Page:Representative American plays.pdf/272



Tortesa the Usurer is a representative of the romantic comedy in verse. While not nearly so frequently written as the verse tragedy, this form of play had some notable examples, such as Boker's Betrothal. The author of Tortesa, Nathaniel Parker Willis, was born in Portland, Maine, January 20, 1806, of Puritan ancestry. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and graduated from Yale College in 1827. While in college he wrote verse, much of it of a religious character, which represented a phase of his development out of which he later passed entirely. In 1831 he went to New York City and with George R. Morris and Theodore S. Fay published the New York Mirror. The next five years he spent in Europe and the East, meeting everywhere interesting people and reflecting his experiences in letters to the Mirror which were published in his Pencillings by the Way (1835). After his return to this country in 1836 he spent some time in Washington and lived for five years at Glenmary, a spot near the head-waters of the Susquehanna River, where he wrote his Letters from Under a Bridge (1839), probably the best of his prose work, and it was during this most significant period of Willis's life that his plays were written. Financial necessity compelled him to return to New York, however. In 1843 he became editor of the New Mirror and in 1846 of the Home Journal. The last years of his life were spent in a heroic effort to keep the Journal going, despite the drawback of ill health. One of the most appealing phases of our literary history reflects his generosity toward the other writers of the time, especially toward Poe. His defense of Poe which he published in the Home Journal as an answer to Griswold's attack, is a fine example of true sympathy and understanding combined with rare delicacy of expression. Willis died January 20, 1867.

His first play, Bianca Visconti, was written in competition for a prize offered by Josephine Clifton for the best play suited to her talents. It was first played at the Park Theatre, New York, August 25, 1837, and was performed afterward in Boston and Philadelphia. It was played as late as May, 1852, by Miss M. Davenport in Philadelphia. It is a verse tragedy, laid in Milan in the fourteenth century, and is based on the history of the real Francesco Sforza who married the natural daughter of Philip Visconti and later became Duke of Milan. In the same year, November 29, 1837, Miss Clifton produced a comedy by Willis, called The Kentucky Heiress, which was not successful.

Tortesa the Usurer was written for James W. Wallack, who produced it at the National Theatre in New York, April 8, 1839, playing "Tortesa." It was