THE REVOLUTIONARY AND WAR DRAMA.
"List him discourse of War, and you shall hear
A fearful battle rendered you in music."
_Henry V._, Act i. Sc. 1.
The first of the purely Revolutionary plays presented in New York was,
probably, _Bunker Hill; or, the Death of General Warren_, and the work of
an Irishman, John D. Burke. It was played at the John Street Theatre in
1797; and it was followed the next year by William Dunlap's _Andre_, at
the Park. Mr. Brander Matthews, in his introduction to a reprint of
_Andre_, published by "The Dunlap Society," for private circulation among
its members, enumerates a number of plays written shortly after the
Revolution upon the subject of the capture and death of the British spy,
many of which, however, were never put upon the stage. Andre had been dead
less than twenty years when Dunlap's _Andre_ was first produced, in 1798,
and Arnold was still living; and, curiously enough, _The Glory of
Columbia_, also by Dunlap, in which Arnold and Andre both figured, was
played at the old South Street Theatre, Philadelphia, in 1807, with scenes
painted by Andre himself, who had superintended amateur theatricals at
that house, and had played upon that very stage.
After _Bunker Hill_ and _Andre_ came at different periods in New York _The
Battle of Lake Erie_; _The Battle of Eutaw Springs_; _A Tale of
Lexington_; _The Siege of Boston_; _The Siege of Yorktown_; _The
Seventy-Sixer_; _The Soldier of '76_; _Marion; or, The Hero of Lake
George_; _Washington at Valley Forge_; and many more of the same
stamp--all of which were popular enough during the first half-century of
our history, but during the last half they have entirely disappeared.
[Illustration: MAJOR ANDRE.--From a pen-and-ink sketch by himself.]
A play of Revolutionary times which deserves more than passing notice here
was _Love in '76_, by Oliver B. Bunce, produced at Laura Keene's Theatre
in New York in September, 1857; Miss Keene playing Rose Elsworth, the
heroine; Tom Johnstone Apollo Metcalf, a Yankee school-teacher--a part
that suited his eccentric comedy genius to perfection; and J. G. Burnett
Colonel Cleveland of the British Army, a wicked old soldier, in love with
Rose, and completely foiled by the other two in the last act. _Love in
'76_ was unique in its way, being the only "parlor play" of the
Revolution, the only play of that period which is entirely social in
its character; and a charming contrast it was to its blood-and-thunder
associates on that account--a pretty, healthy little story of woman's love
and woman's devotion in the times that tried men's hearts as well as
souls. It was not put upon the stage with the care it deserved, and was
too pure in tone to suit a public who craved burlesque and extravaganza.
It has not been played in some years. Mr. Bunce was the author of other
plays, notably the _Morning of Life_, written for the Denin Sisters, then
clever little girls, which they produced at the Chatham Theatre, New York,
in the summer of 1848. George Jordan and John Winans, the latter a very
popular low-comedian on the east side of the town, were in the cast. At
the same house, two years later, was played _Marco Bozzaris_, a melodrama
in blank verse, with very effective scenes and situations, written by Mr.
Bunce, and founded not on Halleck's poem, but on the story of Bozzaris as
related in the histories. James W. Wallack, Jr. (then known as "Young
Wallack"), was the hero; Susan Denin was his martyred son; John Gilbert
was the villain of the piece; and Mrs. Wallack the hero's wife. _Marco
Bozzaris_ was very popular, and was not withdrawn until the end of the
Bowery season.
But to return to the drama particularly devoted to war. _The Battle of
Tippecanoe_ related to the Indian wars, as _The Battle of New Orleans_ was
founded on the War of 1812, and _The Battle of Mexico_ on our Mexican
difficulties some years later. The contemporaneous literature of the stage
inspired by the War of the Rebellion was not extensive or worthy of
particular notice. It was confined generally to productions like _The
Federal Spy; or, Pauline of the Potomac_, at the New Bowery Theatre, New
York, and _The Union Prisoners; or, The Patriot's Daughter_, at Barnum's
Museum. During the struggle for national existence war on both sides of
the Potomac was too serious a business, and too near home, to attract
people to its mimic representations on the stage, and it was not until
_Held by the Enemy_ and _Shenandoah_ were produced, a quarter of a century
after the establishment of peace, that American play-goers began to find
any pleasure in theatrical representations of a subject which had
previously been so full of unpleasantness. These later war dramas,
however, are so much superior in plot, dialogue, and construction to any
of the plays founded upon our earlier wars, so far as these earlier plays
have come down to us, that they may encourage the optimist in theatrical
novelties to believe that there is some hope for the future of that branch
of dramatic literature at least.