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Sheridan's Introduction to the American stage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

George H. Nettleton
George H. Nettleton*
Affiliation:
Yale University New Haven, Conn.
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Extract

The story of the introduction of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's dramatic masterpieces to the American theatre is itself an American Revolutionary drama. When once the materials widespread over many years and places are duly assembled and ordered, the resultant outline of events unfolds like the scenario of an arresting chronicle play. The dramatic factors of time, place, and action become clear and colorful. The action develops against dramatic backgrounds—the American Revolution, the birth of the American Republic. The scene shifts from the American mainland to the British West Indies, and back to focal points of the American scene. The plot thickens as theatrical enterprise encounters various forces of moral and political hostility to the theatre. The time of the action prolongs over years, until the progressive campaigns of American theatrical managers, despite sundry temporary local reverses, attain conclusive victory. Within this larger framework of American theatrical venture and warfare, Sheridan's dramatic work may well illustrate “the play within the play.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , March 1950 , pp. 163 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1950

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References

1 Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress, Held at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774 (Philadelphia: Printed by William and Thomas Bradford, 1774), p. 72.

2 A History of the American Theatre (New York, 1832), p. 35.

3 History of the American Theatre (Philadelphia, 1888–91), I, 363.

4 Journals of the House of Lords (London, 1642), v, 336.

5 Richardson Wright, Revels in Jamaica, 1682–1838 (New York, 1937), pp. 62–64. To this invaluable history of the Jamaican theatre, and to Mr. Wright's generous personal aid, my debts remain constant. His work notably enlarges the records of the Kingston stage included in Seilhamer's chapter on “The American Company in Jamaica” (History of the American Theatre, ii, 134–157), and supplies, for the first time, extensive accounts of the theatrical seasons at Monte go Bay.

6 Wright, pp. 174–175.

7 Publication at Kingston of a special edition of “The New Comic Opera of the Duenna As it is to be acted this Evening at the Theatre” was extensively advertised in the Jamaica Mercury for November 27, 1779 (quoted by Wright, pp. 99–100). This book of the opera—“Price 3s. 9d.”—was described as “the only edition in print, except a very incorrect one that crept into the world in Dublin, under the title of ‘The Governess,‘ mangled, hackt and alter'd, in order to avoid the penalty of the acts of parliament for securing literary property.”

8 Neither Seilhamer nor Wright records any performance of The Critic during the period here reviewed. Sheridan first produced his play in London, on October 30,1779, as an afterpiece to Hamlet.

9 For detailed discussions of “The Element of Actual History in The Critic” see Intro duction, pp. cvii-cix, and Notes, pp. 298–312, to my critical edition of The Major Dramas of Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Boston, 1906).

10 Wright, pp. 106–109.

11 R. Crompton Rhodes, The Plays and Poems of Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Oxford, 1928; New York, 1929), iii, 311–313.

12 For detailed discussions, see articles by the present writer on “Robinson Crusoe, Sheridan's Drury Lane Pantomime”, in the London TLSfor Dec. 25, 1943, and Jan. 1, 1944. Part I deals mainly with Sheridan's pantomime as presented in its initial season of 1781, and with Thomas Becket's printed scenario. Part ii sets Robinson Crusoe in the light of Sheridan's previous interest and enlarging experience at Drury Lane in the production of pantomime and spectacle, and supplies evidence of Sheridan's contribution as “contriver.”

13 Wright, p. 227. It may be noted that Becket's London (1781) scenario of Robinson Crusoe gives the words, with Chorus, of the “Song, Sung by Mr. Gaudry in Robinson Crusoe.” According to R. Crompton Rhodes (Sheridan's Plays and Poems, iii, 340) : “This song is most likely, from its obvious situation in the play, the one that Sheridan wrote on a playbill, to give the carpenters time to prepare the next scene.”

14 Seilhamer, op. cit., I,330–336; Eola Willis, The Charleston Stage in the XVIII Century (Columbia, S. C, 1924), chapter iv.

15 Seilhamer, ii, 16.

16 Thomas Clark Pollock, The Philadelphia Theatre in the Eighteenth Century (Philadelphia, 1933), pp. 130–132.

17 George C. D. Odell, Annals of the New York Stage (New York, 1927), l, 191. To this definitive history and to Professor Odell's generous personal aid, I am deeply indebted.

18 Odell, i, 219–220. Odell was the first to supply convincing evidence as to the dates of the first New York performances of The School for Scandal.

19 In the London TLS,March 28, 1935, a special article by the present writer discusses the history and text of Bell's 1782 edition, establishing its priority over Hugh Gaine's 1786 New York edition which had previously been generally regarded as the first American edition.

20 Odell, i, 194–195; Pollock, pp. 36–39.

21 Seilhamer, ii, 178–182.

22 For detailed textual studies by the present writer, see articles in the London TLS,March 28 and Dec. 21,1935, and the Textual Notes to the critical edition of The School for Scandal included in British Dramatists from Dryden to Sheridan (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1939; London: Harrap, 1939).

23 Odell, I, 241.

24 SeiLhamer, ii, 205. His subsequent accounts (ii, 206 ff.) of Godwin's Charleston theatre remain useful, though mainly superseded by Eola Willis' standard history (op. cit., chapter vi), the essential source of present references and quotations.

25 Quoted by Seilhamer, ii, 213.

26 Quoted by Pollock, p. 139.

27 Quoted by Seilhamer, ii, 220.

28 Quotations are from the Yale copy of the subscription edition printed in Philadelphia in 1790 with a long list of subscribers headed by President Washington. The original “Proposals for Printing by Subscription” term Tyler's comedy “the first dramatic production of a citizen of the United States in which the characters and scenes are entirety American.” Seilhamer has a chapter (ii, 225–239) and Odell a section (i, 255–257) on The Contrast.

29 Further studies, long in progress, are planned to continue, for the three remaining decades (1787–1816) of Sheridan's lifetime, the unfolding history of his dramatic fortunes and influence on the American stage.