Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: / Introduction and Bibliography

by Montrose Jonas Moses

INTRODUCTION

The present volume of "Representative Plays by American Dramatists" includes many hitherto unpublished manuscripts. These are for the first time made available in authoritative form to the student of the American theatre. The Editor has tried consistently to adhere to his original basis of selection: to offer only those texts not generally in circulation and not used elsewhere in other anthologies. Exactions of copyright have sometimes compelled him to depart from this rule. He has been somewhat embarrassed, editorially, by the ungenerous haste with which a few others have followed closely in his path, even to the point of reproducing plays which were known to be scheduled for this collection. For that reason there have been omitted Mr. William Gillette's "Secret Service," available to readers in so many forms, and Mr. Percy Mackaye's "The Scarecrow." No anthology of the present historical scope, however, can disregard George Henry Boker's "Francesca da Rimini" or Bronson Howard's "Shenandoah." In the instance of Mr. Langdon Mitchell's "The New York Idea," it is possible to supersede all previous issues of this refreshing comedy by offering a text which, as to stage directions, has been completely revised by the author. Mr. Mitchell wishes to have this regarded as the correct version, and has himself prepared the "copy" of same. Because of the easy accessibility of Dion Boucicault's "The Octoroon; or, Life in Louisiana," it was thought best to omit this Irish-American playwright, whose jovial prolixity enriched the American stage of the '60's and '70's. His "London Assurance" is included in the present Editor's collection of "Representative British Dramas: Victorian and Modern."

Of more historical significance than Joseph Jefferson's final version of "Rip Van Winkle," are the two texts upon which Boucicault and Jefferson based their play. It has been possible to offer the reader a comparative arrangement of the John Kerr and Charles Burke dramatizations.

In the choice of Steele Mackaye's "Paul Kauvar; or, Anarchy" a period is illustrated which might be described as transitional. Executors of the Augustin Daly estate are not ready to allow any of Daly's original plays or adaptations to be published. The consequence is "Paul Kauvar" must stand representative of the eighteen-eighty fervour of Lester Wallack, A.M. Palmer, and Daly, who were in the Mackaye tradition.

Oliver Bunce's "Love in '76" has been selected for the same reason that one might select Clyde Fitch's Revolutionary or Civil War pieces—because of its bloodless character; because it is one of the rare parlour comedies of the period.

Of the new pieces, Fitch's "The Moth and the Flame" has remained unpublished until now. It exemplifies many of his most sprightly observational qualities. "The Truth" and "The Girl with the Green Eyes" are more mature, but are no less Fitchean than this. Mr. David Belasco's "The Return of Peter Grimm" is as effective in the reading as it was on the stage under his triumphant management. Mr. Eugene Walter's "The Easiest Way," at the last moment, was released from publication in the Drama League Series of Plays; it still stands as America's most cruelly realistic treatment of certain city conditions. In the choice of Mr. Augustus Thomas's "In Mizzoura"—"The Witching Hour" having so often been used in dramatic collections—the Editor believes he has represented this playwright at a time when his dramas were most racy and native.

This third volume, therefore, brings examples of the present American stagecraft to date. Had his policy of selection not been exclusive, but rather inclusive of plays easily accessible to the student, the Editor might have reached out for Mr. George C. Hazelton's and Mr. Benrimo's "The Yellow Jacket," Mr. Charles Kenyon's "Kindling," and Mr. A.E. Thomas's "Her Husband's Wife." He might likewise have included William Vaughn Moody's "The Great Divide." These are all representative plays by American dramatists for some future anthologist, when present editions become rare.

But here are offered plays that will enrich the American dramatic library because of their rarity, and for that reason others have been excluded, which are easily procurable in print.

Through the courteous co-operation of Dr. Fred W. Atkinson, Professor Brander Matthews, officials of the New York Public Library, The Library Society of Philadelphia, Mr. Robert Gould Shaw, Custodian of the Dramatic Collection of Harvard College Library, and through the generous response of the owners of copyrights and manuscripts, the present volume is made possible. The Editor, through every phase of his work, has had the unswerving encouragement and assistance of his wife.

MONTROSE J. MOSES.

New Hartford, Conn.
August, 1920.