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ED 236 723 CS 504 421 AUTHOR Jiji, Vera M., Ed. TITLE A Sourcebook of InterdisciplinaryMaterials in American : J. K. Paulding, "TheLion of the West." Showcasing American Drama. INSTITUTION City Univ. of New York, Brooklyn, N.Y.Brooklyn Coll. SPONS AGENCY National Endowment for the Humanities(NFAH), Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 83 NOTE 28p.; Produced by the Program for Cultureat : Multimedia Studies in American Drama,Humanities Institute, Brooklyn College. Print is smalland may not reproduce well. Cover title: AHandbook of Source Materials on The Lion of the West by J. K. Paulding. AVAILABLE FROMMultimedia Studies in American Drama, Brooklyn College, Bedford Ave. and Ave. H,Brooklyn, NY 11210 ($2.00). PUB TYPE Guides Non-Classroom Use (055) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS American Studies; *Drama; HigherEducation; Integrated Activities; InterdisciplinaryApproach; *Literary History; *Literature Appreciation;Research Skills; *Resource Materials; SecondaryEducation; *United States History; *United StatesLiterature IDENTIFIERS *Lion of the West (Drama); Paulding (JamesK) ABSTRACT Prepared as part of a project aimed atredressing the neglect of American drama in college andsecondary school programs in drama, American literature, and Americanstudies, this booklet provides primary and secondary sourcematerials to assist teachers and students in the study of James K.Paulding's nineteenth century , "The Lion of the West." Thefirst part of the booklet contains (1) a discussion of the Yankeetheatre, plays written around a character embodyinguniquely American characteristics andfeaturing specialist American ;(2) a review of the genesis of the play; (3) its production history;(4) plot summaries of its various versions; (5) its early reviews;(6) biographies of actors appearing in various productions; and (7) adiscussion of acting in period plays. The second part of the bookletdeals with the real people depicted in the play, specifically DavyCrockett and Mrs. Frances Trollope. In addition, this sectiondiscusses the place of the play in American literary history and offersquestions to promote class discussion. (FL)

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TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

Vera Jiji, Editor

Produced by the Program for Culture atPlay: Multimedia Studies in American Drama Humanities Institute, Brooklyn College,Brooklyn, N.Y. 11210 2 "That time will assuredly come when that samefreedom of thought and action which has givensuch a spur to our genius in other respects will achievesimilar wonders in will be literature. It is then that our early specimins sought after with avidity, and that those wholed the way in the rugged discouraging path willbe honoured as we begin to honour the adventurous spiritswho first sought, explored, and cleared this western wilderness." James K. Paulding

A SOURCEBOOK OF INTERDISCIPLINARYMATERIALS IN AMERICAN DRAMA:

J.K. Paulding, The Lion of the West

Edited by Vera M. Jiji. Page

INTRODUCTION: To the Reader 2.

PART THE PLAY THEN AND NOW: THEATRICAL CONSIDERATIONS 2. A: Yankee by Marilyn Miller 4. B: Dramatic Form 6. C: Production History 7., D: Plot Summaries: First and Second Versions 8. E: Early Reviews: 1831 & 1833 10. F: The Players: Hackett, Wheatley & Gibbs 11. G: Acting in Period Plays by Glenn Loney 13. H: in Nineteenth Century America 14. I: Acting Out a Scene

PART II: THE REAL PEOPLE DEPICTED INTHE PLAY: American Life in Another Time. Primary & Secondary ResourceMaterials 15. A: , the Man by FlorencePolatnick 18. B: J.K. Paulding, "The American People" Identity 18. C: The Lion of the West: A Text for National by Gerald E. Warshaver D: Daniel J. Boorstin, "Heroes or Clowns? ComicSupermen from a Subliterature" 21. Domestic Manners of 21. E: Frances Trollope, Selections from the Americana 23. F: Questions for students 24., G: Notes and references inside cover H: Contributors, Credits & glossary

Copyright, © 1983 This sourcebook is made possible by a grantfrom the National Endowment for the Humanities. PART I: THE PLAY THEN & NOW:THEATRICAL CONSIDERATIONS

INTRODUCTION: To the Reader Like any art form, the drama reflects, dissects, and frequently affects theculture of which it is a part. This is as true of the plays performed. in nineteenth centuryAmerica as in this century.However, while many people tliday knew of Death of a Salesman, or can recall the desperate, haunted heroineof A Streetcar Named Desire, or morerecently, the two roommate's in The Odd Couple,they would be hard pressed to name a nativeAmerican play of the nineteenth century,miuch less amajor ..1:1".1-1111-44111"all, character in it. Yet such plays not only existed, they flourished. The purpose of CULTURE Al' PLAY: MULTIMEDIA STUDIES IN AMERICAN .17/a /r// f DRAMA is.to showcase neglected dramasfrom the //;Atelor ./C// ye, American past so that you may pludythem for /ore!) . it what,'Lliey aro: revelations in some ways of eternal Wuman qualities, yes, butprimarily of- Scene from The Contrast (1787) Americans as they saw themselves at a particular historical moment, andinterpreted their actions both to themselves andto. others. The play that has been chosenhere is The YANKEE THEATRE Lion of the West. Written in 1831 by J. R. Paulding, a brother-in-law of thenovelist Marilyn Miller Washington Irving, it is a typicallyAmerican completed his play The lord who attempts When Royall Tyler comedy about a bogus English Contrast in 1787,little did he know that he to marry a young Americanheiress for her money. character--Yankee Jonathan-7 cousin, was introducing a Luckily, the young woman's country who, in his variousincarnations, would Colonel Nimrod Wildfire (the lionof the title), dominate American theatre for muchof the next rescues her from thefortune hunter's clutches. Jonathan's entrance also made But while this main plot isdeveloping, the century. he became the the play centers another kind of history in that real interest and substance of first in an uninterrupted lineof folkloric on the sub-plot: the Colonel's New York characters--among them, backwoodsmanNimrod encounter with Mrs. Wollope, anEnglish woman Fink, city-Irish self-appointed task is to Wildfire, riverboatman Mike of refinement, whose Bunyan-- colonies and to firefighter Mcse, and lumberman Paul transport "culture" to the who appeared on the Americanstage. And not rugged frontiersmen like theColonel. because he seemed this play, this only was he the'first, but To aid your study of to summarize the Americancharacter'to Ameri- sourcebook has been assembled. In it you will became, until the materials as pictures cans themselves', he find such primary source twentieth century, the mostimportant of these of some of the actors whoperformed in early The numerous plays West, stage Yankee stage presences. productions of The'Lion of the written around the character ofYankee Jonathan designs of the period, actualreviews of per- actors con- contemporary performed by specialist American formances here and in England, stitute what theatre historians nowcall Yankee descriptions of the acting stylesof the his char- bits, too), and theatre.1 Moreover the evolution of principals (with biographical of his ascendency star had to say acter throughout the period what the playwright and the discloses much about the shiftingvalues, about their vehicle. preoccupations, and self-appraisalsof Ameri- In addition, since TheLion of the West prominent cans. -parodies two real-and historically. The significance of YankeeJonathan does the Englishwoman, Mrs. Frances For not only did he inspire people: celebrated book about not end here. Trollope, author of a American playwrights, heradically altered the American characterbased on her travels in American and English frontiersman, Davy the relationship between this country, and the actors; before him, -theonly actors who counted Crockett, parts of herDomestic Manners of the English; after him, with 'some of his on the American stage were Americans are excerpted along comedy, dominated . (contained in the American actors, at least in autographical statements their own . How these cnanges were article about him) contains some accomplished makes a fascinating story. But This sourcebook also Initially, he secondary resource materialconcerning various first, who was Yankee Jonathan? Don't try to read it appeared as a young boy or manfrom the country, aspects of the play. speaking in a New from beginning to end. Each article is self- wearing rustic dress, and play from a different England dialect. This early Jonathan dis- contained, and treats the earthy sense of humor, angle, so browse throughit, getting a sense played independence, an Reflecting the masked a cunning of the various approaches. and a simplicity of manner that interdisciplinary-- intelligence. Although in later versions, he editor's bias, these are and have historical, biographical,cultural, literary, might grow old, be a sharp dealer Remember that we want tohelp different occupaticns (storekeeper,peddlar, and theatrical. Even characteristics he you see the playin its complexity. etc.), he would retain the be more specialized, received at birth. though your course work may of written by New we hope you willenjoy this holistic study After The Contrast two plays Englanders are important intracing the develop- The Lion of the West,* David Humphreys' The i'ztrojNction, 00 wo77 ,73 a77 ment of Yankee theatre: *Pepa ;:ac: we tton t;:ia Yankee -in England (c. 1815)and Samuel Nlig,7d nrti,qc:7 t;:ic CONPCt? ...- YANKEE THEATRE he was later called, YankeeHill. The differ- ence between Hackett andHill reveals where /bodworth's'The Forest Rose (1825). The contri- Alt along Hackett in what Yankee theatre was going. aution of The Yankee in England lies not had been interested in rooting outthe American Happens onstage but in.Humphreys' notes onthe character, partly in order to assertartistic real life Yankee and nis seven-pageglossary of England. These were and intellectual independence from Yankee terms appended to the text. His approach, based on Mathes, hadbeen some- Yankee authors as a to be used by subsequent what satiric. In contrast, Lill presented a reference in constructing their ownplays. In portrait of the in The warm, gentle, sentimental contrast, the play itself is the thing Yankee. Also, as a New Englander himself Forest Rose; its plot becomes themodel for all character on The Forest Rose (Hackett was not), Hill based his the Yankee plays that follow. personal affinity and close observation;thus is notable, too, for its production marksthe just coming Yankee he represented a style of acting first time an American appears as a . into vogue on bothsides of the Atlantic, which, in a fully developed play. modelled on everyday life, had as itsbasis a Meanwhile, a year earlier in London, the new naturalism. famous English comedian Charles Mathewspresented During the peak of his career, between a one-man satirical show, ATrip to America, 1832-1848, Hill played only the Yankee. At the based on his experiences as a travellingactor. forty Yankee series of end of this time he had brought Essentially, A Trip to America was a pieces to the stage,'made prominent theart of character sketches of native American types, one Yankee storytelling, and won prestigein England "real of whom was Jonathan W. Doubikin, a for the American actor. By 1848, however, Yankee," whom Mathews defined as "what you may Throughout American is Hill's star had begun to decline. call an American and of course'an the 1840's, Danforth Marble's westernYankee what you must call a Yankee." Approximately gradually took over the rheatergoer'simagina- five months late, Mathews presented moreof his time in play tion. impressions of American life, this In the twenty Yankee characters hecreated, form. Whereas his earlier sketches had poked"-- this his broad, simply stated comic figure is a good-natured fun at American foibles, clever, sometimes sly, practical joker. And second piece, Jonathan in America, was more when Marble broUght his creation to England, sharply critical, so much so thatAmericans were broader acting their the critics there applauded his outraged by Lt, and Mathews, responding to style, also seeing in his open freshness,the consternation, never played in it again. What char- rugged individualism of the West. had so outraged the Americans was a Yankee Like Hill, Marble died a relatively young acter who, in addition to being anuncouth brag- and man. His place was taken by the next big star gart, lacked wit, honesty, or manners, of Yankee theatre, Joshua Silsbee(1813-1855), moreover, acted cruelly toNegroes.. who held center stage during the 1850's. 'In his two portrayals ofAmericans (and as the brilliant Silsbee's success mirrors the decline of such the Yankee character), Mathews, a Unlike his predecessors, development Yankee character. mime, led to the next stage in the he neither added any new Yankee character nor of the Yankee character, for oneAmerican, at And in That any play to the existing repetoire. least, was following what-he didclosely. his portrayal of the Yankee, he seems tohave man was the actor JamesHackett (1800-1871). Be- preeminent broadened, without any deepening, Marblers tween 1826 and1836 Hackett became the already wide interpretation. With Silsbee, interpreter of the Yankee. Almost single-handed- the most the Yankee grows even larger than life and more ly, he established this character as unctuous. Perhaps there was really nothing significant American type on the stage. In dies, the most American more to be added, for when he doing so, he made it possible for vital period of Yankee theatre also departsthe actors to assume-roles on the stagesin their stage. . own. country. (Previously, English actors had Ten years earlier an event had occurred monopolized the American theatre.) By searching In 1845 Anna his new char- which foreshadowed its demise. for new talent to,write plays for Cora Mowatt had written, Fashion, orLife in acter or by writing them himselfHackett also In the period New York. Without dialect or Yankeeisms, Mrs. in effect founded Yankee theatre. Mowatt had caricatured the city, but herhero, between 1827 and 1832, he introducedeight new straight- Yankee the farmer Alan Trueman, is simple and pieces, five of them featuring the forward, and unlike other Yankee characters,he including The Lion of the West. In Hackett's wit, bargains comes from a higher level of countrylife. hands, the character shows native Fashion signaled that there would be a new skillfully; tells exaggeratedstories, and dis- Hackett had large comedy, reflecting and appealing to the new regards vested authority. middle-class audience in the cities. Through- ambitions; what he was after wasnothing less character, to reveal out the fifties and the sixties,this audience than to define the American would increase, and the middle-class comedyit the fabric of his own society. American The'times were auspicious for such an applauded would chart the direction of theatre during the next two decades. attempt. A new theatre -going audience,composed cities, was listen- In various guises, however, theYankee of industrial workers in the character remained on stage - as Gumption Cute ing; in addition, because of westernexpansion, Scudder ih and since actors in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Salem new theatres had sprung up, The Octoroon (1857) and Solon Shinglein The were needed to performin then, American actors Split Moreover, certain People's Lawyer (popular in the 1860's). finally had a chance. into the low comic peddler as JoeFletcher in newspapers like The New YorkMirror and its encouraged the James A. Herne's Margaret Fleming(1891) and editor, General Morris, actively the higher stalwart Uncle Nat Berryin his Shore establishment of an independent American Acres (1892), the Yankee charactersurvived into theatre. the twentieth century. We leave it to our Having made this breakthrough, Hackett readers to determine whether that peculiar com- moved on to dialect comedy. One reason for his "innocent" begun bination of shrewd "common" sense and stepping aside was that another actor had rambunctiousness has yet disappeared from the to compete for the Yankeerole; the young .actor's name was George Hill (1809-1849) or, as American scene. DRAAlATIC FORM and [Jury Lane theatres. These theatrc:; held 3013 and 3611 patrons respectively in the The Gt:nesis of the Play: eighteenth century.: Nineteenth Century Theare: In 1830 the actor-manager James Hackett ildvertised his first Prize Play Contest. Thus appealcd'to a middle-class Hackett, one of the actor-managers who morality. "Ridicule," cautioned the English dominated the American stage in the early critic Richard Steele, "should he good natured, nineteenth century, offered $250 for a three directed at the singularities of essentially act comedy in which a major character was to lovable people." The most popular dramatic . be a native American. Two plays were submitted, form during the eighteenth century was and Hackett chcse The Lion of the West asthe sentimer.tal comedy. Gradudlly, as the century winner. wore on the plots became mere vehicles, and Both playwright and sponsor proved lucky, audience interest lay in the star performers' for the result of their combined effort was a repertoire and stage presence. As a ',result, play that happily wedded the spirit of the age, stereotype characters became more prevalent the :,6a1s and temperament of the playwright, and, by the nineteenth century, the most and the theatrical needs of the star toproduce successful comedy was Colman the Younger's an indigenous, idiosyncratic, andcongenial John Bull; or An Englishman's Fire-side (1803), comedy-farce. which became standard repertory fare. In The spirit.of the age was youthfully this popular play, "Colman contrasts a pre- optimistic. Self- confident and seeking to occupation with'status and wealth on the part establish their intellectual independence from of pseudo-fashionable London with the the mother country, Americans were in agenerally perenially sound values of the English self-aggrandizing mood. The country's country hearth and home, throwing in. for good territorial expansionism found a counterpart measure the charm and whimisical generosity of in the boasts of Nimrod Wildfire; its naive the Irish."2 The parallels to Paulding's play assumptions that the land would yield unlimited are self-evident. largesse had an echo in Nimrod's generosity These traits were presented The Script: positively, and the effect was that the patriotic Kentucy Colonel, conqueror of the Luckily for this project, the English stage Indians and the wilderness, represented America differed significantly fiom the American in at to itself as it wished to be seen. (Since the least one respect: in England, due to censor- play did not do as well on tour inthe western ship, all plays had to be submitted to the Lord states as elsewhere, it would seemthat Nimrod Chamberlain's office. Thus when Hacicett took was too broad a caricature forwesterners to his American hit to London in 1833, he filed a copy as required, and this version is the one accept.) For the English, however, and even some of the eastern theatre-gOingpublic, Nimrod recovered by James Tidwell (see his was a "foreign" exotic, yet withhis good- introduction to the play text). American natured, spontaneous liveliness andexpansive- plays were not subject to such scrutiny. ness, he was a folk hero who cameto be seen Therefore, no script of an American play of as quintessentially American. this period is likely to be accurate or complete, Why? Because the actor treated his anecdotes The Dramatic Past: in commedia dell' arte fashion--improvising, extending lines, speeches, and bits which made When The Lion of the West was written, a hit with the audience, and also substituting American playwrights were still imitating local references; in short, he reworked his English models. At the time, English comedy material much as a modern stand-up comic might This was infused with the democraticspirit. do. However, the basic character remained the was in contrast to the previous genre,the same, no matter how the actor managed the lines, brilliantly sardonic Restoration comedy,which, or even how the playwright changed the script. because it catered to a small, a-2tocratic Having summaries* of the plots of the audience, assumed that large fo tunes,titles, first two versions of The Lion of the West great wit, and style were essen ial tolife. enables us to observe the cnanginq dramatic In contrast, the basically demo raticGeorgian fashions.. The plots, characters, and even comedy was written to appeal to the huge moods of the various versions differ audiences needed to fill the new ConventGarden significantly, although the hero retains his personality and style. The First Version: Relying on the ultimate capitulation of the heroine to a code of submission to parental authority, the first version is the most sentimental. From its plot summary, it appears to be closer to the third than to..the second version. Cecilia Bramble is comparable to Caroline Freeman; both are marring able heir- esses courted by several men, one of whom is a fake nobleman only after money. (That in the first version he is French rather than English seems a minor point.) Also, in both versions Wildfire is the ingenuWs visiting cousin. And in each version he 41:41*14: challenges the villain to a duel with rifles, Two theatres of the time: compare this:hugo exposing the so-called count's cowardice. Covent Alrden theatre to the American one, p.f Runaway horses, a fancy ball, the planned ...DRAMATIC FORM elopement (almost an abduction, sincethe Count The Third Version: is a swindler), the cries of "murder!fire!" the play is foil to Count de In its third version, )y the comic Mr. Higgins, a technically a farce; that is,it depends for rillon (an ancestor of Mrs. WollOpe,it would action and stock Francis Hodge effect more upon the physical seem), add to the similarities. comic situations which occurfrom the encounters speculated before Tidwell's discoverythat of the stereotypical charactersthan from the Bernard's,version was closer to "an earlier the which was development of the play's action or Hackett piece done in December, 1829, complexity of individualizedcharacter. What called The Times, or, Life in NewYork."' The is the new type contention, is stil,1 emphasized, however, cast list of that play supports this of character which Pauldinghad created. including as it'does: Industrious Doolittle; a Scheming Yankee Plot Interest: York Merchant Mr. Traffic, a Wealthy New Among, the by now familiarcomic devices Percival, an English Merchant (Freeman and Wollope) to Traveller are the tag names Sir Croesus Mushroom, an English indicate the characters' significance ornature, Mr. Pompey, a Dandy Negro Waiter the ridicule of pseudonobleforeigners, the Caroline, a Rich Heiress false identity, the comic dueland'the party Mrs. Traffic, the Merchant's Wife dance scene. Apparently ne 's:is the misunder- Mons. Ragout, Valet de Chambre stood letter and the deliberate useof stock Charles Barton v7lainy and melodrama for humor(as in "Then, Sly Hazard my dear brother, shoothim instantly," and Amelia, Traffic's Daughter "'Who's that coming up thestairs?"). Mrs. Jenkins Most notable in Bernard'srevision, however, is the way in which themain plot and It is a happy coincidencethat Mrs. Wollope'.7, subplot comment indirectly on eachother. Thus first name should be "Amelia,"since she is which ends in the that Mrs. the conventional comic plot, always talking of "amelioration," marriage plans of-the young couple,is Trollope should have reliedheavily on this word Mrs. in this respect, contrasted with Minrod's proposal to and thus be correctly parodied Wollope. Similarly, the play's theme, which and that the name should havebeen used already pretended Such are the has involved the unmasking of a by Hackett in the 1829 play. nobleman in'each of the threeversions, now mysteries of artistic creation. uses MeS. Wollope's pet''project," "the refinement of American manners," toraise the The Second Version: fundamental question of whatconstitutes "true" while the play refinement or nobility. Surely Nimrod' As Wildfire was a success, good humor itself was not, Hackettapproached John generosity, warmth, and_spontaneous Augustus Stone to supply a"plot less simply constitute the nobility ofnature's gentleman, -Bee it.' constructed." as Americans wished to Again we have a marriageableheiress, a But the characterization ofNimrod and fortune-hunting "Lord," a comicEnglishwoman, a Mrs. Wollope is moreinteresting than this dancing scene abstract opposition suggests,and much of the duel, an attempted abduction, a of cultures, for Nimrod, and a happyending. But the tone humor comes from the deep clash ' superficial matter of of the piece is markedlychanged in its second not merely from the incarnation; it has become amelodrama. manners or linguisticstyles. Moreover, is it possible that,just as Nimrod admires Mrs. Wollope and seemsready to fascinated by him than had become marry her, she is more Form; Perhaps because melodrama admit? For example, of the early nineteenth she might be willing to the favored genre second she swallows all his tall tales (echoing century, it wasdecided that in its who prints wild should return as the unfortunate Mrs. Tropope version, the Lion of the West stories in Domestic Manners asif they were Originally referring to the useof And she seems one 'also. to enhance her own eyewitness accounts). music throughout the production ready_to stay_in. this_luncivilized"country emotional effect, the term cameto mean the will not events take a striking until told that the Americans species of drama in which subscribe to her Academy. Most telling is her or spectacular turn,with the outcome uncertain. Wildfire) as I please." ultimate resolution is plan to "lead him [i.e., Yet in melodrama the Surely the mutual attractionof the lady of always in favor of thevirtuous, who also undergo no character development,since the good and the evil, characters areclearly opposed from the beginning. By definition, themelodramatic form is ethical, but itsappeal lies in presentation of moments of highemotion, combined with the expectationof a happy ending. As such, it is just thesort of drama which a lower class audience findssatisfying.' Stone's revision creates amelodrama by playing with such staples ofthe genre as a wounded soldier, a motherlessbabe, an honest deprived of his chance inlife but poor young man in the by a villain, etc. Nimrod's presence play seems almostincidentalthere is so much else going on. In contrast, WilliamBayle Bernard's revision is constructed withadmirable economy Eallsoicsou uses the stock comic and, in addition skillfully Theatre to the Englishonc, p.4. elements. Compare thia American

ty . .DRANIATIC FORM

A:;! sAlure As !lodge also discusses the English reception perennial a 1:; the unmasking ofthe fthe play, noting that "laar the first time eillain's true identity. an American actor hail been received without Perhap.; it was bec:use Paulding, Hackett, snobbishness and, a coldly criticarcomparison And erhard _'rockett and Mrs. Troll,Spe with British stage luminaries. ,This was a x...1:1A1,1e as models that Wildfire and Mrs. significant victory not only for Hackett but Wollope :IprIng to life, but they seem far sore for The Kentuckian as well."- . . "Colonel

. won many valuable friends than stock creations. I would have to agree Nimrod Wildfire that the characters other than these twolack for America. Hackett, the American comedian any personality, but the reprintedTimes extraordinary, was our first theatrical . review of April13, 1833, seems too harsh in ambassador of good will." its' judgment that Mrs. Wollope iS "very feebly Citing the enthusiasm for the play'over managed." its long stage life, Hodge concludes that As for :;imrod, he refuses to fit any "The wild independence of this homebred stereotypes we might have associated with' his Westerner was in the air, for he was an plot situation. It would have been hardly expression of Jacksonian democracy. liewas surprising to find in him something of a America . . and in him the new raw-boned, brai:gart soldier, like the Falstaff for which hard-working men of the lower classes, who Hackett was best known, but Nimrod doesn't'fit were beginning to come to the theatre, saw the mold; he's not a coward. Nor is he a something of themselves, and they stayed to trickster who gets what he wants by.dishonesty laugh and admire."' And slyness. Itis tempting to see him as an Not everyone admired Nimrod Wildfire, id figure, as he is so full of spontaneousgood as a reading of the reviews from England spirits and energy, but his generosity to others reproduced here will show. It is most 'and willingness td accept his uncle's interesting in dealing kith almost any play to correction vade that classification. try to determine the w iter's attitude toward Father, we must conclude thatNimrod his or her characters znd material; since, Wildfire, like other stage Yankees,is an unlike the novelist, p aywrights cannot indigenous creation. That he has had number- ordinarily (there are xceptions) speak less imitators and can still set us to directly to the aud' nce to comment on their laughing is perhaps the best substantionof his characters. Thus, laywrights assume that the significance and that of this landmarkAmerican audience's atj.tCides toward the characters' Only in drama, as well. actions are Similar to their own. this way can they provide what.. T. S. Eliot 0.160111- called the "objective correlative," that is, the stage actions which will "justify" the PRODUCTION HISTORY OF THE audience reaction. LION OF 111E WEST The production history of this play has been carefully detailed in two scholarly articles: the first by Nelson F. Adkins called "James K. Paulding's The-Lion of the West," American Literature, III (November, 1931) ,24-9--.5.58,an1 tjie second by Francis Hodge called "Biography of a Lost Play," Theatre Annual, 14 (1954), 48-61. Since both articles were written before the recovery of the lost text, some space in each was devoted to explaining the play's importance,bewailing its loss, trying to reconstruct it from quotes and lire summaries available of the first two versions, and detailing Hackett's successwith it. A Few of Ellese-Tletails arc worthnoting. Adkins quotes Liberally from theoriginal reviews (samples of which are shownbelow). He discloses that Hackett received"an average [box-office take] exceeding nine hundred dollars[a night), a circumstance we believe unprecedented in the history of any comedy produced on our stage"' in November of1831. Adkins' admirably thorough research also revealed that the play "so incensed the 'half- horse, half-aligator (sic] boys,' the yellow flowers of the forest, as the [sic] call themselves, that they threatened 'to rowhim up Salt River,' if heventured ....sepet.4.tion of the objectionableperformante."; Hodge speculates on Hackett's rolein emphasiing Wildfire's resemblance to Crockett. Just as -in our own day, when anyfictionalized treatment of a famous politicalpersonality gains in popularity as people recognizeits resemblance to the "real life" source, sothe play gained from the "rumor," whichspread on "ABox at the 7'heatto, " I the road tour. "Had Hackett a hand in this?" . . r." asks Hodge, reporting that "Hackett was an opportunist-"' the same time complimenting him withdivers To give a minor example, whenNimrod handshake odd names. The Count affects not to understand greets Mrs. Wallope by a democractie him, but being hard pressed, at length make- instead of kissing her hand, we are mildly The Colonel is then When he fails to remove his hat inher a precipitate retreat. amused. satisfied he is "playing possum." presence, a modern audiencemight not even It is not until he puts There is another pretender to Cecilia, a notice the rudeness. Mr. Higgins, a candidate for a foreign his feet on wh'at should be her seat andsticks under her mission, who having publicly pronounced the the offending land offensive) hat Count to be an impostor, has excited his nose that we get the point. The 1831 audience would have seen his wrath in a high degree. Having ascertained that Higgins is as great a poltroon ashimself, behavior as far more boorish and, therefore their own he takes every opportunity to insult him, more amusing, or more offensive as treads on his toes at a fancy ball given by values dictated. ThusivEgward Thomas,Coke, an whispers in English traveler, objectifies his ownvalues one of the foreign ministers, and when he his ear, a threat to blow his brains out the and places them in Paulding's mind In consequence of this, reports that the play is intended to censure first opportunity. States Higgins places a pair of loaded pistols at his and correct- the rough manners of the bedside that night, which happens to be the west of the Alleghanymountains.7 The best way to judge the audience's night of the second elopement. is to read the When all is quiet, the Count appears response to the play, however, groping his way in the dark through the hall original reviews themselves. We have reprinted a generous sampling of these of the hotel where all the parties lodge, and following the plot summaries of the first seeing a light through the key-hole of Higgins' chamber, supposes it to be that of Cecilia two versions. finally But the importance of this playshould he accordingly taps at the door, and contemporary goes in. A moment after, the report of a neither be judged. on the basis of pistol is heard followed by a cry of murder! reviewers' reactions, nor from Hackett's fire!--and the appearance cf Higgins, who runs perspective, nor even entirely on its out repeating the cry of murder! fire! and aesthetic merit. Rather, it should be seen The Count innumerable plays, at length falls on the floor. as the forerunner of follows him hastily, stumbles over him and movies, and other memorabilia aboutthe American western folk hero; an imagethat this falls; the inmates of the hotel are alarmed, and rush forth in a great variety of , country has still not outgrown. among the rest Cecilia and Pullet,her 11111211111ZMIZMISIIIENSIIIIIIIIIMINEMS, maid, in their travelling dresses, for the elopment.--These excite the attention and PLOT SUMMARIES suspicions of Roebuck, th-e-cver-uQr.2_ and the Colonel. The latter, armed with a --ablible of Paulding's Lion: The Original Version rifles, proceeds to the chamber of the Count The Morning Courier and New York Enquirer, locks the door-wproffers him his choice of him a April 27, 1931. weapons and at length, forces from confession of his imposture, and carries him Cecilia Bramble, only/daughter of lady Governor Bramble, a senator, a young lady in triumph to confirm it before the young deeply smitten with admiration of distinguished and her father. This he does, and is dismissed foreigners, and ardently desirous of visiting with contempt by all parties. The Governor then expresses his regrets Paris. An Heiress [sic], the Count deCrilion, that time in hat his daughter should have thus rendered a noted swindler and imposter of world, or Washington, takes advantage of this foible, herself unworthy the respect of the Cecilia pays his addresses to her, andbeing contemp- the affections of a man of honor. tuously rejected by her father, at length displays a proper feeling on the occasion; inveigles her into an elopement, which is and Roebuck generously defends her, at the frustrated however by the accidental running same time renewing his addresses. Cecilia interference of declines them for the present,_and declares away of the horses, and the._ by Roebuck, an ardent and sincere admirer ofthe her intentions to do so, until she shall her future conduct, entitle herself to the young lady. The young gentleman brings her home in a swoon, and keeps her secret. confidence of her friends, and the affections Cecilia, after a severe struggle between of her lover. The piece concludes with an her duty to her father; her newlyawakened address of the Colonel to the pit. doubts of the Count, who had behaved inthe The piece is interspersed with occasional, most cowardly manner when her life was stories of the Colonel, characteristic of the endanged by the running away of the horses; dialect, manners, and peculiarities., real and her lurking preference of Roebuck, andher supposed, of the people of the newstatess --or vehement desire to visit Paris, is wrought rather, of brave, generous, "Old Kentucky." upon to consent to a secondelopement the Stone's Lion: The Second Version succeeding night. During the progress of these events, Colonel Nimrod Wildfire, acousin New-York Mirror, October 1, 1831, p. 102. apprised by Lexington, an officer in the British Army, of Cecilia arrives,land being Lundy's Governor Bramble of the addresses ofthe Count, is desperately wounded at the battle of who he believes to be an impostor, toCecilia, Lane, near the Falls of Niagara, and the lady's preference, following morning is found onthe field covered as well as the young Peter offers his services to detect and exposethe with blood, and apparently dying, by Mr. adventurer, if he be one, or establishhis , Bonnybrown, a plain warm-hearted New-England character, if he be not, by making himeither bachelor, at that time serving in the army of considers theUnited States. He removes the cloak from fight or run away, which the Colonel which, an infallible criterionof a gentlemen. the breast of the wounded officer, on Colonel unconscious of the surrounding horrors, a In pursuance of this plan, the Bonnybrown seeks the Count and proffers himbattle--at female infant is quietly reposing.

9 ...PLOT SUMMARIES conveys the mutant_ to a place of security, and to the family in due form. The encounter of during many years of commercial prosperity, Wildfire and Luminary terminates in a challenge rears and educates Fredonia as his own. She from the former, and the festivities of the is addressed by many suitors, the most night are interrupted by the arrival of conspicuous and pertinacidus of whom is a Luminary's female coadjutor, bearing the fortune hunter, known as Lord Luminary, who, forged testimonial. All are in consternation- - in conjunction with Satellite, another Casual, astonished and overpowered, hastens to adventurer, has been incessant in his endeavors discover his traducer, and to avenge his , to gain her affections and fortune. Fredonia wrongs. has nearly reached her eighteenth birth-day The events of the night, however, do not [sic], and departs from the seminary of which prevent Nimrod, who is "primed for anything, she has been a distinguished inmate, to visit from a possum hunt to a nigger funeral," from showing off the extraordinary ball-room her guardian, . . . At this period the play commences. Mr. accomplishments of a back woodsman, in a Bonnybrown, and a dignified relative, who, on manner that defies all gravity. all occasions, styles herself "Miss Albina In the last act, in a scene of uncommon , Towertop, late of Towertop Manor House, Hop power and interest, Bonnybrown informs Hill Park, Kent, England," receives a letter, Fredonia of the circumstances of her infant which announces the apeedy arrival of Mr. B.'s days, describes the terrific conflict of nephew, Nimrod Wildfire, from "Old Kentuck." Lundy's Lane, and laments the too probable The exploits of this humorous, unpolished, fate of her"father. generous son of the west, contribute largely A quarrel now takes place between to the general interest of the comedy, and his Coquinard and Groundling, his associate, this sayings and doings aid materially in the is broken in upon by Wildfire, who; in the development of the plot. Deacon Dogwood, an presence of all the family, compels him to the innkeeper, formerly an itinerant vendor of disclosure of the whole plot. Tidings are now yankee wares, has ejected from his house a gay, brought of Casual's sudden departure with arms, high-minded, and humorous young gentleman, and the parties hasten to prevent the expected Trueman Casual, who had recently experienced duel. It is too late--Lord Luminary and Casual sudden and total reverses of fortune. Defend- have met--the former has fled, the latter is ing himself against the sheriff's officers who slightly wounded. The report of fire-arms has pursue him, nearly overpowered, he isrelieved drawn to the scene an English traveller, whose by the opportune arrival of Nimrod Wildfire, coach was passing at the time. It is who, in the prosecutor, Dogwood, discovers an lieutenant, now Major Lexington, the father of old acquaintance and swindler in horse flesh. Fredonia, who has returned, after long foreign A promise of restitution on the one part, and service, in search of his child. A highly silence on the other, effects Casual's libera- wrought scene between Major Lexington and tion.from the clutches of Dogwood. Fredonia Casual, ends in the conviction, in the mind of now arrives at the landing-place at some the former, that Fredonia is his daughter--her distance from her guardian's country seat- arrival with the others confirms it--and , here she is met by Satellite, who, by the Fredonia is restored by Bonnybrown to that contrivance of Luminary, presents himself as breast, from which he had humanely taken her Bonnybrown's footman, and conducts her to a on the bloody field of Lundy's Lane. carriage in waiting, which has been procured The confession of Dogwood now solves the by Luminary for.the purpose of conveying mystery of Casual's birth,--my Lord Luminary Fredonia to a remote dwelling, with the hope and his associates.. are duly provided for and of extorting her consent to their immediate the group is made perfectly happy by the union. This scheme is frustrated by Casual, arrival of Nimrod Wildfire, Esq. and his who stumbles on the adventure, relieves the amiable (intended) lady "Miss Patty Snag of young lady from her perilous situation,and Salt Licks"-- and, to use the words of the bears' her triumphantly to her guardian's delighted Kentuckian, "there's no back out in residence, where he is welcomed by the family her breed, for she can lick her weight in wild as the preserver of their ward. Casual and cats, and she shot a bear at nine years old." Fredonia have before met in society, and, as Casual, Bonnybrown, Luminary, Satellite, in duty bound, now become deeply enamored. Scum, Dogwood, Miss-Towertop, and Fredonia, Bonnybrown, indignant at the villany of Lord are additions by Mr. Stone and theKentuckian Luminary, prompts Wildfire to redress remains as originally drawn by theauthor for Fredonia's wrong,:which office he undertakes Mr. Hackett. with ve'at alacrity, as "he hadn't found a fight for ten days, and he felt might wolfy about the head and shoulders." Luminary endeavors to ruin the reputation- EARLY REVIEWS: Reviews of First Version of Casual, and covertly dislodgehlit from the place he has gained in the affections of Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer. Fredonia, Miss Towertop, and Mr. Bonnybrown. April 27, 1831. He engages one Coquinard, a Canadianbarber- "Paulding's comedy--Lion of the West This production of our distinguished surgeon, to sustain the character of aFrench . . . nobleman, M. Le Comte Rousillon, who is to townsman was brought out of the Park Theatre present himself as the friend of Mr. B.'s before an extremely crowded house on Monday Havre correspondent, and to become the evening last. The city is at present full of professed admirer of Fredonia. Luminary now Western merchants, strangers from Kentucky, forges the certificate of theneighboring Tennessee, Ohio and the contingent states. magistrate, which sets forth that the bearer They crowded to the theatre on the night in (a creature hired for the purpose)is the question and received with great applause the victim of the arts of Casual, and concludes successful hits of the author and the actor. with cautioning the world against him, as a Curiosity was considerably excited and from nameless adventurer, and utterly worthless. all that we heard and saw, it was fully and The pretended Count Rousillon is introduced emphatically gratified. . . . 4.0 .EARLY REVIEWS

extended, not only to himself inthe persona- Colonel Wildfire . . . ]is] an extremely attempts of our blood, a perfect tion, but to the inexperienced racy representation of Western native dramatists in drawingcharacters indi- non-pareil, half steamboat, half alligatorand and concluded by [He] possesses many original traitswhich genous to this country," etc. assuring the audience, that"encouraged by never before have appeared on the stage . . . their kindness and liberal patronagehe The amusing extravagances and strange should continue his best endeavorsto deserve features of character which have grown up irt the western states are perhapsunique in the it." calMand world itself. . . . [Wildfire Reviews from England dignified as a hero which hefeels.himself dignity 'Morning Courier, April 13,1833. to be. It is the odd contrast between "Hackett--London Theatricals and calmness of demeanor, and thehigh flights satisfaction to learn Western It is a source of great of Western fancy that marks the by the recent arrival from-Liverpoolthat our original. countryman Hackett has beeneminently success- Of the play itself . . . we cannot speak Nimrod Wildfire." Possessing all of the ful in his character of Colo. too highly of it. The Times of ,the 11th, a paperwhich peculiar points, wit, sarcasm andbrilliancy always takes the lead intheatricals as.in of Paulding, it shows him in aquite pleasing language in of politics, holds the following light--that of a successful delineator relation to his debut. native manners and indigenous character. There are materials enough in thiswide COVENT GARDEN comedy It is difficult for us, onthis side country to construct a school of . . . peculiarly our own. Why not collect them? of what Colonel Wildfire calls"the big pond," Mr. Paulding has set an exampleworthy of to enter fully into the whimof-such a . being followed up." personage; but the oddity ofhis dialect and the effect of his stories areirresistible. (mots I k I Lickett as Nimrod 1Vadfire.:1 role nmdekd the character, however, . . , The actor and nn leruicIntava)mktitultlike Davy Crockett. um labour under great disadvantagesin_this_ farce, which is very clumsy andineffective. It would have been practicable,without any great effort of ingenuity, tohave made the Kentuckian sustain a part properlybelonging to the drama: but 'here the drama is evidently written only for the purpose of bringing him on the stage, and so badly written, that theactor has not the slightest support or relieffrom the other personages. The plot is the most meagre that can be imagined: the introduction of an English female tourist--a notionwhich might have been made the vehicle of much good- humoured satire--is very feebly managed, and the other characters have no charactersat all. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, and left as he was solely upon his ownresources; Mr. Hackett acquitted himself with greatcredit. appobation . . . He was received with general throughout; at the conclusion of thefarce there was some decided hissing, butit appeared . ." to be directed against the play. . The Morning Herald thus concludes a very favourable critique: "Mr. Hackett performs:his part to the very life. lie is a manly-looking fellow with a ruddy brown cheek and an eye of sparkling cheerfulness and spirit . . . He excited much-- laughter, and the curtain 'fell amonggeneral Reviews of Second Version: warm applause, which wascontinued until Mr. Hackett came forth to announce therepetition Morning.Courier, November 11,1831 of the Kentuckian!!" [Entire item as follows] "Tomorrow night Hackett will appearin Morning Courier, May 1, 1833. The Lion of the West," whenall the world will More English reviews . . . Hackett's be in attendance--Expectationis on tip-toe, The Athenian speaks of Mr. to see this Eighth wonderof the world." performance in these terms: "The principal character isColonel Nimrod Morning Courier, November 24,1831. Wildfire, a Kentuckian, and it isrepresented Tuesday, was\ by Mr. Hackett with a degree of easeand spirit "Mr. Hackett's Benefit on with such exceedingly well attended,notwithstanding the which rank him high as an actor, and roaring of the truth and force, that it cannotfail to be inclemency of the weather. The met with "Lion of the West" was echoed asusual by the greatly amusing to those who have ever in the interlude any of the originals fromwhom it is drawn; audience, and the imitations take it interrupted with constant anddeafening while those who have not, may safely The audience thunders of applause. upon trust as a genuineportrait. At the fall of thecurtlin there was one on Saturday tookpraiseworthy pains to under- kept up for Mr. stand the part, and as soon as theydid, they universal and continuous call Some Hackett, who promptly answeredit in propria relished it much and laughed heartily. Mr. Hackett returnedthanks for of the tough Kentuckian stories, astold by persona...... but "the indulgence the publichad uniformly Mr. Hackett, have appearedbefore ...EARLY REVIEWS they derive an additional flavour from the provide income to the lucky impersonator for a good-humoured, clier and characteristic way lifetime. Indeed, Hackett Hayed Nimrod to in which he delivers them. The farce has since enthusiastic audiences as late as 1862, been several times repeated with increased although by that time "most of !the play's! jokes had lost their pOint."" Perhaps success." Hackett kept the play unpublished to protect The National Standard as follows: -"COVENT GARDEN.-The Kentuckian, or a Visit to his monopoly. However, the casual treatment of New York, is merely a vehicle for the display American drama in this country certainly con- of the peculiarities of a genuine 'Kentuck' per- tributed to our almost total loss of this is a true landmark play.`' formed by Mr. Hack.7.tL..Mr. 'Hackett Hackett was considered the finest Falstaff actor; to a genuine spirit of comedy he adds of his time, touring England four times in the most perfect selfpossession; but the lie was a great excellence of his acting is in its seven years as the fat knight. theatrical scholar: his noteson Hamlet strength, and, if we may use the term, its . healthiness; there is nothing financial [sic! testify to his careful study, and FC--17Fitiated in his humOr; he does not shrug, and edge, the construction of the Shakespeare monument and grimace himself into applause --but all is in New York's Central Park. fair and alive-board; he has attained the last A vivid description of his acting was given in his obituary in the New York Tribune triumph of art--he hides it Mrs. of December 29,1871: Luminary, Gibbs,' in whom it was intended to castigate Mrs. Trollope, is very weak; the The essence of his conception pointed author should have bitten it in [italics in to a very stern individuality, latent original! as engravers say, in aqua fortis; within the humor and the'boisterous conviviality of the man--and that, we whereas the satire is diluted lemon juice . always thought, was the basis of Mr. Hackett's :al. With respect to method he was'a bold artist. He painted with broad acrd vigorous strokes and gave little, or no heed to details

and delicacy of finish. . . . His greatness consisted in the vigorous illustration of strongly defined eccentric character and the unconscious expression, of that everlasting comical- ity which such characters dispense upon

the conduct of life. '

: '''''''''' Actresses: "Wheatley and Gibbs All accounts of the performances of The Lion of the West agree in praising Hackett's acting. The .other members of the cast are either merely named, or faulted for their comparative weakness. Odell, for Aample, after giving the cast list for the Bernard (or third) version as performed ire New 'fork remarks "How weak the company! Soon the. Mirror will reflect this sentiment, in no very complimentary terms."' In New York, Mrs: wheatleywas our Mrs. Wollope. She had also played the comparable role of Miss Towertop in theJohn'Augustus Stone (or second) version. Here,again, both Odell and TILE PLAYERS the Mirror are harsh, the former saying that regarded as James H. Hackett (1800-71) became an actor "The-Ta7r-i-of the West . . , was and he unsatisfactory, though Hackett's Colonel after his business ventures had failed a genuine contribution to decided to capitalize on his natural giftfor Nimrod Wildfire w.a the gallery of American dramatic types."' mimickry. The choice was a happy one, and his long,.'succesSful theatrical career was studded Mrs. Wheatley, 'however, is elsewhere enthusiastically described: "For.mere than with local.color'character types,....115the drama these are twenty years, in the line of.coMic,middr -aged critic for The Albion said, "Soma of vulgar, his'deliciously andold women, rich or poor, refined or really perfect, as for example, indeed of every grade, she was entirely natural Rip Van Winkle, his impetuousand roar- of his unrivalled on the American stage."' ing Nimrod Wildf,ire and the whole range calb6d Mrn. In fact the drama critic In London, Mrs. Wollope, then Yankee Genus."' -N Robert Grau reported that his Rip Van Winkle Luminary, was performed by Mrs. Gibbs, who also Jefferson's won no praise for her role: "Mrs. Luminary, was considered superior to Joseph (Mrs. Gibbs,). in whom it was intended to by many critics.2 Hackett's first success came as the Yankee, castigate Mrs. Trollope, is very weak; the author should have bitten it in (italics in Solomon Swap, so his decision to sponsor a whereof an original) as engrq,yers say, in aquaTortis: contest for an "original comedy juice."' American should be the leadingcharacter" whereas the satiredOs diluted lemon The criticism seem h to be bothof the part as seems to us'logical. However, in 1831 the written and as performed by Mrs. Gibbs. How- imitation of English models was pervasive, praised in a. so we should second GeorgeOdell who mused, ever, she, too, was generously his meed of "Memoir of Celebrated Actresses." The anony- "I wonder if Hackett has received Gibbs "was the praise as aider and abettor of theAmerican mous author writes that Mrs. best actress in brow}, comedy -atleast, she was dramatist?"' Miss At that time, a theatrical propertycould equal in that line to Mrs. Davison or be taken around the country and evenabroad and Fanny Kelly. !ler fioure and face especially ...THE PLAYERS in elocution. this century was-based on training qualified her to nhine in characters of The florid style and.flamboyanceof the politi- description, She was naturally vivacious, and cian and the pulpit orator werealso at home on her voice had more of the fulness andjollity Not only did elocutionists of the the American stage. of the humour of humble life than either emphasize the importance of carefularticula- teo last-named ladies." volume, dramatic be tion, pitch modulations, varied "She was pretty well acknowledged to changes in tempos, artfulmanipulation of !cry pleasing, if notpositively a lovely voice and of sixty, she looked rhythms and accents, and other wooan; and, even at the age diction techniques, which were oftenrather so fresh, young, and comely,that she might have ordinary speech, her removed frOm the customs of pa,;',ed, in the eye of a stranger, as one of but they also urged a systemof postures and own eaughters. Mrs. Gibbs professional career gestures, keyed to various wordsand ideas was a 1:)n'j one: she remained on the boards till defiance, dejec- years:" expressing such "emotions" as her years na:Rbered more than 'three score tion, despair, elation, or ecstasy. written t We may assume that, as the play was One of the most admired Americanactors in for Hackett's talents, and he availedhimself of Edwin Forrest, - the mid-nineteenth century was the age's indulgence for a star's noted for his muscular bodyand his equally al extravagances, he outshone his partners By the standards of Perhaps our age is more will- muscular playing. consistently. Stanislaysky and Strasberg, Forrestwould have iny to give Mrs. Wollope a sympathetic ear. made a fine "Method" actor, sincehr visited This writer, at any rate, is not so willing to insane asylums to learn how toplay insanity. dvokire Nimrod the only winner as were his lie lived briefly among theIndians when he was coPtt,mporarics! to play an Indian chief inMetamora. Reports from his own time oftencharacterized him as r 1 1 C "realistic," "natural," "true to life." And q/-7n yet, if the testimony of someknowledgeable ACTING IN PERIOD PLAYS critics is to be believed, Forrest'struth was act to nature, but to thecrude, showy tradi- Glenn Loney tions of the popular stage, mereconventions of should reality, not the thing itself. William Winter Just how much historical accuracy "in moments of simple passion there be in a modern stageproduction of a play sai6 of Forrest: . like the ponderous If he affected the senses . . written in--or about-- a differentperiod? of striving to slow-moving, crashing, and thundering surges the set and costume designers are "an furniture, the gowns, the nea." Walt Whitman was not impressed: recreate the decors, the exaggerated, noisy, and inflatedstyle of the headgear of RestorationLondon, shouldn't acting." .the actors then also makethe effort to nineteenth 'recreate the acting style ofthat time and What is the point/of recreating century pulpit or platformoratory, with a place? the The truth is that it would be verydifficult rigid system of "expressive" gestures, on for them--even studyingletters, diaries, and stage today? period--to reconstruct Having the villain stroke hismoustachios newspaper reports of the virtuous maiden the quality and kind ofperformances which may as he prepares to menace a for Love or becomes "camp," comic exaggeration,intended to have distinguished Dryden's All audiences. In Congreve's The Way of the World. This is get laughs from contemporary which, by its their heydays, however, such playswould have especially true for , raised chills of fear, cries of rage,and elevated and refined nature, wasnot intended and manners of ordinary streams of tears from thoseaudiences. The to reflect the passions actors were trying to achievetheir kind of men in their dailylives. Comedy, of course, folly, allowed truth and not just be "hammy." Oddly enough, mocking pretension, sham, and amusing humorous exaggeration but wasbased on an acute the old-time melodramas are today most fashions in when the performers play themquite seriously, observation of the contemporary the audiences dress, attitudes, movements,and manners. not "pointing," but letting the long march of discover the humor for themselves. The great plays from of an theatre hiStory, workssuch as Oedipus Rex or So, in approaching a production because they historic American play, a parody ofnineteenth King Lear, are generally;revived ill-advised. It's a still have the power to audiences with century acting styles is cheap way to get unearned laughs. The comic the playwrights' understnding of the complex- to project those truth in the playwright'sdelineation of the ities of human character:and The Lion effectively and absorbingly onthe stage. They characters in such plays as Fashion or fossils of the drama, exhumed of the West doesn't needparody or "camp." are not forgotten What's more, the contrasts andclashes in the in an archaelogicallyaccurate production. successfully characters when the rough,boastful frontiers -S Even if such an effort were society matron, or when made, how would an averageaudience know that? man meets the well-bred The chances are that afaith- the plain-spoken American meetsthe dandified,, Or appreciate it? implicit ful reconstruction of aNeo-classic French self-important European--the comedy in Racine's time in such encounters rings truewithout any art- tragedy as produced in Paris actors. would either bore a modernaudience or leave ful business on the part of the laughter at the lofty That means that the actors insuch plays it shaking with helpless characters, in 4 posing, the elegant attitudes,and the artificial aim first for the truth in the text. the situation, and in thewords they speak,-th declamation of the poetic That does not mean, Within certain limits, thatcould also be thoughts they express. however, that The Lion of the West onstage\ true of an attempt t-%recreate a stage- performance style for historicAmerican today should look just likeGrease, only in the such as Tyler's The Contrast,Mowatt's clothes of the mid-nineteenth century. Fashion or Boucicault's TheOctoroon. As How then do modern actors--especially Edwin Duerr points out inhis excellent young ones with littletraining--manage to give and Depth of history of performance, The Length a sense of people, realpeople, living in Acting, much American actingin the nineteenth . ..ACTING IN PERIOD PLAYS dramasserious another place and timu, without sounding or It's a convention of many One puce of advice is not or comic--before thetriumph of stage-realism looking peculiar? to have characters confide in theaudience, to watch Dallas for acting models,but instead epics set with no one else on stage seeming to hear study some of the British television Sometimes a character will To see British actors these "asides." in other periods. give the audience a bit of informationthey recreate the time of Queen Victoriais not to gestures, need to know about the past or thefuture. howl with laughter at their ridiculous Often, a character will tell the spectators rhetorical flourishes, and extremelyartificial at in the best of what he or she feels about what's going on manners. Quite the opposite: The problem for the actor in a such shows, somehow the pe :-formances seem very the moment. period play is to stay in character,develop natural, thoroughly believable. Yet the differ- and maintain this contact with theaudience, characters portrayed clearly represent In different and avoid being artful or "cute" aboutit. ent values, different attitudes, a way, especially in a comedy,the playwright manners.What's basic, of course, is the "You'll get more truth the actors have brought totheir seems to have the actor say: out of this scene if you havethis bit of characterization. What's different, but right for theperiod important information. I want to share it with you, but the others up here mustn'tknow evocation, is the keen awareness of thedetails place. There I've told you about it!" of daily life in another time and What this requires is a clevershifting is clearly a difference in the way abrash, nouqhfrontiersman will walk, stand, gesture, from a representational style to a opposed to a presentational one. And back again. In the smile and talk for instance as does preten- play, the actor remains the character--he prim, proper, reserved, and somewhat not become himself as actor--but hebriefly tious dowager. . . . interrupts his concentration and involvement Young actors, reared in a contemporary with the other characters to relatedirectly society which rejects the classdistinctions It's not easy to do and stay these to the audience. of the past, are often unaware of what in character. It's also not easy to do and distinctions were--or how to play them. The resist the temptation to make a playfor the best advice, of course, is to study notonly audience's affection and applause as anactor. documents of the historic play, but also other The kind of dialogue a playwrightgives the time which will help make the people and to each character--even if all theroles are places real. This includes studying drawings in verse--tells an actor something about a and prints of houses, interiors, , character's mentality, values, background,and important public events, and the like. If similar matters. It's clear from such dialogue this seems like a lot of extra work, it's differences that New York society matronsof nonetheless rewarding to do and will subtly nothing like those achieved the nineteenth century were add to the believability of what's of today in some of their waysof thinking and on stage. In others, however, they areclearly style speaking. For some teachers of acting, period sisters under the skin--which is oneof the is little more than learning how to use afan, charming features of The Lion of the West how to take snuff, how to make a curtsy. making it both amusing and understandable even Obviously, -such things are important, butthey There is today. are not the core of style--truthis. F. Cowles Stickland makes a greatpoint an excellent explanationof acting style about the environment, the milieu, as a general,in F. Cowle Strickland's TheTechnique of Actin (Chap. 12/McGraw-Hill). Strickland points to some 28 definitions of Stylein the Oxford English Dictionary, suggesting thatthe word can mean many things, even to anactor. Thus, it's not merely a matter ofseeming to be ladies and gentlemen of Restoration London nor a Chorus of Elders in ancientThebes. Strickland, who directed at Washington's Arena Theatre, prefers a broaderapplication: "the manner of expression characteristicof a particular writer, or of a literary group or period;" that is, the ways in whichplaywrights communicate their visions of people require specific styles. The style of Arthur Miller in telling the story of Willy Loman isdifferent from that of Neil Simon in telling the storyof the odd couple or the red hot lover. The language of the play is also an important element in the acting style. In I nineteenth century American dramas, there is often an elegance, even an artificialityof expression, not to be found today. Polite conversation today is much moredirect--even to the point of being impolite. In some nineteenth century plays, however, thereis a decorum to be preserved in conversationalexchanges, even between people who are obviously angry. If such lines are played asbeing awkward and old-fashioned, merely words to berattled off as swiftly as possible so theactors can Wood-engraving, "Balfe'a new opera ofGeraldine"' "get on with the plot," a valuable aspectof Victorian Theatre: been from Richard Southern, The period style--and period truth- -will have A Pictorial Survey (NewYork, 1970). neglected or sabotaged. determinant of acting style in a period play. Scenic Design in the Early American Theatre Not that an actor would want to recreate an eighteenth century performance, however, since To determine what Americanscenic design at that time, some items of stage- decor -- was like in our native theatresinvolves a including drapes and furniture--would have been indirect Painted chairs good bit of guesswork and use of painted on the scenic flats. evidence. There are excellent recordsof cannot be sat in.Painted drapes cannot be continental and English practices, andmuch pulled shut. In a modern production of a evidence to suggest that whatever wascurrent period play, though, the conventions of such in England was adopted in our country assoon historic scenery are almost never observed. as possible. It is known, for example, that When they are--as in Sweden's historic the British staged plays hereduring the Drottningholm Theatre, an authentic eighteenth Revolutionary War for their own amusement. century playhouse complete with its ancient backdrops for a consider- By 1777 Major Andre painted painted scenes--the actors' jobs are production,' and when Wignell and Reinagle ably more difficult. They don't have so many opened the Chestnut Street Theatrein -real set-props with which to "play." Philadelphia, they arranged to getthelatest Costume is another crucial element in plays, set designs, and models fortheir creating a sense of another time and place. construction sent from London.' Mrs. Trollope, And costume of course includes costume-props and machinery boxes, too, remarks that "the scenery such as fans, lace-handk,.,rchiefs, snuff [at the Bowery Theatre is] equalto any in lorngettes, mantillas, canes, and the like. London."3 So it might be useful to study Actors need to learn hos.to "play" such things, The so- London Theatre practices. once so important in sociallife. In 1794 when the new Drury Laneopened, in fact worth called "language of the ian" is we hear rather more about the scenerythan the learning for period piece:,; in which fans are acting. In an early production of Macbeth, to be used. But it's not only fans and canes after an epilogue "hurled at theFil-J-FreFid . . that are important. The costumes themselves the curtain was then raised to showthe . . have a lot to do with how a character movesand stage turned into a vast lake uponwhich a man expresses himself or herself. If an actress while a cascade tumbled down bound feet, in was rowing a boat is to play a Chinese lady with at the back."4Walter Scott complained in 1819 the time of tht! Manchus, obviouslyshe won't that "Show and machinery have usurpedthe be romping around the stage like a teen-age place of tragic poetry."5 Gerald Griggin tennis-player. pointed out that "The managers seekonly to In other time ?. costumes of gentlemen fill their houses, and don't care acurse for and ladies were ma_ such a way that their all'the dramatists that ever lived.There is leisure were wealth, their station,, and their a rage for fire, and water,and horses got proclaimed. Even in the middle nineteenth abroad-"6 century, women of wealth had servantsto do In this country, too,"from the very their housework, so it was not necessaryto beginning of our theatrical history scenery was have sleeves cut so they couldraise their considered essential to a prosperous enter- That means that the cut arms over their heads. prise."'The earliest American sets were and confinements of eighteenthand nineteenth stock flats arranged on each sideof the stage century American costumes restrictedand as wings, with a scenicbacking of two abutted restrained certain free-and-easymovements and flats ("shutters") which could openlike matter of gestures modern Americans make as a modern sliding doors to revealanother scene historically course. In such circumstances, behind them. But by 1794, the Chestnut Street accurate costumes--stronglybuilt so actors Theatre in Philadelphia had abackdrop (which won't rip the seams--willautomatically could be drawn up into the flies whennot restrict the performers and give them some side wings. in such needed) and a set-back series of feeling of how they have to move This method of stage design remainedin favor clothing. Women in bustles; women in hoop- until the late 1800's, although thebox set was skirts; women in hobble-skirts: all have their introduced in England as early as the1830's.8 movement dictated in several waysby the Scenic design gained rapidly insophisti- design of the dresses they wearin such eras cation, so that, by 1811, when aninvestigation of fashion. of a backstage fire caused thedetails to be There is also something to belearned documented, we learn that a chandelier on a various periods. from the social dances of stage set was raised into theflies with a wick The kinds of movements, the degreeof delicacy Thirty-five scenes were hanging such aspects give still lit. or energy required--all there to catch fire! Deliberate fire effects, clues to characteristic perioddecorum and volcanos tell earthquakes, bridges which collapsed, manners. An actor's common-sense will and floods also became possible. By 1822, a him a lot about the differencesin behaviour, four-foot-by-fourteen-foot treadmill had been in manner, in reserve or expansiveness, Wall constructed for chariot races'and runaway between an 1820 Kentucky woodsman and a horses-8 Street speculator. One lives in the open, create wilder- All these marvelous descriptions surviving in what is still virtually a a problem, for.thehyperbole associated with ness. The other lives in small, enclosed modern theatre seems also to havebeen,con- spaces, handsomely decorated--ifhe's ,sidered essential from the beginning. In other successful. written descrip- of truth to words, if we judge only by the But the audience's own sense tions, we will be greatly impressed. In1806, for life needs to be considered. Even if Forrest , his skill flamboyant, that's no example, J. J. Holland "demonstrated was extravagant and as a machinist (forCinderella] arranging the reason,to recreate such astyle for your transformations of mice to horses, pumpkin to contemporaries, who probably knownothing carriage, etc. . . ." Or as one contemporary about nineteenth century Americanacting and reported, "the clouds in which Hymenand the have quite will only think you are clowning or Cupids ascend and descend, have a veryfine lost your wits. 15 MINN .g4tur400411-

olfecL," while another remarked that"We never saw anything morecostly, or changes that were more cleverlymanaged."1' Yet Holland's scenic design forAdelmorn Acting Out A Scene the outlaw from 1.802 isdisappointing. Clifford E. Hamar, after quoting oneimpressive An obvious meaning of the word play is to description of early set design afteranother, slay -act and we'd like to suggest that you stage :climaxes the lot by quoting the following some of these scenes in your classroom, You might advertisement for a St. Louis productionin do the party scene with a large cast, appropriate music and action. Or try the beginning of Act II

In the1 st act . . GRAND ERUPTION OF until Mrs. Wolrope's collapse. As both of these MOONT VESUVIUS. TERRIFIC EXPLOSION!! depend on large casts and rapid movement, they are Forked Lightenings (sic) Pond the Sky! difficult to imagine and work very well. Last you THE BURN LNG LAVA impetuously flowsdown might try the initial meeting between Nimrod and

the side of the Mountain, . . . ILLUMIN- Mrs, Wollopc, being inventive in displaying your ATED!! FENELLA Plunges into the Sea! contrasting views on manners. You might even want GRAND DISPLAY OF FIREWORKS" . . . . to improvise, updating the scene, demonstrating Having asked how realistic theseeffects were, how you'd behave to show off your Americanisms to Hamar answers by quoting acommunication to an impressionable foreign visitor. the St. Louis Republican from 1828,suggesting However you choose to enact these scenes, that those in charge of effects"refrain from we hope the preceding articles on theatrical mat- exposing themselves to theaudience.°1' ters will have proven helpful to you. In general, however, sets were more All the plays in this sories are signif- .mundane; most American theatres had a icant examples of culture at play in another sense, standard garden, moonlight set,interior, however -- that of play in a joint. It fits, but kitchen and exterior street. With different there's some give in it. Plays are constructs in wings, these were made to serve avariety of the real world while simultaneously creating a settings. For example, the Booth Theatresets' fictive one. In the theatre, we pretend, but we for Rip Van Winkle, dated 1873,call for the take the pretense seriously, at least provision- "Lady of Lyons" kitchenin'Act III, sc. 5.1 ally, so that we can try out our assumptions about. While the Freeman's home was certainly how we see ourselves and others. Paulding and not rustic, the elegant townhouse interior Hackett were trying out their assumptions here, was probably similarlyall-purpose. found that audiences appreciated them, and Nimrod We simply don't know whatthe set of Wildfire was born. The Lion of the West lookedlike. It probably In our next section, we will deal with the used one stock interior backdropwith wings play from several historical perspectives. Perhaps and another stock garden exterior. Students when you know more about Davy Crockett and Frances wishing to perform scenes in classwould do Trollope, you will find this fictive encounter be- well to use only the propscalled for in the tween such colorful representatives of contrasting action and leave the rest to theaudience's cultures thought provoking. imagination. apill:111=111MIMITZF PART THE REAL PEOPLE DEPICTED IN THEPLAY

American Life in Another Time: Primary and Secondary ResourceMaterials teacher two clays in order to pay for his board and tuition."...I learned to read a littlein Davy Crockett, the Man my primer, to write my own name,and to cypher some..."3 This was all the schooling he would Florence Polatnick ever have, for six months later he found a willing girl and was quickly married. There is a curious lacuna in the litera- ture regarding Crockett's family life. Perhaps it was because there was not much to tell. Crockett was a passionate participant in the national and local issues of his day and was often away from home. He volunteered for Andrew Jackson's 1813-14 campaign against the Creek Indianswhich broke the military power of the "Red Sticks," deprived the British of an important ally inthe War of 1812, and subsequently opened Alabamato. settlement. Jackson won great popularity, which ultimately led to the Presidency, and the short- lived hero-worship of his scout, Davy Crockett. Shortly after Crockett's return, his wife Polly died, leaving two sons, and an infant daughter. About a year later he married Elizabeth Patton, a young widow with two chi ldren. Unsuccessful as a farmer, trapper, trader, or land speculator, Crockett movedto southern Tennessee and joined those backwoods"coonskin apostles of liberty and equality'who had histor- transformed Jeffersonian idealism into practical In dealing with Davy Crockett, the He became a colonel in the ian has difficulty assaying in what proportion Jacksonian politics. the gold nugget of fact has becomealloyed with militia and was drafted by his peers to serve as braggadocio, nationalistic propaganda, politi- justice of the peace: cal image-making, and myth-building. Although In 1821 he was elected to the state legis- Crockett authorship is claimed for a numberof lature and two years later, after another move, he was asked by his new constituency to repre- books, all were ghost-written. In only one, his autobiography' did he have a major part. sent them. Court records show that Davy There are many contemporary accounts of our financed his campaign by hunting wolves to hero and subsequent accounts of hisimpact on collect the $3 bounty. historical events and the national self-image, He worked vigorously to give the western frontier equal representation in the capitol, to but little consensus. Was he "vain, ignorant, Or was improve navigation on the rivers, a'nd to support simple minded,"2 a charlatan, a phony? He he indeed a free son of the untamedwilderness, iron works and other infant industries. commentator on sponsored bills to help widows and orphans and a naive but shrewd actor and easier treatment of the American scene, and .a steadfastchampion to providetax relief and of the common man on the Westernfrontier? debtors. Davy Crockett was born in 1786 in a log Furthermore, there was the question of cabin in northeastern Tennessee, the sonof a cheap land, a problem that was to be Crockett's tavern-keeper who had fought in theRevolution- major concern for the rest of his life and Enrolled in school at the age of 13, which ultimately led to his political downfall ary War. North Carolina Davy cut out after five days. To escape the and indirectly to his death. inevitable beating from his father, the lad ran had distributed land warrants to benefit He helped herd cattle, drove a wagon, Revolutionary War veterans and also to redeem away. for and worked for a succession of armers. the Specie Certificates it had issued to pay Crockett matured in a society where mendrank the war. In 1789 North Carolina offered the Federal Government territory which would be- hard, swore exuberantly, betheavily, and picturesque come the state of Tennessee with theproviso boasted of their adventures in land He was one of a new breed with few that all the warrants would be satisfied by language. Congress set aside about 3/4 ties to Europe and the older colonies onthe in the new state. Their psyches were shaped by of the territory for this purpose, the western Atlantic Ocean. part of Tennessee to be reserved as public the dark trackless forests inwhich lurked hostile Indians and ravenous wildbeasts, by lands. Unfortunately, the eastern part was not large enough to fill all of the claims. pere the mighty rivers againstwhich puny man pitted soil whiq was widespread fraud--using names ofdeceased his strength and wit, by the hard Inaccurate grudgingly yielded up its fruits, andby th veterans,.pre-dating, speculation. Here muscle and inadequate recoKds added to the mess. A unpredictable whims of Nature. warrant to obtain a parcel 'power. Was valued more than logical thought, man who had usedhi' quick responses more than seriousreflection, of land and build a home and improvements could be bumped by someone holding a warrant with an and the ability to handle arifle and an axe more than pedigree andacademic credentials. earlier date. Nevertheless, love sent Davy back to Anoth-er obvious injustice was that all land was taxed equally, regardless ofits worth. school. At the age of_18 he haddecided_it was Twice his suit had been This-fell heavily-on-the-frontiersman_who_had time to get married. become spurned in favor of men 'whose onlysuperior to tame. the wilderness before it could produttive and who did not have the benefit of virtue, as he perceived it, waseducation. Quaker a developed infrastructure to supporthis eco- Consequently, he arranged to attend a Squatters on public land school four days a week, working forthe nomic activities. 17 DAVY CROCKETT... excessive government expenditures. were the most frequent victimsof these legal for Along with the other Jacksonians Crockett injustices, and these were the constituents resented John Quincy Adams's deal withHenry whom Davy Crockett fought. Hickory" of the Crockett ran for Congress in 1825 and was Clay's Whigs which deprived "Old Presidency in 1824, although he hadreceived the defeated, but two years later he tried again largest number of popular votes. Crockett voted and was elected. There are many hilarious In stories about his stump- speaking at camp meet- against the 1828 "Tariff of Abominations." The Lion of the West Pauqding seems toinject ings, turkey shoots, squirrel hunts,"frolics," Entertainment on this issue into the dialogue with no purpose "stomp-downs," and barbecues. other than to call forth anotherflamboyant the frontier was sparse, and Davy put on agood Actually, the subject was On one occasion he insisted onspeaking speech by Wildfire. show. very much on people's'mindsin 1831. first. He had memorized his opponent'sremarks, for delivered them eloquently, and left the man Just as the Americans had to fight their political independence' and werefighting literally speechless. him a war of words for theircultural independence, Another time Davy's constituents let so they were also battling foreconomic inde- know that they could not continue tolisten on pendence. The tariff was a weapon in that war, "such a dry'subject as the welfare of the but different sections of the countrydiffered nation" until they had something to drink. The on strategy. bartender insisted on cash on the barrelhead. During the period between the Revolution "Ready money in the west in those times, was S. A. most and the War of 1812, the fledgling U. the shyest thiqg in all nature, and it was tried desperately to avoid the European con- particularly shy with me," Crockett recalled. flagrations by enacting such extreme measures He went into the woods with his trustyrifle' Non-Intercourse Acts. Betsy, shot a racoon, and offeredits skin in as the Embargo and the His constituents Cut off from trade with the continent, payment for a quart of rum. Americans began to manufacture manyheretofore once more flocked aroundhim, cheering, shout- With the return to normalcy, They listened for a while, imported items. ing his praises. England dumped exports at cut pricesin an but then demanded more refreshment. Davy industries had been carelessly tucked effort to kill the infant American found the coonskin and recapture the market. The nation responded between the logs that supportedthe bar. He 1816, which it as pay-- by passing the protective tariff of covertly pulled it out and offered raised the price of British importsabove the ment for another bottle. Every time the voters . providing pulled the same American cos1, of production, the tax became too dry to listen, Davy revenue for the government. However, when trick on the unsuspecting bartender. "The in the it soon circu- industry failed to develop as expected joke secOred me my election, for South, John C. Calhoun and otherSouthern lated like smoke among myconstituents, apd They protested ..that the man who could get leaders switched their position. ti)ey allowed . . that the South was.in effectsubsidizing the the whip hand of Job Snellingin fair trade, suffering and was the real Northern manufacturers' goods and could outwit Old Nick himself, retaliatory measures against their rawmaterials grit for-them in Congress." Amidst the exag- This bitter dispute resultad and the exports to England. gerations, the picturesque language, in a. serious challenge to theUnion--the South racy backwoods humor,Crockett philosophized, claimed a small Carolina Nullification Act, which "Popularity sometimes depends on a very state's rights were sovereign and thatit could matter indeed; in this particularit was worth and no more." disregard federal legislation. a quart of New England rum, Another hot issue was Davy Crockett's pet According to the legend, he whirledinto On his third day the new David cause--cheap land. Washington boasting, "I'm that same Congressman introduced the TennesseeVacant Land Crockett, fresh from the backwoods,half-horse, Bill. The state held large areas, underthe half-alligator, a little touched with the provisions of the Old NorthwestOrdinance, to be snapping-turtle; can wade theMississippi, Crockett argued of lightning, sold for educational purposes. leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak that land should be given tothose who had amd,slip without a scratch down ahoney locust; He-knew that most wild-cats--and if any cleared it and built on it. can- whip my weight in squatters could not afford tobid at auction for gent1Cman pleases, for a ten-dollarbill, he the land they already occupied, andthe improve- may throw in a panther--hug abear too close raise the price. opposed to ments they had made would only for comfort, and eat any man A land survey was requiredby law. In the past Jackson." prices and in surveyors had charged outrageous Notwithstanding, Crockett's record then taken the land in lieu of theunpaid fee. three terms in Congress isunimpressive. of his observer of the Furthermore, Crockett pointed out, most Harriet Martineau, an English people would never have usecolleges to be built Washington scene, wrote of the rangeof Crockett Clay and Webster in the eastern part of the state. "members of Congress, from assailed "State speculation" in landand warned down to Davy Crockett . . ."7 Parrington sums in four years loafing and boast- of a "swindling machine." up: " . . . Thus he was inevitably throwninto conflict ing at the Congressionalbar (he) had achieved centered in the a'picturesque original with the political power that some distinction as mature settlements of easternTennessee. The with the tongue of awag."8 aristocrats, men quite so dismal. "enemy" were plantation-owning The actual recordis not his speculator/ petition a mail route for like Pres. Andrew Jackson and His first act was to "The rich'require but . He insisted that theRevolution- businessmen friends. hiF little legislation. We should at least occasion- pension bill must includevolunteers Crockett declaredP itiamen as well as the regulararmy. ally legislate for the poor," remaining In a private letter, JamesR. Polk, Crockett's A -.it e hatred of army "brass" Congressional colleague, a Jacksonstalwart and u;s Creek War experiences ledCrockett to a future President,complained that Adams's men ':or an investigation andlater abolishment "We can't trust him an i'oint, in his opinion, a citadelof the were using Crockett. (7. inch."" and privileged. He opposed Jackson's Crockett later came into furtherconflict :ystem" and spoke out against S DAVY CROCKETT

public relations campaigns. with Jackson over curbing the powers of the friends deserted privately-owned Bank of tho U. S.to expand or In the end hie Eastern Crockett on the vote for cheap land anddumped contract the economy by printing money..Debt - him when the voters rejectedhim as a turncoat. riddenDavy and his farmers wanted a cheap remained back their Crockett always maintained that he had money policy so that'they could pay a Jacksonian; it was Jacksonwho had betrayed loans in inflation - debased dollars. the principles and interests ofthe frontier. About this time the Whig Party, desper- So monomaniacal had he become on thesubject ately casting about for a picturesque,authen- hell tic Westerner who would cut into Jackson's that he declared the voters could go to and he would go to Texas. appeal to the "coonskin voters," began to Crockett Congressman from At loose ends, at the age of 49, court the disillusioned put on his old buckskin huntingshirt and coon- Tennessee. They offered helpwith his speeches, out for published larger-than-life accounts of his skin cap, shouldered his rifle, and set Texas. Great events were in the offingthere, exploits, ptaised his honesty and intelligence, for Texas and even composed a Davy Crockett march. There and he obviously hoped the push PauldinCe,The Lion independence and its ultimately joining the are some indications that Union would once more catapult himinto a lead- of the West and The Kentuckian were partof the ing role. In February 1836 he selected a new build-up. humesite and then hastened off toassist in the In 1835 the Whigs arranged atriumphant tour of the Northeast. -There weremeetings and defense of the Alamo. influen- Davy's tragic f1aW, the same stubborn dinners with important businessmen and individualism which barred compromise, led to tial politicians like Daniel Webster. Every- his death. A fight between Jacksonians andanti- where Davy went, crowds gathered toapplaud his insubor- speeches enthusiastically:. He was overwhelmed Jacksonians left Sam Houston with some wool and dinate field commanters. Among them was Col. with gifts, such as a suit of American William B. Travis, in charge of the Alamo. a dozen cannisters of thebest sportsman's Houston evidence Judging the fort to be undefendable, gunpowder from Du Pont; there is even ordered that it be blownup andits forces join of loans from Nicholas Biddle,President of the 12 him. Travis refused to acknowledge Houston's Bank of the U. S., Jackson's bitter enemy. The 184 defenders of the Alamo were The Whig press covered hisactivities, authority. and massacred by Santa Anna's troops. There .seems enthusiastically enlarging on his anecdotes escape or, later, to Newspaper and journal clip- to have been ample time to witty responses. surrender, but Travis, Jim Bowie,and Crockett pings became popular books, largely ghost- They got both. written, to which Crockett gave his name. chose victory or death. "Remember the Alamo!" became arallying cry to "DavY'was vastly surprised at his suddenAse their He had never realized how great a man unite the Texans and carry them to to fame. ultimate victory over the Mexicanforces- he was; but he accepted it as anagreeable fact Present-day Americans will find some aspects and went ahead."13 There are his of Crockett's career unattractive. In this atmosphere Davy recanted many anti-black jokes andreferences in his opposition to high tariffs. His factory visits At various economic writings and recorded speeches. convinced him that jobs and national Toward Indians he was At the same time times he owned slaves. independence were at stake. During the Creek War, he said, "We he affirmed his support for"internal improve- ruthless. platform. shot them like dogs." In his autobiography he ments," the foundation of the Whig straightforwardly tells of an incident where Jackson had attacked internalimprovements as 46 warriors, and to sectional troops set fire to a house with "pork barrel" legislation catering the next day they ate potatbes from thecellar interests, but Crockett knew thatfrontiersmen, stewed in Indian oil. Perhaps this is not shock- as well as Northeasternbusinessmen, needed had been killed and the ing from a man whose grandparents roads, canals, rivers made navigable, by Indians, whose one uncle wasinjured, and new railroads. is not another, a deaf-mute, kidnapped andheld captive This embracing of the Whig platform He himself lived on the edge of Crockett's central for 20 years. the "sell-out" it seems. civilization in constant fear of attack. Never- concern was still cheapland. He also believed of all from internal theless, he did vote against removal his constituents would benefit Indians to the far side of theMississippi, but improvements. The latter 'cost money. Free In those days critics have suggested this was a resultless land would leSsen tax revenues. of pity than of his unrelentinganti-Jacksonian- before the income tax, the Federalgovernment income-- tariff duties ism. had two main sources of Conservationists will be offended by the and monies from the sale ofpublic lands. out for a high reckless waste of forests andwildlife. Records Therefore, realistically, he came hunter, killed f which would swell Federal show that Davy, the prodigious protective tar 105 bears in one season. Another time he killed coffers and en le the government to give away hanging in the ile paying for internal improve- six deer in one day, leaving two land cheaply woods while chasing other game. Unthinkable ments. and other break with the numbers of turkeys, pigeons, buffalo, He def antly made a final game vanished before the gunsof the hunters, President: "Look at my neck," he said, as he Indians, who incor- will not find there much to the anguish of the had many mes before, "you porated a reverence for nature's giftsinto any col], r, with theengraving MY DOG--ANDREW scurrilous their religion. JACKSON."'" He lent his name to a Fortified by tales of exploits that grew biography of Martin Van-Buren,Jackson's hand- Yet with all his quixotic taller with the passage of time, the Davy picked successor. Crockett myth lived on. In the 1950's the individualism in refusing to dance toJackson's A Davy realized that Whig legend became larger than lifeagain. tune, he never seems to have Crokett hysteria swept the country. The epic politicians were cynically paradinghim as a comic They used all the means attheir stories were resurrected for movies, puppet. books, newspapers, magazines, andtelevision- - disposal to build up the DavyCrockett myth, Children like David Garth create and some new ones were created. even as today'men marched with toy rifles singing,"Da-vee, political images in slickadvertising and ...DAVY CROCKETT

Da-vee Crockett, king of the wildfrontier," Industry churned out a.flood of "buckskin"and THE LION OF THE WEST: A TEXT FORNATIONAL "Lomespun" suits and pajamas, coonskin caps, toys, and souvenirs. IDENTITY In Parrington's evaluation, "Davy was a good deal of a wag, and the best jokehe ever Gerald E. Warshaver played he played upon posterity that has swallowed the myth whole and persistsin set- ting up a romantic halo on his coonskincap.".15 James H. Hackett was an actor who Other historians have been kinder. Davy established his reputation as amonologuist in regional Crockett was an original. lie was his own man- - who could deliver comic monologues his dialect.2 When he decided he needed a new courageous, naive perhaps, but true to Kirke fiercely democratic principles. His slogan, vehicle for his talents, he induced James ahead!" Paulding to send him a dramaticsketch, "Be always sure you're right--then go drama has inspired many. He opened up a rich vein of suggesting to him the title of both the American humor later mined by MarkTwain. But and the hero.` When the play opened in New more important, he has remained abeldved York, Hackett had the new role hesought, and American figure because his life wasinter- America had found herself a newcomic symbol twined with so many major themes of our past- o her national identity.) conquering the wilderness, fighting Indians, Paulding's Place in AmericanLiterature sectional interest that inexorably led tothe material Civil War, the annexation of Texas andManifest Hackett's decision to solicit of latter's Destiny. He has become the personification from Paulding stemmed from the Frederick Jackson Turner's thesis of the over- :eminence as an author interested in the riding significance of the frontierin American creation of an original Americanliterature. his comic history. Paulding had first demonstrated abilities in 1897, when, along withWashington Irving, he coauthored the famousSalmagundi J.K. Paulding papers, a series of broadbut witty artibles satirizing the fashionable scenes anddandies of New York. Paulding distinguished himself inthe war of words which Americanwriters fought with their former colonial rulers. Begun at the end of the War of Independence andlasting for over/ a century, this literary warrepresented America's war of intellectualindependence. Suffering from the ambivalentidentity characteristic of intellectuals of newly liberated colonies, American writersfelt themselves to be morally superior tothe defeated imperial power, but atthe same time they saw themselves as culturallyinferior- provincial." English travelei's who visited the new nation and returned home to publishnegative reports provided Americanswith an opportunity to overcome the anxiety whichtheir contradic- tory self-image'produced. Because these American patronizing Britons combined hostilecriticisms Selections from James K. Paulding "The with insuffer- People," published in William I.Paulding, of American cultural achievements values, Literary Life of James K. Paulding, NewYork: able attacks on republican ' Charles Scribner and Company,1867, PP, 341-345. English criticism of American national character, learning, andliteratUre could be The inhabitants of what is aptly styled English "The Great West" constitute aspecies of men of attacked as being as illegitmate as was antagonism toward the principles ofdemocracy.5 a most racy and pecularcharacter . . . English visitors indulgence For example, the fault that Equally uncorrupted by luxurious found with the alterations andadditions that and undebased by abject poverty;equally exempt language toil and the temp- Americans had made in the English from the burden of hopeless could be read as an attack onnational sover- tations of perpetual idleness;equally free from eignty. "Every nation," wrote Paulding, the shackles of despotism'andthe license of somewhat mind; "ought to have a 'dialect at least anarchy; equally master of body and distinct from all others, as proofof independ- accustomed from their youth, andfrom generation be of action and con- ence." In fact, he argued, "We shall never to generation, to a breadth truly independent, I amafraid, till we make templation almostlithout limit orcircumscrip- own words--two tion;--the faculti's of the AmericanPeople our own books, and coin our things as necessary tonational sovereignty as operate on a scale ofwhich the masses of other they are in making laws..and coiningmoney." In the countries, crimped and cribbed as context of the literary war,Nimrod Wildfire's one little circle ofunvaried, unrewarded, The Americanism "Wake, snakes--June bugs are labor, can form no conceptionwhatever. independence. Americans feel that they have subdued, aworld cummin!" declared our linguistic Wilfire's exfluntified's andcatawampus's, his with the rifle, the axe, andthe,plough; and epithets and the recollection of the pastis to them the rip stayer boasts, his backwoods half horse, half alligatorsimiles- -these . . The Mississippi mirror of the future. . America had down the stream, coinages proved that just as boatman as he floats lazily wrested the land from England sohad she as like as not isanticipating the period when country's of a steamboat, member tetotaciously subdued the mother he will become commander The right of Americans to dlaim of Congress, or founder of aState. language. o 4U . ..A TEXT' FOR NATIONALIDENTITY

that she is too overcivilizedand abstract to political independents. and to govc2rn them- understand the Americannational spirit." selves legitimatized the status ofAmerica's own modes of expressionand her culture in The Tall TMe general.' Most importantly, thisinability to appreciate the true identityof the American l'auldinglkfendsthe\NatimsAMaraeter genius is underlined by Mrs.Wollope's mis- the hat-in- Paulding defended the nationalcharacter taking Wildfire's tall tale about anecdote. and democracy of America infive major works the-Kentucky-mud for an authentic which he wrote Fact and fiction, truth andfalsity are con- and in numerous lesser pieces Its deadpan style of between 1812 and 1825. His major effort in founded in the tall tale. the controversy, John Bull inAmerica t_ or, delivery, its artfully heaped upseries of interest to "factual" exaggerations, andits protestations The New Munchausen (1825), is of popular form of the student of The Lion of the Westbecause it of truth make this perennially foreign American folklore an appropriateemblem for the offers a broad caricature of the evaluation of traveler in America, not unlike theportrait patronizing outsider's erroneous of Mrs. Wollope in The Lion ofthe West. Of America." similar interest to the student ofthis play (2) Civilization are the phrases which AmosHerold, Paulding's biographer, considers to be "keynotes" of In The Lion of the Westfalse belief is feminine character- John Bull in America. Herold finds that terms consistently portrayed as a democracy," and istic associated with theovercivilized such as "turbulent spirit of and undemo- the "spitting, gouging,drinking, duelling, artificiality, essential hypocrisy, republicans," cratic stancic.As of the mothercountry. For dirking, swearing, strutting misinterprets the potential are put into the mouthof foreign writers to example, Mrs. Wollope characterize the type of Americanwhich Nimrod interest that her ameliorating"Academy of represent.8 refinement at 500 dollars ashare" will have for Wildfire was later meant to of her Clearly then, by 1830 both theheroWildfire, Americans. She is led astray because ascribed status, the and his protagonist Mrs.Wollope (Trollope) belief in the ethic of battle of words between concept that birth andbreeding determined a were veterans of the Even England and'America. In other words, they person's place in the civicorder. symbolic entities. American women are not immuneto this European were stock types, that just as disease. The play points out Mrs. Wollope fell forWildfire's t31.1 tale, so English versus American: suggests she should (1) National Character & Language Mrs. Freeman, whose name know better, falls forJenkins' artifice. By the time Hackett tookthe stage as Corrupted by foreign notionsof artifical dis- Wildfire, Americans had grownaccustomed to tinctions, Mrs. Freeman prefersthe imposter's satirizing the negative stereotypesof them- noble title to the talents'and good nature of daughter selves which outsiders held.Seen from a Percival. She wishes to better her nationalistic perspective, theelements which artificially in the European manner. hostile critics put down asproof of the national charac- (3) The Uncorrupted Intellect fallen state of the American of European ter could be raised up aselements of a Wildfire is the polar opposite The joke in The In farcical proportions,he unique national identity. refinement. which, as John Lion of the West was thatEnglish visitors exemplifies the virile belief recognize the genuine American William Ward has shown,coalesced around the were unable to Wildfire comes from when they saw him; insteadthey took an figure of Andrew Jackson." American "original" for anin;ferior version the new-created West where.overcivilized refine- Furthermore, to compound the ments have not debilitatedhis native intelli- of themselves.: horse sense tells humor, foreign visitors wereshown to be so gence. 'As he informs us, his preoccupied with their ownaristocratic him that the lettered learningof lawyers makes misinterpreted other them all mouth, likecatfish." His intellect prejudices that they training in logic aspects of American culture. How reliable remains uncorrupted by formal could their criticisms ofslavery be if, as is or the other unnecessaryadornments of shown in the case of Mrs.Wollope, they intellect associated with theeffete luxuries of addressed a "free gentlemanof color",as "my Europe which Mrs. Wollope'sproposed academy their good slave." By the same token, symbolizes. Therefore, it can be said of criticisms of Americans as overlymaterialistic Wildfire as it was said of Jackson whenhe ran or as childishprimitives reduced to a state of for President against Adams thathis wisdom was savagery by prolonged contactwith a wilderness uncorrupted by learning, his Reasonby Under- negated by lampooning In environment,' could i His tariff speech proves this. This was done by standing.ls their frame of reference. a burlesque ofJacksonian rhetoric, Wildfire having Jenkins and Mrs. Wollope uselaughable declares that he is a "nursling of thewilds" the dead classical allusions derived from whose unfettered naturalenergies and "hearty past of antique civilizationswhile Nimrod self-reliance" ("there's no mistakein me") uses homespun, nativeallusions taken from instinctively give him the wisdom tochoose the For example, Jenkins is made American nature. right course.' "The material development of to say "By all the snakes onthe head of Medusa" nineteenth century America needed aphilosophy and Mrs. Wollope is shown todeclare that less than it needed action, butAmericans Nimrod is a "modern centaur,"while the hero, satisfied both needs by developing aphilosophy when he wants to, who can quote Shakespeare of action," Wardobserves.17 Wildfire's tariff declares himself to possessthe brute strength this - speech is a grotesque enlargment of horse and and natural cunning, of both the primitivistic philosophy. It held that the alligator combined with the"elementalpower of uncorrupted "heart sees fartherthan the head." the earthquake." That Mrs. Wollope misinter- It makes thought subordinate toaction.le prets Wildfire's metaphorictitle of "horse" Nothing could be more illustrativeof this to mean an.'officer ofthe cavalry' only.prOves 21 ...A TEXT FOR NATIONAL IDEN'T'ITY philosophy than the way Wildfire became a the year of the play."'' Afterwards, as research Congressman. As a gigantic personification of will show, they became commonplace expressions the ethic of democratic equality, Wildfire of western folk speech. literally gets down in the mud with the boatman. His long tale underlines the belief in the TheBackwoodsman and OW American Myth "dynamic relation between physical nature and Crockett, however, is not the only histori- human character" which Ward considers a hallmark cal figure who ought to be associated with the of the Jacksonian attitude. And, as Wildfire's character of Wildfire. The rhapsody of the introduction to his fight tale makes clear, the backwoodsman pulls us back to the earlier figure point of his narrative is that he proved he was the best man--"the yaller flower of the forest," of Daniel Boone. Apotheosized as early as 1784 a trile "beauty"--in a fight conductedaccording asj"the free-lance frontiersman, 'ordained by to nature's rules. Repudiating the artificial GcAl to settle the wilderness,'" years before he rules of the European gentleman, the half horse, answered Hackett's advertisement, Boone had half alligator creed of the west called for struck Paulding as the personification of un- In 1817 Paulding every man to make his own way upin the world leashed American energy.29 showed he shared in the myth of Daniel Boone by "Old Mississippi style."19 boasting that Boone and his fellow Kentuckians Mliffire'sbiflucticcontheCrocketOdyth could "march to the north pole and shoot out Historians have correctly noted that .the the wind's eye, iia it were no bigger than the This boast, of course, figure of' Wildfire suggests the career and point of a needle." reputation of Davy Crockett, the backwoods ought to remind us of the type of brag militia colonel from Tennessee who came to characteristic of the "screamer" played by Congress in 1827. Hackett." As Richard Slotkin argues in Regeneration Through Violence, by 1833 Americans had come to regard Boone as the avy Crockett's archetype of a new species of man--the ALMANACK,37 westerner. "A Nimrod by instinct and physical OF WILD SPORTS IN THE WEST, character," this new type of American according Life im the Backwoods, & ketches of 71,xas. to Timothy Flint's Indian Wars of the West, mixed "wild recklessness" with "high notions of honor and generosity." It is likely, there- fore, that in looking for a new role for him- self Hackett fused the myth of Boone; the Kentucky Nimrod, with the celebrity of Crockett, the Jacksonian Wildfire. The result was Nimrod Wildfire, not an historicalfigure but an element in the story which Americans told about themselves in order to give dramatic character to their subjective interpretation of themselves. In conclusion, this short play covers more ground than may appear at Eirst view. It is historically multidimensional. It moves back- wards in time. It lightly sums up an episode which seriously affected the American psyche- the literary war between England andAmerica.' Most importantly of all, the conceptswith which The Lion of the West deals remain important aspects of American culture. For instance, in the prototypical western novel The Virginian (1902), Owen Wister putthe back- 141..N111114, 101: 11I*1..1 OP KE11TI,rKY171 woodsman on horseback and brought theopposi- Soho 'r.....*re. n0,110..4 I, the 1:/;e1;;. tions of reason/understanding, nature/ Documentary evidence shows that Paulding civilization, masculine/feminine, and east mind (Europe) /west (America) onto the plains of had the specific character of Crockett in Closer to our own day is the case when he composed his play.2° Wyoming." While historians and critics have written of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Filled with the about the importance of Davy Crockett as amodel mythic idealization of the cowboy, highly said skilled in the practice of the western tall for Nimrod Wildfire, much less has been Jackson in about the contribution Paulding's sketch madeto tale, campaigning in 1964 like "Andy a jetliner," Lyndon B. Johnsonbrought the the image of Crockett.21 Students of the play would do well to follow the lead of thefolk- spirit of The Lion of the West into the White lorist Joseph Arpad who found thatWildfire's House.29 If as Clifford Geertz suggests, "the monologue of his fight with the riverboatman was culture of a .people is an ensemble of texts," Paulding first then Paulding's little farce is a good source a revised version of a tale identity. recorded in his Letters from the South, awork for a closer reading of the American From LBJ to the western heroes we see on he published in 1817." As Arpad demonstrates, campaigning became a television anchin the movies, from Mark Twain's this satire on Jacksonian characters to the Davy Crokett legends, from feature of the Crockett legend. Similarly, subsequently the latest English traveler to report on our Wildfire's tariff speech was also republicanism' to put into the mouth of Crockettby the builders manners and the state of our The contribution the Mrs. Trollope and her predecessors,from the of the Crockett myth.23 myth-of Daniel Boone to the image of JohnWayne, play made to the popular conceptionof the back- woodsman extendsbeyond the tales, however. and from 1830 to today, it has been acted and Indeed, as Walter Blair and Hamlin Hillnote, reenacted." "Wildfire's most peculiar phrases hadbrief histories or no histories at all before1830. "Heroes or Clowns': Comic :;upermpnfrom7-- Subliturature." Selection from Daniel 3. Boorstin The Americans: The National Experience (courtesy or Randan House: Ncw York, 1965), pp.327-334 EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY Americaoffered many obvious features of aHeroic Age--a half- known wilderness where men werethreatened by untamed animals and hostile tribes--andit is nut surprising that there soon appearedAmerican counterparts of the ancient heroes. Rut the uncertainties of national boundaries andaspira- tions and language, and the unsureline between fact and hope, had their counterpartsin uncer- tain boundaries between the heroic andthe comic. Our first popular heroes came onthe scene to a chorus of horse-laughs. American humor and American popularheroes were born together. The first popular heroes of the new nation were comic heroesand the first popular humor of the new nation wasthe antics of its heroic clowns. The comic and the novel American Compare the above portrait ofiVro.Trollope from her heroic were mixed and combined in Trollope 1 What were the dominant themes of Domestic Mcuslero to the caricature of "The proportions. 03. these mock-heroics? What made them comic, and family," from America ao Art. p. what made them heroic? The heroic themes are obviousenough and MRS. TROLLOP] much differerit from those ofother times and Richard.M. Mrs. Trollope set out for Americanwith places. The Crockett legends, as the Dorson has explained, repeat thefamiliar pattern three of her five children to retrieve family fortunes, when her husband'sfinancial of the Old World heroic story: "the prominence Like in myth has a difficulties grew to alarmingproporti3Ons. of a mighty hero whose fame many other English people, shehad heard encour- tenuous basis in fact; singlecombats in which friend against dread antago- aging stories about this country from a he distinguishes himself with whom she first settled, butwhen/that nists both man and beast; vowsand boastings; headed'for his horse, situation proved unpropitious, she pride of the hero in his weapons, Cincinnati (the Dallas of its day)With',--the his dog, his woman; theremarkable birth and department store precocious strength of the hero; atragic intention of opening a fancy but mortal which would specialize inimported/fineries. death in which the invincible Despite her qualities of enterprise and champion is treacherously orunnaturally slain." Roland, and King imagination, she was a poor business woman. Achilles, Beowulf, Siegfried, She planned too grandiose abuilding, was Arthur--each in his own timeand place--relived *** *** cheated by local contractors, and when the the familar heroic role. *** department store finally opened; she had to In a world full of the unexpected,where all her extravagantly defined, declare bankruptcy and allow the goods norms were vaguely husband had shipped to her tobe possessed as readers of the Crocicett legends were neverquite whether partial payment of her debts. / certain whether to laugh or to applaud, Meanwhile, she had conceived the plan to what they saw and heard was wonderful,awful or write her book of observation To this end, ridiculous. "May be," wrote Crockett, "you'll spoke to In .a more she travelled widely in this country, laugh at me, and not at my book." /and took copious fully explored, better known, more predicable as many people as she could, world, they would have been more certain of the notes of her impressions. / She, and the book she wrote, became over- meaning of what they saw andof the reactions night sensations on bothsides of the Atlantic Crockett's boastings were they should express. upon its publication. Encouraged by, this from the honest success, she continued her career as awriter not entirely distinguishable blatant lies optimism:of the booster, from the of both travel books and novels,producing of the land-promoter, orfrom the common hope- over thirty works in the nexttwenty years and fulness of the transient. Even today, when we encouraging her son, AnthonY, in his career as spectacle of the are fascinated by the, novelist. American superman of that age, we areseldom Although the English made fun of her as beautiful, the sure why. Are we admiring the did the Americans, moderneaders tend to take grand, the big, or the ugly? a.more sympathetic view ofthis woman, who The vastness and variety andfreshness of supported her family by he wit and industry, the American landscape,of dts.flora and fauna, and whose remarks about this countryshow a of custom and costume,nourished American sub- shrewd intelligence andhonest analytic powers. It is only a half-truth, literature . . Selections from Frances Trollope, DomesticManners therefore, to speak ofAmerican humor and (courtesy of "regional." of the Americans, ed. Donald Smalley American heroics in this period as Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1949) Their wider comic and heroicappeal, . . . and their place as nationallegend, finally "Treatment of Inaiarl"' (pp. 221-22) came from the factthat there was a large from these We were at Washington at the time thatthe audience of fellow Americans remote last of several tribes scenes that was eagerfor entertainment and measure for chasing the of Indians from their forest homes, was... for sagas to dramatizethe distinctive appeal and grandeur of their wholecountry., Regional decided upon... If the American character may possible a be judged by theirconduCt in this matter, they distinctions themselves thus made defiient in every feeling flourishing national subliterature. are most lamentably

23 SELECTIONS DOMESTIC MANNERS

very sorlace of such a man's principlesthat fa honour and inlegrity...treacherous andfalse almost beyond belief in their intercourse with is revolting. 1 L is not among the higher classes that Hie possession of slavesproduces . . . It. is impossible for the unhappy Indians. Among the poorer class of any mind of common honesty not to berevolted the worst effects. by the contradictions in their principlesand landholders, who are often as profoundly ignorant as the negroes they own, the effect practice. ...lYlou will see them with one females hand hoisting the cap of liberty, andwith the of this plenary power, over males and You will see them is must demoralising; and the !:' ad of coarse, other flogging their slaves. is exercised, one hour lecturing their mob on theindefeasible not to say brutal, authority which rights of man, and the next driving fromtheir furnishes the most disgusting moral spectacle homes the children of the soil, whom theyhave 1 ever witnessed. bound themselves to protect by the most solemn "Theatres" (pp. 339-40) lr'eaLies. There are three theatres at New York, all "Young Girls and Young Marriages" of which we visited. The Park Theatre is the (p. 1113) only one licensed by fashion, but the Bowery .Even the young girls, though oftenwith is *finitely superior in beauty; it is lovely features, look pale, thin, andhaggard.... indeed as pretty a theatre as I ever entered, The horror of domestic service, which the perfect as to size and proportion, elegantly reality of slavery, and the fable of equality, decorated, and the scenery and machinery equal have generated, excludes the young womenfrom to any in London,...it requires some courage of to decide upon going [to the Chatham]; nordo that sure and most comfortable resource penetrated so decent. English girls; and the consequenceis, I think my curiosity would have that with a most irreverend freedom of manner far, had I not seen Miss Mitford's Rienzi to the full advertised there,... [In] spite of very to the parents, the daughters are, The extent of the word, domestic slaves. This indifferent acting,I was delighted. condition, which no periodical merrymaking, no interest must have been great, for till the village fete, ever occurs to cheer, isonly curtain' fell, I saw not one quarter of the changed for the still sadder burdens of a teem- queer things around me: then I,observed in the front row of a dressbox alady performing the ing wife.. . . . The slender, childish thing, without vigour of mind or body, is made tostem most maternal office possible; several gentlemen a sea of troubles that dims her youngeye and without their coats, and a general air of con- makes her chock grow pale, even beforenature tempt for the decencies of life, certainly more has given it the last beautifulfinish of the than usually revolting. full-grown woman. "Money" (p. 301) "We shall get along," is the answerin of advice Nothing can exceed their activity and per- full, for all that can be said in way handicraft, to a boy and girl who take itinto their heads severance in all kinds of speculation, "get married." and enterprise, which promises a profitable to go before a magistrate and I heard en Englishman, who had And they do get along, till sicknessovertakes pecuniary result. com- been long resident in America, declare that... them, and where this happens, they are with- pletely without resource. he had never overheard Americans conversing out the word DOLLAR baing pronounced between "Equality"(pp. 120 -21) them. Such unity of purpose, such sympathy of Any man's son may become theequal of any feeling, can, I believe, be found nowhere else, of this except, perhaps, in an ants' nest. The result other man's son, and the consciousness This is certainly a spur to exertion; onthe other is exactly what might.be anticipated. hand, it is also a spur to that coarsefamil- sordid object, for ever before their eyes, must inevitably produce a sordid tone of mind, and, iarity, untempered by any shadow of respect, blunted which is assumed by the grossest andthe low- worse still, it produces a seared and est in their intercourse with thehighest and conscience on all questions of probity. most refined. This is a positive evil, and, I "Th think, more than balances its advantages. "Treatment c,f Women" (pp. 156-57)

. . . The theory of equality may be very In America, with ,the exception of dancing, daintily discussed by English gentlemenin a which is almost wholly confined to the unmarried London dining-room,-,when the servant,having of both sexes, all the enjoyment of the men are placed a fresh bottle-Of coolwine on the table, found in the absence of the women...Were it not respectfully shuts the door, andleaves them to it will be that such is the custom, it is impossible but their walnuts and their widom; but that they would have ingenuity enough tofind found less palatable when itpresents itself wives and daugh- and is some expedient for sparing the in the shape of a hard, greasy paw, ters of the opulent the sordid officesof house- claimed in accents that breathe lessof freedom hold drudgery which they almost all performin Strong, indeed, than of onions and whiskey. their families. Even in the slave states, must be the love of equallityin an English though they may not clear-starch and iron, mix breast if it cap survive a tourthrough the puddings and cakes one-half of the day, and Union. watch them baking the other half, stillthe "Treatment of Slaves"(p. 247) very highest occupy themselvesin their house- hold concerns, in a manner that preclndesthe ...[Slavery's1 effects on the moral possibility of ':.heir becoming elegant and . . . are -unques- feelings and external manners enlightened companions. In Baltimore, Phila- tionably most injurious. The same man who delphia, and New York, I met with some exceptions .beards his wealthier and moreeducated neigh- generally, "I'm as good as to this; but speaking of the country bour with the bullying boast, it is unquestionably true. you," turns to his slave, andknocks him down, if the furrow he has ploughed, orthe log he has felled, please not thisstickler for L.4=s.4.21t

the . equality. There is a glaring falsehood on II; r Tr.,tlope farm lit.1)11 frioud QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: rom Amur ca An Art, t:c,! p,r.tpal.t ON p.

1. What moral .1nd cultural. values of the various charac,%r .in the play conflict? 2. What vale.. ,ou think Paulding was implying throi pliy? 3. In what wo% es Paulding make some of the charactet. riiiieulous and in what ways not? 4. In what ways do we, as amodern audience with different attitudes toward womenand blacks, view theplay's treatment of Mrs. Wollope? of Caes4C of Nimrod? of the Freemans? the 5. What do you think were the values of original audience, and how do these compare with our own? rumdr- 6. Why did Davy Crockett encourage the that Nimrod was modelled on him? York and 7. Why was the play a big hit in New London but disliked out West? far as we 8. What was the societal effect, so can tell, of this play'ssuccess? hero 9. Compare the treatment of the western Americans: Then and Now: in this play to that in Arthur Kopit'sIndians of 1. Would Mrs. Wollope's Academy have. fulfilled and John Bishop's The Great Grandson a need in America? Jedediah Kohler. (In the latter play, the hero, 2. Why do you think Mrs. Wollope/Trollope was modern descendant of the mythic western so devastatingly negative about life in the Jedediah Kohler, says of his ancestor, But What do you think U. S. A.? Assess the validity of -er views. he was on the wrong side!" 3. Mrs. Freeman terms Wildfire "a s; age." this means?) Do you agree? What kind of a mythic hero isNimrod? 10. might 4. As a Congressman, Nimrod Wildf' had been 11. How would a mythic western hero you exposed to the civilizing influenc ,f invent differ from Nimrod Wildfire? Washington society, yet he retain e speech and manners of a raw frontiersma, 17? Structure: 5. Compare Mrs. Trollope's view rica with representative of . 'mately 1. In what ways is the play those of two French observers of o nineteenth century comedy? In what respects the same period--J. H. St. John Cr L ec ,r and is it a genuine original? Alexis de Tocqueville. Also with the later 2. What can you learn about thenineteenth writings of Charles Dickens and her own son century theatre by comparingthe plots of the Anthony Trollope. play's three versions? 6. Describe the plot of a novel entitled James 3. Ca;. you compare this playto Shakespeare's N. Tidwell, Detective. Twelfth Night? How? 7. Why did the Whigs cultivate Davy Crockett the princi- 4. Show how the language used by and shape his legend? pals helps to characterize them. 8. Why is there so much disagreement about the characters in similar 5. In dramatic theory, true character of Davy Crockett? positions whose personalities arecontrasted 9. Compare today's election campaign procedures by the dramatist_are called"dramatic foils." with those of Davy Crockett's times. (The term is derived fromfencing.) Which 10. The frontier in the play is Kentucky. How characte, s serve as.foils towhich others? was the concept of it changed in American How does Bernard relate themain plot to thought? 6. continues to be an the sub ot? 11. The tariff question the possibility Today the American auto, elec- 7. Why do we never worry about important issue. of Jenkins being killed in theduel? tronics, steel, and other industries protest Japanese imports; shoe manufacturers demand action against Brazil, Italy, and Taiwan; the Procluttp.O1Wr clothing industry cites its losses, because of Eltiyetar imagination how did you cast the 1. foreign competition. Should a tax be placed on charaeVrs7, imports to protect domestic producers? Should Tfie)tokray calls for two quite spectacular 2. scene certain industries be protected in the interests scenlptlice party, and the duel- kidnapping of national defense and welfare? whichArdifficult technically to execute. 12. Do you think political imagemaking is How wy..31d7-you stage thosescenes? easier today than it was in the 1830's? Can you Afterreading the play, what doyo.0 think 3. "mis-reading" of Mrs. give modern examples, of manipulation by the is thej.Dasis for Nimrod's press of a public figure? Wollopeletter? 13. Could you tell the story of Davy Crockett Ifflycki-could pick any well-known actorsfor 4. this play? from his wife's point-of-view? the loys.how-would you cast 14. How is the cheap money question being costuMe'it2. stage it? resolved' today? HoWmuch of the humor comesfrom the diver- 5. without, 15. Does Nimrod Wildfire/Davy Crockett fit your gent accents?Try the dialogue with and idea of the quintessential American? and see. 25 ft ttet t! :2 I ( on( t

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t;to ! f'% ":.-1 1(otort tLrt, An:snitso o, at:(,:an.7.7Trt71, t. Yorl, 190).rm. 1111.1i;:j%1 t;.c.:, :Jr,roe 'in., 1. !lore1,1,.Yam',, Ci n1,1 t;:. ,t ; ( s f rlst ,1-teri,t,(moo ; 1, 'C1f171 of ,: trd ,lot or," pr,4C-61. for ,r1( , rf .f . r'in s . .ve; f_re ," ' 'c'ano 11osic,, t...lo..17cv in /7-677-7/7'7:, 7 p.70. YVotof%.r vioitore till. l'"It rt, f2.1. r!,;(rit t;7._ P,,NIJOXi,t71 ,1:1 i iforr7it Acrioa, WW, onarastor,021010, c1,? o 10, 71:e r.(11.1,14,:f Soo 1:1-thae: Karnon, Poor!.' or CO',Minrjthe 01i,.4ino 7%... a Iv, 1i o t t'ant 1.5'/11. ,1 1 1.471), ihfst ...11 i"-:, 11 tar:, ,!...ttr 1 07. nidi, j), " rp. 71. ;:. fro,. C.rra.,,, f;. 2f 4n: WI 1.1 fire fi7 trton, p1 so doocriptions 0 "PauLdt " i o',to t / frr.,1,7 :IL 7. it . te,tt'o t:ont 1e." ....crtt.otrerp.l.tri; '11:ot, to 55,:o 7 I.`,...:,r 4' 14 travel booke. .1,1.7., of el.:too:ea( drooriptt:or of 8140:1 .. rr firett i.t.bZiAed I.: hie ;ravel., ,:t.ered tre AV, C.I a: to :;s1G, Foil: Terorr.Ted 7lIt'tot. at. tIc ..P: Fro,ti co ,7,0,1011, 100.1), pp. -57, . isr% ;4,-119. J., 1'. I'ti.c11 % qr,r!ed 1; Poatright, A p ml tt t' , (pp. ')Si t ' et.,.^p?ica ii2t t-f t7,7 01113:. 7.r.s!itty CONTRIBUTORS AND PI URE CREDITS: sogdolloger or socdologer: a fierce sock or a terrible wallop. dubious, Dr. Vera Jiji has writt n all unsigned iubus: a variation of juberous, articles and has chosen and rranged doubtful. the primary source materials and illustrations. Were the words in thesestories really She is a professor of English at Brooklyn . . . discom- College whose interest in the relationrship words? Gullywhumping, slantendicler, boberate, absquatulate,homogification, circum- between drama and society has led to the Elegancies? Il- Play: bustifikashun, flutterbation. creation of the Program for Culture at How much of at all was ahoax? Multimedia Studies in American Drama. This literacies? project, sponsored in part by the NEH, issuing a series of studies of unjustly Daniel J. Boorstin Picture Credito: neglected American plays. We are also producing half-hour video-tapes showing segments of some Scene from The Contrast, Harvard Theatre Col- of them which will be available through our lection, p.2. This is the first in Brooklyn College office. "Covent Garden," in Richard Southern, The Vic- our series. Pictorial Surveu, p. 4. Dr. Glenn Loney (Editorial Consultant)is a torian Theatro. professor of theatre at Brooklyn Collge and in "A Georgian Theatre, Z788," from Brooks McNamara, the Theatre Ph. D. Program at the 'CityUniver- The America Playhouse in the 18th Century, p.5. sity Graduate Center. His special interest is founding "Box at the Theatre," from Frances Trollope, American Theatre History, and he's a Domes tie Manners of the Americans, ed. Donald Smalley, member of the League of Historic American (Alfred A.Knopf, Inc., Z949), Plate XXII, p.6. Theatres. A drama critic and theatrejournalist, he has just edited an anthology ofnineteenth James Hackett as Nimrod Wildfire, Harvard century American dramas about the FarWest. Theatre Collection, p.9. Florence Polatnick taught SocialStudies James H.Hackett, portrait. Scrapbook, Lincoln for 20 years, has done extensivecurriculum work, Center Library and Museum, Astor and Tilden Found- conducted workshops, and acted'as aneducational ations, N. Y. P. L., p. 10. consultant. In 1971, she was named outstanding teacher by the National Council forGeographic "Balfe's new opera of Geraldine," from Richard Education.' Author of two books on Africaand Southern, The Victorian Theatre: A Pictorial Sur- articles i9 professional journals, Mrs. vey (New York,1970), p. 12. Polatnick is now "retired" and keeps outof "Inside View of the New Theatre," Philadelphia, mischief by lecturing, giving in-servicecourses 1794, from a print by Ralph in the N.Y. Magazine. and writing. Reprinted in McNamara, Q. Cit., p. 14. Dr. Gerald Warshaver, AssistantProfessor Brooklyn David Crockett, frontispiece, Shackford, David in American Studies and English at Crockett, the Man and the Legend (ChapelHill, College, holds a Ph. D. from theFolklore Z956), p.15. Institute of Indi:-ne University. His research practice of interests encompa§;,IThe theory and James K.Paulding, frontispiece from Win. Paulding, The urban folklife and history as well asthe popular Literary Life of James K. Paulding (New York:CharlJa literary-historical contexts of American Scribner & Co., 1867), courtesy Charles Scribner & sans, p. 18. culture. a(writer and editor w:th Unidentified artist, Davy Crockett, woodcut. From Marilyn Miller is Davy Crockett Almanack, 1837, p. 20. an interest in AmericanViterature and drama. Mrs. Frances Trollope, frontispiece, Domestic Manners 'GLOSSARY op. Cit., p.21. Note on "backwoods lingo"in The Lion of the Cephaa G. Childs & Henry Inman, The Trollope Family, T. Peters, "America on Stone," Lithography Col- West. H. Tall talk is language that makes anoise; lection. Courtesy, Smithsonian Institute, National it's intensive and extravagant. "To the Museum of American History, p. 23. freedoms they already enjoyed,"observes Mody Franklin House about 1840.197. Broadway, north- Boatright in Folk Laughter on theAmerican west corner of Dey St. Lithographer:Bufford. Frontier (New York, 1949), p.146. "the folk Plate III of "Life in New York" Series.Photo, of the West added another--thefreedom to use Collection, Museum of the-City of New York, cover. language freely." The Lion of the West contains several examples of the"free speech" Additional copies of the Sourcebook at These terms, like $2.00 each and paperback copies of of the frontier movement. James K. Paulding, The Lion of the West other lawless coinages ofbackwoods slang, had However, (reissued with permission of Unirsity some basis in western usages. are writers who popularized thefigure of the of Stanford Press) at $3.00 backwoodsman for eastern audiencesmost likely available by order from: built upon western usage. The Nimrod Wildfires and DavyCrocketts of stageand the comic, Professor Vera Jiji press spoke an extrathick version of the back- Department of English woods lingo in order to intensifyand exagger- Brooklyn College between themselves and Bedford Ave. & Ave. H ate the social distance Brooklyn, N.Y. 11210 their eastern audience. series in The Lion of The next play to be featured in this The following coinages appear is George Aiken, Uncle Tom's Cabin(1852) the West: with terror and catawampus: a term associated Typing: Georgina Collins and Muriel Pader mayhem. John Summers tetotaciously exflunctified: totally crushed, Photo reproductions: demolished, or beaten. 27 Produced at The Print Center, Inc., Box 1050, Brooklyn,N.Y., 11202, a non-profit printing facility for literary andarta-related publications. Funded by The New York State Council on the Arta and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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