THE CAREER OF MARY ANN DUFF THE AMERICAN SIDDONS 1810 - 1839 Penny Maya Landau A Dissertation Submitted to^ the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 1979 Approved by Doctoral Committee: y ■ iif'W'bG Ad visor S/hool oP/SpeechM Communication Graduate college Kepresentative BOWLING GREEN U11ÏV. LIBRARY It © 1979 Penny Maya Landau All Rights Reserved il ABSTRACT Mary Ann Duff, an early nineteenth century American actress, was born in London in 1794, and came to the United States in 1810 with her husband, actor John R. Duff. They performed with various acting companies in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. After several years as a secondary actress, Mrs. Duff began to develop her talents, emerging as the more popular of the two, which earned her the title, the "American Siddons." Her career continued until 1839, when she retired to New Orleans, converted to Methodism, and eventually died in New York in 1857. Mrs. Duff performed with several great actors of the time, including Edmund Kean, Edwin Forrest and Junius Brutus Booth, all of whom praised her talents as a great tragic actress. Although Mrs. Duff was highly regarded by her peers and her audiences, she has been overlooked in the chronicle of American Theatre History. The major objective of the study was to explore and prepare a chronicle of the acting career of Mrs. Duff, through an investigation of her life, focusing on the aspects of her professional career, from her debut as Juliet in Boston in 1810 to her final performances in New Orleans in 1839. During her twenty-nine year career, Mrs. Duff played over two hundred characters, and was one of the earliest examples of the actresses of the Classic school. She possessed the ability to move her audiences to tears with her portrayals, creating believable and sympathetic characters, thus establishing herself as an outstanding and highly respected actress. Ill The study contends Mrs. Duff's neglect in the chronology of history is due, not to a lack of talent, but to her judgmental errors in the area of management, failure to make necessary social contacts that would have furthered her career, her establishment as a star on stages other than in New York, her early retirement, and the fact that she left no memoirs of her life or career. IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There have been several people who have been instrumental in the creation of this study. I would like to express my thanks to those who have been of assistance to me: to Dr. Norman Myers for his advice and counseling; to Dr. Briant H. Lee for his editorial assistance; to Dr. Lois A. Cheney for her constant support and encouragement; to Dr. Ramona Cormier for her guidance and moral support; to Dr. Allen S. White for making this a reality; to Carol Lashuay for easing my mind; and to Paula Geyser who was always there. Penny Maya Landau Portsmouth, New Hampshire 1979 V TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ................................ 1 The Early Years 1794-1810 5 CHAPTER II THE CAREER YEARS ............................ 12 1810-1817.................. 12 1818-1831.............. 19 1831-1839 51 CHAPTER III THE POST CAREER YEARS...................... 73 1839-1857 73 CHAPTER IV THE ACTING STYLE OF MARYA NN DUFF.......... 86 Roles Portrayed........................... 86 Seven Determining Factors ................. 103 CHAPTER V SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ...................... 134 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................ 144 APPENDIX I CHRONOLOGY OF MRS. DUFF’S CAREER........... 152 APPENDIX II SHAKESPEAREAN ROLES PORTRAYED ............. 155 APPENDIX III NON-SHAKESPEAREAN ROLES PORTRAYED .......... 156 APPENDIX IV COURT TRANSCRIPT, Notices of Mrs. Duff . 162 APPENDIX V LETTERS OF JOSEPH NORTON IRELAND, Notices of Mrs. Duff........ ....................... 170 vi ILLUSTRATIONS Page John Duff as Hamlet.......................................... 7 Mary Ann Duff as Mary in Superstition....................... 31 John Duff as Marmion............................. .......... 41 Playbill of Jane Shore, Walnut Street Theatre ........ ... 52 Mrs. Duff in later life...................................... 78 Mrs. Duff and J.W. Wallack in a scene from Adelgitha . 121 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Mary Ann Duff performed with the noted actor Edmund Kean in Boston in 1821, playing Ophelia to his Hamlet, Cordelia to his Lear and Hermione to his Orestes. So great was her success, that Kean de­ clared she was "superior to any actress on the British stage.Mrs. 2 Duff, reputed to be "one of the greatest tragic actresses of her time," was hailed as the "American Siddons" for it was said that, upon viewing her performance in the title role of Jane Shore, the audience "could al- 3 most imagine Mrs. Siddons" standing before them. In later years, George C. D. Odell, in his Annals of the New York Stage, was to refer to Mrs. 4 Duff as "...one of the shining lights of our theatrical history." Mary Ann Duff was born in London in 1794, and came to the United States in 1810 with her husband, actor John R. Duff. They both performed with various acting companies in Boston, Philadelphia and New York, with Mrs. Duff eventually becoming the more popular of the two. She performed not only with Kean, but also with the elder Booth, Thomas Abthorpe Cooper and Edwin Forrest, all of whom praised her talents as a great tragic actress. Although Mrs. Duff was a nineteenth century American actress who was highly regarded by her peers and her audiences, she has been generally overlooked in the chronicle of American theatre history. The major objective of this study, therefore, is to specifically explore and pre­ pare a chronicle of the acting career of Mary Ann Duff, through an investigation of her personal and professional life. The study will 1 2 focus on the professional aspects of Mrs. Duff’s life, from her debut as Juliet in Boston in 1810 to her final performances in New Orleans in 1839, the last recorded dates of her formal career. The reason for selecting the career of Mrs. Duff as the subject of the study is the apparent stature of the woman as an actress. She was respected by her peers and was in demand as a performer with the greats of the time, but her place in the history of the American theatre has not been established. Little has been written about the career of Mary Ann Duff, and, with the exception of an article by Garff Wilson in the March 1955 issue of Educational Theatre Journal, no previous scholarly work has been produced on this "undisputed queen of the American stage.Only one work, Mrs. Duff by Joseph Norton Ireland, published in 1882 as part of the "American Actor Series," gives an overview of her life and her career.Ireland also prepared a manuscript entitled Notices of Mrs. Duff, which contains background information on Mrs. Duff and other information heretofore unpublished.? Ireland secured his information from various news sources and a series of personal interviews, but neither of his works is annotated, and their reliability rests solely on the reputation of their author, a noted writer whose other books g include Records of the New York Stage 1750-1860, and a biography of 9 actor Thomas Abthorpe Cooper. This particular study reviews the career of Mrs. Duff, examining the events of her career as well as her most important and successful roles. The remainder of Chapter I pertains to Mrs. Duff’s early years, her performances in Dublin and her voyage to the United States with her 3 husband, John R. Duff. Chapter II, "The Career Years," focuses on Mrs. Duff’s professional life, and is divided into three sections: 1810 to 1817, from her arrival in America and her humble theatrical beginnings to the time when her career took a sudden turn upward, surpassing that of her husband 1818 to 1831, from the period when Mrs. Duff was the main support of her family and became known as the "American Siddons," until the time of John Duff's death in April of 1831; and 1831 to 1839, from Mrs. Duff's return to the stage following her husband's death until the time of her retirement in New Orleans. Each section includes a discussion of both audience and peer reaction to her performances, criticism of her acting and any changes that occurred in her acting style or ability. Chapter III covers the post-career years of 1840 to 1857, including Mrs. Duff's retirement in New Orleans, her subsequent conversion to Methodism, her final years in obscurity and the unusual circumstances surrounding her death in 1857. In Chapter IV, divided into two sections, Mrs. Duff's specific characterizations are discussed. Her roles of greater and lesser importance are explored, as well as the criticism that each received. The second section of this chapter focuses on the "Seven Determinants of Style" as discussed by Garff Wilson in A History of American Acting. The seven factors that Wilson lists as determinants of style (the actor's physical endowments, spiritual and mental abilities, manners and customs of the period, aesthetics of the period, the force of training and ex­ perience, the repertory of the period and the playhouses and settings of the period) are investigated and related to the specific factors per­ 4 taining to Mrs. Duff as a representative of the classic school of . 10 actors. Included in the appendices are a brief chronology of Mrs. Duff’s life, listings of Mrs. Duff’s Shakespearean and non-Shakespearean roles copies of a section from Ireland’s Notices of Mrs. Duff pertaining to a court case involving Mr. and Mrs. Duff and a New York theatre manager. Also included is previously unpublished correspondence between Joseph Ireland and family and friends of Mary Ann Duff.