Page:Representative American plays.pdf/63

46 -- The author of The Contrast, Royall Tyler, was born in Boston, July 18, 1757. He graduated from Harvard College and, after studying law, became aide-de-camp to General Benjamin Lincoln during the Revolution and later during Shays's Rebellion. Coming to New York City on a mission connected with Shays's Rebellion, he became interested in the theatre and wrote The Contrast, which was performed at the John Street Theatre, April 16, 1787, by the American Company, under Hallam and Henry. The principal part, that of "Jonathan," was played by Thomas Wignell. It was repeated several times in New York and was played in Baltimore (1787-8), in Philadelphia (1790) and in Boston. It was revived on June 6, 7, and 8, 1912, in connection with a Pageant given at Brattleboro, Vermont.

Tyler wrote a farce, May Day in Town or New York in an Uproar, which was performed at the John Street Theatre on May 18, 1787. He then returned to Boston, where he wrote in 1797, A Georgia Spec or Land in the Moon, which dealt with the rage for speculating in Georgia lands of the Yazoo Purchase. It was first played in Boston and later in New York at the John Street Theatre, December 20, 1797. According to Dunlap's manuscript Diary, A Georgia Spec, which he calls A Good Spec, was repeated February 12, 1798. Major F. W. Childs, of Brattleboro, Vermont, where Royall Tyler lived from 1801 to 1826, states in a recent letter that there exists in manuscript a play of Tyler's called The Duelists, performed at the Federal Street Theatre in Boston in 1797. Tyler also wrote a romance, The Algerine Captive (1797) but devoted himself definitely to the profession of law, becoming Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont in 1807. He died in August, 1826.

Tyler gave the copyright of The Contrast to Thomas Wignell and the latter published it in Philadelphia in 1790, with an introduction in which he states that "it was written by one who never critically studied the rules of the drama, and indeed had seen but few of the exhibitions of the stage; it was undertaken and finished in the course of three weeks." It was reprinted by the Dunlap Society in 1887 with an introduction by Thomas J. McKee. The other plays of Tyler are not now available.

The present edition is based upon a copy of the edition of 1790, which belonged to William B. Wood, the Philadelphia Manager.

On January 16 and 18, 1917, The Contrast was played under the auspices of the American Drama Committee of the Philadelphia Drama League at the Broad Street Theatre in connection with the celebration of the American Drama Year. The cast was drawn from the "Plays and Players" of Philadelphia, and the production revealed the truly remarkable qualities of the play, which was staged under the direction of Mrs. Otis Skinner.