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Cooke Among the Yankee Doodles
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2009
Extract
Late in the afternoon of 24 September 1812, Joseph Fay, a New York lawyer, was summoned to a well-known New York tavern called Mechanics' Hall to write the will of the actor George Frederick Cooke. In a letter to John Howard Payne written immediately after the event, Fay reflected on his unexpected experience.
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- Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1973
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Notes
1 Miscellaneous MS, courtesy of The New York Historical Society, New York City. Joseph George Holman first appeared at the Park Theatre as Hamlet on 28 September 1812. According to Cooke's will and the decree admitting the will to probate (dated 28 October 1812) on file in the Surrogate Court of the County of New York (Book 50, p. 261), witnesses to the will were Dr. J. W. Francis, J. Robinson and Fay. Hosack and Holman subsequently, with no explanation given, refused the Executorship and the legal right of executing the will went to Mrs. Mary Cooke, the sole beneficiary. The will itself mentions no specific sums of money or estates, nor does it enumerate outstanding debts.
2 The letter appears in Dunlap, William, The Life of George Frederick Cooke, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London, 1815), II, 383–393Google Scholar. I have chosen to use Dunlap sparingly in this essay due to his obvious bias and distortion throughout the work. For a guide to Dunlap, , see my “An Index to: The Life of George Frederick Cooke by William Dunlap,” Theatre Documentation, 2, Nos. 1 and 2 (Fall 1969 and Spring 1970), 109–120Google Scholar.
3 A few details pertaining to his death can be surmised from an anonymously penciled note attached to Promptbook R III, 4, in the Folger Library. It was apparently marked by Cooke for provincial managers; signed “Cooke 1808”. It belonged after Cooke's death to James Brandon, whose daughter gave it to J. P. Hicks in 1879. Shattuck, Charles in his The Shakespeare Promptbooks (Urbana, 1965), p. 391Google Scholar, identifies the four-page penciled account of Cooke's death as written by an eyewitness. I have not been able to verify this. The account mentions four physicians who attended Cooke but only two coincide with accounts in Dunlap (i.e., Hugh McLean and Hosack; Francis' name is mysteriously omitted).
4 The funeral was announced in the New York Columbian, 26 September 1812, with this last statement: “His friends and acquaintances are requested without further invitation to attend his funeral from the Mechanic-Hall to-morrow afternoon, precisely at half-past 4 o'clock.” See also Life of Cooke, II, 395Google Scholar; New YorkEvening Post, 11 11 1899Google Scholar; and Francis, John Wakefield, Old New York (New York, 1865 /6/), p. 210ffGoogle Scholar.
5 For a fuller account of Cooke's burial, the erection of a monument over his grave by Kean, its restoration, and the legend of Cooke's skull, see my article, “The Posthumous Career of George Frederick Cooke,” Theatre Notebook, 24, No. 2 (Winter 1969–1970), 68–74Google Scholar.
6 Dunlap and most accepted biographical sources state that Cooke's first professional appearance was in Brentford in 1776 as Dumont in Jane Shore. While surveying provincial playbills in the British Museum, I located a series of bills in the Burney Collection (Burney 937.f.2) for Whitley and Herbert's Company at Lynn and Stamford in 1774 listing a Cooke in many roles that became staples in G. F. Cooke's later repertoire. If Cooke was born in 1756, as Dunlap says (Life of Cooke, I, 1)Google Scholar, he would have been eighteen at the time. It is more likely that Cooke was born ca. 1753. Although vague in detail, An Essay on the Science of Acting by a Veteran Stager (London, 1828), pp. 110–113Google Scholar, seems to verify the Lynn/Stamford date and the Cooke as George Frederick.
7 The figures cited here are at best intelligent guesses. I have utilized quotations of receipts wherever they have appeared, collating figures whenever possible. Most figures have appeared in published sources cited elsewhere in the notes. See Appendix I of Cooke's performances and receipts.
8 Periodically during his Career, Cooke was faced with dire financial problems. In fact, from 17 August to 30 December 1807, he was confined in Appleby Jail, Westmoreland apparently for a bad debt owed to the managers of the Manchester Theatre. See Hodgkinson, J. L. and Pogson, Rex, The Early Manchester Theatre (London, 1960), p. 175Google Scholar. The Harvard Theatre Collection has recently acquired a portion of Cooke's Appleby Journal (MS Thr.20.1) from Sir Bernard Miles. Unavailable to Dunlap when writing his biography, it gives no insight into the reason for Cooke's imprisonment or the negotiations for his release.
9 Munden, Thomas S., Memoirs of Joseph Shepherd Munden, Comedian (London, 1844), p. 187Google Scholar; unidentified newspaper article, 1 November 1936, Harvard Theatre Collection.
10 Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 130–169Google Scholar; The Satirist, III, n.s. (1 10 1813), 338–351Google Scholar, admittedly with a British bias, called Dunlap's biography a “meagre work” and accuses Dunlap of “the purest American democratic politics; the finest American feelings of selfishness and egotism; the common run of American literary acquirements and mental illumination,” adding that for information “any scene-shifter of Covent Garden could have produced” more.
11 Munden, pp. 179–181.
12 Science of Acting, pp. 130–134. Most of the key information on Cooke is practically hidden in a long footnote.
13 British Museum Egerton MS 2309. Cooke is included in the salary lists for 15, 29 September, and 6 October. The London Monthly Mirror, VIII (10 1810), 316Google Scholar, bitter over Cooke's defection, exclaimed: “Mr. C. was engaged to Mr. Harris and owed him eight hundred pounds [unverified in the Account Books]. All this Mr. Cooper knew as well as Mr. C., and—and—but they are both transported, and let justice be satisfied.”
14 Recent doctoral studies on Cooke's predecessors on the American stage only seem to strengthen this conclusion. See East, N.B. “John Bernard, Actor-Manager, 1756–1828” (University of Kansas, 1970Google Scholar); Potts, Norman B. “The Acting Career of James Fennell (Indiana, 1969Google Scholar); Harbin, B. J. “The Career of John Hodgkinson in the American Theatre” (Indiana, 1971Google Scholar). Also see Doty, Gresdna Ann, The Career of Mrs. Anne Brunton Merry in the American Theatre (Louisiana State University Press, 1971Google Scholar). Although English, T. A. Cooper was fairly well-established as an “American” actor by the time Cooke first appeared in the U.S. His popularity is unquestionable, but such a hoopla as that preceding Cooke's visit did not occur. He was a seasoned and familiar figure on the American stage when he began his career as a traveling star without management responsibilities in 1815.
15 Durang, Charles, “The Philadelphia Stage from the Year 1749 to the Year 1855,” The Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch (1854–1860Google Scholar). I have used the seven-volume scrapbook of Durang at The University of Pennsylvania, arranged and illustrated by Thompson Westcott. Chapter XLIV, 87.
16 The Mirror of Taste and Dramatic Censor, II, No. 5 (11 1810), 372–373Google Scholar.
17 Ibid., 371–372.
18 Ibid.
19 Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 348–349Google Scholar. See also Willard, George O., History of the Providence Stag, 1762–1891 (Providence, 1891), p. 67Google Scholar and Dunlap, II, 294–295, 342, 346–350, 372–374 for other comments by Cooke on the United States.
20 Ireland, Joseph N., Records of the New York Stage from 1750 to 1860, 2 vols. (New York, 1866), I, 273Google Scholar. The scene recorded here is based largely on an unidentified newspaper clipping in the Harvard Theatre Collection.
21 Ireland says that only twice did receipts exceed this initial performance at the Park: $1,-821 on 12 September 1836, when Forrest played The Gladiator, and 24 June 1836, on Placide's benefit as Iago to John Reeve's Othello ($1,833). Ireland, Joseph, A Memoir of the Professional Life of Thomas Abthorpe Cooper (New York, 1888), p. 38Google Scholar. Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 198Google Scholar, however, says that Cooke's benefit on 19 December took in $1,878.
22 willard, pp. 61–62.
23 New York Evening Post, 23 November 1810.
24 The Cabinet, III (18 01 1811), 33–36Google Scholar.
25 Boston Gazette, 30 December 1811.
26 Philadelphia True American, 8 November 1811.
27 Major passages from New York newspaper criticism have been quoted by Odell, George C. D., Annals of the New York Stage, 15 vols. (New York, 1927–1949), II (1927), 355–363Google Scholar.
28 Mirror of Taste, II, No. 5 (11 1810), 374Google Scholar.
29 Ibid., III, no. 1 (January 1811), 22–23.
30 Quoted in Harrison, Gabriel, The Life and Writings of John Howard Payne (Albany, 1875), p. 49Google Scholar. Cooke became heir to and a superior performer of Macklin's two Scottish creations, Sir Pertinax MacSycophant and Sir Archy MacSarcasm.
31 Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 197–199Google Scholar; also see The Diary of William Dunlap. 1766–1839: The Memoirs of a Dramatist, Theatrical Manager, Painter, Critic, Novelist, and Historian, Barck, Dorothy, ed., 3 vols. (New York, 1931), II, 417–418Google Scholar. As far as I can ascertain, the last time Cooke played Cato prior to this performance was 19 July 1809, in Edinburgh. (Caledonian Mercury, 20 July 1809). It was never one of his major roles. The London Morning Post, 31 December 1802, wrote after his first appearance as Cato at Covent Garden that his conception had “the firmness of a ruffian, not of a sage, a philosopher, a patriot, a hero….”
32 Boston Gazette, 31 December 1810, and 3 January 1811.
33 Donohue, Joseph W. Jr., Dramatic Character in the English Romantic Age (Princeton, 1970), p. 274Google Scholar. Since my study is not principally concerned with Cooke's acting expertise, lengthy critical citations have been excluded, although references to many of these criticisms are indicated throughout the notes.
34 The Repertory, 8 January 1811. The Cabinet II (12 01 1811), 25–28Google Scholar and III (19 January 1811), 36–39, elaborated: “candle snuffers were made, in vile robes, to represent nobility,” the army of Richard and Richmond and the citizens of London were represented by about five supernumeraries. The foreground of the stage was hardly illuminated enough to discern the face of a performer the distance of four boxes from the scene. In addition, the lights created a great deal of smoke. The Cabinet also remarks on the miserable orchestra, the dirty boxes and the severe coldness in the theatre during the inclement weather. The regular company was condemned as being poor while at the same time, Morse, “a very respectable actor,” had been soliciting employment the entire season without success.
35 Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 295Google Scholar.
36 See Ibid., II, 203–205. MS in the Simon Gratz Collection, Pennsylvania Historical Society. The letter was given in part by Incledon to the London Morning Herald on 6 March and published the next day; later it was reprinted in American papers. It is reprinted by Dunlap, but until now has never been quoted in its entirety.
37 Figures taken for this New York engagement from Ireland, Records of the New York Stage, p. 276 and Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 227–243Google Scholar. Boston receipts primarily from Dunlap and Clapp, op. cit.; Philadelphia receipts from Dunlap, and James, Reese D., Old Drury of Philadelphia: History of the Philadelphia Stage, 1800–1835 (Philadelphia, 1932Google Scholar); Baltimore figures from James; both Philadelphia and Baltimore figures also examined in William B. Wood's Account Books and Journals, 1810–1835 (MS Am. 19, University of Pennsylvania); Providence figures from Dunlap and Willard; other New York receipts from Dunlap. Sources differ slightly on receipt figures.
38 Warren quoted in Durang, XLIV, 89.
39 Wood, William B., Personal Recollections of the Stage (Philadelphia, 1855), pp. 133–134, 154, 159–170Google Scholar.
40 Durang, XLIV, 88.
41 Irving, Pierre M., The Life and Letters of Washington Irving (New York, 1868), I, 278–279Google Scholar; see also Hewitt, Barnard, Theatre U.S.A. 1668 to 1957 (New York, 1959), pp. 85–86Google Scholar.
42 See An Apology for the Life of James Fennell (Philadelphia, 1814), pp. 492–495Google Scholar. Fennell defends Cooke from Dunlap's moralistic pen throughout his discussion of Cooke. See, especially, pp. 279–281.
43 Diary of William Dunlap, II, 373Google Scholar.
44 Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 362, also says Cooke did not play on 20 September although the playbills, newspapers and Ireland, Records of the New York Stage, p. 280, state that he played Macduff to Cooper's MacbethGoogle Scholar.
45 While Cooke was playing in Philadelphia, Placide, co-manager of the Charleston Theatre, came to negotiate a season with Cooke. Although Cooke had completed his Chestnut Street engagement and the Richmond Theatre had been kept open in hope of his fulfilling his contract, Cooke decided instead to go to Boston. See Durang, XLVI, 93; Clapp, pp. 128–129, goes so far as to say that Cooke “was, in a measure, the cause of this sad catastrophe” which took 71 lives on 26 December 1811.
46 James, pp. 16–17.
47 William Warren's Diary, 30 March 1811, quoted by Pritner, Calvin L., “William Warren's Financial Arrangements with Traveling Stars, 1805–1829,” Theatre Survey, VI, no. 2 (11 1965), 87Google Scholar.
48 ”Growler Gruff Esquire,” The Cynick, I (16 11 1811Google Scholar); See Pritner, pp. 83–90.
49 Odell, II, 379, mentions that on 11 November Cooper dared to appear as Richard III and was advised to “never again … appear in this arduous part, until the impressions which Mr. Cooke's Richard have left on the public mind be completely obliterated.”
50 Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 366Google Scholar, says Cooke was in New London; New England Palladium, 31 December 1811, says Providence.
51 Clapp, p. 127.
52 The Comet, 31 December 1811.
53 A similar report appeared in The New England Palladium, 14 January 1812, with the exclusion of the last two sentences. A letter from Cooke to James Dickenson [Dickson], 7 February [?1811], says”I wrote to you again yesterday, mentioning why I was delayed. My leg grows much better, and I hope speedily to see you.” (Manuscript Collection, Boston Public Library). Nowhere does Dunlap mention any leg trouble but Cooke's statement would support the report of “paralytic affection” and might possibly have been just one more of Cooke's many afflictions, giving validity to illness other than inebriety.
54 Quoted by Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 367–368Google Scholar.
55 The Columbian Sentinel, 11 01 1812Google Scholar, reports that the temperature averaged four to six degrees during this period.
56 See n. 45. On 6 January 1812, a series of letters appeared in the Boston Gazette on the Richmond fire; the managers, in the same issue, assured Bostonians that their theatre was safe (i.e. an iron curtain, globed lamps, three doors from the boxes, two doors from the pit and gallery, a hose from an aqueduct in the cellar, and all doors leading from the stage made of iron). This obviously did not curb the fear. The Satirist (Boston), 16 January 1812, called the story about a fire-proof curtain the most ridiculous hoax of the season, challenging “all the sons of Vulcan or Thespis in Christendom to render it serviceable in case of fire.”
57 Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 379Google Scholar.
58 The letter is in a portfolio identified as correspondence of Thomas Harris, Henry's father.
59 The announcement in The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, 11 July 1812, stated: “The managers have the pleasure of announcing to the Public, that they have engaged MR. COOKE, to perform in the Providence Theatre for six nights only. During the Engagement, no play can be repeated. In order to prevent difficulty, and give an equal chance to the Public in general to witness the brilliant Performances of this justly celebrated Actor, a Box-plan…, when Places may be taken in any number not exceeding ten, or less than two.” It then announces the main piece, The Merchant of Venice, “for the only time this Season.”
60 See Mullin, Donald C., “Early Theatre in Rhode Island,” Theatre Survey, XI, no. 2 (11 1970), 167–186CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
61 Dunlap, , Life of Cooke, II, 378Google Scholar; Willard p. 63.
62 Francis, p. 211; Durang, XLIV, 88; Willard, p. 67.
63 Taylor, John, Records of My Life, quoted by Durang, , XLIV, 89Google Scholar.
64 Unidentified clipping, Harvard Theatre Collection. The actual verse epitaph on Cooke's tomb, written by Fitz-Green Halleck, is:
Three Kingdoms claim his birth
Both hemispheres pronounce his worth.