"Transpontine" is a Briticism for which the equivalent Americanism is
"Bowery." The plays which Skelt vended for the enjoyment of romantic
youth were not of his own invention, nor were they the work of his
hirelings; they were artfully simplified condensations of melodramas
long popular in London at the theaters on the Surrey side of the Thames,
and in New York at the Bowery. In French's Standard Drama, the Acting
Edition, to be obtained in yellow covers for fifteen cents, one may find
"the 'Miller and His Men,' a Melo-Drama in Two Acts, by F. Pocock, Esq.,
author of the 'Robber's Wife,' 'John of Paris,' 'Hit or Miss,' 'Magpie
and the Maid,' etc., with original casts, scene and property plots,
costumes, and all the stage business." And the list of properties
required for the final scene helps to elucidate what may have been
cryptic in the dialog quoted from the compacted adaptation of Skelt:
_Scene 4_:--_Slow match laid from stage in C. to mill. Lighted
torch for Ravina. Red fire and explosion 3 E. L. H. Wood crash
3 E. L. H. Six stuffed figures of robbers behind mill, L. H.
Eight guns, swords, and belts for hussars. Disguise cloak for
Lothair. Fighting swords for Lothair and Wolf._ [Wolf is
evidently another name for Grindorf.]
Thus we see that the pleasant country of the Skelts stretched from the
Surrey side of the Thames to the Bowery bank of the Hudson, and that the
Skeltic temperament was purely melodramatic, its bass notes being
transposed to adjust it to the clear treble of boyhood. It is greatly to
be regretted that no inquiring scholar has yet devoted himself to the
task of tracing the history of English melodrama, as Professor Thorndike
has traced the history of English tragedy. Of course, there have always
been melodramatic plays ever since the drama began to assert itself as
an independent form of art. There is a melodramatic element in the
'Medea' of Euripides, as there is in the 'Rodogune' of Corneille; and in
the Elizabethan theater the so-called tragedy of blood is nothing if not
melodramatic. Yet the special form of English melodrama that flourished
in the later years of the eighteenth century and the earlier years of
the nineteenth deserves a more careful study than it has yet received.
Apparently it was due partly to a decadence of the native type of drama
represented by Lillo's 'George Barnwell,' and partly to the stimulation
received first from the emotional pieces of the German Kotzebue, and
afterward from the picturesque pieces of the French Pixerecourt. And not
to be neglected is the influence immediately exerted on the popular
plays of the latter part of the period by the romances of Scott and of
Cooper.
Altho these plays were devoid of literary merit, of style, of veracity
of character delineation, of sincerity of motive, they were not without
theatrical effectiveness--or they could never have maintained
themselves in the theater. As Sir Arthur Pinero has seen clearly, "a
drama which was sufficiently popular to be transferred to the toy
theaters was almost certain to have a sort of rude merit in its
construction. The characterization would be hopelessly conventional, the
dialog bald and despicable--but the situations would be artfully
arranged, the story told adroitly and with spirit." In other words, the
compounders of these melodramas were fairly skilful in devising plots
likely to arouse and to sustain the interest of uncritical audiences.
Probably they were unfamiliar with Voltaire's assertion that the success
of a play depends mainly upon the choice of its story; and it is
unlikely that they had any knowledge of Aristotle's declaration that
plot is primarily more important than character; but they accomplished
their humble task as well as if they had been heartened by these
authorities. These ingenious and ingenuous pieces were none of them
contributions to English dramatic literature, and they are not enshrined
in its annals; but they were effective stage-plays, nevertheless, and
they had, therefore, an essential quality lacking in the closet-dramas
which Shelley and Byron were composing in those same years.