Page:Representative American plays.pdf/348



Francesca da Rimini marks the climax of romantic tragedy in this country. It illustrates also the tendency to lay the scenes of romantic plays in Italy, Spain, or France; our playwrights feeling apparently that the removal of the scene of such plays from their native land was an essential. With Boker, however, the choice was based on broader lines and was justified by his real understanding of the characters and their story.

George Henry Boker was born in Philadelphia, October 6, 1823, coming from a well established family, and graduating from Princeton College in 1842. He studied law but never practised it, and after marriage and some foreign travel, devoted his entire attention to his literary work. His first publication, The Lesson of Life and other Poems (1848), consisted of lyric and ethical verse, and except for the sonnets gave no indication of his later ability. He next published Calaynos, his first play, in 1848. This was played without his permission being asked, by Samuel Phelps, at the Sadlers Wells Theatre in London on May 10, 1849, and was successful. It was first performed in this country by James E. Murdoch at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, January 20, 1851, running for nine nights, and was several times played in Chicago, Albany, and Baltimore. E. L. Davenport appeared as "Calaynos" at the Walnut Street Theatre in April, 1855. In this first tragedy, Boker showed where his strength lay, that is in the representation of strong passion in verse. Calaynos is based on the dislike of the Spaniard for Moorish blood, and in a masterly way he represented the pride of race on both sides that resulted inevitably in disaster.

Anne Boleyn, his next play, was intended for the stage, but was not acted. It was published in 1850, and there are evidences that Charlotte Cushman was considering it, at one time. The Betrothal was first played at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, on September 25, 1850, where it ran for ten nights, according to Durang, "with as brilliant success as ever greeted any production within the walls of the edifice." It was played in New York, November 18, 1850, and had two successful runs, and was put on in London in 1853. The Betrothal is a romantic comedy in verse, concerned with the rescue of Costanza di Tiburzzi from the proposed marriage to Marzio, a rich merchant, who has her father in his power. It is a distinct advance over Calaynos and Anne Boleyn in dramatic effectiveness.

The World a Mask, a prose comedy, with occasional passages in blank verse, was played for eight nights at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia,