blocks of seats for their membership. An advertisement to facilitate this lat- ter indulgence may be found in the New York Journal of March 30. It reads: "The Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick and several Gentlemen of this City intend dining together at Bolton and SigePs, next Monday, and from thence to go to the Play in the Evening; such Gentlemen as propose to join them will be pleased to send in their Names to the Bar of said Tavern two days before. New York, March 28, 1769." It was at this time in the history of Mr. Douglass's players that Miss Hallam began to come to the front in leading parts as the successor of Miss Cheer, who had been for some time the leading woman of the company and who had further distinguished herself by marrying a lord in the course of one of the visits of the players to Philadelphia. In the Pennsylvania Chronicle of August 28, 1768, this event, which would now be good for a "front page story" at least, received the following 40 The Romance of the American Theatre terse treatment: " Last week was married in Maryland the Right Honorable Lord Rosehill to Miss Margaret Cheer, a young lady much admired for her theatrical performances." Lord Rosehill had just turned twenty, and it is quite probable that the lady was considerably his senior. As the first actress on the American stage to capture a lord for a husband, she is certainly entitled to extended treatment in a book claiming to deal with the " romance " of the American theatre. But there were no press agents in those days, and the scanty announcement which has been quoted is all that can be found, alas! about this interesting alliance. That Miss Cheer was a good actress is, however, certain. For during her short reign on the American stage, she is known to have played fifty of the leading characters as well as a few parts in pantomime and farce. Lord Rosehill was the son and heir of the sixth Earl of Northesk in the Scotch peerage, but his actress wife never became a countess. The old earl was still living when Lady RosehiU's still young husband died in France, without issue, in 1788. The press of the time showed itself less niggardly toward the players when one of their number died than when a marriage into the nobilrty was consummated. When Colley Gibber's granddaughter, Mrs. Harman, passed away, May 27, 1773, Rivington's Gazette printed quite a respectful obituary notice, the first relating to an actress which ever appeared in an American news- paper. "On Thursday last," it reads, "died in the 43d year of her age, Mrs. Catherine Maria Harman, The Romance of the American Theatre granddaughter of the celebrated Colley Gibber, Esq., poet-laureate. She was a just actress, possessed much merit in low comedy, and dressed all her characters with infinite propriety, but her figure prevented her from succeeding in tragedy and genteel comedy. In pri- vate life she was sensible, l humane and benevolent. Her little fortune she has left to Miss Cheer, and her obsequies were on Saturday night attended by a very genteel procession to the cemetery of the old English Church." While we are on the sad subject of funerals, we may as well chronicle the death, in 1774, of Mrs. Douglass, who, as Mrs. Hallam, had been one of the little band of pioneers sailing on the Charming Sally at the very dawn of dramatic history in America. The paper which reported her death referred to her as " wife of Mr. Douglass, manager of the American Company of Come- dians, mother of Mr. Lewis Hallam and of Mrs. Mattocks, J That Mrs. Harman, though an actress, so lived her life as to be pronounced "sensible" by the hostile press of that day, proves that there is not nearly so much in heredity as some would have us think. For her father was a musician without character or reputation, and her mother was one of the most erratic creatures in all stage history. Married young, Charlotte Gibber soon fell out with her husband and enlisted in the profession of her father. Both at the Haymarket and at Drury Lane she held positions at a good salary, but her violent temper caused her to quarrel with the management and she then became, first, a writer, and afterwards a strolling player. Her own story of her life shows this extraordinary creature as successively a grocer, a keeper of a puppet-show, a vendor of sausages and a waiter at the King's Head Tavern in Marylebone. She also obtained employment on the stage disguised as a man and, still masquerading, secured a place as valet- de-chambre for a nobleman. Dibdin pronounces her " a sort of English D'Eon," evidently under the impression, as were many of his contempo- raries, that D'Eon was in truth a woman and not a man, as was proved by a post-mortem examination of his remains. See my " Romantic Days In the Early Republic," p. 351. 42 The Romance of the American Theatre of Covent Garden Theatre, and aunt of Miss Hallam." It further declared her " a lady, who, by her excellent performances upon the stage and her irreproachable manners in private life, had recommended herself to the friendship and affection of many of the principal families on the Continent and in the West Indies." That this worthy woman should have died before the outbreak of the Revolution, in Philadelphia, where the attitude towards players was always a comparatively friendly one, seems a kind dispensation of Providence. It is very pleasant to read that all the ladies in the neighborhood of Fifth and South Streets attended her funeral, and that she was buried with impressive ceremonies in the grounds of the Second Presbyterian Church at Third and Arch Streets. For she had done rather more than a woman's part towards establishing the theatre as a dignified institution in America. 43 CHAPTER II EARLY UPS AND DOWNS OF THE THEATRE IN THE SOUTH IT was in Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia, that there occurred, in 1718, the first known representa- tion in North America of what the purists of our time characterize as " the acted drama." Reference to this performance may be found in a letter of Governor Spottiswood dated June 24, 1718, it being therein made clear that certain members of the House of Assembly had slighted an invitation given them by the Governor for an entertainment at his house. These gentlemen, he writes, had denied him " the common compliment of a visit when, in order to solemnizing of His Majesty's birthday, I gave a public entertainment at my house, and all gentlemen that would come were admitted.'' These eight committeemen," he continues, " would neither come to my house nor go to the play which was acted on the occasion." They preferred instead, it would seem, to have a party of their own in the House of Burgesses and invite in everybody who would come there to drink the king's health! What the play here referred to was or where it was performed, we do not know, but Judge Daly, to whose researches concerning the early theatres in America 44 The Romance of the American Theatre allusions have previously been made, conjectures that the performance to which the Governor graciously lent his support was one of those given in that Williamsburg theatre to which Graham refers as "the first institution of the kind in the British colonies." In all probability Graham 1 was quoting, in this paragraph, from Hugh Jones's " The Present State of Virginia " (published in London in 1724). Jones, at any rate, makes mention in his book of the existence of a " Play House " in Williams- burg thus early; and since Jones had been away from Virginia for two years, when he published his book in London, we seem to have a theatre an established fact in Williamsburg as early as 1722. This is not so astonishing as would at first appear when we bear in mind that the men and women who settled Virginia were a very different people from the Puritans of New England. It was not for the sake of enjoying, unmolested, " freedom to worship God " that they had fled to America; they brought with them none of that repugnance to stage plays which so long marked the New England colonists. They were, indeed, in the words of Bancroft, " a continuation of English society, who were attached to the monarchy, with a deep reverence for the English church and a love for England and English institutions." That the theatre was one of the most cherished of " English institutions " was convincingly shown, I think, in our opening chapter. To be sure, Williamsburg had only a small resident 1 In his " History of the United States of North America; " London, 1736- 45 The Romance of the American Theatre population at this time. But this would not necessarily imply that plays and a playhouse might not have nour- ished there. For it was the capital of a widely extended province. It was here that the Governor resided, here where the Legislature assembled, here that the Law Courts were held, and the prosperous planters of the day came for periods of recreation. Even at the early date when Jones's history was written, he asserts that the people of Williamsburg lived " in the same neat manner, dress after the same modes, and behave themselves exactly as the gentry of London." And Cooke, in his " History of the People of Virginia " shows the Williams- burg of only a little later to have been the centre of all that was brilliant and attractive in Virginia society. " It was," he says, " the habit of the planters to go there with their families at this season, to enjoy the pleasures of the Capital, and one of the highways, Gloucester, was an animated spectacle of coaches and four, containing the nabobs and their dames; of maidens in silk and lace, with high-heeled shoes and clocked stockings. All these people were engaged in attending the assemblies held at the palace, in dancing at the Apollo, in snatching the pleasures of the moment, and enjoying life under a regime that seemed mad for en- joyment. . . . The violins seemed to be ever playing for the diversion of the youths and maidens; cocks were fighting, horsemen riding, students mingled in the throng in their academic dress, and his Serene Excellency went to open the House of Burgesses in his coach, drawn by six milk-white horses. It was a scene full of gaiety and abandon. Williamsburg was never more brilliant than at this period." The Romance of the American Theatre . Obviously just the place to support, for many months in the year at least, so inspiriting an institution as a theatre! For in London, from which Williamsburg took its tone, the stage, it must be recalled, was at this time in high favour. The licentiousness that had long pre- vailed in the plays and players was rapidly passing away, and a better class of people now went to the theatre than had ever done so before. It was of this period that Addi- son wrote: " I cannot be of the opinion of the reformers of man- ners in their severity toward plays; but must allow that a good play, acted before a well-bred -audience, must raise very proper incitement to good behaviour, and be the most quick and the most prevailing method of giving young people a turn of sense and breeding. When the character drawn by a judicious poet," he continues, " is presented by the person, the manner, the look and the motion of an accomplished player, what may not be brought to pass by seeing generous things performed before our eyes? The stage is the mirror of human life; let me, therefore, recommend the oft use of a theatre as the most agreeable and easy method of making a polite and moral gentry, which would end in rendering the rest of the people regular in their behaviour and ambi- tious of laudable undertakings." Addison was highly regarded in Williamsburg, so highly regarded in fact that his " Cato " was per- formed by the college students on September 10, 1736. The advertisement setting forth this interesting fact may be found in the Virginia Gazette of that day. 47 The Romance of the American Theaire " ADVERTISEMENT " This evening will be performed at the Theatre by the young Gentlemen of the College, the ' Tragedy of Cato,' and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be acted the following comedies by the young Gentle- men and Ladies of this country ' The Busybody/ the ' Recruiting Officer ' and the ' Beaux' Stratagem.' ' From the latter part of this notice, authority is de- rived for belief that Williamsburg had an organized company of some kind acting English comedy at least sixteen years earlier than the date given by Dunlap as the natal day of the theatre in America. Seilhamer makes much of this notice, and so scathingly condemns Dunlap for not having found it, as he did, in the files of the Virginia Gazette, that he has the appearance of discred- iting quite ungenerously the first historian of the Amer- ican theatre. I do not see the need of calling Dunlap hard names; he was so very happy in his firm belief that the Hallams, one of whom he knew well, had intro- duced the drama into America ! And it was, in very truth, a pretty theory. John Esten Cooke liked it so much that he has given us, in his " Virginia Comedians," a picture of just what may have happened in the Williams- burg theatre when the Hallam company were playing " Merchant of Venice " there. To be sure, he makes the date 1763 instead of 1752, and gives Mr. Hallam, whom he describes as " a fat little man of fifty or fifty-five with a rubicund and somewhat sensual face," the part of Bassanio instead of that of Launcelot Gobbo. Moreover, The Romance of the American Theatre he makes Miss Hallam, who played Jessica (" her first appearance on any stage "), take the part of Portia, which Mrs. Hallam really sustained. And in the place of Mr. Malone, who played Shylock, he introduces a fictitious Mr. Pugsby. None the less, it is a valuable service he does us in depicting Williamsburg society as it quite probably looked when enjoying this early play at its first theatre. " The ' old theatre near the capitol/ discoursed of in the manifesto issued by Mr. Manager Hallam, was so far old'' he writes, " that the walls were well browned by time, and the shutters to the windows of a pleasant neutral tint between rust and dust color. The building had, no doubt, been used for the present purpose in by- gone times, before the days of the Virginia Gazette, which is our authority for many of the facts here stated in relation to the ' Virginia Company of Comedians; ' but of the former company of l players/ as my Lord Hamlet calls them, and their successes and misfortunes, printed words tell us nothing. . . . That there had been companies before, however, we repeat, there is some reason to believe; else why that addition ' old ' applied to the ' theatre near the capital.' " Within, the play-house presented a somewhat more attractive appearance. There was a l box/ l pit ' and 1 gallery/ as in our own day; and the relative prices were arranged in much the same manner. The common mortals gentlemen and ladies were forced to occupy the boxes raised slightly above the level of the stage and hemmed in by velvet-cushioned railings in front of a flower-decorated panel extending all around the house and for this position they were moreover compelled to pay an admission fee of seven shillings and sixpence. 49 The Romance of the American Theatre The demigods so to speak occupied a more eligible portion in the ' pit/ from which they could procure a highly excellent view of the actors' feet and ankles, just on a level with their noses; to conciliate the demigods this superior advantage had been offered, and the price for them was further still reduced to five shillings. But 1 the gods/ in truth, were the real favorites of the man- ager. To attract them he arranged the high upper ' gallery ' and left it untouched, unencumbered by rail- ings, velvet cushions, or any other device; all was free space and liberal as the air; there were no troublesome seats for ' the gods/ and three shillings and ninepence all that the manager would demand. The honor of their presence was enough. . . . From the boxes a stairway led down to the stage, and some rude scenes, visible at the edges of the curtain, completed the outfit." So much for the theatre. And now let us be introduced to the dramatis personae of the book. One of the prin- cipal characters in the novel is a young Virginian, Mr. Effingham, who, after a visit and some stay at Oxford and in London, has returned to the paternal home, Effingham Hall, in Virginia, and while riding to visit a manorial estate on a plantation known as Riverhead, whose owner, named Lee, has the felicity to be the father of two attractive daughters, suddenly draws up his horse upon seeing before him in the road a young lady whom the novelist thus describes: " The rider was a young girl of about eighteen and of rare and extraordinary beauty. Her hair so much of it as was visible beneath her hood seemed to be dark chestnut and her complexion was dazzling. The eyes were large, full and dark instinct with fire and 50 The Romance of the American Theatre softness, feminine modesty and collected firmness, the firmness, however, predominating. But the lips were different. They were the lips of a child, soft, guileless, tender, and confiding; they were purity and innocence itself, and seemed to say that, however much the brain might become hard and worldly, the heart of this young woman never could be other than the tender and deli- cately sensitive heart of a child. She was clad in a riding- dress of pearl color, and, from the uniformity of this tint, it seemed to be a favorite with her. The hood was of silk, and the delicate, gloved hand held a little ivory- handled riding whip, which now dangled at her side. The other gloved hand supported her cheek; and in this position the young lady calmly awaited Mr. Efnngham's approach still nearer, though he was already nearly touching her. " Mr. Effingham took off his hat and bowed with ele- gant courtesy. The lady returned the inclination by a graceful movement of the head. " ' Would you be kind enough to point out the road to the town of Williamsburg, sir? ' she said in a calm and clear voice. " l With great pleasure, madam/ replied Mr. Effing- ham. ' You have lost your way? ' " l Yes, sir, and very strangely; and, as the evening drew on, I was afraid of being benighted/ " l You have but to follow the road until you reach Effingham Hall, madam/ he said, ' the house in the distance yonder; then turn to the left, and you are in the highway to town/ " l Thanks, sir/ the young girl said, with another calm inclination of her head, and she touched her horse with the whip. ' But cannot I accompany you? ' asked Mr. Effing- ham, whose curiosity was greatly aroused, and found his The Romance of the American Theatre eyes, he knew not why, riveted to the rare beauty of his companion's face; l do you not need me as a guide? ' " * Indeed, I think not, sir/ she said with the same calmness. ' Your direction is very plain, and I am ac- customed to ride by myself.' " ' But really,' began Mr. Effingham, somewhat piqued, ' I know it is intrusive I know I have not the honor ' " She interrupted him with her immovable calmness. " ' You would say that you do not know me and that your offer is intrusive. I believe, sir, I do not consider it so it is very kind ; but I am not a fearful girl and need not trouble you at all.' " And so bowed. " l One moment,. madam,' said Mr. Effingham; ' I am really dying with curiosity to know you. 'Tis very rude to say so, of course but I am acquainted with every lady in the neighborhood, and I do not recall any former occasion upon which I had the pleasure " ' It is very easily explained, sir. I do not live in the neighborhood and I am not a lady.' ' And this was all the smitten youth could find out save that he " would not long remain in ignorance of her identity " if he were in the habit of frequently visit- ing Williamsburg. So, somewhat chagrined, he con- tinues on his way to Riverhead. There he finds a copy of the Gazette and, looking it over, comes upon the notice that " Mr. Hallam and his Virginia company of come- dians " will soon perform " The Merchant of Venice " at the " old theatre near the capitol." It is thereupon arranged that Effingham, accompanied by the old gentleman and his two daughters, will be on hand to 52 The Romance of the American Theatre welcome the players, one of the girls slyly insisting that Mr. Effingham will be a very useful companion, inas- much as he could " tell them when to hiss and when to applaud being just from London.' ' On the appointed evening the whole party is eager for the entertainment. " When Mr. Lee and his two daughters entered the box, which had been reserved for them next the stage, the house was nearly full and the neatness of the edifice was lost sight of in the sea of brilliant ladies' faces and showy forms of cavaliers which extended, like a sea of glittering foam, around the semicircle of the boxes. The pit was occupied by well-dressed men of the lower class, as the times had it, and from the gallery proceeded hoarse murmurs and the unforgotten slang of London. Many smiles and bows were interchanged between the parties in the different boxes, and the young gallants, following the fashion of the day, gathered at each end of the stage, and often walked across to exchange some polite speech with the smiling dames in the boxes near- est." After the orchestra, " consisting of three or four foreign-looking gentlemen, bearded and moustached," had done what they could in the way of preliminary entertainment, the manager came forward in the costume of Bassanio and recommended himself and his company to the " aristocracy of the great and noble colony of Virginia." The curtain slowly rolled aloft, and the young gallants scattered to the corners of the stage, seat- ing themselves on stools or chairs, or standing. The scenes between Portia and Nerissa in the first act was omitted in the version offered by the Hallams, 53 The Romance of the American Theatre and thus it was not until the second act that Effingham saw again his unknown lady of the woods, whom my readers will, of course, have guessed to be Beatrice Hallam. " She was, indeed," the novelist asserts, " no gentle Virginia maiden, no ' lady,' as she had said with perfect calmness at their meeting." Yet young Effing- ham did not, on this account, scan her the less atten- tively from his wicker chair in the corner of the stage. " Her costume was faultless. It consisted of a gown and underskirt of fawn-colored silk trimmed with silver, and a single band of gold encircled each wrist, clearly re- lieved against the white, finely-rounded arm. Her hair, which was a beautiful chestnut, had been carried back from her temples and powdered after the fashion of the time, and around her beautiful, swan-like neck the young woman wore a necklace of pearls of rare brilliancy." The costume of the character having thus defied criti- cism, Mr. EfHngham passed on to the face and figure. And so favourably was the young gallant " just from London " impressed by these and by the acting of their owner that, a little later, he leaned forward and touched her sleeve. " ' Come/ he said, with easy carelessness and scarcely moderating his voice. l Come, fair Portia, while that tiresome fellow is making his speech, and talk to me a little. We are old acquaintances, and you are indebted to me for directing you home.' " ' Yes, sir/ said Beatrice, turning her head slightly, ' but pardon me I have my part to attend to.' 1 1 don't care.' " ' Excuse me, sir, I do.' 54 The Romance of the American Theatre " ' Really, madam, you are very stiff for an actress. Is it so very unusual a thing to ask a moment's conver- sation? ' " ' I know it is the fashion in London and elsewhere, sir, but I dislike it. It destroys my conception of the character/ she said calmly." And though Effingham, peeved, continued to force conversation upon the young girl, she steadfastly re- fuses to reply or even to listen to him. All of which is true in spirit if not in detail. For never in America \ were the fops and dandies of the period permitted the lib- \ erties on the stage and behind the scenes which they had, from time immemorial, claimed and obtained in London. Another Southern city which had a theatre considerably J earlier than either Dunlap or Seilhamer state, was Charleston, South Carolina, or, as it was written then, Charles-Town. A writer in the New York Times of December 15, 1895, gives as the result of his researches in the newspaper files of the Library Society in Charles- ton, the discovery that a play was acted in that city January 24, 1735. The advertisement for this occasion reads : " On Friday, the 24 inst., in the Court Room, will be attempted a tragedy called ' The Orphan or the Unhappy Marriage/ " Tickets will be delivered out on Tuesday next, at Mr. Shepheard's at 403. each." Judge Daly points out that though forty shillings seems a high price to pay for seeing " The Orphan," it really may not have been high, inasmuch as we cannot 55 The Romance of the American Theatre tell what the value of a shilling then was in South Caro- lina, compared to the value of a pound sterling. The price of a box ticket at Kean and Murray's Theatre in Nassau Street, New York, fifteen years afterwards, was only five shillings, New York currency, about the value of two dollars at the present day. From the fact that this Charleston performance of " The Orphan " was repeated twice, we must conclude that the theatre-goers of the town did not regard forty shillings as too high to pay for a theatrical " whistle." The prologue used on the opening night is quaint enough, I think, to warrant reprinting. "^PROLOGUE " When first Columbus touch 'd this distant shore, And vainly hoped his Fears and Dangers o'er, One boundless Wilderness in view appear'd No Champain Plains or rising Cities cheered His wearied Eye. Monsters unknown travers'd the hideous Waste, And men more savage than the Beasts they chased. But mark! How soon these gloomy Prospects clear, And the new World's late horrors disappear. The Soil, obedient to the industrious swains, What happy Harvests crown their honest Pains, What various products float on every Tide? What numerous navies in our Harbours ride? Tillage and Trade conjoin their friendly aid, T' enrich the thriving Boy and lovely Maid, Hispania, 'tis true, her precious mines engross'd, And bore her shining Entrails to its Coast. 56 The Romance of the American Theatre Britannia more humane supplies her wants, The British sense and British beauty plants. The aged Sire beholds with sweet surprise In foreign climes a numerous offspring rise, Sense, Virtue, Worth, and Honour stand confest In each brave male, his prosperous hands have blessed, While the admiring Eye improved may trace, The Mother's Charms in each chaste Virgin's face. Hence we presume to usher in those Arts Which oft have warm'd the best and bravest Hearts. Faint our Endeavours, wide as our Essays, We strive to please, but can't pretend to Praise; Forgiving Smiles o'erpay the grateful task, Those all we hope and all we humbly ask." So generously did the audience to which this perora- tion was addressed respond in " Forgiving Smiles " and in admission fees that there were presented at Charleston that season, besides " The Orphan, " a " new Pantomime Entertainment in Grotesque Characters called l The Adventures of Harlequin and Scaramouch/ with the ' Burgo-Master Trick'd; ' The Opera of Flora or, Hob in the Well with the Dance of the two Pierrots and a new Pantomime Entertainment and ' The Spanish Fryar,' or ' The Double Discovery.' " That the season was a success one must conclude from the fact that on May 3 the following advertisement appeared : " Any gentlemen that are disposed to encourage the exhibition of plays next Winter, may have the sight of the proposals for a subscription at Mr. Shepheard's in 57 The Romance of the American Theatre Broad Street. And any persons that are desirous of having a share in the performance thereof, upon appli- cation to Mr. Shepheard shall receive a satisfactory answer. N. B. The subscription will be closed the last day of this month." Eight months later another advertisement may be found in the South Carolina Gazette, which would seem to indicate that the " proposals " above referred to had borne fruit. For it is announced that: " On Thursday, the i2th of February, will be opened the new theatre in Dock street, in which will be per- formed the comedy called the ' Recruiting Officer.' " Tickets for the pitt and boxes will be delivered at Mr. Charles Shepheard's, on Thursday, the 5th of Feb- ruary. Boxes, 305; pitt, 205; and tickets for the gallery, 155, which will be delivered at the theatre the day of playing. " N. B. The doors will be opened all the afternoon. The Subscribers are desired to send to the stage door in the forenoon to bespeak places, otherwise it will be too late." During this season plays were produced in Charleston at the rate of one a week ; but the venture did not prosper, for all that, and the Gazette of the last week in May con- tains this epigram: "ON THE SALE OF THE THEATRE " How cruel Fortune, and how fickle too, To crop the Method made for making you! Changes tho' common, yet when great they prove, Make men distrust the care of Mighty Jove; 58 The Romance of the American Theatre Half made in thought (though not in fact) we find You bought and sold, but left poor H. behind. P. S. Since so it is ne'er mind the silly trick, The pair will please, when Pierrot makes you sick." The wit and appositeness of this effusion is quite lost upon us of to-day. But its appearance in the South > v Carolina Gazette establishes beyond peradventure the lS fact that Charleston possessed a theatre nearly forty [ J years earlier than has been generally believed. Charles- ton was a rapidly growing town at this time, and like all such, had a fine sense of the value of names. Hence what had been " the theatre in Dock street " is soon " the playhouse in Queen street." And here ere long a ball is being advertised as well as another production, " at the request of the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons," of the " Recruiting Officer/' a piece which was much enjoyed by eighteenth- century audiences. The advertising columns of the Gazette contain two more allusions to this theatre - which probably stood on the lot of land later occupied by the rear portion of the old Planters' Hotel, within less than a hundred yarcfs of the Huguenot and St. Philip's churches. The first notice, dated October 3, 1748, sets forth the virtues of a school " over against the Play House," and another, dated October 3, 1754, announces that a company of comedians from London will give the " Fair Penitent," tickets for which might be had of " Mr. John Remington and at the printer's." " The Recruiting Officer," it will be recalled, was the play with which the New Theatre in New York opened 59 The Romance of the American Theatre J in 1732. Thus it was the earliest play known to have been acted in North America. That it was also acted in Williamsburg and in Charleston in 1736 entitles it to more than passing mention here. Written by George Farquhar, who with Wycherly, Congreve, and Vanbrugh ranks as a leading comic dramatist of the Restoration, its wit, sprightliness, and plot are all of a kind scarcely to be tolerated on any stage to-day. Yet, Leigh Hunt, a very competent critic, praised it highly for its character- ization and for its charm of gaiety and good humour. New York had a chance to taste these qualities for it- self in 1843 and again on February 8, 1885, the comedy being then revived by Mr. Augustin Daly and played as nearly as possible after the manner of its original production at Drury Lane in 1706, when Nance Old- field acted the part of Sylvia. The eyes through which this New York revival was viewed are not so different from intelligently critical eyes of our own day that a reprint of a newspaper notice of the performance by one of the New York critics next day should be lacking in interest. The Recruiting Officer Captain Plume Mr. Drew Captain Brazen Mr. Parkes Justice Balance Mr. Fisher Sergeant Kite Mr. Lewis Mr. Worthy Mr. Skinner Bullock Mr. Gilbert Appletree Mr. Bond Pearman Mr. Wilks 60 The Romance of the American Theatre Balance's Steward Mr. Beekman Mistress Melinda Miss Virginia Dreher Rose Miss May Fielding Lucy Miss May Irwin Sylvia Miss Ada Rehan " ' I am called Captain, sir, by all the' drawers and room-porters in London/ said Miss Ada Rehan at Daly's Theatre last night. And bravely she wore her red coat and sword, the martial twist in her cravat, the fierce knot in her periwig, the cane upon her button and the dice in her pocket. The audience was in ecstasies. " It was a revival of l The Recruiting Officer,' by George Farquhar. The manners of Queen Anne's day were reproduced on Mr. Daly's stage. Captain Plume and Sergeant Kite were enlisting the country lads and playing court to the country lassies. Justice Balance was keeping watch over the morals of his daughter Sylvia. Sprightly Mistress Melinda was intriguing for the hand of young Worthy. Brazen was bragging of his service in Flanders against the French and in Hungary against the Turks. The atmosphere was charged with love, and the stage resounded with the tap of the drum. ' The audience was in a curious and observant mood. The doings on the stage were of a wholly unfamiliar kind. The language sounded strangely fantastic to modern ears. Ladies held their breath at the bygone sentiment of the play. Men met in groups between the acts and wondered what was the secret of its original success. Its secret was tolerably simple. It was written at the time of Marlborough's earlier victories. Blenheim had just been won. A military fervor possessed the country. Rustics went marching round the fields with ribbons in their caps. The recruiting officer was seen in every town. The popular song of the hour was : 61 The Romance of the American Theatre " ' Over the hill and over the main To Flanders, Portugal and Spain; The Queen commands and we'll obey; Over the hills and far away.' " Moreover, there was a steady flow of indecency in the comedy. The town had been growing dull. Con- greve had retired into the intimacy of the Duchess of Marlborough. Wycherly was writing feeble poems under the tutorship of that rising young man, Alexander Pope. Vanbrugh was giving his attention to architecture. Jeremy Collier and his moral tractate had exorcised the merry devils off the stage and the pit mourned their departure. So ' The Recruiting Officer,' with its broad jests, was particularly welcome. Captain Plume, with his amorous devices, became the ideal of the army, and pretty Rose, with her chickens, furnished laughter for the mess-room and the coffee-houses. " Human nature has not much changed. Mr. Daly's audience last night was as fashionable an audience as could be gathered in the city. Yet the few suggestive lines which he has left in the piece excited the loudest laugh. Americans are not so squeamish with these old plays. They know that the comedies of the Restoration were not models of propriety. They know that George Farquhar, the rollicking Irish captain, was not a preacher of morality. And if the piece hung fire at times, if it seemed a trifle heavy and monotonous, it was because the spectators had been credited with a prudery which they did not seem to possess. " The company was a little out of its element. Mr. Drew, in particular, should have been livelier and airier, conducting his love affairs with as light a touch as Charles Mathews might have conducted them in other days, or Mr. Wallack to-day. Mr. Fisher, too, pressed 62 The Romance of the American Theatre with too heavy a hand on such niceties of character as have been discovered in Justice Balance; and Mr. James Lewis, though discreet and refined in his humor, ex- tracted none of the exuberant fun from Sergeant Kite with which critics of the past have supposed that un- scrupulous personage to overflow. Mr. Skinner was a dignified young lover and Mr. Parkes amused as Brazen. But the honors of the evening rested with Miss Virginia Dreher, who looked radiantly beautiful in a web of lace and gold, and with Miss Ada Rehan, who had the bold step, the rakish toss and the impudent air of your true military gallant. She was not Peg Woffington, perhaps, but she was a charming woman in disguise and the town will be curious to see her." Why early playgoers in the South liked this comedy will be easily understood. Captain Plume was, for many years, a part particularly favoured by dashing young actors endowed with handsome face, a fine person, and in- gratiating manners. Farquhar had pictured himself while writing this character, and Wilks, his near friend, and the most distinguished actor of the time on the English stage, first gave it life. It is probable that many of the young Southerners who frequented the playhouses of Virginia and South Carolina were " just from London," like the Mr. Effingham of Cooke's novel, and so had radiant memories of the play as given over there. The comedies of Farquhar and his contemporaries were produced considerably more often, in the South of this period, than the plays of Shakespeare. In the list of plays brought out at the Charleston Theatre in 1773- 1774, the name of Shakespeare appears only ten times 63 The Romance of the American Theatre in a season of fifty-nine nights, while from a similar list, published in the Maryland Gazette at the close of David Douglass's Annapolis season of 1760, Shakespeare is seen to have been played only four out of twenty-eight nights. Sellhamer prints in full both the lists to which reference is here made, and which are of distinct interest, in that they supply the most complete records extant of these theatrical seasons before the Revolution. The fact that two editors in two different Southern States saw fit to give as much space to things theatrical as these two lists take up in their columns, shows conclusively that the attitude of the South towards the theatre was much more enlightened at this time than that of other sec- tions. Nearly everything that then held the stage was pro- duced at least once during this Charleston season of 1773-1774. Nine of Shakespeare's masterpieces were given including " Julius Caesar," for the first time in America; * eight of Garrick's productions, several of Bick- erstaff's operas, Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer.," and the most successful works of Congreve, Dry den, Van- brugh, Farquhar, Colley Cibber, Whitehead, Otway, and Addison. Theatrical happenings in Charleston at this period looked so important as news, too, that we find Rivington's New York Gazette, the best newspaper of the time, in the modern sense, noticing the opening of the Charleston Theatre! A correspondent appears, in- deed, to have been present on this interesting occasion, for Hallam's acting is highly praised, the reviewer then 1 April 20, 1774. 6 4 The Romance of the American Theatre going on to remark: "The house is elegantly finished and supposed for the size to be the most commodious on the continent. The scenes, which are new and well designed, the dresses, the music, and what had a very pleasant effect, the disposition of the lights, all contribu- ted to the satisfaction of the audience, who expressed the highest approbation of their entertainment." Even at the end of the season the Charlestonians were delighted with their play-going privileges which does not always happen. In the South Carolina Gazette of May 30, 1774, may be found the following: "CLOSE OF THE CHARLESTON SEASON " On Friday last the theatre which opened here the 22d of December was closed. Warmly countenanced and supported by the public, the manager and his com- pany were excited to the most strenuous efforts to render their entertainments worthy of so respectable a patron- age. . . . The exertions of the American Company have been uncommon and justly entitles them to those marks of public favor that have for so many years stampt a merit in their performances. The choice of plays hath been allowed to be very judicious, the directors having selected from the most approved English poets such pieces as possess in the highest degree the utile dulce, and while they entertain, improve the mind by convey- ing the most useful lessons of industry and virtue. The company have separated until the winter when the New York Theatre will be opened. Mr. Hallam being em- barked for England to engage some recruits for that service. The year after, they will perform at Philadel- phia and in the winter following we may expect them here with a theatrical force hitherto unknown in America." 65 The Romance of the American Theatre Unhappily, this alluring promise was not fulfilled. For the Continental Congress, on October 24, 1774, passed a resolution recommending the suspension of all public amusements. Information of this resolution was conveyed to Manager Douglass in a letter from no less person than Peyton Randolph, the President of the Congress. So, willy nilly, Douglass played no more just then before lovers of the drama in the South. Before we leave this period, however, we must go back a bit to take notice of a brief season during which the American company played at Annapolis in 1770. " Cymbeline " was one of the plays then produced, and the Miss Hallam, who in 1752 had made her " first ap- pearance on any stage " at Williamsburg as Jessica, was now an Imogen of such charm as to elicit this very enthu- siastic praise from " Y. Z." in the Maryland Gazette. "Miss HALLAM AS IMOGEN. To the Printer: As I make it a matter of conscience to do justice to merit to the utmost of my abilities in whatever walk of life I chance to discover it, I shall take the liberty of publishing through the channel of your paper the obser- vations which the representation at the Theatre on Thursday night drew from me. " I shall not at present expatiate on the merits of the whole performance but confine myself principally to one object. The actors are indubitably entitled to a very considerable portion of praise. But, by your leave, gentlemen (to speak in the language of Hamlet) ' Here's metal more attractive.' On finding that the part of Imogen was to be played by Miss Hallam I instantly formed to myself, from my predilection for her, the most sanguine hope of entertainment. But how was I rav- 66 The. Romance of the American Theatre ished on experiment! She exceeded my utmost idea! Such delicacy of manner! Such classical strictness of expression ! The music of her tongue - the vox liquida, how melting! Notwithstanding the injuries it received from the horrid ruggedness of the roof and the untoward construction of the whole house, methought I heard once more the warbling of Gibber l in my ear. How true and thorough her knowledge of the part she per- sonated! Her whole form and dimensions how happily convertible and universally adapted to the variety of her part. " A friend of mine, who was present, was so deeply impressed by the witching grace and justness with which the actress filled the whole character, that imme- diately on going home, he threw out, warm from the heart as well as the brain, the verses I enclose. " The house, however, was thin from want of ac- quaintance with the general as well as the particular merits of the performers. The characteristical propriety of Mrs. Douglass cannot but be too striking to pass unnoticed. The fine genius of that young creature, Miss Storer, unquestionably affords the most pleasing prospect of an accomplished actress. The discerning part of an audience must cheerfully pay the tribute of applause due to the solid sense which is conspicuous in Mrs. Harman, 2 as well as to her perspicuity and strength of memory. The sums lavished on a late set whose merits were not of the transcendent kind, in whatever point of light they are viewed, are still fresh in our mem- ories. And should these their successors, whose deport- ment, decency and unremitting study to please have ever been confessedly marked, meet with discounte- ir The allusion here is to Mrs. Theophilus Gibber, Colley Gibber's daughter-in-law, a very gifted London actress. 2 This lady was Colley Gibber's granddaughter, it will be recalled. 6 7 The, Romance of the American Theatre nance, methinks such a conduct would not reflect the highest honor either on our taste or spirit. " The merit of Mr. Douglass' company is notoriously, in the opinion of every man of sense in America, whose opportunities give him a title to judge take them all in all superior to that of any company in England, except those of the metropolis. The dresses are re- markably elegant; the dispatch of the business of the theatre uncommonly quick; and the stillness and good order preserved behind the scenes are proofs of the greatest attention and respect paid to the audience." The poem of this correspondent's impressionable friend I will spare my readers; it is twelve stanzas long and invokes, one by one, all the goddesses whose names were ever found in any rhapsody of its class. One reference that it contains, however, to " self- tutored Peale," is of interest because the suggestion made that Charles Wilson Peale paint Miss Hallam in the part of Imogen was in due time improved. Peale had been born in a town near Annapolis, and had won his way to the dignity of a portrait-painter through the various trades of saddler, silversmith, watch- maker, carver, and constructor of artificial teeth. In the winter of 1770-1771 he studied painting in Boston under Copley, and the probability is that he painted Miss Hallam as Imogen during the summer and autumn of the latter year. A poem highly commending his picture was printed in the hospitable pages of the Maryland Gazette on November 7, 1771. Whether the poet was over-kind to his efforts we cannot say; for absolutely no trace of the portrait can be found to-day. 68 The Romance of the American Theatre Allusion is found in " Y. Z.'s " review of Miss Hallam to the " untoward construction " of the house in which this performance had been given. The time had now come, in truth, for a real theatre in Annapolis. Let us hear of the project as a contemporary writer, William Eddis, surveyor of customs, set it forth : " Annapolis, June 18, 1771. . . . When I bade fare- well to England I little expected that my passion for the drama could have been gratified in any tolerable degree at a distance so remote from the great mart of genius; and I brought with me strong prepossessions in behalf of favorite performers whose merits were fully established by the universal sanction of intelligent judges. My pleasure and my surprise were therefore excited in proportion, on finding performers in this country equal at least to those who sustain the best of the first characters in your most celebrated provincial theatres. Our Governor, from a strong conviction that the stage, under proper regulations, may be rendered of general utility and made subservient to the great inter- ests of religion and virtue, patronizes the American Com- pany; and, as their present place of exhibition is on a small scale and inconveniently situated, a subscription by his example has rapidly been completed to erect a new theatre on a commodious if not elegant plan. The manager is to deliver tickets for two seasons for the amount of the respective subscriptions, and it is imagined that the money which will be received at the doors from non-subscribers will enable him to conduct the business without difficulty, and when the limited number of performances is completed the entire property is to be vested in him. The building is already in a state of for- wardness and the day of opening is anxiously expected." The Romance of the American Theatre This theatre, constructed of brick, with a seating capacity of about six hundred persons, was erected in West Street, Annapolis, on ground leased from St. Anne's Parish. And so greatly did it overtop in elegance the old church of the place, that there soon appeared, in the columns of the Maryland Gazette, a rhymed address from the church to the inhabitants of Maryland's ancient capital complaining that " Here in Annapolis alone God has the meanest house in town," and praying that the institution devoted to " peace on earth, good will to men " be housed at least as well as that given over to Shakespeare ! The opening bill here (September 9, 1771) was the " Roman Father " by Whitehead, the cast for which was as follows: Roman Father Mr. Hallam Tullus Hostilius Mr. Douglass Publius Mr. Goodman Valerius Mr. Wall First Citizen Mr. Morris Second Citizen Mr. Wools Third Citizen Mr. Parker Fourth Citizen . . Mr. Roberts Soldier Mr. Tomlinson Valeria Mrs. Henry Horatio Miss Hallam Williamsburg in Virginia, Charleston in South Caro- lina, and Annapolis in Maryland were the only Southern 70 " PERDITA " ROBINSON From the painting by Romney See page 71 The Romance of the American Theatre cities which, before the Revolution, welcomed players. After the Revolution, however, Savannah, Richmond, and Baltimore also figured early in theatrical history. Sa- vannah's theatre, or to quote Seilhamer, " what was called a theatre," opened August 24, 1785, with Addison's " Cato " and Garrick's farce, " Catherine and Petru- chio," for the bill. The two leading actors, Kidd and Godwin, were dancing-masters as well as Thespians. But, instead of being able to ride these two horses suc- cessfully, they found themselves unable to ride either in Savannah. Nor do we hear anything more of theatri- cals here until 1796; and even then the company was a summer one and made no very favourable impression on the town. The first theatre in Baltimore was built in 1781 and was situated in East Baltimore Street, near the Pres- byterian church. The first season here began January 15, 1782, and continued with considerable regularity until the June 15 following. The manager and leading man was Mr. Wall, an actor who for many years had been a member of the old American company. With the exception of him and his wife, however, all the names on the company's list were new to American theatre-goers. One of these names is Mrs. Robinson, whom Seilhamer, with far more trustfulness than he displays anywhere else in his three huge volumes, conjectures to be the Mrs. Robinson famous in Court scandal and in the London stage gossip of the day as " Perdita." If a man who was solemnly writing a history of the theatre could suggest this identity, a woman, who is gaily discussing the The Romance of the American Theatre theatre's romance, may dwell slightly on it. That the Mrs. Robinson of the Baltimore Theatre was an excep- tionally gifted actress, just as " Perdita " was; that the years during which she played in a province far from London were precisely the years when " Perdita's " whereabouts were most uncertain; and that, at just about the time when Colonel Tarleton (who surrendered with Cornwallis at Yorktown) returned to London and set up housekeeping with " Perdita," Mrs. Robinson disappeared from the bills of the Baltimore Theatre, all lend plausibility, it cannot be denied, to Seilhamer's hypothesis. Further, the unusual duration (sixteen years) of " Perdita's " relation with her colonel might be accounted for by the fact that the two had met in dis- tant America when both were very sad at heart as a result of the world's buffets and scorns. The one fact which, to my mind, militates against this theory is that the name on the playbills of Baltimore was " Perdita's " own. I do not agree with Seilhamer that " it never would have occurred " to the theatre-goers of Baltimore to connect the Mrs. Robinson, whom they admired at their theatre, with the notorious Mrs. Robin- son who so short a time before had basked in the favour of Drury Lane audiences. Baltimore was not so far away from London as that nor its playgoers so un- intelligent. One interesting event in this season of 1782 at Balti- more was the first production in America of Brooke's tragedy " Gustavus Vasa," which, though ready to be brought out at Drury Lane as early as 1739, had not yet 72 The Romance of the American Theatre been given there or anywhere else in London be- cause of the spirit of liberty which breathes through it. The play, when produced in this country, was inscribed to Washington as the deliverer of his country, and in the epilogue which accompanied its presentation at Balti- more, American independence was distinctly recognized. The last line of this epilogue unconsciously advocated "votes for women;" it pointed out that logically the man " Who bleeds for freedom will extend his plan; Will keep the generous principle in view, And wish the ladies independence, too." The following season this company divided its time between Baltimore and Annapolis, where it went for the week of races which at that period attracted large numbers of the Maryland gentry. Among the names on the bills of the company we now find Mr. and Mrs.Dennis Ryan, of whom we shall hear more anon. A file of the playbills of this season is in the possession of the New York Historical Society, and for some time the receipts of each night, both in Baltimore and in Annapolis,may there be found. As an indication of the drawing power of the Baltimore Company of Comedians at the two Mary- land cities in 1782, these figures are very interesting. The largest amount noted for Baltimore is 127 10 8 for October 18, when " Romeo and Juliet " was there pro- duced, with the " Wrangling Lovers " as an afterpiece. The smallest amount taken in was 54 n 3, on October i, when Miller's tragedy of " Mahomet the Impostor " 73 The Romance of the American Theatre was given. The best night at Annapolis, from the box- office standpoint, netted just about the same amount as the best night at Baltimore; but the play was not now f Shakespearian. The Annapolis house was smallest when Farquhar's " Beaux' Stratagem," with the " Wrangling Lovers " as an afterpiece, was given. This was on No- vember 6, and the amount taken in was 62 2 6. These seem like " paying " houses, but there must have been mismanagement somewhere, for the theatre closed abruptly in midwinter, and when it opened again on February n with Dennis Ryan in control, subscribers were informed that old tickets would not be received for the new series of performances. Evidently Baltimore playgoers did not resent this, however, for " to enable Mr. Ryan to accomplish the purposes of his under- taking," a number of Baltimore amateurs came to his support, and a successful season of four months ensued, with the usual Annapolis interlude. Possibly some of the stage-struck gentlemen accom- panied Mr. Ryan when he went to New York in the summer, there to conduct from June 19 to August 16 (1783) that series of performances made profitable by the continued presence in the town of a large number of British officers. Seilhamer calls this " a lost chapter in dramatic history," and such it indeed seems. Most of the pieces given had been previously played by Ryan's company at Baltimore, but " Macbeth," which he now put on, was new to the present band of players, as was " Oroonoko," a piece which languished from this date until the elder Booth revived it at the Bowery Theatre in 74 The Romance of the American Theatre New York in 1832, himself assuming the title part. One of the " ladies " of Mr. Ryan's company in New York was Mrs. Fitzgerald, who, when she returned to England with the troops, after the manner of her kind, took with her a considerable sum of money which the manager evidently in the hope of retaining her services had advanced to her for salary. The advertisement in which this loss on Ryan's part was announced is full of interest by reason of the insight it gives us into the cus- toms of the times. " Theatre, New York, Oct. r " Whereas a certain Eleanor Massey Fitzgerald has defrauded the subscriber of the sum of forty-six pounds, sixteen shillings, by entering into articles of indenture and immediately absconding A Reward of Twenty Pounds will be paid to any person who can inform the Subscriber where she is harbored so that she may be brought to justice, previous to the 3oth of this month. " DENNIS RYAN." / Both the actress and the money were gone for good, however, and Ryan had to make the best of such talent and capital as still remained to him, when he again turned his face towards Baltimore for what was to be his last season there. Just one occurrence of this season is of sufficient interest to claim our attention, the first pro- duction in America, on February 3, 1784, of " The School for Scandal." This masterpiece of English comedy was first produced at Drury Lane, May 8, 1777; but it was not then published, and even Seilhamer, who knows so much, cannot tell us how Ryan secured a copy. By the 75 The Romance of the American Theatre time the old American company gave the play in New York, December 12, 1785, there was no difficulty about play-books, however, for " Hallam's partner, Henry, was in possession of an authentic copy given him by the author, through his personal relations with the Sheridan family." l This edition was printed by Hugh Gaine in 1786, and so was available for use when the old American company opened in Baltimore with the comedy on August 17 of that year, and inaugurated their season at Richmond, on October 10, with the same piece. The most interesting effort of the period towards the revival of the drama in the South was that made in Charleston this same winter by the Mr. Godwin whom we noted at Savannah as a dancing-master with mana- gerial aspirations. Godwin's season lasted from Sep- tember until the close of March, but inasmuch as he made, at its start, the fatal mistake of exhibiting his playhouse gratis, he failed to realize largely from the box- office. Douglass had built a theatre in Charleston be- fore the Revolution, it will be recalled; consequently we must rank as the second theatre in Charleston the place thus paragraphed in the New York Independent Journal of August 5, 1786: " HARMONY HALL. We hear from Charleston, S. C., that a principal merchant of that city and a Mr. God- win, comedian, has leased a lot of land for five years and have erected a building called Harmony Hall, for the purpose of music meetings, dancing and theatrical 1 " History of the American Theatre," vol. II, page 185. The Romance of the American Theatre amusements. It is situated in a spacious garden in the suburbs of the city. The boxes are 22 in number with a key to each box. The pit is very large and the theatrum and orchestra elegant and commodious. It was opened with a grand concert of music gratis for the satisfaction of the principal inhabitants who wished to see it pre- vious to the first night's exhibition. The above building cost 500 sterling. Salaries from two to five guineas per week, and a benefit every nine months is offered to good performers." The subsequent history of Harmony Hall is not with- out interest. In the summer of 1794 it was occupied by the Placide Troupe and called the French theatre. A rendering of the Marseillaise, in which the audience joined, was now a feature of this house. Charleston had a large French population at this time, by reason of the fact that it had offered an asylum to the St. Domingo refugees driven out of their island by the horrible massacres of 1792. The mother of Joseph Jefferson, it is interesting to note, was one of these refugees. Towards the close of 1794, the name City Theatre was given to Harmony Hall, and a company, of which Mr. Solee appears to have been the manager, took possession. Here, on February 14, 1795, " Louis XVI" was given its first American production. Another Charleston production of distinct interest was " The Apotheosis of Franklin," given on April 22, 1796. The advertisements declare that " nothing like this spectacle was ever before performed on this continent," and for once an advertisement spoke truly. Because it indicates how short a distance America had progressed 77 The Romance of the American Theatre by the end of the eighteenth century, towards imposing scenic production, let us examine the " Apotheosis." The first scene represented the sculptor, Houdon, at work on the tomb of Franklin. Although only a modest slab covers the grave of Benjamin and Deborah Franklin at Fifth and Arch Streets in Philadelphia, there were here two ambitious statues. One represented the United States holding the American eagle in the right hand and an appropriately inscribed shield and buckler in the left; the other depicted Prudence that virtue being the Franklin attribute most in the public eye a century ago. The second act was in three scenes. The first scene represented a gloomy cavern, through which were seen the river Styx and the banks of the Stygian lake. Charon here appears in his boat ready to convey Franklin to the Elysian Fields. But Elysium once reached, Franklin himself becomes an actor. For he must be led aloft by the Goddess of Fame, who will proclaim his virtues, and he must be conducted to the abodes of Peace by Phi- losophy, there to be introduced by Diogenes to all the learned and wise who inhabit this region. The last scene represented the Temple of Memory and was adorned with statues and busts of all the deceased philosophers and poets who had preceded Franklin to the Land of Shades. As the curtain fell, the statue of Philadelphia's Sage was placed on a vacant pedestal facing that of Sir Isaac Newton. Yet to this performance, in honour of him who had struggled so hard for American liberty, no " person of The Romance of the American Theatre colour " was admitted! All Mr. Solee's advertisements contained an announcement of this discrimination, to which it was added that this ruling was " by regulation of the Common Council." 79 CHAPTER III RISE OF THE THEATRE AS AN AMERICAN INSTITUTION LOVERS of liberty no less than lovers of the theatre should give devout thanks that the British officers who served in America during our Revolution were exceed- ingly fond of " stage performances." For America owes much to the military Thespians in New York, Phila- delphia, and Boston. On the one hand their absorption " in play-acting " increased the non-preparedness which made it possible for the Yankees to win; and on the other hand, by giving good plays in a creditable manner, these officers notably advanced the progress of the stage as an American institution. Boston was the only city of any importance which, down to the outbreak of the Revolution, had persistently refused hospitality to plays and players. It is but little more than a legend that a dramatic performance was given in a coffee-house in State Street in Boston, in the latter part of the year 1750. The historians of the period fail to give most of the essential details of the affair, the names of those who promoted or took part in it, and other material incidents. The simple facts recorded are that it was Thomas Otway's old tragedy of the " Orphan " that was acted or attempted, the performers, with two 80 JOHN GILBERT AS SIR PETER TEAZLE See page 211 The Romance of the American Theatre exceptions, being local amateurs. The exceptions noted were English professionals, very likely from William Hallam's company, but recently arrived from England. The desire to witness this performance appears to have been extraordinary. That there was an unruly and al- most riotous mob at the doors, and that a serious dis- turbance occurred, is recorded. This latter disturbance aroused the authorities, and the matter was brought to the attention of the General Court, with a petition to prohibit further trouble from a similar cause. That august body immediately enacted as follows: " For preventing and avoiding the many and great mischiefs which arise from public stage plays, interludes and other theatrical entertainments, which not only occasion great and unnecessary expense, and discourage industry and frugality, but likewise tend generally to increase immorality, impiety and contempt of religion " Be it enacted by the Lieut. Governor, Council and House of Representatives that from and after the publi- cation of this act, no person or persons whosoever shall or may for hire or gain, or for any valuable considera- tion, let or suffer to be used and improved any house, room or place whatsoever for acting or carrying on any stage plays, interludes or other theatrical entertain- ments, on pain of forfeiting and paying for each and every day or time such house, room or place shall be let, used or improved, contrary to this act, twenty pounds. " Sect. II And be it further enacted that if at any time or times whatsoever from and after the publication of this act, any person or persons shall be present as an actor or spectator of any stage play, interlude or theatri- 81 The Romance of the American Theatre cal entertainment in any house, room or place where a greater number of persons than twenty shall be as- sembled together, every such person shall forfeit and pay for every time he or they shall be present as afore- said, five pounds. The forfeiting and penalties afore- said to be one-half to His Majesty for the use of the government, and the other half to him or them that shall inform or sue for the same, and the aforesaid for- feitures and penalties may likewise be recovered by presentment of the grand jury, in which case the whole of the forfeitures shall go to His Majesty for the use of the government." This law of the Commonwealth, with the public sentiment largely in its favour, of course rendered stage plays prohibitive. There is little doubt that it was the presence of this law on the statute books which gave the final fillip to the theatricals instituted in Boston by General Burgoyne's officers late in 1775. Faneuil Hall was the theatre used for these exhibitions, and announcements of the plays to be performed were made by hand-bills. Mrs. Centlivre's comedy, " The Busybody," Rowe's "Tamerlane," and Aaron Hill's tragedy of " Zara " were among the attractions offered, the drawing power of the latter being considerably in- creased by the fact that Burgoyne himself wrote a pro- logue for it. An interesting contemporary allusion to this entertainment is found in a letter sent by Burgoyne's brother-in-law, Thomas Stanley, the second son of Lord Derby, to Hugh Elliott: "We acted the tragedy of ' Zara ' two nights before I left Boston," he wrote, " for the benefit of the widows and children. The Prologue 82 The Romance of the American Theatre was spoken by Lord Rawdon, a very fine fellow and a good soldier, I wish you knew him. We took above 100 at the door. I hear a great many people blame us for acting, and think we might have found something better to do, but General Howe follows the example of the King of Prussia, who, when Prince Ferdinand wrote him a long letter, mentioning all the difficulties and dis- tresses of the army, sent back the following concise an- swer: De la gaiete, encore de la gaiete, et toujours de la gaiete. The female parts were filled by young ladies, though some of the Boston ladies were so prudish as to say this was improper." The performances at Faneuil Hall playhouse began at six o'clock, and the entrance fee was one dollar for the pit and a quarter of a dollar for the gallery. For some reason, either because the play was immensely popular, or because the currency gave trouble, those in charge were obliged to announce after a few evenings: "The managers will have the house strictly surveyed and give out tickets for the number it will contain. The most positive orders are given not to take money at the door, and it is hoped gentlemen of the army will not use their influence over the sergeants who are door-keepers to induce them to disobey that order, as it is meant entirely to promote the ease and convenience of the public by not crowding the theatre." The most notable piece presented at Faneuil Hall was the local farce, " The Blockade of Boston," the author- ship of which is generally credited to Burgoyne. Whether the General wrote this piece or not, he was the ruling 83 The Romance of the American Theatre spirit in its presentation. He was himself an amateur actor of no mean ability and had already written his first play, " The Maid of the Oaks," before coming to America. This play was originally acted, in 1774, at the Burgoyne home, The Oaks, on the occasion of a marriage fete in honour of Burgoyne's brother-in-law, Lord Stanley. Garrick was so taken with the piece, when he read it, that he brought it out at Drury Lane in 1775, with Mrs. Abington in the chief role. So, if Bur- goyne did not write " The Blockade of Boston," it was not because he lacked ability to write a good play. Whether this was a good play, we have no means of knowing. It has come down to us in history, not by reason of its dramatic excellence, but because of certain " business " not originally planned. It was booked to be given for the first time on any stage at Faneuil Hall on the evening of January 8, 1776. The comedy of " The Busy- body " had already been acted, and the orchestra was playing an introduction for the farce, when the actors behind the scenes heard an exaggerated report of a raid made upon Charlestown by a small party of Americans. Washington, represented by an uncouth figure, awkward in gait, wearing a large wig and rusty sword, had no sooner come on to speak his opening lines in the play, than a British sergeant suddenly appeared on the stage and exclaimed: " The Yankees are attacking our works on Bunker's Hill." At first this was thought part of the farce; but when Howe, who was present, called out sharply, " Officers, to your alarm posts! " the audience quickly dispersed. The Romance of the American Theatre Timothy Newell, in his diary, says there was " much fainting, fright and confusion." And well there might have been, with the officers jumping over the orchestra at great expense to the fiddles, the actors rushing wildly about in their eagerness to get rid of their make-up and costume, and the ladies alternately fainting and scream- ing. They had to revive themselves, however, and get home as best they could, those poor ladies! For some time it was the chief delight of the patriot dames to relate how maids and matrons of the Faneuil Hall au- dience were obliged to pick their way home through the dark Boston streets unattended by any of their usual escorts. The Tory sheet published by Madam Draper all through the siege of Boston, after reporting the inter- ruption of the "Blockade's" first performance, adds: " As soon as those parts which are vacant by some gentle- men being ordered to Charlestown can be filled, that farce will be performed, with the tragedy of ' Tamer- lane/ ' The diary of John Rowe records that the play actually came off on January 22, 1776. It has been said that desire to offend the prejudices Ql.P..uritan^ New England was a strong motive in the acting of the Boston Thespians. That hand-bills of the entertainments were sent regularly to Washington, Han- cock, and other leading spirits among the Provincials bears this out. In the performances which soon followed at New York, however, the_diversion of the soldiery was the mamj^jfg* The moving"s^)mts in the firsFT^ew York season of the military Thespians were some of 85 The Romance of the American Theatre the same officers who had taken part in the performances at Boston, including the young Captain Stanley whose letter has been quoted. He it was who wrote the Pro- logue for the re-opening of the John Street Theatre on January 25, 1777. The bill on this first night of a series of seasons which lasted until 1783 was Fielding's burlesque, " Tom Thumb," a piece very well adapted to the initial effort of a company of amateurs, a company, which, at this time, was probably quite without actresses. The players were so fortunate as to have a zealous friend in the person of Hugh Gaine, who printed the Mercury at the sign of the Bible and the Crown in Hanover Square; and on this account we have a contemporary criticism of their New York debut: " On Saturday evening last the little Theatre in John street in this city was opened with the celebrated bur- lesque entertainment, ' Tom Thumb/ written by the late Mr. Fielding to ridicule the pathos of several dra- matic pieces that at his time, to the disgrace of the British stage, had engrossed both the London Theatres. The characters were performed by gentlemen of the Army and Navy; the spirit with which this favorite was supported prove their taste and strong conception of humor. Saturday's performance convinces us that a good education and knowledge of polite life are essentially necessary to form a good actor. The Play was introduced by a Prologue written by Captain Stan- ley; we have great pleasure in applauding this first effort of his infant muse as replete with true genius. The scenes painted by Captain De Lancey had great merit and would not disgrace a theatre tho' under the 86 The Romance of the American Theatre management of a Garrick. The House was crowded with company and the Ladies made a brilliant appear- ance." There is very little said here about the acting, it will be observed. Very likely the notice was written in anticipation of the event inasmuch as it appeared on Monday, and the performance was on a Saturday evening. This was a very long time, it must be remembered, be- fore the days when newspaper enterprise puts into the hands of " fans," as they scramble for their cars after a ball game, a categorical description of all the plays made on the diamond that very afternoon by the favourites for whom they have just been shouting themselves hoarse. That the difficulties under which these military Thespians acted were many and varied goes without saying. For one thing, they had almost no play-books. In the Royal Gazette of December 22, 1779, appears the following notice: " The managers of the theatre, under- * standing that a gentleman purchased a set of Mr. Gar- rick's works from Robertson, printer, will be much obliged to that gentleman if he will resign the purchase over to the theatre for the benefit of charity, or lend them the particular volume that contains the comedy of ' Catherine and Petruchio.' ' As this farce was soon afterwards produced, it would appear that the fortunate possessor of Garrick's works obligingly complied with this odd request. The " charity " here referred to was something of a blind. At first, to be sure, the widows and orphans were 87 The Romance of the American Theatre actually paid a good deal of the money taken in at the door. But, later, there was a regular salary list for the actors and actresses. Dunlap says that fourteen per- formers got a dollar a day, even this modest sum being welcome to the officers by reason of the high price of necessaries in New York. " Circumstanced as these brave men are," declared one of the English journals, " such an exertion of their talents to increase their in- comes deserves the greatest encouragement." Thus charity became a business, and the actors soon learned, as every amateur who " goes on " professionally learns, that there is a vast difference between what your friends say of your theatrical ability and what the professional critic says. A certain Lieutenant Spencer who acted in New York at this time and afterwards played " Richard III " at Bath, elicited this comment: " The debutant of last night has long been known as an excellent player - at billiards." Major Andre of pathetic memory was one of the New York Thespians for a time, though he is more intimately associated with the performances given at Philadelphia during the winter of 1777-1778. In the Southwark Theatre, which Hallam had formerly occupied, Howe's Thespians began to offer plays very soon after their occupation of the Quaker City. In the diary of Robert Morton, then in his seventeenth year, may be found an allusion to the use of this building as a hospital, when the wounded soldiers were brought in, after the battle of Germantown. But, as the winter wore on, and this emergency use of the playhouse ceased, preparations 88 The Romance of the American Theatre were begun to inaugurate a series of dramas. In the Pennsylvania Ledger of December 24, 1777, appeared an advertisement for a person at the playhouse who could write a legible hand, and at the same time notice was given that those who had formerly been employed at the theatre might again obtain work there. Andre was the moving spirit of all that subsequently went on here. For, though he was no carpet knight, he had rare facility in the arts and he was young, gay, and charming. In an earlier book of mine * I have de- scribed at considerable length his relations at this time with pretty Peggy Shippen, who became the wife of the traitor, Benedict Arnold. So, alluring as that sub- ject is, I will here proceed at once from Andre the man to Andre the artist. His talent in this way was by no means inconsiderable. Charles Durang, who wrote the " History of the Philadelphia Stage," remembered well one set of scenes that Andre painted at this time. " It was a landscape," he records, " presenting a distant champagne country and a winding rivulet, ex- tending from the front of the picture to the extreme distance. In the foreground and centre was a gentle cascade the water exquisitely executed overshad- owed by a group of majestic forest trees. The perspec- tive was excellently preserved; the foliage, verdure and general colouring artistically toned and glazed. It was a drop scene and Andre's name was inscribed on the back of it in large black letters. It was preserved in 1 " Romantic Days in the Early Republic," Little, Brown, & Co., Boston. 8 9 The Romance of the American Theatre the theatre until 1821, when it perished with the rest of the scenery in that old temple of the drama." So successful were the plays projected and staged by Andre at the Southwark, that after the return of the Continental Congress to Philadelphia an attempt was made by some regular players to open a season there. But their efforts were promptly frowned down. " Fre- quenting playhouses and theatrical entertainments has a fatal tendency," the gentlemen in Congress asserted, " to divert the minds of the people from a due attention to the means necessary for the defense of the country and the preservation of their liberties." It was there- fore resolved: " That any person holding an office under the United States who shall act, promote, attend, or encourage such plays, shall be deemed unworthy to hold such office and shall be accordingly dismissed." There is a story that on the very day this resolution was enacted, Lafayette asked Henry Laurens, who was then President of Congress, to go with him to the play. When Laurens told him what Congress had done, Lafayette said simply: " Then I shall not go to the play." The States generally, however, failed to adopt the recommendations which Congress would have crammed down their throats, interdicting every form of amusement, and for nearly two years before the final departure of the British, plays were being regularly given at Baltimore, Annapolis, and New York. Of Ryan's season in New York during the winter of 1782-1783, we heard in the course of the Southern chapter. The next New York combination worthy of extended 90 The Romance of the American Theatre notice was the Hallam and Henry company, which from 1785 to 1792 flourished at John Street. It was in 1787, under the auspices of this management, that there here occurred the most notable performance America had yet seen, the initial production of Royall Tyler's admirable comedy, " The Contrast." This piece has little or no plot and scarcely any action, either. Nevertheless, the work is interesting to read even after all this lapse of time and must have been very interesting to see when produced at the old John Street Theatre, with Wignell l playing the role which has served, ever since, as the model of stage Jonathans. Royall Tyler, the author of this piece, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, July 18, 1758, and belonged to a wealthy and influential New England family. He received his early education at the Boston Latin School and was duly graduated from Harvard. During the Revolutionary War, and afterwards in Shays's Rebellion, he acted as aide-de-camp with the rank of major on the staff of General Benjamin Lincoln. It was in connection with this latter office that he was sent to New York by Governor Bowdoin; Shays had crossed the border line 1 Thomas Wignell was the son of a member of Garrick's company and first came to America at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. He was connected with the John Street Theatre from 1785 to 1791. In 1794 he opened the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, then the finest building of its kind in America. Mrs. Merry, whom he married only a few weeks before his death, in 1803, had, as Miss Brunton, been well known and much liked on the stage in England. In 1792 she mar- ried Robert Merry, a poet, and his means failing, they came" together to America. Her first appearance here was in Philadelphia, in 1796, as Juliet. Merry died in 1798. After WignelPs death she married Warren, father of Boston's William Warren, who outlived her. 9 1 The Romance of the American Theatre from Massachusetts into New York State, and his cap- ture was ardently desired. So Tyler, who had never before been outside New England, found himseff in New York. At once his attention turned to the theatre, which was altogether new to him, and soon its fascinations were proving so potent that he became a constant visitor both behind and before the scenes. The performers speedily grew to be his friends especially Wignefl who early had an opportunity to examine the manuscript of " The Con- trast." The theme of the play is the contrast between the meretricious standards of the fashionable world and the simple straightforward ideals of your true and self- respecting American. Hence, of course, its title. When the curtain rises, two debutantes of the period are dis- cussing the latest style in skirts mingling therewith a good deal of gossip in quite the manner that a group of frivolous women assembling for a matinee " bridge " might talk of these same topics to-day. In the second scene there are some interesting Ibsenesque reflections about the relations between men and women, which almost persuade us that Maria, though she has perhaps been reading over-much about Sir Charles Grandison, is really a type of the awakening woman- soul. Of course, the entire work is over-sentimental. But it is very much less offensive in this way than many another literary product of its time. And if Colonel Manly is a prig, his sister, Charlotte, is a very clever 92 The, Romance of the American Theatre young person. Witness her characterization of the colonel as one whose " conversation is like a rich, old- fashioned brocade it will stand alone ; every sentence is a sentiment." That there is a great deal of wit and humour in the piece we have seen from Jonathan's description of the playhouse quoted in our first chapter. The comedy is of its time, too, and could have been written by none other than an American. Jonathan, snubbed for philandering with Jenny, who has just gone off " in a swinging passion," declares thoughtfully that if that is the way city ladies act, he will continue to prefer his Tabitha with her twenty acres of rock, her Bible, a cow, and "a little peaceable bundling." The one other bit of comic action in the comedy aside from this attempt of Jonathan's to kiss Jenny is in the last scene of the play's last act, where Colonel Manly, upon whom Maria has decided to bestow her overflowing heart, crosses swords with Dimple, the man to whom this fair one's troth had been plighted before he had taken a trip abroad to acquire the vices then fashionable in England. The original cast of this piece seems of sufficient interest to be here reprinted: Colonel Manly Mr. Henry Dimple Mr. Hallam Van Rough Mr. Morris Jessamy Mr. Harper Jonathan Mr. Wignell Charlotte Mrs. Morris Maria Mrs. Harper Letitia Mrs. Kenna Jenny Miss Tuke 93 The Romance of the American Theatre After its New York season, " The Contrast " was suc- cessfully given in Philadelphia, in Baltimore and in Boston for the benefit of the fire sufferers. Nor was it quickly forgotten. When Dunlap returned to New York, after his three years' sojourn in London, it was still the talk of the town, and he was glad to make the drawing of the duel scene which is herewith reproduced. 1 The success of " The Contrast " is of vast importance to us in thatTit was perhaps the most powerful single influence in bringing about a complete revolution of sentiment with respect to the drama. Where the most reputable" "ancTTaw-abiding of the people had hitherto kept away from all theatrical amusements, they now experienced a decided change of heart towards plays and playhouses. Dramas by American authors followed each other in rapid succession. And soon even Washington found himself often at the theatre. In 1784 he had at- tended a performance of " Gustavus Vasa " played by the students of Washington College, Maryland, in his hon- our. But the first references that I have been able to find of his attendance at professional performances are contained in the diary he kept during the sessions of the Federal Convention. During the season when the in- genious Hallam was offering at the Southwark Theatre, Philadelphia, not a play, but a " Spectaculum Vitae," Washington was in the audience on July 10, July 14, and July 21. On the evening after Washington's inauguration at 1 From the engraving given as frontispiece to the reprint of the comedy, put out by the Dunlap Society of New York in 1887. 94 SCENE FROM " THE CONTRAST " From a drawing by Dunlap INTERIOR OF THE FIRST PARK THEATRE, NEW YORK, BUILT IN 1798 See page 107, note THE CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE, PHILADELPHIA, ABOUT l8oO See page 102 The Romance of the American Theatre New York, the little house in John Street was alight with transparencies, one of which represented Fame as an angel descending from heaven to crown Washington with the emblems of immortality. And in this same house the President was soon being celebrated in " Darby's Return." Washington himself was in the audience on the night of the first production of this work, in which occur many passages that make a direct reference to the President. The piece is from the pen of Dunlap. Darby, a poor soldier, returns to Ireland and recounts the adventures through which he has passed in Europe and the United States, and the various sights he has seen. In his " His- tory " * the dramatist modestly speaks of the work as a " trifle; " but he dwells with pardonable pride on the pleasure which Washington appeared to take in the piece. " The eyes of the audience were frequently bent upon his countenance," he says, " and to watch the emotions produced by any particular passage upon him was the simultaneous employment of all. When Wignell, as Darby, recounted what had befallen him in New York, at the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and the inaugu- ration of the President, the interest expressed by the audience in the looks and the changes of countenance of this great man became intense. He smiled at these lines alluding to the change in the government 1 There too I saw some mighty pretty shows; A revolution, without blood or blows, 1 " History of the American Theatre." 95 The Romance of the American Theatre For, as I understood, the cunning elves, The people, all revolted from themselves/ "But at these lines " ' A man who fought to free the land from wo, Like me, had left his farm, a soldiering to go. But, having gained his point, he had, like me, Returned his own potato ground to see. But there he could not rest. With one accord He's called to be a kind of not a lord I don't know what, he's not a great man sure, For poor men love him just as he were poor.' the president looked serious; and when Kathleen asked " ' How looked he, Darby? Was he short or tall? ' his countenance showed embarrassment, from the ex- pectation of one of those eulogiums which he had been obliged to hear on many public occasions, and which must doubtless have been a severe trial to his feelings; but Darby's answer that he had not seen him, because he had mistaken a man ' all lace and glitter, botherum and shine ' for him until all the show had passed, relieved the hero from apprehension of further personality, and so he indulged in that which was with him extremely rare, a hearty laugh." William Dunlap, whose production was thus enjoyed by the Father of His Country, was the first American man of letters who made play- writing a profession; he wrote or adapted as many as sixty- three dramatic pieces. He also drew and sketched somewhat he had enjoyed 96 The Romance of the American Theatre the privilege of art instruction in England under Ben- jamin West and he furthermore turned out a number of biographies, including one of George Frederick Cooke. Of this production, Lord Byron wrote: " Such a book! I believe, since ' Drunken Barnaby's Journal,' nothing like it has drenched the press. All green-room and tap-room, drams and the drama. Brandy, whiskey- punch, and, latterly, toddy overflow every page. Two things are rather marvelous; first, that a man should live so long drunk, and next that he should have found a sober biographer." Seilhamer says that Cooke's love for the bottle is exaggerated in Dunlap's memoir, and though this seems to me impossible, I do feel that since Cooke, when sober, was a very great actor, his biographer might have given us more about his playing and less about his potations. T)|iijajVs " History of the American Theatre " was written when the author was quite an old man; it would seem generous to attribute to this fact the book's various inaccuracies. It should, moreover, be remembered that it is a much simpler thing to come along now and throw stones * at Dunlap than it was, nearly a hundred years ago, to get together the highly interesting data he presents concerning the early theatre in America. The fact that Dunlap's father was a Loyalist had a good deal to do with the great love for the theatre which young William early exhibited. For, though the lad was born at Perth Amboy, New Jersey (February 10, 1766), 1 Seilhamer, though he does not scruple to quote Dunlap when it serves his purpose to do so, never mentions the man without a sneer. 97 The Romance of the American Theatre his family removed to New York during the occupation of that city by the British. Thus the boy was able to see most of the plays put on by the military Thespians there. When the war closed, he went to England to study drawing, but inasmuch as a missile thrown by a boyhood playmate had deprived him of the use of his right eye, he was considerably hampered as an artist, and so spent a large part of his time in London at the theatre. When he returned to America to find Royall Tyler's play enjoying a great success, he determined to become a dramatist. And he did. His first comedy was called " The Modest Soldier; or, Love in New York; " his second, " The Father, or American Shandyism." The one which we have seen Washington enjoying was his third. Dunlap soon became a manager as well as a playwright, and he was thus on the inside of many of the theatrical enterprises of his day. More than any other Ameri- can of his generation, indeed, he was in a position to note the development of the stage in this country and to record those temperamental clashes behind the scenes which have so much to do with the making of theatrical history. A good deal of what he wrote in his " History " is of no interest to us to-day; and not a little of what he has painstakingly recorded at great length is exceedingly trivial. Here and there, however, we find in his pages things which are very interesting for the light they throw upon the customs of the times. Such is the debit and credit account of a performance of " Othello," given by Douglass in New York in 1761 : The Romance of the American Theatre s. s. d. Box tickets sold at the door, 116 @ 8 46 8 Pit 146 5 36 10 Gallery 90 3 13 10 Cash received at the doors 36 12 6 133 oo 6 CHARGES To candles, 26 Ib. of spermaceti at 35. 6d. ) I ^33)j tne ^der Kean then playing Othello, the younger lago, and Miss Ellen Tree, whom Charles later made his wife, acting the part of Desdemona. For eight or nine years after his father's death, Charles Kean worked hard and conscientiously at his profession, con- stantly gaining in power and popularity in his own coun- try as well as in America. Four times in all he was over 139 The Romance of the American Theatre here in the course of his life, and always he was much liked. His wife, too, was popular here as well as in London. After her first American tour, which began in December, 1836, and lasted three years, she carried home twelve thousand pounds in cash. It was she who, as Clari in Payne's opera of the same name, first made " Home Sweet Home " a great popular success. Ellen Tree's own " sweet home," after her marriage, was in the house on Gerrard Street, Soho, which had formerly belonged to Edmund Burke, and here she and her husband gave frequent parties that were attended by many persons of distinction. The admiration Kean excited among the ladies of fashion was, however, a source of great disquietude to Mrs. Kean, and she was wont, during her frequent fits of jealousy, to absent herself from home go into the country. " At least this was her idea," says Lord William Pitt Lennox, who pre- serves this bit of gossip, but the limit of her journey was Bayswater, then a medley of suburban cottages and market-gardens, long since obliterated by the brick and mortar of Tyburnia. The manager of the theatre in which both had engagements was well aware of their quarrels and separations, and on one occasion, by way of remedy, cast both of them for the two principal char- acters in ' The Jealous Wife.' They played the parts with spirit and for that time were reconciled." These two were very much in love with each other and so remained as long as they both lived. For, though Macready once contemptuously dubbed Charles Kean " the son of his father," he was really a great deal more than that as 140 The Romance of the American Theatre well as something less. In moral worth, Charles Kean was blameless, upright and honourable, infinitely his father's superior. And as manager of the Princess's Theatre in Oxford Street, a post which he assumed in 1850, he did the stage a great service by mounting Shakespeare in a nearly perfect manner. His company here was a very strong one, too, particularly so far as pretty women was concerned, Ellen Terry, Agnes Robertson, and Carlotta Leclerq being among those who in their youth profited by Charles Kean's instruc- tion. Unhappily, this younger Kean had a bronchial trouble of long standing which marred his pronunciation and made him an easy prey of the wits. Punch, dwelling upon his inherent difficulties with his m's and his n's, once paid tribute to the " antiquarian researches by which he had made Shylock a vegetarian! " It is un- deniable that Charles Kean, in this part, again and again said: " You take my house when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house; you take my life When you do take the beans whereby I live." 141 CHAPTER V THE ENTERTAINING OBSERVATIONS OF THE FIRST CHARLES MATHEWS CHARLES MATHEWS, SR., who came to New York for the first time in 1822, was frightened nearly out of his wits, Dr. John W. Francis l tells us, by discovering that he had arrived just as the city was in the grip of one of its periodic attacks of yellow fever. There had been a great deal of joking in England over Mathews's deter- mination to see what an American trip could do in the way of recouping his recent financial losses, and the comedian's friends had entertained themselves by quo- ting to him Doctor Johnson's opinion on the subject of the country across the sea: " Is not America worth see- ing? " " Yes, sir," replied Johnson, " but not worth going to see." None the less, Mathews decided to make the trip, and, as we read his letters home, we are very glad that he had the courage of his desires. No more lively descriptions of certain phases of life here may anywhere be found. From Hoboken, New Jersey, he sent back his first letter to his wife (on September 6, 1822), in which he announced his safe arrival " after a most delightful passage of thirty-five days." 1 In his " Old New York." 142 The Romance of the American Theatre New York was in no mood for him just then, however, nor he for it; so Baltimore was quickly sought, the visitor being kept in ignorance that that place, too, was undergoing the scourge. Here, none the less, Mathews made his debut on the American stage, Monday, Sep- tember 23, 1822, the vehicle chosen being his " Trip to Paris." His success was immediate. When he gave his song, " London now is out of Town," to the music of the American national air, he received instant proof that he had "made a hit." " They roared and screeched," he wrote his wife, "as if they had never heard anything comical before; and I don't think they have been glutted in that way. I discovered the never-to-be-mistaken token of pocket handkerchiefs crammed into the mouths of many of the pitt-ites. I had only to hold up my crooked finger when I wanted them to laugh, and they obeyed my call. I was most agreeably surprised, indeed, at finding them an audience of infinitely more intelligence and quick- ness than I had expected. Bartley had shrugged his shoulders at the idea of their taking the jokes. One of the London papers said I should be lost here; . . . but the neatest and best points were never better appreciated, even in London; and I am quite certain, from the effects, that the French language is generally much more understood here than in England." None the less, there were a good many people in Baltimore at this time who would not go to the theatre, as Mathews soon found out. Consequently, it was ar- The Romance of the American Theatre ranged that when he made his return trip to the city, he should take the Assembly Rooms; " for there are per- sons who will not go into a theatre but would not object to a room, I am told." He bore away a very large sum for those days, from Baltimore. " My benefit," he wrote home, " produced one thousand dollars a greater house by one hundred dollars than Cooke or Kean had. This has satisfied me of the actual enthu- siasm of the Americans towards me." Washington was the next city visited, " where the greatest house ever known before was $380. I had $550 and crowds went away. I played a second night and, under peculiar disadvantages, got $350; a very small theatre. My next (letter) will give you an account of a splash, for of New York I am most sanguine." It was, indeed, a " splash! " Mathews's manager, Price, had the good sense to see that New York must be broken gently to the peculiar humour of this " star," and so insisted that he appear first in " the regular drama." Thus, it was as Goldfinch, in " The Road to Ruin," that England's greatest comedian first dawned upon a New York audience. Let us follow his own sprightly account of the occasion. " Nothing could be more brilliant and decisive than my success. I opened to the greatest stock house ever known, much greater than that of Cooke or Kean. Nearly 1800 dollars! My reception was more than rap- turous; I never recollect anything more joyous in my life. They infused me with fun ; I was in tip-top spirits and the songs were hailed with shouts. The Tonson 144 A " FIRST NIGHT " AT THE SECOND PARK THEATRE, NEW YORK, IN 1822. THE ELDER CHARLES MATHEWS IS SHOWN ON THE STAGE From a water-color drawing made by John Searle See page 144 w 5 u H > L: The Romance of the American Theatre [the role he assumed in the afterpiece] was equal in effect to the most successful of my former personations; and at the dropping of the curtain, huzzas cheered my efforts. The whole tone of my future proceedings will be taken from this night, for New York is the London of America." An actor's benefit was then the test of his popularity, and that Mathews drew heavily when that occasion came around proved him unmistakably a success - more especially since the night was a very unpropitious one. To his wife the next day he wrote : " I shall always think last night the greatest compli- ment ever paid me. The torrents of rain which fell during the whole day (and we in England don't know what rain is) would have totally destroyed the house in any town in which I have ever been. I had to wait for a hackney coach until the time I ought to have been on the stage; but walking was out of the question as noth- ing short of drowning appeared inevitable. It was thought by all that it would injure the house very materi- ally as scarcely any private carriages are kept here. When I went in, to my great surprise as well as delight, Price said, ' Well, Sir, here they are. Your house is full. This is the greatest compliment ever paid to an actor in New York. I don't believe there is any other man that would have had such a house as this on such a night.' There were 1800 dollars, which is nearly as much as the house will hold. The rain must have done some injury else it would have overflowed instead of being full; and I believe that is all the difference. No enthusiasm ever The Romance of the American Theatre was greater. ... I look upon the remainder of my work as a settled point. All other towns will take their tone from this, as in England from London ; and the curiosity to see me is such that Cooper and Phillips, the only stars excepting Booth, say that they fail because the people are hoarding up their dollars to see me. I send you a copy of a few lines in the newspaper of Wednesday. 1 A very handsome compliment has been paid to Mathews such as cannot soon be forgotten by him. We learn that a party of gentlemen have chartered the steam-boat, The Fly, to bring them down from Albany (two hundred miles) to his benefit to-morrow evening; thus making a journey for one evening.' Another unsought puff which has caught my eye is this : ' The proprietors of the Brooklyn boat inform the public, that the steam- vessels Fulton and Active, will on the occasion of Mr. Mathews' benefit, start from Brooklyn at half -past five, and remain to carry the passengers back after the play.' These boats never cross the ferry after five on other occasions. Does this not look well? " The social attentions Mathews received were like- wise very gratifying to him. In London he had fre- quently dined informally with the king and was, of course, sought after in all the leading professional and artistic circles. Yet he informs his wife that " in point of compliments paid to an actor of reputation they are here far beyond our own country. Letters of recommen- dation are unnecessary. Generals, commodores (admirals here), judges, barristers, and merchants, have left their cards for me. Judge Irving, a brother of Washington 146 The Romance of the American Theatre Irving, called, and introduced himself. Had I time and inclination I might get into a round of visiting in the very highest society, which is much more desirable and infinitely more polished than the English in general are willing to believe." One attention, bestowed upon him in New York, which Mathews did not particularly enjoy though with characteristic humour he made the best of it both personally and professionally was that of the Rev. Paschal N. Strong, a preacher of the Dutch Re- formed Church, who in a sermon called " The Pestilence A Punishment For Public Sins " asserted that the coming of this actor was the cause of the yellow fever scourge! By a most amusing anachronism, as Mathews pointed out, this pious person made the drawing of crowds together in November one of the causes of a pestilence which began in July. Let us, however, read the clergyman's own words. No better commentary could be found on the attitude of a certain section of New York society of that day towards the theatre and all for which it stood. " Must we not conclude that the spirit of dissipation is deeply rooted among us, when we find at this very time (when our inhabitants are called more solemnly than ever they were before to consider their ways and humble themselves before God) , the theatre, that school of Satan! that nursery for Hell! is overflowing night after night with our citizens, to witness the mim- icries of an actor whom God Almighty has sent here at this very time in his wrath, as a man better qualified 147 The Romance of the American Theatre by all accounts than any other in the world to dissipate every serious reflection, and harden men in folly and sin? If such be our spirit as a community have we not deserved God's chastisements? Can we not find in this thirst after dissipation a fruitful cause of our late calam- ity? " Of course a wit like Mathews could not let this kind of thing pass by unimproved! The reverend gentleman promptly received a pleasant letter announcing that the actor intended to make him a prominent feature of his next English entertainment, and thanking him heartily for all that he had done for this visitor in the way of free advertisement! Here is the letter: "New York, 1823. " SIR, " Ingratitude being in my estimation a crime most heinous and most hateful, I cannot quit the shores of America without expressing my grateful sense of services which you have gratuitously rendered. " Other professors in ' that school of Satan, that nur- sery for Hell! ' as you most appropriately style the theatre, have been ex necessitate, content to have their merits promulgated through the medium of the public papers; but mine you have graciously vouchsafed to blazon from the pulpit. " You have, as appears in your recently published sermon, declared me to be (what humility tells me I only am in your partial and prejudiced estimation) ' an actor whom God Almighty sent here as a man better qualified than any other in the world to dissipate every serious reflection/ " What man! what woman! what child! could resist 148 The Romance of the American Theatre the effects of such a description, coming from such a quarter? particularly as you at the same time assured the laughter-loving inhabitants of this city that the punishment incident to such a ' thirst after dissipation ' had been already inflicted by ' their late calamity/ the pestilence * voracious in its thirst of prey! ' and you might have added thirsty in its hunger for drink. No wonder that the theatre has since been crowded, the manager enriched, and the most sanguine expectations of him whom you have, perhaps improperly, elevated to the rank of the avenging angel, so beautifully de- scribed by Addison, completely realized! For each and all of these results accept, reverend sir, my cordial and grateful thanks. Nor deem me too avaricious of your favours if I venture to solicit more. As you have expressly averred, in the sermon before me, that ' God burnt the theatre of New York, to rebuke the devotees of pleasure there resident/ permit me, your humble avenging angel, to inquire, by whom and for what purpose the cathedrals at Rouen and Venice were recently destroyed by fire, and in a manner which more especially implicated the hand of Providence? But, beware, most reverend sir, I conjure you, lest your doctrines of special dispensations furnish arguments and arms to the scoffer and atheist. " One other request and I have done. You appear to be too well acquainted with my peculiarities and pro- pensities not to be aware that, when I travel abroad, I am always anxious to collect something original and funny wherewith to entertain my friends and patrons ' AT HOME.' Now, sir, so little do the American people, in general, differ from their parent stock, whom it is my object to amuse, that I have as yet scarcely procured anything in which these qualities are united, except your aforesaid sermon; you will, therefore, infinitely oblige me if you will, on Sunday next, preach another on 149 The Romance of the American Theatre the subject of my angelic attributes, in which case you may rely on my being a most attentive auditor. I hope to have the opportunity of studying the peculiarities of your style and action. The gracefulness of Christian charity, humility and universal benevolence, which doubtless beam in your expressive countenance, will enable me to produce a picture of prodigious effect, of which all who know the original will acknowledge the likeness to be strong! " I have, sir, the honour to be, most gratefully your obliged, angelic, yellow-fever producing friend, " C. MATHEWS." Boston was the next city which Mathews took by storm. He made the journey from New York by way of Providence, taking the water route, because told it would be " most pleasant and convenient." It proved to be neither, the time consumed being from nine o'clock Thursday morning until late Monday evening! Thus he had to disappoint the audience which awaited, him in Boston on Monday. Mathews's quaint way of putting the situation is: "I could not possibly arrive until Tuesday though Phillips had cold beef ready for me and waited dinner on Sunday." He did reach his destination in time to enjoy a Christmas-day dinner in real English style, however, as the guest of the British Consul, and to his great delight, his Tuesday audience proved most cordial. " They huzzaed when the curtain fell," he gleefully wrote Mrs. Mathews, " and the theatre was crammed. No money is taken here at the doors; and, as in Paris, tickets are issued only for the number the theatre will 150 The Romance of the American Theatre hold. On great occasions (of which only four have occurred, Cooke, Phillips, Kean, and myself) people speculate in buying up tickets. It is mobbing work to purchase them. So that the elbowing and overflowing symptoms are displayed of a morning instead of an eve- ning. People who dislike this ceremony as much as I, employ porters, brawny fellows, chairmen, who fre- quently remain there all night. When they have pur- chased a number of tickets at a dollar each, they will sell them to the highest bidder; and four or six dollars are sometimes given. Last night is a proof that this theatre is not great enough for great occasions, as a repeated performance refilled the house and fellows took their station at twelve o'clock on Thursday night, and remained till the box-door opened to-day. Nothing can be more rapturous than my reception; and having made my hit here, the thing is established beyond reach of alarm or suspicion. The Bostonians have given them- selves a name as critics, and it is said by themselves that this is more like an English town than any in America, - more literary people, better polished; and larger cities look up much to their opinion. Kean, in one of his speeches from the stage, called it a literary emporium. I shall stay here nearly a month longer and then back to New York. I can hardly hold my pen as I write it is so cold. You have never seen ice, nor felt frost. My water-jug was frozen this morning. The ice was so thick that I could not break it with one of the legs of a chair. I am, thank God, so well that I bear it better than the natives decidedly." The Romance of the American Theatre This winter of 1822-1823 must have been one of the " old-fashioned " ones, towards which our grandparents yearn. For Mathews can talk of little else than the cold and the sleighs, which were a novelty to him. " Because of the bells on the horses," he declares, " this town is one continued scene of what they call merriment. But as neither small or large bells can convey such a sentiment to me, I have no other idea but a disagreeable ringing in my ears. If the poor horses are annoyed as I am I pity them." Nor could they inveigle the comedian to join in the sport, his invariable reply being that sleighing and killing were synonymous terms with him. One letter to Mrs. Mathews is dated " Boston alias Frozen Regions, January 12, 1823 " and begins: " If you can hold a pen, dare to go from one room to another, or to open your mouth without fear of your words being frozen up if you can exert any of your energies, then pity me as I envy you in such a case. This is the most trying climate that I ever imagined. In short, all you have read of Russia will apply to it. ... I can only make myself happy by anticipating a thaw, and death to their mad frolics in their sleighs. They whisk along at the rate of about twelve miles an hour, and in open carriages like the half of a boat. So fond are they of the sport, that it is common for parties to go out at night ten or fifteen miles to adjacent villages, dance there and then return in these open sleighs. Funny people! " Mathews's powers of imitation were so extraordinary that even his friends enjoyed seeing themselves as he The Romance of the American Theatre reproduced them. There is no reflection upon his cour- tesy, therefore, to be made as a result of the following amusing story told to his wife in one of his letters from America. " There is a physician here of the name of Chapman, to whom I had a letter from Washington Irving. I saw him in September last and had him instantly, and indulged in imitating him. When I went through in Oc- tober I gave this imitation at a party here where every- body knew him. The thing was droll and a gentleman present not only laughed then but, when he went home, he laughed again at the recollection so immoderately that his wife really thought he had a hysteric fit. In perfect alarm she sent the servant off for their physician. He was from home and the servant, thinking his master dying, did not stop till he found a doctor. Just as the patient was recovering from the effects of his counter- feit doctor, in came the real Dr. Chapman; and when the patient heard the sound of his voice, he was off again, and was actually very near being bled while in his second fit A fact!" One of Mathews's best witticisms about our climate was when -he- declared it "fit only for butterflies in summer and for wolves and bears in winter." Alongside of this we may place the following description of the circumstances under which he once wrote home, while stopping at a hotel in New York: " I am writing in a tub of hot water, with two black servants attend- ing, each in a vapour bath, with their arms extended through flannel apertures, wiping my nose with hot 153 The Romance of the American Theatre flannels, to prevent the breath freezing. By the time you receive this, a young summer (for there is no spring here) will compel me to abandon my cloth-coat." One extraordinary incident of Mathews's first Ameri- can tour was his performance in New York, on a wager, of the part of Othello. Strange to say, the attempt was received with great applause and had to be several times repeated. One of the critics of the time wrote: " It will hardly be credited that Mr. Mathews succeeded completely in this arduous character. We could not conceive that an actor, whose forte has been till now con- sidered all comic, could so far divest himself of his hu- mourous peculiarities, as to convey to his audience a very chaste, correct, pleasing, and even affecting picture of the unhappy Moor." Mathews possessed, however, too nice a sense of his own peculiar powers to allow him- self to be tempted often out of his own special line of work. And though he was persuaded to do his Othello for a single night in Liverpool, after his return home, he did not repeat the experiment. The critics said that he was " brilliant in some passages, chaste and judicious in all." But they added that they preferred him in one of his " At Home's." And, since Mathews preferred himself that way, we do not find him again venturing into tragedy on the stage. Something approaching tragedy for him intruded it- self, however, into his personal life, about this time, in that his financial embarrassments were so great that he felt obliged to place on public exhibition his theatrical portrait gallery, which had been his pet hobby for years. The Romance of the American Theatre This collection contained four hundred pictures, which, while not all of the first rank artistically, formed a unique illustration of the most brilliant period of England's histrionic history. With the hope of still further retrieving his losses, Mathews made a second journey to America in 1834. This time his wife accompanied him; so that it is through her letters to their son that we now learn of his adventures and follow the painful story of a very sick man, endeavouring to be as gay and sprightly, when before his audiences, as if he had never known an hour of suffering. On arriving in New York, he was distressed to learn that a strong public sentiment had developed against him since his last visit, owing, he was informed, to the fact that he had " ridiculed America " in one of his sketches. He met the accusation by giving the cen- sured sketch entire and compelling his auditors to testify at its close that they could find nothing to object to in it. Again he encountered an exceptionally cold winter, and this time his sufferings were real, not pretended, as on the former visit. In Boston, where the comedian enjoyed a very good season, he and his wife made their headquarters at the Tremont House and received a great deal of social at- tention, one new acquaintance whom Mathews especially enjoyed being Doctor Wainwright. As the customs of the country did not then " allow a churchman to visit the theatre, Mr. Mathews took great pleasure," his wife writes, " in entertaining the Doctor in private whenever !$$ The Romance of the American Theatre they met." The last church service poor Mathews ever attended was when he went to hear Doctor Wainwright preach, just before leaving Boston. " The doctor's sermon turned on a very affecting subject," records Mrs. Mathews, " on the probability that a reunion with those we most loved on earth would form a portion of the joys of the blessed hereafter. My husband wept continuously throughout the sermon, although he seemed unusually tranquil and happy the rest of the day." In New York Mathews appeared in public for the very last time. The bill for the occasion is interesting. FAREWELL APPEARANCE OF MR. MATHEWS AT NEW YORK This evening, February nth, 1835, will be performed the comedy of MARRIED LIFE Mr. Samuel Coddle Mr. Mathews Mr. Lionel Lynx Mr. Mason Mrs. Lionel Lynx Mrs. Chapman Mrs. Samuel Coddle Mrs. Wheatley In the course of the evening, Mr. Mathews will sing the Comic Songs of The Humours of a Country Fair, and Street Melodies (a medley), including, Welsh, French, Scotch, Irish, African, Italian, Swiss and English airs with embellish- ments. 156 The Romance of the American Theatre After which, an entertainment by Mr. Mathews, called THE LONE HOUSE Andrew Steward, Butler and Leader Mr. Mathews Bechamel, a French valet Mr. Mathews Frizwaffer, a German cook Mr. Mathews Cutbush, a gardener Mr. Mathews Captain Grapnell, a naval officer Mr. Mathews Doors open at a quarter before six o'clock; performance commences at a quarter before seven. From this evening Mathews grew continually worse, so that his journey back to England was one long chapter of horrors. He had literally come home to die, and he passed away June 28, 1835 on his fifty-ninth birth- day. Thus went out a talent so great and so unique that Macaulay said of it: " Mathews was certainly the greatest actor that I ever saw I can hardly believe Garrick to have had more of the general mimetic genius than he. ... I laughed my sides sore whenever I saw him." Perhaps the best summing up of this genial comedian's peculiar gift may be found, however, in the Sunday edition of the London Times, following his de- cease. " As a companion he was delightful, as a friend sin- cere, as a husband and father exemplary, and, as an actor, he had no competitor, and will, we fear, never have a successor. . . . He was on the stage what Ho- garth was on the canvas a moral satirist : he did not imitate, he conceived and created characters, each one of which was recognized as a specimen of a class. Noth- 157 The Romance of the American Theatre ing could exceed the correctness of his ear; he spoke all the dialects of Ireland, Scotland and Wales with a fidel- ity perfectly miraculous. He could discriminate be- tween the pronunciation of the different writings of Yorkshire, and speak French with the Parisian accent, - the patois of the South or the guttural tone of the Flemish. His powers in this way had no limit. His knowledge of human character was no less remarkable. Though his performances professed to be representations of manners and peculiarities, they really abounded in the fine analysations of character. Mathews did not occupy the highest place in the drama; but he was indisputably, and by the united suffrage of France, England and America, the first in his peculiar walk. . . . For seventeen years he, by his single exertions, delighted all England ' alone he did it! ' " 158 CHAPTER VI TWO GREAT ENGLISH TRAGEDIANS WHOM WE WELCOMED GLADLY ABOUT the time that the elder Charles Mathews first came to make us merry, William Augustus Conway, another English actor, also visited our shores. When Conway was making preparations to depart, the Lon- don press commented as follows: " On Friday Conway performed the part of Macbeth. He is about, we understand, to migrate to America, where we hope he will receive better encouragement than he has obtained here. He has certainly been hardly dealt with by the critics; they have taken a pleasure in exposing and heightening all his defects and in passing over the many traces of genius and judgment which are to be found in all his performances. Conway is not equal to the weighty part of Macbeth, but with the exception of Kemble, Kean and Young, he is as good as any other performer of the part. Conway wants study and dis- cipline and a better carriage of his person. He is not wanting in natural feeling or in the leading requisites of his art." Yet Conway 's " carriage of his person " had not been 159 The. Romance of the American Theatre so inelegant that the " matinee girls " of his day failed in admiration of him. A susceptible " duke's daughter " was generally known to be quite beside herself for love of this Apollo (he was six feet, two inches in height), and he had won, also, the ardent love of Mrs. Piozzi, who had been the Mrs. Thrale of Johnson's circle. This lady was seventy-three at the time of her infatuation for the actor and he was young enough to have been her grandson. But she is said to have proposed marriage to him, none the less, and repeatedly, in letters which may still be read, she tried to draw him to her side. In September, 1819, she wrote: " Three Sundays have now elapsed since James brought me dearest Mr. Conway's promise to write me the very next, and, were it not for the newspaper which came on the 24th August sending me to rest comfort- able, though sick enough and under the influence of laudanum I should relapse into my former stage of agonizing apprehension on your account; but that little darling autograph round the paper was written so steady, and so completely in the old way, whenever I look at it my spirits revive, and hope (true pulse of life) ceases to intermit, for a while at least, and bids me be assured we shall soon meet again. I really was very ill three or four days; but the jury of matrons, who sat on my complaints, acquitted the apricots which I accused, and said they (all but two) proved an alibi. Some of the servants, who were ill too, found out we had, in Bessy's absence, got some mildewed tea that lay in a damp closet at the last lodging. We are now removed to a palace, a Weston palazzino where we pro- pose receiving Mr. Conway." 1 60 WILLIAM AUGUSTUS CONWAY See page I$Q THOMAS ABTHORPE COOPER See page 123 The Romance of the American Theatre There are many other letters in similar strain; for this extraordinary old lady continued her amorous correspondence with the handsome actor up to the very month of her death in the spring of 1821. " We ourselves heard the late Charles Mathews say," asseverates a writer in the New Monthly Magazine for 1 86 1 (very likely William Harrison Ainsworth, the editor of this publication) " and no one who knew Mathews will question his veracity that Conway had himself shown him Mrs. Piozzi's offer of marriage and asked his (Mathews') opinion and advice. Mathews told him at once that he could not honourably take ad- vantage of it. ' That/ said Conway, ' is what I myself felt; but in a matter so important to one so poor as I am, I also felt that my own decision should be confirmed by the opinion of a friend. I now know what to do.' This, we repeat, we heard from Mathews himself, at the time the circumstance occurred, and we therefore believe it." Conway's conduct towards Mrs. Piozzi appears to have been honourable in the extreme, however. Though he was in pecuniary straits at the time of her death, he returned to her estate a check for 500 which the aged lady had sent him a few days before she passed away, and among his effects, sold in New York after his own sad end, was a copy of Young's " Night Thoughts," on which was written " Presented to me by my dearly at- tached friend, the celebrated Mrs. Piozzi." That Conway was grossly ill-used by many of the English critics, there can be no doubt. Hazlitt wrote very 161 The Romance of the American Theatre cruelly of him in the 1818 edition of his " View of the English Stage," declaring, among other things, that his " motion was as unwieldly as that of a young elephant." This criticism ends with the significant words: " Query, why does he not marry? " In justice to Hazlitt it should be said that this passage was omitted from the later editions of his book, and that he made a public apology for having written it. The career of this much-abused actor was full of colour and movement. Born in London (in 1789), he was sent as a boy to the Barbadoes, where he grew up to young manhood under the guidance of a clergy- man-tutor. He returned to England at the age of eighteen, witnessed a play for the first time at Bath, where he afterwards was" cultivated so eagerly by Mrs. Piozzi and was immediately seized with an ardent desire to go on the stage. Macready offered him an opening in Dublin, where he played with the beautiful Miss O'Neil for whom he conceived a violent but unavailing passion. Through Charles Mathews he was given an opportunity to appear at Covent Garden, and he there played several parts of importance between 1813 and 1816. Then he disappeared from the London stage for several years, though he may be found in the bill of the Haymarket during the summer of 1821. After that he withdrew definitely from the view of English play-goers as a result of the malignant attacks to which reference has already been made; and, at the close of 1823, he started for America. His debut in New York, on January 12, 1824, in the 162 The Romance of the American Theatre part of Hamlet, yielded him sixteen hundred dollars, and the critics of the New World, unlike those of London, accorded his performance enthusiastic praise. So pro- nounced, indeed, was his success, that Thomas A. Cooper, then a great favourite of the New Yorkers, made an arrangement to play with him, and for a number of performances the Park Theatre was crowded nightly as a result of this partnership. Then, quite suddenly, Conway withdrew to Newport, Rhode Island, for the purpose, it was said, of preparing himself to take holy orders. The news that Macready was about to come to New York had proved too much for him. For nothing could shake his " fixed idea " that Macready was visiting the country for the express purpose of crushing him. Moreover, the American papers, not to be outdone in cruelty by those of London, about this time began to impugn the motives behind his religious zeal and to question, salaciously, the relations which had existed between him and Mrs. Piozzi. As a result of all this, Conway became morbidly dejected. In the course of a voyage from New York to Charleston, in the winter of 1828, it was noted how melancholy he was and that, although the weather was very raw, he wore only summer clothing. On January 24, when the pas- sengers were going down to dinner, he told the captain " he should never want dinner more," and presently flung himself overboard. His body was not recovered. The love letters of Mrs. Piozzi, found among his effects, were sold in New York and afterwards published in London. They pitifully demonstrate that Dr. Johnson 163 The Romance of the American Theatre was quite right when he warned his friend that she should not give too free vent to her emotions. 1 Junius Brutus Booth, father of the great Edwin, and of the unhappy maniac who shot Abraham Lincoln under a mistaken sense that he was thus serving the highest good of his country, we had made welcome just a few years before; and well we might, for the elder Booth was one of the most interesting characters stage history in America has ever known. Born at St. Pancras, London, May i, 1796, the son of Richard Booth, a cultivated lawyer, he was destined by his father for a brilliant legal career. It chanced, however, that this father was a strong believer in per- sonal liberty, as was instanced by an attempt that he made to serve in our Revolutionary War and by the fact that all visitors to his house were obliged to render obeisance to a portrait of George Washington which hung on the wall of his drawing-room. So, when he learned that his son did not care to follow the profession he had chosen for him preferring instead to go upon the stage he did not long attempt to thwart the lad's preference. Young Booth's first appearance was at Deptford, in December, 1813, after which, for several months, he played on the Continent as a member of a strolling English company. 1 Leslie Stephens doubts the authenticity of these letters, but other commentators declare them quite in Mrs. Piozzi's style. The fact is that beauty was one of this lively lady's tastes; and Con way was ex- ceedingly good-looking. Moreover, though she was well along in years, her spirits were still young. On the evening of her eightieth birthday she gave a concert ball and supper at Bath, to nearly seven hundred people, she herself leading off the first dance! 164 The Romance of the American Theatre Yet so potent is ambition, when linked with great talent, that early in 1817 he was acting Richard III at Covent Garden and making such a profound impression that he immediately came to be regarded as the rival of the great Kean! The " Keanites " and the " Booth- ites " struggled together in London for some time, each claque endeavouring to maintain the supremacy of its chosen idol. Meanwhile Kean and Booth played counter-parts together and profited greatly by the ex- citement which their adherents had fanned into flame. Four years elapsed between this London season and Booth's sailing for America, in the spring of 1821. They were years of continuously brilliant success; it was by no means because he could not find appreciative audiences in England and on the Continent that Junius Brutus Booth came to the New World. The city in which he first acted over here was Rich- mond, and the part he first assumed that of his favourite, Richard III. His triumph was immediate and tremen- dous, the critics pronouncing him the equal if not the superior of both Cooke and Kean. An engagement at the Park Theatre in New York was promptly offered him, and there he opened, October 5, 1821, as Richard III. Here there was the wildest enthu- siasm over his performance, one of the reviews predict- ing that " with the aid of close study and practice, this astonishing young man [he was still under twenty-five] would become the first actor of the age." At Booth's first benefit in New York, the house was crammed, and he had twelve hundred dollars to bear 165 The Romance of the American Theatre away with him. This appears to have been the nucleus of the sum with which he purchased his farm, the Bel Air, in Baltimore, to which he became greatly attached and with which so many stories about him are connected. The spring of 1822 found him playing in Boston for the first time, after which he made a round of all the leading cities of the country. Two visits to England, engagements at Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Brussels, periods of service at New Orleans, Baltimore, and New York interspersed with various professional tours and with weeks, too, of forced retirement now fol- lowed. There is, however, no intention to sketch Booth's career here, either in sequence or in detail; the space at our disposal can be much more profitably employed by quoting, from a very rare brochure, 1 which has fallen into my hands, some of the anecdotes told of this ex- traordinary man and of his compelling genius. Once he was the guest at the " Hermitage," near Nashville, Tennessee, of General Jackson and his wife, and entertained them by reading aloud portions of the Scriptures and of " Paradise Lost." For this actor knew and greatly loved literature. To a visitor who was condoling with him on the loneliness of his farm he re- plied: " I am never without company. I am surrounded by congenial spirits. I converse and hold counsel with the great and good of all ages. Look there are Shelley, and Byron, and Wordsworth; here are ' rare Ben Jon- son,' Beaumont and Fletcher, and Shakespeare and 1 " The Actor, or a Peep Behind the Curtain: " New York, 1846. 166 The Romance of the American Theatre Milton; with them time never wearies, and the eloquent teachings that fall from their leaves are counsellors and guides. These are my companions/' concluded Booth, triumphantly pointing to his library and to his old arm- chair, " and I am never less alone, than when alone." Booth's devotion to this farm and to the agricultural occupations with which he busied himself there became almost a monomania. He not only superintended the management of the place but " drove his team afield," like any other practical farmer. A novel sight it must have been to see the great tragedian disposing of his turnips and cabbages in market and not infrequently giving them away when no purchaser could be found. One Saturday evening when he was due to play Richard in Baltimore, neither threats nor solicitation could in- duce him to go to the theatre until he had made a satis- factory disposition of his vegetables. The consequence was that, in order to secure his actor, the manager had first to hunt up a purchaser for the wares of the amateur farmer. One of Booth's eccentricities, if so we may regard it, was a firm belief that it was a positive sin to destroy and even more wicked to consume anything that had life. For a period of three years he lived entirely upon vege- table food, even oysters being, in the quaint language of his chronicler, " sacred from his appetite." At this time occurred the incident of the passenger pigeons, a long and graphic account of which may be found in the At- lantic Monthly files for 1861. A young clergyman in a Western city received, one evening, a note from Booth, The Romance of the American Theatre who was then playing in the town, asking that a place of interment be given in the churchyard to his " friends." The minister, mistaking the word "friends" for "friend," and thinking the actor wished to bury some dear comrade, called on Booth at his hotel, to offer help and sympathy. " Was the death of your friend sudden? " he asked sympathetically. " Very," was Booth's brief reply. " Was he a relative? " " Distant," came the non-committal answer. And then the actor, as if desiring to change the subject, asked his caller if he would like to hear him give " The Ancient Mariner." In delight the clergyman said that he would, indeed; and soon Booth was reading that weird poem as only he knew how to read. When he had ended, he began to argue about the sin of eating animal food, turn- ing over the pages of the Bible to find texts to support his opinions. Then he invited the minister into the next room to " look at the remains." What met their eyes was no human corpse, however, but a number of dead passenger pigeons spread out on a large sheet. These Booth took up tenderly in his arms, explaining, as he did so, that they had been shot in mere wantonness. The young divine was much impressed by the words of his host, but, inasmuch as he could not ac- cede to the request that these dead pigeons be accorded full burial rites, the two soon parted, Booth now looking very black and malevolent. The cloud which often ob- scured his mind had again descended. Once, in the very high tide of his early successes, this 168 The Romance of the American Theatre erratic genius wished to retire from the stage and accept the position of a lighthouse keeper, with a salary of $300 a year! On another occasion, after a drunken bout with his friend, Tom Flynn, he thought himself to be Othello, and hurled his companion to the floor with such force that the other, knowing his opponent to be beside him- self, felt forced to defend his life by hitting Booth over the face with a poker a punishment that broke the actor's nose and so spoiled at once his beauty and his voice. Edwin Booth has written very delicately and beauti- fully of his father in an endeavour to explain away " much that was imputed to vices of the blood." Great minds to madness closely are allied, he pleads. " Thus Hamlet's mind, at the very edge of frenzy, seeks its relief in ribaldry. For like reasons would my father open, so to speak, the safety-valve of levity in some of his most impassioned moments. At the very instant of intense emotion, when the spectators were enthralled by his magnetic influence, the tragedian's overwrought brain would take refuge from its own threatening storm be- neath the jester's hood, and, while turned from the audience, he would whisper some silliness or ' make a face.' . . . My close acquaintance with so fantastic a temperament as was my father's so accustomed me to that in him which appeared strange to others that much of Hamlet's ' mystery ' seems to me no more than idio- syncrasy. It likewise taught me charity for those whose evil or imperfect genius sways them to the mood of what it likes or loathes." Junius Brutus Booth never spoke of things theatrical 169 The Romance of the American Theatre when at home and was decidedly opposed to having any of his children go on the stage. Not that he consid- ered this calling unworthy, but that he was only too conscious of the enormous drain it makes upon the nerv- ous system. For, more than most actors, he consciously threw himself, before the play as well as during the performance, into its peculiar atmosphere. Thus, if " Othello " was billed for the evening, he would wear a crescent pin on his breast all that day. When Shylock was to be his part, he was a Jew in anticipation and would converse by the hour, if in Baltimore, with a learned Israelite among his acquaintance there, quoting portions of the Talmud the while. For Booth knew Hebrew well enough to be able to play Shylock in that language, Arabic sufficiently to talk with travelling jugglers in their own tongue, and was sufficiently a master of French stage traditions to render acceptably the Orestes in Racine's " Andromaque " before a French audience at New Orleans. Even George Frederick Cooke, whose Richard III is said to have excelled all others, was not better in the death scene of this play than was Booth, if we may trust the critics. "His eyes, naturally large and piercing," wrote H. D. Stone, " appeared to greatly increase in size and fairly to gleam with fire, while large drops of perspiration oozed from his forehead and coursed down his cheeks." The most interesting criticism that I have found on Booth's acting is from the pen of Walt Whitman, 1 whom 1 See Boston Herald, August 16, 1885. 170 The Romance of the American Theatre most of us know much better as a poet than as a com- mentator on the drama: " I happened to see him [Booth] in one of the most marvellous pieces of acting ever known. I can (from my good seat in the pit pretty well front) see again Booth's quiet entrance from the side as, with head bent, he slowly walks down the stage to the footlights with that peculiar and abstracted gesture, musingly kicking his sword which he holds off from him by its sash. Though fifty years have passed since then, I can hear the clank and feel the perfect hush of perhaps three thousand people waiting. (I never saw an actor who could make more of the said hush or wait, and hold the audience in an indescribable, half-delicious, half-irri- tating suspense.) . . . Especially was the dream scene very impressive. A shudder went through every nerv- ous system in the audience; it certainly did through mine. " Without question Booth was royal heir and legiti- mate representative of the Garrick-Kemble-Siddons dramatic traditions; but he vitalized and gave an un- nameable race to those traditions with his own electric idiosyncrasy. The words, fire, energy, abandon found in him unprecedented meanings. I never heard a speaker or actor who could give such a sting to hauteur or the taunt. I never heard from any other the charm of unswervingly perfect vocalization without trenching at all on mere melody, the province of music." Booth's last appearance on the stage was on Novem- ber 19, 1852, at the St. Charles Theatre, New Orleans. The Creoles had always loved him and borne patiently with his lapses; on this occasion he made them very happy with a brilliant performance. Then he set out for 171 The Romance of the American Theatre Cincinnati on a Mississippi steamer and died while on his way, with no member of his dearly-loved family to close his brilliant eyes. When Rufus Choate heard that he had passed away, he exclaimed, in deep sorrow, " Then there are no more actors! " Yet at that very hour, in a distant Western city, the parts that Junius Brutus Booth had played with such astonishing power were being done and well done, too by the son whom he had named Edwin, after America's greatest native tragedian, and who was des- tined to become the most glorious Hamlet the world has ever seen. 172 CHAPTER VII EDWIN FORREST AS ACTOR AND MAN EDWIN FORREST, the first American tragedian native to our soil, belongs peculiarly to the nineteenth century. For the century was only six years old when he was born; and he did not die until December 12, 1872. The his- tory of his life is thus almost synchronous with the history of the American stage during this period. Be- cause of which, as well as because Forrest was an in- tensely interesting personality, his career of necessity looms large in any work dealing with the American drama. Moreover, Forrest was intensely American in his sympathies, his prejudices, his training, and his en- thusiasms. He may, also, be said to have been typically American in the way in which he carved out a new field of activity for himself. Forrest stands forth as the very first American star who shone with transcendent brilliancy. For James FennelTahd Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, both of whom had " starred " before him, were not native Americans, though they are usually so regarded. Nor did they possess powers in any way comparable with his. John Bernard has amiably characterized Fennell, in his " Retrospections of America," as " one of the most extraordinary specimens of a class it had been my fate 173 The Romance of the American Theatre so frequently to meet, and my humble endeavor to im- mortalize the eccentric. Eccentricity is a sort of orderly disorder; or, if that sounds too Irish, a peculiar arrangement by which the greatest contradictions are placed in juxtaposition, as though kitchen utensils were ranged round a drawing-room. Most dazzling schemes for acquiring wealth and fame were, in Fennell's case, the drawing-room furniture; while the kitchen imple- ments were those dramatic talents by which he cut his loaf and cooked his dinner. He was a projector of the most genuine i South Sea Bubble ' species. . . . That arrant jade, Fancy, was ever luring him into debt and disgrace, while his sober spouse, Judgment, would lead him back to the stage and a subsistence." Frequently, however, Fennell's blithesome resource- fulness served him in very good stead, even while pur- suing his workaday life on the stage. As for instance, on that occasion when he was playing Macbeth in a summer company whose property man had become so enamoured of Shakespeare that he frequently forgot the duties of his office. On this particular evening the " blood " was missing; but a well-directed blow, aimed by Fennell at the property man's nose, effectively reme- died this deficiency, and Macbeth's hands and dagger were as gory, when he returned from killing Duncan, as even the youngest pit-ite could desire. Fennell was born in London in 1766, received a good education, and studied for the bar. In 1787 he resolved to be an actor, and made his debut at the Edinburgh Theatre. At about this time he began, too, to write for the press, issuing a magazine called the Theatrical Guard- 174 The Romance of the American Theatre ian. After spending some time in Paris, Fennell came to the United States and in 1793 made his first appear- ance in Philadelphia with immediate success. He be- came the idol of the town, and but for his extravagant habits and erratic disposition, might have accumulated a great deal of money. At this period he was a rival of Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, and in 1808 the two favourites played a joint engagement at the leading theatres of several cities. Once Fennell alone played thirteen weeks in Philadelphia to receipts which ag- gregated thirteen thousand dollars. , This is said to have been " the greatest instance of patronage ever given to the American drama." Yet he was soon attempting to earn a modest liveli- hood by conducting an academy in Charles town, Massa- chusetts. And then, having by good luck come into a considerable amount of money, he established some salt works near New London, Connecticut. This led to his financial ruin. He died in Philadelphia on June 14, 1816, in extreme poverty. When his fortunes were at their lowest ebb, Fennell wrote his " Apology," in which may be found many picturesque bits about the actor-life of the time, though the book as a whole is extremely tedious. We here learn, for instance, that Fennell once played the Moor of Ven- ice at Edinburgh dressed in " a coat, waistcoat and lower garment of white cloth cut in the old-fashioned style; the coat and waistcoat loaded, or rather orna- mented with broad silver lace; to which was superadded a black wig with long hair, and to which was suspended 175 The Romance of the American Theatre a ramillies of about three feet in length. This, with the addition of a pair of white silk stockings and dancing pumps, made up the equipment." Cooper's starring experience dates from 1803. He had observed that Fennell received in six or eight nights a larger remuneration than was paid to him for three months of regular service, and that, too, for work which appeared to be far less laborious than the drudgery of a stock actor. So he determined to make the big adventure. Born in England in 1776, the son of a physician who left him fatherless at the age of eleven, Cooper was be- friended by William Godwin, a distant relative, and was thus brought early into intimate contact with the girl who became Mrs. Shelley. At sixteen he tried to go on the stage, applying for " any kind of a post " to Stephen Kemble, who gave him a chance. He was promptly hissed at Edinburgh, but persisted nevertheless, and soon displayed so much promise that in 1796 he re- ceived an offer from Wignell, then manager of the Philadelphia Theatre. The distinguished Mrs. Merry and her husband, John Bernard, and William Warren were among young Cooper's fellow-passengers in the trip across the At- lantic. He arrived in New York, October 18, 1796, played a preliminary season at Baltimore, and then made his debut at the Chestnut Street Theatre, Phila- delphia (December 9, 1796) in the character of Mac- beth. On February 28, 1798, he first appeared as Ham- let at the recently completed Park Theatre, in New 176' The Romance of the American Theatre York, with which his subsequent fortunes were a good deal identified. The difference between the " then " and the " now " in the matter of salaries will be seen when it is said that Cooper at this time received only $25 a week for playing leads; in 1799 he began to draw $32, and by 1801 he was receiving $38, though all the while a great favourite with box, pit, and gallery. Mrs. Merry drew $100 a week for playing parts opposite to him. Cooper thought he could do better than this and pro- ceeded to prove it. In 1803 he went to London, and on June 10 of that year played Othello at Drury Lane, to the lago of George Frederick Cooke and the Cassio of Charles Kemble. His reputation thus enlarged, he returned to New York where, playing three times a week at the Park, he averaged $750 nightly. When it is realized that the city's entire population at this time was not over seventy- five thousand, it will be seen that Cooper was indeed a great success as an actor. He was a capable manager, also. In 1808 he became associated with Stephen Price, a well-known man of fashion in New York, who afterwards became the lessee of the Drury Lane, London, and together they brought out many successes. In 1815 he left Price to be sole manager of the Park and began his career of travelling star. For years he made his journeys in a large gig, expressly constructed for the uncertain roads of that era, which he drove tan- dem. Thus, in his prime, he played no less than one hundred and seventy-six leading characters in sixty- 177 The Romance of the American Theatre four different theatres, driving himself, the while, some twenty thousand miles. A very picturesque career, this, but of course not typically American as was Forrest's. Edwin Forrest started as a poor lad with no position opinfluences which could account in any way for his exceedingly remarkable and very early success; and he fought his way up the ladder, rung by rung, as if he were saying to himself every hour of the day: "There's plenty of room at the top." That his father was Scotch and his mother German only served to make his Ameri- canism more pronounced. The story of this boy's early life reminds one, in its simplicity and its self-conscious idealism, of Benjamin Franklin's life as set down in the matchless " Auto- biography." For here again there was a frugal father, a devout, God-fearing mother, and several other children besides a youngest son, who would get on. Because this son gave more striking signs of talent than any of his fellow fledglings in the crowded home nest, the parents were ambitious to make a parson out of him. At first his natural tendencies encouraged this idea, for after attending service in the old Episcopal church, he would hurry home, make a pulpit of a stuffed semicircular chair with a pillow placed on the top of its back for a cushion, mount into it, and preach from memory to his admiring sisters, who formed the " congregation," long passages from the sermon which had lodged themselves in his retentive memory. But and this detail would have been a very significant one to a mother trained, as The Romance of the American Theatre many modern mothers are, to note the implications of a youngster's tastes in play the costume was a very important accessory to the preaching of this parson. He would never open his mouth until he had spectacles across his nose and a pair of tongs hung around his neck to represent the stole worn by the divine he was en- acting. The premature death of the boy's father necessitated early self-support on the part of the young Thespian, however, and he was successively a printer's devil, an errand boy in a cooper-shop, and an under-clerk in a ship-chandlery of his native Philadelphia. But his chief amusement continued to be " playing theatre," and his one diversion later was passing enchanted evenings in the Old Southwark where, while his love of the play was satisfied by witnessing the " acted drama," his patriotic passion was fed by gazing at the box midway in the first tier, which was known as the Washington box from the fact that it had often been occupied by the President and his family during the days when Philadelphia was the nation's capital. It was in this theatre, then under the management of Charles Porter, that Forrest, as a lad of eleven, made his first appearance on any stage. The part assigned him was that of a girl, and, boy-like, he devoted great care to the make-up of his upper person, stuffing out his dress, adjusting his ringlets, and fastening very securely upon his head the turban his sister had made for the occa- sion. But his huge boy's boots were quite forgotten, and when they showed forth under his short petticoats, 179 The Romance of the American Theatre he was hissed in no uncertain fashion. The manager said he had disgraced the theatre, and no amount of coaxing would secure him another chance. So Forrest characteristically took matters into his own hands, got himself up as a harlequin, dashed before the footlights while the manager was busy running down the cur- tain, and delivered himself of some verses which con- tained a facetious reference to his late ungainly heels and, by dint of agile hand-springs and flip-flaps, wrung from the astonished audience burst on burst of applause. As a reward for this exploit, he was now given a chance to show what he really had in him, and on November 17, 1820, he made his first appearance at the Walnut Street Theatre in the character of Young Norval. Though he was only fourteen at the time, he acquitted himself so well that Williamjluane, then one of the ablest and ~_ ! 1^ \ most experienced editors in the country, wrote an ap- preciative notice of his work, pointing out that the " sentiment of the character had obtained such full possession ofthe youth as to take away every consid- er atJofToF an audience or a drama, and_to_give7 as it were, the natural speaking of the shepherd boy, suddenly revealed by instinct to be the son of Douglas." The lad's selfrpossessipn, hpfliiHfnl YWfri q-"H fflrej"! articu- lation were also mentioned with praise. For this lad had not been wasting his scant leisure hours, and the results of his study and elocution practice showed in his performance. His biographer tells an interesting story to show how young Edwin carefully followed up every 180 The Romance of the American Theatre suggestion looking to advancement in his chosen pro- fession. One evening, as he was standing in front of one of the Philadelphia theatres, his attention was fixed on the two mythological figures inscribed Thalia and Mel- pomene which stood in niches on either sMe. " Who are Thajlea and Melpomeen? " he inquired of an elder comrade. " Oh, I don't know; a couple of Grecian queens, I guess," was the reply. But a gentleman, over- hearing, stepped forward and explained that the ladies were respectively the Muse of Comedy and the Muse of Tragedy and added that at any bookstore might be had a copy of Walker's Classical Pronouncing Dic- tionary, to which such questions could be referred with the certainty of a correct answer. Edwin bought the volume at once and profited by it, too. Profited so much that, when the theatre was torn down, some years later, he was able to buy the two statues with the intention of having them set up in his own private theatre. Naturally, a lad thus ambitious of stage success at- tained it. After his successful debut, he followed up every possible opening and suggestion until, at the age of sixteen, he secured an engagement with Collins and Jones to play leading juvenile parts in their theatres in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Lexington. The salary was eight dollars a week, and the places in which they played were so wretched that in Pittsburgh the audiences were forced to shelter themselves under umbrellas from the leaks of the roof, as Forrest sustained the part 181 The, Romance of the American Theatre of Young Norval. When the company had closed its season at Lexington, early in 1823, they all set off on a cross-country " trek " for Cincinnati, the women packed away in covered wagons with the theatrical parapher- nalia, the men on horseback. The journey occupied the better part of two weeks, for it was not until March 6, 1823, that they opened in the old Columbia Street Theatre of Cincinnati in " The Soldier's Daughter," Forrest, who lacked three days of being seventeen, as- suming the part of Malf ort. At this time he was so poor that when his dog, by way of morning diversion, gnawed into shreds one of his only pair of boots, he had to get around the dilemma by pretending to have a sore foot, tlius making it possible for him to appear in public wearing a shabby old slipper. The impression made by the youth's character upon all who met him at this time may be understood from the fact that an excellent boarding-place was secured for him in Cincinnati through the personal intervention of General Harrison, who was subsequently President of the United States. The General feared that if young Forrest boarded with the other players he would form bad habits, and he wished to guard him from this, as he considered him a young man of extraordinary ability, destined to excel in his profession. Forrest was then a very beautiful youth, with deep brown eyes, a com- plexion of marble clearness, and a graceful though sin- ewy form. Forrest's first real opportunity of any importance came when James H. Caldwell, the New Orleans man- 182 The Romance of the American Theatre ager, offered him (in 1824) an engagement at eighteen dollars a week as an actor in his stock company. Here many experiences of varying value were his. For the most voluptuous, passionate, and reckless social life of any city in the United States was that of New Orleans at this time. And this handsome young actor, whom everybody welcomed gladly, was impressionable and eager to drink deep of every cup which should contribute to his understanding of life. Caldwell at nrsHntroduced his protege to all his friends~and gave Him good parts; then, jrnjwmg fealous of "friar; "lie forced liinr,-^wiio was tingling with ymith j to play continually the roles of old men. Very_ wisely, Forrest, instead of resenting this openly ^jnade it his business to study