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On the Authenticity of the “Moral Dialogues” Playbill
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
Extract
On Monday, June 10, at the Public House 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. DOUGLAS will represent a noble and magnanimous Moor named Othello, who loves a young lady named Desdemona, and after he has married her, harbors (as in too many cases) the dreadful passion of jealousy.
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- Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1979
References
NOTES
1 This version of the playbill is taken from Bernard, John, Retrospections of America, 1797–1811, From the Manuscript by Mrs. Bayle Bernard. Edited by Hutton, Laurence and Matthews, Brander (New York, 1887), pp. 270–271.Google Scholar
2 Blake, Charles, An Historical Account of the Providence Stage (Providence, 1868), pp. 17–25Google Scholar; Clapp, William W., A Record of the Boston Stage (Boston, 1853), p. 8Google Scholar; Hornblow, Arthur, A History of the Theatre in America from its Beginnings to the Present Time (New York, 1919), pp. 110–112Google Scholar; Odell, George C. D., Annals of the New York Stage (New York, 1927–1949), I, 82.Google Scholar; Rankin, Hugh F., The Theater in Colonial America (Chapel Hill, 1960), pp. 93–96Google Scholar; Seilhamer, George O., History of the American Theatre Before the Revolution (Philadelphia, 1888), pp. 122–128.Google Scholar Significantly, William Dunlap does not mention the Newport playbill in his History of the American Theatre and Anecdotes of the Principal Actors (New York, 1832).
3 Bernard, p. 270.
4 Blake, p. 25.
5 Odell, pp. 81–82 passim.
6 Rankin, p. 93.
7 Blake, p. 25.
8 Bernard, John, Retrospections, of the Stage (London, 1830).Google Scholar
9 Bernard, p. 269.
10 Rankin, p. 199.
11 Bernard, p. 269.
12 Bernard, pp. 269–270.
13 Pennsylvania Gazette, 10 June 1754.
14 South Carolina Gazette and American General Advertiser, 31 October 1765.
15 Virginia Gazette, 16 May 1771.
16 New York Gazette, 1 October 1761.
17 Newport Mercury, 3 November 1761.
18 New York Gazette, 1 October 1761.
19 Rankin, p. 90. Rankin documents this fact by reference to York County Records, Land Causes, 1746–59 [sic] pp. 135–58, 203 passim.
20 Newport Mercury, 11 August 1761.
21 Rankin, p. 93.
22 Seilhamer, p. 125. See also Mullin, Donald C., “Early Theatres in Rhode Island”, Theatre Survey, XI, 2 (November 1970).Google Scholar
23 Bernard, pp. 270–271. Historians correct Bernard's misspelling of Douglass’ and William Quelch's names without question or comment.
24 See Lynch, James J., Box Pit and Gallery (Berkeley, 1953), pp. 146–165Google Scholarpassim for an informed discussion of this practice. See also Schaal, David George, Rehearsal-Direction Practices and Actor-Director Relationships in the American Theatre from the Hallams to Actors' Equity (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois, 1956), pp. 35–46.Google Scholar
25 Seilhamer, p. 229.
26 Seilhamer, p. 231.
27 Pennsylvania Gazette, 1 November 1759.
28 Seilhamer, pp. 338–340. Mrs. Douglass was in poor health as early as 1769. See Holt's Journal (New York), 25 May 1769.
29 Maryland Gazette, 12 May 1760. Occasionally, in the 19th century, Emilia was considered a more desirable role than Desdemona—though the exception would not seem to apply in this case.
30 Seilhamer, pp. 119,218, 307 passim.
31 Wright, Richardson, Revels in Jamaica, 1682–1838 (New York, 1937), p. 44.Google Scholar
32 Seilhamer, pp. 119, 218, 307 passim.
33 Memoirs of a Life Chiefly Passed in Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, 1811), p. 76.
34 Wright, p. 292.
35 Newport Gazette, 11 August 1761.
36 Ibid.
37 For one of Douglass' financial disclosures, see the New York Gazelle, 1 February 1762. For an example of Douglass’ announcements to his creditors, see the South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, 6 May 1766.
38 Seilhamer, p. 112.
39 Cundall, Frank, A History of Printing in Jamaica from 1717 to 1834 (Kingston, 1935), p. 19.Google Scholar
40 Wright, pp. 28–29.
41 See the Prologue to the Annapolis, Maryland performance of The Roman Father, almost certainly composed by Douglass. Maryland Gazette, 12 September 1771.
42 Pennsylvania Gazette, 13 July 1759. I believe the misspelling of “Douglas” in the first line is deliberate on Douglass’ part; if so, it is a delightful example of the manager's subtle wit, inasmuch as the Prologue was delivered by his wife.
43 Bridenbaugh, Carl, Cities in the Wilderness (New York, 1955), p. 459.Google Scholar
44 Bridenbaugh, p. 459.
45 Clapp, p. 7.
46 The Boston Gazette and the Country Journal, 3 September 1792.
47 Clapp, p. 8.
48 The Boston Gazette and the Country Journal, 8 October 1792.
49 Ibid., 22 October 1792.
50 ibid., 15 October 1792.
51 Ibid., 3 December 1792.
52 Ibid., 19 November 1792. The King and the Miller of Mansfield, one of the London Company of Comedians' most popular afterpieces, and one always advertised by them as a farce, was extravagantly termed “an entertaining interview of Equality” by Morris and his cohorts. (See The Boston Gazette and the Country Journal for 28 January 1793.)
53 Ibid., 12 November 1792, 15 October 1792, 26 November 1792, and 3 December 1792. The advertisement for George Barnwell contained a moralizing verse that closely resembles the doggerel of the “Moral Dialogues” playbill: “Learn to be wise, by others harm,/ And ye shall do full will [sic] LILLO.”
54 The Fair Penitent was advertised as a tragedy, as was Jane Shore. (See The Boston Gazette and the Country Journal for 8 March 1793 and 1 April 1793, respectively.) Charles Stuart Powell, the manager who followed Morris and his company, presumably found the atmosphere in Boston so amenable to the theatre that he took to mentioning playwrights in his advertisements, obviously as an attraction. Susan Centlivre was prominently mentioned as the author of The Busy Body, and Thomas Otway was doubtless sufficiently well-known to Bostonians to be advertised as the author of The Orphan. (See The Boston Gazette and the Country Journal for 20 May and 22 April 1793.)
55 This speculation would serve to explain the improbable “casting” of Owen Morris's first wife as Desdemona. The first Mrs. Morris always portrayed second leads, confidantes, maids and the like; the second Mrs. Morris, on the other hand, assumed many of Mrs. Douglass' roles with the declining health of the manager's wife. Seilhamer (pp. 352–353 passim) describes the second Mrs. Morris as “tall, stately, imposing … the ideal English dame of the period”; an examination of her roles will reveal that she was perfect for the part of Desdemona, by the standards of the London Company at the time.
Perhaps the old actor was simply confused when he listed the case for Bernard. We know Morris's memory was fading when Bernard knew him; on one occasion he told Bernard his first wife had been drowned in the Delaware River, while the New York Mercury for 14 December 1767 gives the site of Mrs. Morris's death as Kill von Kull. See also Seilhamer, pp. 230–231.
56 Carey, Matthew to Dunlap, William, November 12, 1832. In The Diary of William Dunlap (New York, 1930), p. 269.Google Scholar