A HEEZTQRY OF THE AMEMCAN COUNRQOM PLAY Thesis {m {'ho Dogma a§ pit. D. in’éECEiGikN 3&1? UHWERSEYY Thomas Re Long 196-8 LIBRARY This is to certify that the thesis entitled A HISTORY or m AMERICAN mm PLAY presented by name: mm has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for __Pl_‘l_._D;__ degree in .m— 1- /fi\"€_._‘ .‘ ‘ ‘1 Major professor Date ‘ 0-169 ABSTRACT A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN COURTROOM PLAY by Thomas R0 Long An affinity between the drama and the courtroom has bmairecognized throughout history by outstanding dramatic thanflsts and legal authoritieso Furthermore, some of the most pnmunent playwrights in history have recognized a court of law asaidramatic arenao From the very beginnings of extant drama, wiuithe writings of AristOphanes, to the present day, play- vuights have found form and meaning within the sc0pe of what. takes place in a court of law and have used the action in a mnutroom as a means of dramatic eXpressiono A look into the history of American drama reveals that American playwrights Jflso have produced courtroom plays in all our periods of historyo The purpose of this study was to relate the history of 11m American courtroom play from the time the earliest court- nxmlplay was written in America to the present day° Five general bodies of sources were examined: (1) cat- alogues and compilations of play lists and descriptionS; (2)}fistories of the drama and literature, particularly those Vuitten solely about America: (3) histories and annals of the- anxical production in America: (4) newspaper and periodical Thomas R, Long accounts of plays and their productions; and, (5) play manu- scripts. Primarily, the facilities of seven libraries were utilized to locate the manuscripts and gather the material for the study: The Michigan State University Library, East Lansing, .Michigan; The University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor, Mich- igan; The William L. Clements Library at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; The Library of Congress, Wash- ington, D.C.; The New York Public Library, New York City, New York; The Chicago Public Library, Chicago, Illinois; and, The School of Drama Library at The University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma. This study was limited to American plays in which the main concern or principal action of each play takes place in a courtroom, It was further required that each play discussed have a minimum of approximately one-third of its action as courtroom participation, Sixty-six plays were found to meet these requirements, It was discovered that the first American courtroom play was anonymously written in 1771, that being The Trial of Atticus, Before Justice Beau, For A Rape, From 1771 to the Civil War six courtroom plays were found to exist in American dramatic literature, From the Civil War to World War One twenty-two courtroom plays emerged, and from World War One to Thomas R. Long ‘the present day, thirty—eight courtroom plays were found. The sixty-six plays discussed in this study were found to be a significant body of drama and theatre for the follow- ing reasons: (1) important themes were found in many of the works including the themes involving racial injustice, individ- ual responsibility to important causes, the rights of Man to _certain freedoms, and the ridiculousness and futility of War; (2) the courtroom play was found to be a contributor to dramatic form, particularly in the develOpment of the "flashback" as a theatrical device. Elmer Rice’s On Trial was found to be the first play in which this device was used significantly in any American drama; since the production of this play in 1914, many dramatists have used the technique of “flashbacks;" (3) the courtroom play was found to be a provider of enter- tainment for audiences in every period of American history; courtroom plays were seen to rank high on the list of pOpular plays on the New York stage; and, (4) the courtroom play was seen as a reflection of the American scene, concerning itself with subjects mirroring the problems of the American Republic including the threat of foreign Oppression, the internal problems of social deterioration, the concern with inade— quacies in The Law, and the representation of personages in history who can be identified as American in type and motive. A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN COURTROOM PLAY by , ' high} i Thomas REVLOng A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Speech 1966 V. "x /. 1 I" I :7 / 1’ f. ' ’ . "I K} .2 / / r ‘; ’.~. .- -‘ ~ ,j COpyright by THOMAS RAYMOND LONG 1967 ACRJOWLEDGME NTS My sincere thanks to Dr. James Brandon, who served as bmajor Professor and Chairman of the Committee for this Dis- sertation. Dr. Brandon's excellent guidance and assistance 'were particularly helpful to me. My thanks also to Dr. Kenneth Hance, Dr. Walter Emery, Dr. Sidney Berger, and Mr. Frank D. Day, all of whom served on the Committee. I am also grateful to my friend and teacher, Dr. Roger M. Busfield, Jr., who guided me through the pilot study and helped stimulate many ideas for this paper. The advice and reassurance of Dr. Carl B. Cass is also greatly appreciated. The encouragement of Mr. Donald Buell, Mr. Rupel J. Jones and Congressman Herbert C. Bonner, all of Whom are de- ceased, was inspirational. Their contributions to the writing of this work were of a personal nature. I shall always be thankful to Mother and Dad for their constant faith in me, and no words can be found to express my deepest gratitude to my wife, Jean, and our children, for their patience and devotion throughout the writing of this Dissertation. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................... ii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Statement of Purpose Justification Definition of Terms Limitations Methods and Procedures II. THE AMERICAN COURTROOM PLAY FROM 1771 TO THE CIVIL WAR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Introduction The Plays A Satire On Jurisprudence A Pacifist Play A Morality Play A Romantic Verse Tragedy Solon Shingle, A "Stage Yankee” Another Satire On Jurisprudence IIII. THE AMERICAN COURTROOM PLAY FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Introduction The Plays American History Domestic Problems A Rural Folk-Comedy Violent Crime Politics and Big Business Special Talents 1K7. THE AMERICAN COURTROOM PLAY BETWEEN THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE PRESENT DAY. 0 . . . . . . 116 Introduction iii Chapter Page The Plays Comedies and Folk Plays Concerning Domestic Problems Serious Plays Concerning Domestic Problems Social Protest Plays Plays Concerning Politics Plays Concerning War and the Military Plays Concerning Aspects of American Law Caponsacchi: An Historical Romantic Verse Tragedy Plays Concerning Religion and Morality V. SUMMARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Introduction Chronology Courtroom Plays Reflect Trends In Drama Playwrights and Adaptations PeOple and Events POpular Plays and Actors Themes Significances APPENDIX 0 O 0 0 o O O O 0 O 0 0 O 0 O 0 0 O 0 O O O 0 285 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................... 295 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Statement of Purpose The purpose of this study is to relate the history of the American courtroom play from the time the earliest court- room play was written in America to the present day. Justification What takes place in a court of law is manifestly dra- matic. There are inherent conflict and drama in the courtroom during a trial. This is due to a trial‘s component parts of prosecution, defense and judgment. The component characters, too, of defendant, plaintiff, prosecutor, counsel, and judge are necessarily involved in the conflict. The spectators in a court of law may often be present because they expect to see "drama" enacted. The affinity between the drama and the courtroom is expressed by dramatic critic and theorist, Eric Bentley, in the following manner: One can be . . . specific about the influence of the law courts, for the drama abounds in trial scenes, good and bad. The reason is not that the playwrights tamely follow in each other"s footsteps. 2 It is that the stage and the law court are two versions of the same thing - our human refusal to obey the precept, Judge not that ye be not judged. Plays are, in a symbolic sense, "Trial scenes"; and it is inevitable that they run to thousands of trial scenes in a literal sense. This being so, it is also inevitable that the language of the law court should creep in too. Judge, Pros- ecutor, advocate, plaintiff, defendant - What play could not be written with these five char- acters and a witness or two? Court-room language in that it finds itself under the dual compulsion of the theatre: to keep things moving and to be at each moment esthetically impressive. Justice Michael A. Musmanno, well-known Pennsylvania judge and jurist, states in his autobiography his love for the theatre and his predilection for "any dramatic presentation with a courtroom setting."2 Justice Musmanno also relates how the day on which the lawyers make their appeals to the just becomes "the climactic third act of courtroom drama. . .[when] . . .the S. R. 0. sign is figuratively displayed."3 An outstanding American playwright of our time, Arthur Miller, in an introduction to a collection of his plays, makes the following observation: "A play is a species of juris- prudence, and some part of it must take the advocate's role, something elSe must act in defense, and the entirety must lEric Bentley, The Life of the Drama (New York: Atheneum, 1964), pp. 87-88. 2 . Michael A. Musmanno, Verdict: (New York: Macfadden- Bartell Corporation), p. 206. 3Ibid., p. 218. engage the Law . " 1 As early as 1811 some consideration, at least, was Inade by an American writer of the relationship between the law and the drama: A large majority of those who have been eminently successful in writing for it [the stage] have been originally bred to the study of theglaw. A fact so predominating in such a number of in- stances, cannot be the result of mere accident, and therefore manifestly indicated that there must exist, some connection however impreceptible to the world in general, between the law and drama.2 Some of the most outstanding playwrights of history 'have recognized a court of law as a dramatic arena. From the very beginnings of extant drama, Aristophanes involved his leading characters in a trial in The Frogs. For Elizabethan audiences William Shakespeare offered a courtroom scene in The Merchant of Venice, and Ben Jonson brings Volpone to a climax in a courtroom. Many outstanding EurOpean dramatists in the nineteenth century and in more recent times have used the courtroom for dramatic action. By way of example, some of them are: George Bernard Shaw in Saint Joan, The Devil‘s Disciple and Geneva; Eugene Brieux in The Red Robe; John Galsworthy in The Silver Box; Gerhardt Hauptman in The 1 Arthur Miller, Arthur Miller's Collected Plays (New York: The Viking Press, 1957), p. 24. "Law and Drama," The Mirror of Taste and Dramatic Censor (1811), p. 228. 4 .Assumption of Hannele; Ferenc Molnar in gilggm; and, Jean .Anouilh in The Lark. A look into the history of American drama reveals that American playwrights have produced courtroom plays in all our periods of history. Several outstanding American dramatists have written courtroom plays. These playwrights, like dram— atists throughout the history of world drama, have found form and meaning within the scope of what takes place in a court of law and have used the action in a courtroom as a means of dra- matic expression. In recent years American playwrights have given even more attention to the court of law as a setting for a play and the trial as a means of expressing dramatic action. Numbers of plays on the stage, motion picture screen, and television have used the courtroom for dramatizing ideas. Some studies involvang the investigation of courtroom drama have already been made. Directly related to the study is Santone's Master 5 thesis on the structure of courtroom drama.l Shestack°s analysis of the lawyer in American drama, also proves to be useful, though indirectly related.2 Jordan‘s analysis of detective drama is an aid, in that it discusses lEllis Joseph Santone, ”A Structural Analysis of Courtroom Drama" (unpublished Master 5 thesis, Purdue Uni- versity, 1957). 2Marciarose Shestack, “An Analysis of the Lawyer As Revealed in Selected Plays of the American Drama of the Twentieth Century” (unpublished Master°s thesis, Adelphi College, 1951). some of the plays in this study.1 Though it can be generally acknowledged that courtroom plays are a part of America”s literary and dramatic heritage, this study is the first his- tory of the American courtroom play to be made. Definition_ofITerm§. The generally accepted definition of the term EEEESLX is meant here; i.e., the study of SpeCific phenomena in human evolvement, in order to describe facts, so that the relation- ships among certain events may have clarity. The term American in this study refers to those plays written by playwrights deemed American by biographical entries in encyclopaedias and by historians, critics, and dramatic theorists. The term ggurtrgom play refers specif-caily to those American plays in which the main concern or prinCipal action takes place in a courtroom. The term courtroom may mean an actual court of law involving all levels of civil courts, a Federal court, a military court, or any court strongly resembling these. The term may also refer to an improvised court of law or any court the playwright has manufactured to resemble an actual court of law. lGlenn R. Jordan, "A Study of the POpularity of Detec- tive Drama Produced on the New York Stage From 1899 to 1936" (unpublished Master‘s thesis, University of Minnesota, 1938). 6 Limitations Within the context of "The American Courtroom Play" the following limitations have been imposed: 1. For the purposes of this study a minimum requirement of approximately one-third of each play discussed has court— room participation. Plays in which there is only a brief isolated scene in a courtroom are not included. Plays in which the principal action takes place in a jury room, a court house corridor, or similar locales are not included, unless, of course, improvised or manufactured courtroom participation takes place in these locales. 2. Only American courtroom plays are included for study. However, there may be instances in which they are adaptations from foreign works. In no instance is a foreign work origi- nally in play form included. 3. This study includes only courtroom plays produced professionally, with the exception of the period prior to the Civil War (Chapter Two), where accounts of production are in- complete and descriptions of plays inadequate. Methods and Procedures The writer's first ideas for a study of courtroom drama began at a time when several courtroom plays had recently enjoyed a long Broadway run, and others were still holding the stage. For example, at that time Arthur Miller's The Crucible 7 was a recent grim reminder of the "McCarthy hearings;" Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee‘s, Inherit the Wind, the play ver- sion of the famous Sc0pes trial in Dayton, Tennessee, was attracting audiences; Time Limit, by Henry Denker and Ralph Berkey, was not far removed from the prisoner-of—war episodes of the Korean War, on which it was based; and, Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov‘s, The Ponder Heart, was attracting cus— tomers who enjoy comedy, partly on the strength of the amusing courtroom scenes. The writer observed, due to the pOpularity of these plays, and due to the attraction trial scenes in motion pictures and television seemed to have for audiences, that an investigation into the subject of courtroom drama could prove revealing. Therefore, a pilot study of courtroom drama was formed. The pilot study of courtroom drama con- sisted of an investigation of all the plays appearing on the New York stage from June 15, 1919, to September 11, 1956, in order to discover how many productions during this thirty— seven year period included courtroom scenes. American plays, British plays, and translations and adaptations from foreign plays, were included. Full-length plays and one-act plays were examined. Courtroom scenes of any length were examined in the study. The pilot examination revealed that one-hundred ninety—two professional productions in New York, between 1919 and 1956, included to some degree, action in a courtroom. 8 This was an average of about five plays a season. Of the total one-hundred ninety-two plays, one-hundred twenty—two were Amer- ican, forty—two were British, and twenty-eight were adaptations or translations from foreign plays. The pilot study further revealed that this body of plays included all types, modes, forms, styles, and classifications of dramatic literature. It also revealed that these plays were written about a great number of different subjects. Thirty-five of the original one—hundred twenty—two American plays are considered courtroom plays and are discussed in Chapters Three and Four. This means, that an average of almost one American courtroom play a year was produced on the New York stage, during the thirty-seven year period examined. From this point, a number of approaches to the subject matter, revealed in the pilot study, seemed possible. The writer considered analyzing the courtroom play in terms of the playwright’s handling of legal proceedings. A comparison of the courtroom play based on an actual event, with the authentic case proceedings of that event, was also considered. A study of the playwrightsg use of the trial scene in terms of structure, organization, or dominant mood in selected plays, were other possibilities for study. Historical studies, ranging from the broadest View, that of an historical study of trial scenes in plays from the Greek drama to present day 9 drama, to simply, a study of the American courtroom play in the twentieth century, were also regarded as possibilities. However, due to a seeming unusual preponderance of American plays with courtroom scenes, and sensing that the courtroom play might be an important part of our literary and dramatic heritage, the courtroom play in America was examined more closely. A number of histories of the American drama were read, disclosing the fact that, courtroom plays appeared as prominent works in all our periods of history. It was also discovered by the writer, that many outstanding American play- wrights had chosen the courtroom in which to tell their stories, and to reflect the American scene of their day. It was also discovered that many significant themes for court- room plays were chosen by these playwrights. It now became apparent that the affinity between the law and the drama, discussed earlier, was significantly manifest in a number of American works which could be classified as courtroom plays. It also appeared that courtroom plays had not only appeared with significant frequency on the American stage, but con- tained a great number of Opportunities for particular re- search and examination. It also became evident that, although the other studies concerning courtroom drama mentioned above could be made, an accounting of the history of the American courtroom play would present more important contributions to 10 the knowledge of the drama as an initial and comprehensive work in this area of study. For this study, five general bodies of sources were examined: (1) catalogues and compilations of play lists and descriptions; (2) histories of the drama and literature, par- ticularly those written solely about America; (3) histories and annals of theatrical production in America; (4) newspaper and periodical accounts of plays and their productions; and, (5) play manuscripts. All five bodies of sources were used simultaneously to locate the plays used in this study. Early hints as to whether a play might be a courtroom drama came from: de- scriptions found in histories of the American drama; com- pilations of descriptions of plays; descriptions of plays in magazines and newspapers; or, by the brief mention of a character representing a lawyer, judge, or other courtroom figure, in cast lists appearing in histories and annals of theatrical production in America. Hundreds of play manuscripts and thousands of newspaper and periodical accounts were ex— amined to find the sixty-six plays discussed in this study. Play collections, individually bound scripts, plays in periodicals, plays on micrOprint, and excerpts and partial scripts, were probed to find courtroom plays. For example, over five hundred micrOprints of plays printed before 1830 11 were inspected, resulting in the discovery of only three court- room plays. In all periods, however, where plays were found to be unpublished, it was necessary to rely on description, in order to determine whether a play should be included in the study. Upon selecting the plays discussed in this history, the same five bodies of source material were used for further research, with the addition of general studies of American history and culture. Some of the most important sources used for this study should be mentioned. The writer found Arthur Hobson Quinn's A History of the American Drama from the Beginning to the Civil War, and A History of the American Drama from the Civil War to the Present Day, to be indispensable for a study of this nature. His excellent descriptions of plays, his com- prehensive bibliography, and his exhaustive list of plays in each volume, proved to be paramount sources. Other excellent lists of American plays were also found in the Cambridge His— tory of American Literature, Volume I, and Margaret Mayorga’s A Short History of the American Drama. All these sources concern the American drama in all periods of history, and are somewhat broad in scepe. They were the most helpful, however, in the very early periods. George C. D. Odell's monumental, fifteen volume, Annals of the New York Stage, covering the— atrical activity in that city, from the very beginning to 1894, 12 proved invaluable. The New York Dramatic Mirror, published from 1875 to 1919, was an outstanding source in which compre- hensive critical comments were found. The New York Times, pub— lished from 1852 to the present time, was also extremely use- ful. Both The New York Times and The New York Dramatic Mirror, are found on microfilm. A vital aid was also found in What is commonly termed as, "The Best Play Series,” spanning professional production in America from the 1894—95 season to the 1964—65 season. This series has been edited at various times by Burns Mantle, Garrison P. Sherwood, John Chapman, Louis Kronenberger, and Henry Hewes. The facilities of several libraries were used to locate the manuscripts and gather the material used in this study: The Michigan State University Library, East Lansing, Michigan; The University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan; The William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; The New York Public Library, New York City, New York; The Chicago Public Library, Chicago, Illinois; and The School of Drama Library at The University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla— homa. Samuel French, Incorporated, play agents, and The Drama Book Shep, both located in New York City, were particularly helpful in locating manuscripts of plays. During the research procedures for this history, it 13 became evident that critics, historians, compilers, and other writers, gave some courtroom plays much more attention than others. Some of the plays were prominently recognized; others would receive an average mention, While still others were passed over in a cursory manner. Therefore, the availability of re- search items for each play depended upon its relative popularity and acceptance at the time of its productions. The outstanding courtroom plays were found to have received critical acclaim; or, were pOpular with audiences; or, were prominently recognized as being important by drama his- torians. For this group, facts about the plays, facts about the playwrights, facts about important productions, descrip- tions of the general story line, comments on significant characters, and discussions of theme, were available in most cases. Their significance and value, determined by the em— phasis placed on them by historians and critics, was also more readily discerned. Another group of plays emerged during the research, in which prominence was not a factor. Critics and historians gave some degree of attention to this group. For this grouping of plays, basic facts concerning each play, play- wright, and significant production, were available in the majority of instances. A play in this group was often cited for its unusual subject matter, its special "star" cast, or 14 some other factor, giving it a small degree of recognition. A third group of plays researched received almost no mention or attention whatsoever. The amount of attention each play in this study finally received was not arbitrary, but decided by the emphasis and attention given the work by historians, critics, audiences, and dramatic theorists. This method of accounting seemed to give each play its prOper stress. It also seemed to place the courtroom play in the prOper perspective of the broad history of the American drama as a background. CHAPTER II THE AMERICAN COURTROOM PLAY FROM 1771 TO THE CIVIL WAR Introduction The following introductory comments are intended to pre- sent a brief overview of the American drama, from early America to the Civil War; they are also intended to introduce the court- room plays in this period in a chronological manner, and within the framework of the history of the American drama. The plays themselves are discussed in a following section in more detail. In the span of American history from pre—Revolutionary days to the Civil War, the development of native drama seems to fall naturally into four chronological periods. The first, the pre—Revolutionary period (1766-1774), begins with the. writing of Ponteach, or The Savages of America, by Major Robert Rogers; Ponteach is generally regarded, by historians of the American drama, as the first play written by an American about America. The second period, the Revolutionary era (1774—1787), begins with the ceasing of professional stage productions in America, by a resolution of the Continental Congress. The third period, the post-Revolutionary era (1787-1830), begins with the reestablishment of professional productions, particularly 15 16 with the presentation of William Dunlap's The Contrast, the first American comedy of manners. The great majority of plays produced in America during this period, however, were foreign imports. The fourth period, prior to the Civil War (1830- 1860), is a period in which playwrights were engaged in writing predominantly romantic comedy and tragedy; it is also an age dominated by the romantic actor. These four periods are usually viewed by drama historians as logical divisions. Courtroom plays appear in each period. Playwriting in the pre-Revolutionary period was strongly influenced by a general disfavor toward the production of plays, in earlier Colonial America. A strong Puritan con— science, actually disallowing the presentation of plays pub— licly, halted any early development of native playwrights. This attitude was to affect the American drama until almost the beginning of the twentieth century,2 when realism became a definitive part of American playwriting. This attitude during the Colonial period resulted in only Sporadic attempts at playwriting by native Americans. 1These divisions are favored by Arthur Hobson Quinn in A History of the American Drama From the Beginning to the Civil War (New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1927), Margaret Mayorga in A Short History of the American Drama (New York: Dodd Mead and Company, 1932), Arthur Hornblow in A History of the Theatre in America (2 vols.; Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1919), and Glen Hughes in A History of the Amer— ican Theatre (New York: Samuel French, 1951). 2Mayorga, 19. 17 The few plays reaching the stage in Colonial America were British. Later, as the Revolutionary War approached, British plays appeared in great numbers on the American stage. For this reason, Hugh F. Rankin, in The Theatre in Colonial America, calls the nature of the early American theatre "derivative."l A few American plays began to appear, only after professional English players had made their mark in the new country.2 The leading cities for theatrical activity by the English prior to the Revolution were Williamsburg, Phila- delphia, Charleston, and New York. The first printed play in America to survive, Androboros (the Man-Eater), was written 3 by an Englishman. With the introduction of pOpular English plays in America, and new plays being written in America by Englishmen, native writers were influenced and an American drama slowly began to develOp. According to Reed, "the beginning of somewhat significant dramatic and theatrical 4 activity in the American colonies may be dated from 1751." Hugh F. Rankin, The Theatre in Colonial America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1965), p. 189. 2William Dunlap gives a thorough account of English theatrical production in America and its influence on Amer- ican drama in his History of the American Theatre (New York: Burt Franklin, 1963), pp. 1—141. This work was originally published in 1797. 3Robert Hunter, Androboros (Printed at Mo-—r0polis [?] since August, 1714 [?]. 4Perley Isaac Reed, The Realistic Presentation of American Characters in Native American Plays Prior to Eighteen Seventy (Columbus: The Ohio State University Bulletin, 1905), p. 13. 18 His date is predicated upon Wegelin's reference to a produc— tion in Boston, of a farce entitled The Suspected Daughter, by "T. T."1 Both Reed and Wegelin agree that The Suspected Daughter is probably the first production in America by a native American. On the other hand, according to Professor Arthur Hobson Quinn, Thomas Godfrey's The Prince of Parthia, produced in 1771, was the only native American play to reach the stage before the Revolution. A year before The Prince of Parthia was produced, genuine American drama was born with the publication of Major Robert Rogers' play about Indian and white relations, Ponteach.3 This was the first native American play about an American sub- ject, and was strongly anti-British.4 After 1766, the native quest for freedom and independence began to appear frequently in the literature of the day, including the drama. Most of the material was in the form of pamphlets, broadsides, or simple dialogues. Though pre-Revolutionary drama was crude, native playwrights did, however, attempt "to make use of some— thing which would appeal directly to the sentiments and 1Oscar Wegelin, Early American Plays 1714-1830 (New York: The Literary Collector Press, 1905), p. 58. Quinn, 28. 3 Mayorga, 16. 4Quinn, 28. 19 conditions of the new nation."1 Pre-Revolutionary spirit and thought is also to be found in the first courtroom play written in America, The Trial of AtticusL Before Justice Beau, For A .Rgp_, The Trial of Atticusnyefore JUstice BeauLgFor A Rape, was printed in 1771, five years before the Revolution and five years after the publication of Ponteach. Like so much of the pre-Revolutionary dramatic literature, however, the first Amer- ican courtroom play, and the only one of the pre—Revolutionary period, probably was not intended for production, but meant only to be read. It is typical of an undistinguished, but diminutive number of unoriginal plays by the playwrights of the period. None of the plays “possesses enduring qualities.” In the second period, the Revolutionary War precipi- tated the suspension of professionally produced plays in America, beginning in 1774. However, American and British military personnel presented plays. This activity began in Boston, but was carried on in every major city.3 The military presentations, and nearly all the plays, presented by both amateur and professional groups prior to 1800,‘were taken directly from the stage in London. However, this did not \ prevent native Americans, caught up in the spirit of the 1 . . Montrose J. Moses, The American Dramatist (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1925), p. 83.- 2Reed, 25. 3Dunlap, 87. 20 Revolution, to reflect that spirit in dramatic form. Leading the pro—Whig writers was Mrs. Mercy Warren, Who counted John Adams and Thomas Jefferson among her friends. Her dramatic satires, particularly The Group and The Adulateur, could be called dialogues or conversations in dramatic form, rather than plays. Moses Coit Tyler, famous nineteenth century historian, gives the following description of partisan American drama during the Revolution: Tentative and crude as nearly all the writings in dramatic form, which were produced among us during the period of the Revolution, they were not unworthy of some slight attention, in the first place, as giving the genesis of a department of American literature now becoming considerable, but chiefly, as reproducing the ideas, the passions, the motives, and the moods of that stormful time in our history, with a frankness, a liveliness, and an unshrinking realism not approached by any other species of Revolutionary literature.l There were many sympathizers with the Tory cause. Some of them, too, wrote plays, albeit anonymously, supporting their senti- ment. One of the most important dramatic pieces of the Revo- lutionary War, The Patriots, however, is strangely pacifist. It was written by Colonel Robert Munford, who distinguished himself as a patriot of the Revolution.2 The Patriots is definitely a product of the Revolutionary conflict, and remains as the only extant courtroom play of the period. lMoses Coit Tyler, The Literary History of the Amer- ican Revolution (New York: 2 vols.; Frederick Ungar Publish— ing Co., 1957), II, p. 188. 2 Wegelin, 58. 21 By the end of the Revolution and toward the turn into the nineteenth century, rules for dramatic expression in America were barely becoming established. The few native plays now existing were not collectively impressive. What had been written, in play form by native writers to this time, could not be considered artistically noteworthy, either. It can also be said that, American plays prior to 1787 mirrored "the feeling of the time in its most intense moods, and the hOpes, fears, l and agonies of that great period. . . . The only courtroom play of the period, The Patriots, is no exception. In the post—Revolutionary period, from 1787 until 1830, there was still Puritanical influence in the resistance to the production of plays. The production of The Contrast, by William Dunlap, is generally recognized as the beginning of quality . 2 . . .. American drama. Unfortunately, The Contrast did not stimu— late a body of American plays. A number of plays were begin- ning to receive production about this time, but the majority of them were foreign plays. particularly those by British authors. Translations from France and Germany were also numerous. The most translated foreign playwright, appearing on the American stage during this period, was August von Kotzebue, a German. Kotzebue“s plays were sentimental and 1Quinn, 60. 2Universally upheld by Quinn, Mayorga, Hornblow, and Hughes. 22 exalted the middle class, a factor making him popular to audi- ences in America. Kotzebue’s plays were mostly domestic dramas, as were many of the plays brought from other foreign countries during the period. All told, a variety of subjects prevailed, and the American plays influenced by the imports were also heterogeneous. Margaret Mayorga emphasizes the importance of the influence of these foreign plays: The best work of American Dramatists was largely imitative of foreign modes, and of modes, at that, which represented a period of decadence abroad. Yet the very success of these imitative plays, unconcerned with native subject-matter, encouraged certain habits among the theatre-going public.1 The theatre-going public responded to the imported EurOpean plays during this period. The Revolutionary War caused many playhouses to close; however, most of the major cities on the eastern seaboard had reestablished theatrical activity completely by the season of 1809-10. Reese James Davis, con- siders the 1809-10 season a crucial one, particularly in Philadelphia, for it was during this season, says James, audiences began to develop a trust in native American drama.2 This trust became manifest mainly in the adaptations from foreign works by John Howard Payne, and the plays on native themes by Samuel Wordsworth, Richard Penn Smith, and James Nelson Barker. Two plays by Barker, How To Try a Lover (1817), lMayorga, 56. zReese Davis James, Cradle of Culture (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1957), p. 117. 23 and The Trggedy of Superstition (1826), included courtroom scenes, but the scenes were too brief to establish either play as a courtroom drama. An earlier, less important play, A New World Planted by Joseph Croswell (1802), also falls into this category. As the year 1830 grew near, audiences and native play- wrights were decidedly reSponding to each other, but the direc- tion of the American drama continued to be indefinite. The indeterminate quality of the native American play also con- tinued to be the result of foreign influence. It is possible that American audiences desired the imported play because of its superiority over native attempts at playwriting up to this time. In the final period preceding the Civil War (1830— 1860), the exigencies of a growing nation caused the American drama to continue to search for definite form. Foreign in— fluence was still present, but American dramatists began to dignify themselves by producing a few outstanding works. The following comments are Reedis conclusions about the play- writing during this period: The servility of American authors of the play- wrights of EurOpe continued to be marked until after the Civil War, although during the. . .years leading up to 1860, even under the constant foreign influ- ence, there appeared with increasing frequency l Mayorga, 75. 24 American plays which exhibit something of the craftsmanship and creative conception of real matters.l The principal dramatic works produced by American play- wrights during this period were mainly of two types, romantic tragedies and domestic comedies. Both types showed a definite foreign flavor and style. The romantic quality of the serious pieces was carried over, particularly, from the works of Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo, writing in Paris at the time, and setting the current mode of literature for a large part of the Western world. The temper of America was romantic, also; this was due to the inherited spirit of the Revolution and the War of 1812. Richard Moody, writing specifically on the romantic force in American drama, explains that, though internal romantic influences were taking place in America, it was "the spirit of the industrial revolution in Europe, of the French Revolution, and of the 'Napoleonic legend“. . .[that]. . . contributed more definitely to the cult of the middle class and the romanticism of the self-made, the characteristic 2 romantic features of life in America from 1800 to 18503 An outstanding courtroom play of the period, The Broker of Bogota, by Robert Montgomery Bird, is representative of the romantic lReed, 44. 2Richard Moody, America Takes The Stage (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955),p. l. 25 influences on American playwrights of the day. The Broker of Bogota is a romantic verse tragedy, written by Bird in 1834, just a few years following the production of Alexandre Dumas' Henri III (1829) and Victor Hugo”s Hernani (1830). These two French works set the spark that developed into the romantic movement. The domestic comedies of the period also reflected the prevailing romantic spirit, but of primary importance was the native American comedic characters appearing in them with fre- quency. It was between 1830 and 1860 that American comedy "types" began to find a permanent place in the American play. Possibly the most outstanding comedy of the entire period was Anna Cora Mowatt“s Fashion, a bright comedy of manners, in which plot gives way to the rich characters, who represent a cross-section of New York society. One of the most famous individual characters in all American literature, also first came to the stage during this era, that of Rip Van Winkle. ‘2 One of the highlights in some versions of Rip Van Winkle, is a brief trial scene in a courtroom in which Rip is first reCOgnized after his long sleep. Famous delineator of "Yankee” roles, James H. Hackett played Rip Van Winkle, in Philadelphia in 1830.1 In the same year The PeOple's Lawyer, by J. S. Jones, 1Reese D. James, Old Drury of Philadelphia (Phila- delphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1932), p. 452. 26 the first genuine American courtroom comedy, was acted on the stage. The main character of The People's Lawyer, Solon Shingle, has many of the characteristics of Rip Van Winkle. Both characters, homely, provincial, and conservative, can be called "Yankee" types. The ”stage Yankee“ was first introduced1 in Dunlap's The Contrast, with the character of Jonathan, a New England servant. The character of Solon Shingle, however, was one of the most pOpular "stage Yankees", and attracted actors and amused audiences for generations. Solon Shingle’s antics in the courtroom highlight the play. Remnants of Solon Shingle and Rip Van Winkle still appear occasionally on our stage today. The period beginning in 1830 and continuing until 1870 might be called the age of the actor in America. The actor was the most important theatrical figure of this forty-year period. The dominance of the actor prevented the encourage— ment of new playwrights, for the actors usually acted as man— agers, and offered prizes for plays to fit their own "star" personalities. This resulted in a plethora of superficial scripts built around the talents of a popular actor. There was no c0pywright law, either; therefore, the play was usually owned, so to speak, by the actor Who was playing the leading lOral Sumner Coad and Edwin Mims, Jr., The American Stage, Vol. XIV of The Pageant of America, ed. Ralph Henry Gabriel (15 vols.; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929), p. 33. 27 role. The actor-manager was to eventually give over to the domination of the exclusive manager, who controlled the actor 22g the play. This was to be a gradual process, but by 1870, common practice in the American theatre. It can generally be stated that in the period from the early beginnings of drama in America to 1860. the following influences on the American drama were present; (1) dominance of British and foreign plays; (2) puritan attitudes which frowned on play production; and (3) cultural uncertainties in- herent in a struggling and growing nation. These influences resulted in an American drama which grew gradually, sporadi- cally, and with uncertainty. Few plays and playwrights emerged, but those that did reflected the spirit and thought of a grow- ing nation. The courtroom play was represented in each period. In the pre-Revolutionary period one American courtroom play was written, The Trial of Atticus, Before Justice Beau, For A Rape. The Patriots represented the Revolutionary era. To- ward the end of the post-Revolutionary era, in 1827, The Trial of Cain, was published. This courtroom play, probably never intended for production, was written as a '“sermon" or morality. poem, rather than as a stage piece. In the pre-Civil War period, The Broker of Bogota and The People”s Lawyer emerged as excellent examples of American drama of the times. 28 The Plays A Satire On Jurisprudence The first American courtroom play, The Trial of Atticus, Before JUstice Beau, For A Rape, published in 1771, has no re- cord of production. The satirical nature of the play is its outstanding feature. The characters names, for example, are obvious forms of synedoche; a lawyer is named Mr. Rattle, William Froth is the name of a conjurer, and, Colonel Josiah Beau, Justice of the Peace, ostensibly is the epitome of magis- terial justice and charm. Many satires, similar to this one in play form, were pOpular during the pre-Revolutionary period. The essence of the play is literary, rather than dramatic. This fact, along with the author 5 instructions ”to the Reader,"1 indicate it probably was not expected to be acted. The playwright identifies himself only as "The Compiler.”2 The plot is simple. Ezekiel Chuckle and his wife, Sarah, complain to Colonel Justice Beau, a Justice of the Peace, that a person by the named of Atticus forceably raped Sarah. Atticus is brought to trial, and after hearing testi— mony from a number of amusing witnesses, is found guilty. Judge Beau, more interested in money than justice, fines 1The Trial of Atticus, Before Justice Beau, For A Rape (Boston: Printed and fold (sic) by Isaiah Thomas, near the Mill-luidge,for the author, 1771} p. 1. 2Ibid. 29 Axxicus in lieu of corporal punishment. Atticus refuses to pay; the Judge warns him of any further wrongdoings, and lets him go. During these procedures the author pokes a great deal of fun at professional peOple, particularly the technical lan— guage used by physicians, attorneys, deacons,l and judges. The following excerpt, similar to the jesting by Moliere in many of his plays, is a typical humorous exchange from the play: I shall then proceed to trial; are the witnesses all present? foicgg All but Mr. William Froth2 and Paul Shephard. _Jistioe What is the reason they did not attend at the time. Doctor Pip I can plead excuse for Mr. froth; I was not obliged myself to visit sundry patients this morning, and sent him to several others under my care, partic- ularly to Mrs. Whiffle: her case is very singular and dangerous, she had a EEEEEE in the second of the dent§§_molares, in the inferior maxilaris; as she was eating cherries she unfortunately broke the caries bone with a cherry stone, and largely frac— tured the maxilaris, which has been followed with a train of direfil symptoms. .- “5’...“— Do you imagine, Sir, it is hastening to amputation: igbid., 34. The author makes it very clear in a footnote that he intends no mockery of religion. He insists the characters are taken from real life and merely means to show their hypocrisy. All the italics in this passage were written into the manuscript by the authcr. 30 Doctor I shall use all my endeavors to preserve it for sake of mastication.l References to The Trial of Atticus, Before Justice Beau, For A Rape, are rare. In American Plays Printed 1714— 1830, compiler Hill states the setting of the play is "ap- parently laid in Braintree, Massachusetts.2 Braintree is in close proximity to Boston, the seat of much pre-Revolutionary controversy. The Trial of Atticus,_§efore Justice Beau, For A Rape is the only pre—Revolutionary courtroom drama extant. A Pacifist Play The Revolutionary period is also represented by only one courtroom play, The Patriots, by Colonel Robert Munford. Most of the plays written during the Revolution are political in intent, and have definite partisan points of view. The Patriots, however, is significantly nor—partisan. The plot otnoerns two gentlemen, Meanwell and Trueman, who are accused of Toryism. Meanwell and Trueman, the pro— tagonists of the play, are brought to ”trial“ by a Whig Com- mittee. The men who make up the Whig Committee are extremely suspicious characters who exhibit ignorance and intolerance. American soldiers are pictured as either poltroons or l Rape, 20. 2 , . . Frank Pierce Hill, Americaanlays Printed 1714-1830 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1934), p. 107. The Trial of Atticus, Bef're Justice Beau, For A 31 blusterers. Trueman and Meanwell, on the other hand, are moderates who despise war. Early in the play, Trueman, who is in love with the daughter of one of the members of the Whig Committee, makes his feelings clear by stating: "Her father is a violent patriot without knowing the meaning of the word."1 Later, Meanwell adds; ”And never may I signalize my attachment to liberty by persecuting innocent men, only because they differ in Opinion with me."2 The bias and intolerance of the Whig Com- mittee is evident throughout the hearing. The following state- ment by the character, Strut, epitomizes the feeling of the committee: The nature of the offence, gentlemen, is, that they are Scotchmen; every Scotchman being an enemy, and these men being Scotchmen, they come under the ordi— nance which directs an oath to be tendered to all those against whom there is just cause to suspect they are enemies.3 "Suspicion is proof” seems to be the theme of the hearing; how- ever, Trueman and Meanwell are eventually released, after mem- bers of the committee overhear them speak against Toryism. This five act comedy has some real basis, for it was not un- usual during the Revolitionary times for citizens, like Mean- well and Trueman, to be questioned by similar committees. lRobert Munford, The Patripps, in A Collection of Plays and Poems (Petersburg: Printed by William Prentis, 1798), p. 56. 21bid.,57. 31bid. 32 The Patriots is significant because "it probably repre- sented the sentiments of thousands of the author's countrymen, who were uncertain just where their duty lay, but. . .after the decision had been made. fought valiantly for their country."1 Though The Patriots is pacifist, the Revolution was not without the patriotic zeal and pro-Whig sentiment of Colonel Robert Munford. William Munford, the author’s son, is responsible for collecting and publishing Colonel Munford's works.2 In an in- troduction to a collection of his father‘s plays and poems, William Munford makes the following explanation of Colonel Munford's political feelings: The play of the Patriots is a picture of real and pretended patriots; . . . If any construction should be put upon it as a satire on the conduct of America in the late revolution, the whole tenour of the author's conduct will exempt him from the imputation of such an intention. He entered warmly into the principles of the friends of America, he boldly fought in her defence, and proved his attachment to her. . . by deeds.3 Direct evidence of any production of The Patriots is not avail- able to us. However, William Munford, in his preface to his father‘s works, indicates the probability of a production.4 1Quinn, 55. 2Wegelin, 58. 3 . Munford, v1. 4Ibid., v-vii. 33 A Morality Play In the post-Revolutionary period (1787-1830) only one courtroom drama emerged, The Trial of Cain, published in 1827. American drama during this period is uncertain and multifarious. The Trial of Cain is just one example of the various subjects dramatized during this time. The Trial of Cain, a didactic poetic drama, is a straightforward morality piece. The Trial of Cain is unimportant as a theatrical work, but it does seem to be a link to the American past, reminding us of the literary satires of Mercy Warren, during the Revolu- tionary War. The Trial of Cain, however, concerns theology rather than politics. This pedagogical treatise is, perhaps, more poem than play, and is Certainly more an attempt at ser- monizing than dramatizing. Nevertheless, a distinct play form is present. Wegelin calls it an early American poem;l Hill lists The Trial of Caip as a play.2 The author, Erastus Brown, "evidently a teacher of divinity, . . .adopted the dramatic form in order to make his teachings more effective."3 It is doubtful that any production of The Trial of Cain has reached the stage; the author also remains in obscurity. The extended title of the play gives an accurate de— scription of the plot: The Trial of Cain, The First Murderer, lOscar Wegelin, Early American Poetry, Vol. I (2 vols. New York: Peter Smith, 1930), p. 160. 2Hill, 13. 31bid. 34 in poetry, By_Rule of Court, In which A Predestinarian, a Uni- versalian, and an Arminian argue as attorneys at the bar; the two former as the Prisoner's Counsel, the latter as Attorney- General.1 The main question of the play is whether Cain's murder of Abel is an act of free will. The author also extols the virtues of Christianity over Deism. The cast of characters includes such allegorical names as Foreknowledge, Truth, and Martyr; the author also makes numerous allusions to Biblical passages and religious dogma, such as Calvinism. The follow- ing speech exemplifies the author's philos0phy of the triumph of free will; it is spoken by Verdict of the Jury, a character in the play, as he passes moral judgment on the defendant: With one consent the Jury all agree, That Cain, a moral agent, broke decree; Free from necessity he made his choice and acted, free, is our united voice: Our judgment to declare a little further, We find him guilty of wilful murder.2 Chief Judge, another character in the play, upholds a grim de- cree in the final speech of the play: The pris'ner is found guilty of the crime, And shall be mark'd with infamy through time, And soon depart into the land of Nod, For having broke the high decree of God; Where conscious horrors will forever roll, And frightful spectres haunt his guilty soul}.3 lErastus Brown, The Trial of Caip (Boston: Printed for the purchaser, 1827), p. 1. 21bid., 31. 3Ibid., 32. 35 A Romantic Verse Tragedy In the final period prior to the Civil War (1830- 1860), two important courtroom plays became a significant part of American drama. The PeOple's Lawyer by J. S. Jones, brought the concept of the "stage Yankee" to fruition, and The Broker of Bogota by Robert Montgomery Bird, is one of the most accom- plished of the romantic verse tragedies of the time. The robust and romantic feeling with which The Broker of Bogota is written is similar to the Elizabethan playwrights. The plot, too, suggests the inclination toward EurOpean design; for example, The Brdker of Bogota is not unlike some of the tragedies of Shakespeare, or the melodramas of John Webster. Bogota, Columbia, in the eighteenth century, is the setting for The Broker of Bogota. A well-to-do money lender, Baptista Febro, is an honored citizen who has two sons and a daughter. He has turned away from his eldest son, Ramon, because of the young boy's foolish and wayward ways. The Viceroy of New Granada, Palmera, deposits large sums of gold in the vaults owned by Febro. A profligate, Caberero, be- friends Ramon in order to use him to arrange a plot to rob Febro's vaults. Febro, devoted to his son, tries to force Caberero to leave the country by bribing him. A servant overhears Febro dare Caberero to rob him. The robbery takes place and Febro eventually finds himself caught in a web of 36 circumstances in which he is accused of stealing from himself for profit. In a trial before the Viceroy, the servant's testimony implicates Febro. Ramon stands mute in the court, which further implicates his father. The trial is conducted under Roman law, requiring the defendant to prove his inno- cence. The play ends with further testimony during which Ramon confesses, then, burdened with guilt, throws himself from a balcony. Febro faints and quickly dies. The curtain falls. Several sub-plots involve complications with Febro's other two children, a son of the Viceroy, and a daughter of Febro's good friend. Their love affairs and attempts to make them secret are eventually intertwined with the main plot. This story of a man who lives completely for his children, only to have those he loves most turn against him, is outstand- ing verse tragedy. Professor Quinn attests that with the character of Febro, Dr. Bird has drawn "one of the most living portraits in our dramatic history.”1 The role of Febro attracted one of the greatest Amer— ican actors in history, Edwin Forrest. William Rouseville Alger, one of Forrest's biographers, says that Forrest found the play a particular favorite and that he "always spoke of 1These comments are in an introduction to: Robert Montgomery Bird, "The Broker of Bogota," Representative Amer- ican Plays 1767—1923, ed. Arthur Hobson Quinn (New York: The Century Co., 1925), p. 212. 37 it with enthusiasm and with deep regret that it was so much tOO fine for his average audiences that he was obliged tO lay it aside for noiser and more glaring performances with not one tithe Of its merit."l Forrest created the role Of Febro with its first performance February 12th, 1834.2 Odell, writing of its Opening, calls it one Of Americais most dignified plays.3 Forrest kept The Broker of Bogota in his repertoire for thirty years, reviving it Often. The trial scenes are the most violent, and yet the most poignant, for Bird has trapped Febro in such a net Of circum- stantial evidence, great pity is felt for the Old man. For example, when Febro is attempting tO defend himself before the Viceroy, he speaks thusly against an accuser: NOW, were heaven just, Thou shouldst die with this slander in thy throat, Monster of falsehoodi Has it come to this? lWilliam Rounseville Alger, Life Of Edwin Forrest, (2 vols., Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Co., 1877), I, p. 350-351. 2There is some contradiction to the date this play was first introduced. George C. D. Odell in Annals Of the New York Stage, Vol. III (New York: Columbia University Press, 1949), p. 681, gives February 12, 1834 as the Opening date. T. Allston Brown, however, in A History Of the New York Stage (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1903), p. 111, gives January 8, 1834, as the first performance. Historians con- cede that Odell is more reliable. In this particular case he provides more evidence than does Brown; therefore, we shall use Odell's date. 3 Odell. 681. 38 Is't true? is't possible? a man like me, Old,--in the twilight Of my years, and looking Into the dusky midnight Of my grave,—- An Old man that has saved a life, whereon NO man hath found a stain[.] Ohi you are mad, TO think this thing of me. A fraud? a fraudi Whati T commit it? with these gray hairs too? And without aim,--save to enrich this rogue, ’ 1 That swears away my life? Dr. Bird distinguished himself both as a novelist and a dramatist. In a number Of his plays he imitated English drama. He received an M. D. degree from the University Of Pennsylvania, but probably never practiced.2 Rees considers The Broker of Bogota Dr. Bird's most finished work.3 Solon Shingle, A "Stage Yankee" NO two courtroom plays could differ more than The Broker Of Bogpta and The PeOple's Lawyer by Dr. Joseph Stevens Jones. Dr. Jones was also a physician Who practiced surgery. He was a graduate Of the Harvard Medical School.4 Jones' simple comedy is significant for two reasons: (1) it further developed the concept Of the "stage Yankee," begun by Dunlap lBird, Representative American Plays, 241. 2James Rees, The Dramatic Authors Of America (Phila- delphia: G. B. Zieber and Co., 1845), p. 30. 3Ibid., 29. 41bid., 93. 39 in The Contrast and, (2) it stimulated American actors to use the character Of Solon Shingle as a personal vehicle to fame and notoriety. It is important in this study for it is a definite precursor to a number Of plays in which facsimiles Of "stage Yankees" appear. The story of The People's Lawyer involves Charles Otis, a very poor fellow who lives with his sister and mother. Otis is incriminated when an associate in his clerk's Office delib- erately places a watch and chain in his pocket. The family calls on Robert Howard, "The PeOple's Lawyer," to defend Otis. The lawyer gets the guilty man on the witness stand. He then forces the man to confess. Strangely, Solon Shingle has little to do with the story, but without him the play would not have reached the pOpularity it enjoyed. Solon Shingle, exhibiting a great deal of rustic wisdom, appears as a backwoods farmer Who comes to Boston to sell a load of "apple—sarse." He almost seems tO be forced into the plot Of the play. His appearances are brief until he appears at the courthouse. During the court proceedings Solon falls asleep; on awakening, he thinks Charles Otis is being tried for stealing his apple sauce. The Yankee humor so attractive to performers becomes Obvious in this scene between Tripper, an attorney—at—law; the Judge; and Solon: 4O - Tripper Ah, Mr. Shingle, what do you know Of this affair: Solon Well, sir, I can't say; you know there's no telling who's Governor till after '1ection. SO I guess. Tripper Mr. Shingle, I think I had the pleasure Of examining you once before in a case. Solon Jest so. But I don't tell all I know, for nothing-- as I said in the last war, for my father fit in the Revolution. Tripper Never mind that, sir--an article has been stolen, as you are aware; now confine yourself to this fact. Solon That's what I'm coming tO--...Squire, I wish you'd hand me a pen there tu pick my tooth. I eat three cents' worth Of clams afore I came intO court, and really believe there's a clam atween my eye tooth and tother one next tu it. OOOOOOOOOODOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO JUdge Mr. Shingle, the loss Of the article is proved with- out your evidence. 'Twas found in the prisoner's pocket—-as you doubtless heard. Solon In his pocket? Judge SO said the witness. Solon Then his pocket must have been as big as a hogpen, to hold my barrel Of apple-sarse. 1Joseph S. Jones, The PeOple's Lawyer: Montrose J. Moses, Representative Plays By American Dramatists from 1765 to the Present Day (New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1964), II, pp. 417-418. 41 In December Of 1842, the character Of Solon Shingle reached the New York stage,1 with George "Yankee" Hill as the merry farmer. Hill had also played the role in Philadelphia and Boston.2 A number Of actors became popular playing the role Of Solon Shingle. Laurence Hutton, in Curiosities Of the American Stage, gives us an interesting account Of how the role changed from 1842 to late in the nineteenth century: It was Charles Burke who first discovered the possibilities lying dormant in the character Of Solon Shingle. . . ."Yankee" Hill and Joshua Silsbee both admirable representatives Of Yankee character parts played Solon Shingle as a young man, with all Of the "Down-East" characteristics Which dis- tinguish stage Down-Easters; and it was not until he fell into the hands Of Burke that he became the simple—minded, phenomenally shrewd old man from New England, with a soul which soared nO higher than the financial value Of a bar'l Of apple-sass. Until Mr. Owens, the last of the Solon Shingles, died and tOOk Solon Shingle with him, the drivelling Old farmer from Massachusetts was as perfect a specimen Of his peculiar species as our stage has ever seen.3 Hutton is referring tO John Edmond Owens who rose to national . 4 . fame as "the greatest delineator Of the Yankee type." His- torians generally agree that Solon Shingle was formed more by 1Odell, IV, p. 613. 2Moses in Representative Plays By American Dramatists, II, discusses at length the history of the play, pp. 381—390. 3Laurence Hutton, Curiosities of the American Stage (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1891), p. 40. 4Glenn Hughes, A History Of the American Theatre (New York: Samuel French, 1951), p. 172. 42 the actor than by the playwright. Most Of the responsibility for this phenomena they attribute tO Owens. Hodge, however, in Yankee Theatre, tends to give Dr. Jones more credit: Solon is a fully drawn character, amusing in the drollest manner, Often clever, and sometimes ap- pearently stupid. Under his outer shell, however, is the same basic-type character present in all the Yankee plays. He is nO fool; yet, by con- trast to city peOple, he appears to be one. In Solon Shingle, Jones is laughing at the eccen- tricities Of Old age in conflict with the direct— ness and naievete Of youth. The play is more solid comedy than the usual Yankee fare, and this may account for its long life in the hands Of . . . successful comedians. . .1 Solon Shingle is very similar to two other famous Yan- kee characters, namely, Asa Trenchard in Englishman Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin, and Adam Trueman in Anna Cora Mowatt's Fashion. Moody sees Solon Shingle's "particular style Of hon- est straightforward attack On sham and artificiality in society was really a forerunner Of the ingenmmnsand deflating manner of Will Rogers."2 Solon Shingle held the stage until the 1880's with Owens in the role. Toward the end Of his pOpu- larity, however, dramatic stagecraft had changed, and the play received less than favorable criticism. The critic for the New York Dramatic Mirror found The PeOple's Lawyer "the poorest apology for a play to be found anywhere."3 This critic did not lFrancis Hodge, Yankee Theatre (Austin: University Of Texas Press, 1964), p. 214. 2Moody, 123. 3New York Dramatic Mirror, February 8, 1879, p. 2. 43 favor the courtroom proceedings in the play either, for he stated that "in witnessing this play it is easy to see how fully its success is due to Owens, for really a more ridicu- lous representation Of a trial was never presented on any stage.”1 It is evident that Solon's easy and slow moving comedic actions in the courtroom could be considered precursory to those of Lightnin' Bill Jones in Lightnin', Judge Priest in Back Home, and similar characters in other courtroom plays dis- cussed later in this study. Another Satire On JUrisprudence Chronologically, the final courtroom play Of this period is A Coroner's Inquisition by A. Oakey Hall, produced in 1857. A Coroner's Tpguisition, a comedy, is a satirical piece on English law methods, which takes place in London and the Eng- lish village Of Shepperton. An example Of the satirical nature of the play is given in the following brief speech by the character Of Gregory Griggs, an innkeeper and one Of Her Maj- esty's Coroners for the County Of SlOpeley: . . .I had my certificate Of appointment yes- terday, countersigned by the thirty-second clerk to Her Gracious Majesty's eighteenth assistant to the principal deputy Of the Cir- cumlocution Office Of the Home Department. lIbid. 2A. Oakey Hall, A Coroner's Inquisition (New York: Samuel French, 1857?), p. 3. 44 The story Of A Coroner's Inquisition concerns the search for a missing cadaver, Who is the son-in—law Of Gregory Griggs. Griggs' appointment as coroner gives him a sense Of power, out Of which much Of the comedy develops. The missing man in the play eventually appears in the final scene, alive and well. The trial in the play takes place when Griggs as- sumes the authority of a judge investigating a murder. The author Of A Coroner's Inquisition, Abraham Oakey Hall, was an American lawyer, politician, journalist, and author. From 1879 tO 1882 he was city editor for the New York World. He was also District Attorney Of New York County, New YOrk, and served as Mayor Of New York. In his six years as District Attorney it is reported he sent twelve-thousand persons tO prison, and pigeon-holed more than ten—thousand indictments against others.1 His play, A Coroner's Inquisi— tion, Opened at Burton's New Theatre, June lst, 1857.2 A Coroner's Inquisition, chronologically, is the final courtroom play tO appear in the period from pre—Revolutionary America tO the Civil War. A total Of six plays during this span Of time can be categorized as courtroom drama. Three Of the six plays can be considered important to the history lDumas Malone (ed.), Dictionapy Of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932), 114-115. 2Odell, VI, p. 528. 45 Of American drama. They are, The Patriots, The Broker Of Bogota, and The PeOple's Lawyer. The Patriots is an Outstand- ing literary document Of the Revolutionary War. The Broker of Bogota is a distinguished play, representing one Of the best romantic verse tragedies Of the time. The PeOple's Lawyer in— troduces the character Of Solon Shingle, one of the prominent "stage Yankees" in American theatrical history, holding the stage for almost fifty years. By today's standards none of these plays can be called refined dramaturgy. They are seldom, if ever, revived. Their importance as theatre, and as court- room drama, lies mostly in how they are viewed in terms Of literary history. CHAPTER III THE AMERICAN COURTROOM PLAY FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR Introduction In the period from the Civil War to World War One, the American drama can be divided into three eras. The first pe- riod, from 1860 to 1880, the commercial theatrical manager emerges as an important figure, resulting in a dearth Of new American plays Of merit. The realistic novel also becomes an influence on the drama during this period. In the second era, from 1880 to 1900, melodramatic and romantic plays dominate the stage, though native playwrights begin to portray American life and culture with more frequency. The third period, from 1900 tO 1914, is a period Of promise in the American drama, in which realism and the awareness Of social forces play a significant role in native playwriting. In the period prior tO the Civil War, the American drama had become distinct primarily through the efforts Of a few individual playwrights. During the war no great dra- matic work emerges as a result Of the conflict; a number Of plays were written on the theme Of the Civil War at the time, 46 47 but they remain unimportant due to their superficiality. Few Of these plays were ever printed. Unlike the strong attempts at playwriting induced by the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the Civil War had very little influence "upon the char- acter Of the amusement in the American Theatre."1 During the eighteen sixties American plays written prior tO the Civil War were most pOpular. The most admired seems to be the comedies Of JOseph Stevens Jones and the tragedies Of Robert Montgomery Bird and George Henry BOker. BOker's Francesca da Rimini was particularly well received, and at- tracted audiences until the twentieth century. Rip Van Winkle was also pOpular with American audiences during the sixties. Theatre-goers at this time were also attracted to the works Of twO Irish-Americans, Dion Boucicault and John Brougham. In the period during and immediately following the Civil War, original production in America was not encouraged; therefore, no important new native playwrights emerge. Although many theatres closed down when the Civil War began, the lack of theatrical activity was short lived. The majority of the theatres in the large American cities held performances throughout the time the War was being waged; lMontrose J. Moses, "The Drama, 1860-1918," Cambridge Histopy of American Literature, ed. William P. Trent, John Erskine, Stuart P. Sherman, and Carl Van Doren (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1921), III, Part II, 266. 48 therefore, the effect the Civil War had on the theatre condi- tions in America during the conflict was not serious. The features Of the American drama in the fifteen years following the Civil War were mainly predetermined by a new, aggressive figure in the American theatre — the manager. The strong personalities Of pOpular actors, like Joseph Jefferson and J. S. Jones, were now being used for financial gain by the energetic managers. The effect on native drama was disastrous; the production Of plays with serious content was discouraged, for they were considered box-Office gambles. The actors and playwrights no longer controlled the American theatre; the era of author and actor management had given way to the business manager. The commercial managers produced many new plays, most Of Which were poor c0pies Of foreign works. Moses calls these adaptations "domestic perversions Of the same. . .source."1 The lack of oroginal native dramas was also due to "the dis- tinct predilection, among theatre-going peoples, for plays tO fit the temperaments of the reigning stage favourites [actor personalities], and by the styles and fashions that emanated from London and Paris." l . . . . Moses, Cambridge History of American Literature, 270. 2Ibid., 267. 49 The new dramas which appeared on American stages following the Civil War were formless and lacked any distinct- ness. Moody describes their limitations: Classical admonitions regarding the unities, the climax, the denouement, and the number Of acts were avoided if, indeed, they were ever considered. Nor was the province Of the drama limited by any strict concept of apprOpriateness. There was little attempt, for example, to distinguish be- tween comedy, farce, melodrama, and tragedy; and many plays were so filled with interpolations Of songs, dances and scenic effects that they were little more than variety entertainments. This was particularly true in the interval from 1865 to 1875, when the variety shows of the mid-century had died out and vaudeville as such had not yet started.1 The reasons for the dearth of American plays following the Civil War are apparent. They stem mainly from the fact that I'native drama did not grow out of literature, as it did in England and in France; it grew out Of the theatre, and so it had to bide its time until the theatre found a need for it."2 NO new courtroom plays were produced during the period between 1860 and 1880. However, The_PeCple's Lawyer and The Broker Of Bogota, both written prior to the Civil War, were performed many times. There were also a number Of plays written between 1860 and 1880 in which courtroom scenes of various lengths prominently appeared. For example, the acting 1Moody, 234. 2Moses, gambridqe History of American Literature, 270. 50 of Miss Rose Eytinge in the trial scene in Augustin Daly's adaptation of Charles Reade's novel, Griffith Gaunt, helped to make it a success during the 1860's. Daly's adaptation of Dicken's Pickwick Papers also included an important scene in a courtroom. A significant courtroom scene also appeared in Mark Twain's The Gilded Age. None of these plays, however, are courtroom plays within our definition. The American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wrote a courtroom play published in 1868 entitled, Giles Corey of the Salem Farms. This play, about one of the central figures in the Salem witchcraft trials, never reached the stage. By the end of the Civil War another factor was be- ginning to influence dramatic writing in America; what was to be known as realism began to appear in the works of American dramatists. In other words, American playwrights began to select the familiar phases of life as a subject for their plays; a more human view of dramatic subject matter began to become a basis for native American plays. The influences of the realistic movement on dramatic literature were subtle and gradual, however, and did not become definitive until almost the beginning of the twentieth century. Primary in the influence of realism on the drama were novelists. Par- ticular influence was achieved by William Dean Howells and Henry James. American readers in the late eighteen sixties 51 and early seventies chose Howells and James as their most pOpular realistic novelists. It was William Dean Howells, particularly, who became a profound influence on Edward Harrigan, James A. Herne, Augustus Thomas and Clyde Fitch, all prominent American playwrights between 1870 and 1910. In 1886, the editor of Harper's New Monthly Magazine stated quite bluntly that, "the real drama is in our novels _ 1 mostly. It is they chiefly which approach our actual life. . ." The editor went so far as to recommend that Sidney Luska's novel, Mrs. Peixada, would make a good play. He specifically suggested that in "the scenes in court When she [Mrs. Peixada] pleads guilty, he would have tragic 3action' enough, and what such action does not always give - pathos and genuine tragedy."2 As early as 1830, critics of the American drama had been concerned over the status of native dramaturgy. The following comments appeared in the American Quarterly Review of that year: It is not necessary to be always writing on na- tional subjects, or illustrating our own history and manners. But we do think, that the new lit- erature of a new country: new in its existence, its institutions, and situation, ought to have a special reference to these circumstances. It is this reference which alone can give it orig- inality, and maintain its claims to a national character.3 l"Editor's Study," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, LXXIII (July, 1886), 317. 2Ibid. 3"Dramatic Literature," American_guarterly Review, VIII (September, 1830), 152. 52 It was not until the period following the Civil War, however, that native playwrights began to illustrate, to any notable degree, American life and culture. This was the time of the beginning of realism in American drama. It was by no means the dominant mode of writing, however: from the Civil War to around 1880, the main body of American drama can still be described as romantic and melodramatic. In the period from 1880 to 1900 American playwrights began to write more frequently on current events and tOpical subjects, particularly those about American life. By 1880, "a journalistic sense had entered the American theatre,"1 and this fact precipitated an interest in subjects that were t0pica1. Bronson Howard, William Gillette, Augustus Thomas, and Clyde Fitch represent a nucleus of outstanding playwrights who wrote with a definite sense of journalistic reality, though melodrama and romanticism.still had a grip on American audiences. Brander Matthews, writing in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, attributes the slow growth of American drama to "the development of the newspaper in England . . . and the , . 2 perfecting of the mechanics of play—making by ScribeJ' Play— writing on the journalistic level and dependence upon EurOpean 1Moses, 279. 2Matthews refers to Eugene Scribe, a prOponent of the "well-made play," in which a plot was develOped superficially from stock elements. See Brander Matthews, "The Dramatic Out— look in America,” Harper‘s New Monthlngagazine, LXVIII (May, 1889). P. 925. 53 models lasted into the twentieth century. Howard, Gillette, Thomas, Fitch, and their followers, however, made deliberate attempts to help the American drama to become a mirror of na- tional life. Unfortunately, very few plays with significant depth emerged from their efforts. Gillette's Civil War play, Held By The Enemy, which was produced in 1886, is an excellent example of the attempts at serious drama during the period. It is significant that native playwrights did not seriously consider the Civil War as a sub- ject for their work, until almost twenty years after the event. This is perhaps because audiences simply were not interested in attending serious drama, particularly plays about a ter- rible event still vivid in their minds. When the subject of the Civil War did reach the stage, moreover, the plays seemed to reflect the status of the theatre rather than the serious nature of the material. Held By The Enemy, for example, mainly concerns the actions of a spy who attempts to escape through enemy Yankee lines by means of a hospital stretcher. The Civil War, as represented here, is only a framework for melodramatic action. Gillette's play does have a brief, but rather exciting, court-martial scene, but as so many of the playwrights of the day chose to do, Gillette shifted the scene of the action of the play often, leaving very little time for dramatic deveIOpment. Herbert Bergman summarizes his findings 54 in a study of Civil War plays with the following statements: The plays are almost devoid of any serious content for a more than cursory treatment of slavery, for political convictions or ideas, for economic conditions, or for ethical beliefs. One finds instead, rather hackneyed plots, embodying the reconciliation theme, lace of sectional bias, romantically melodramatic characters and action, and contrived comic relief.1 Though Bergman‘s observations are generally true, Dion Bouci- cault's Belle Lamar (1874) was an early Civil War play with some merit. More importantly, Bronson Howard's Shenandoah (1888), which also concerns the Civil War, emerges as an im— portant social drama of the late nineteenth century.2 Giles Coreyngeoman by Mary E. Wilkins, and The Ensign by William Haworth, both courtroom plays, were further attempts at his- torical drama before the turn of the century. The Ensign could not be considered significant, though Giles Corey, Yeoman has some stature. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, theatrical managers controlled almost all the dramatic activity in Amer- ica. In 1896 a Theatrical Trust was formed by a number of successful managers. Moses takes a dim view of this event IHerbert Bergman. "Major Civil War Plays, 1882—1899," Southern Speech Journal, XIX (March, 1954), 224. 2Arthur Hobson Quinn in A History_of the American Drama from the Civil War to the Present Day, pp. 57-60, dis- cusses the significance of Howard s Shenandoah. 55 by pointing out that, "in such an atmosphere, While in time we got good bad plays, it was impossible for a serious body of American dramaturgical art to develOp.l From the time the Theatrical Trust was formed in 1896 to World War One, the dramatist surrendered to the dictates of the manager.2 The results, for the most part, were manifest in plays patterned for a particular "star" and usually showed the influence of the EurOpean dramatic technicians. Courtroom plays, too, served as vehicles for "stars." By way of examples, Gus Williams used Fred Maeder's Captain Mishler as an instru- ment to further his career: Jane Cowl starred in Common Clay; David Warfield attracted audiences in A Grand Army Man, written by David Belasco, Pauline Phelps, and Marion Short; and, "Nat" Goodwin played the leading role in Clyde Fitch“s The Cowboy and The Lady. American audiences were also given the Oppor- tunity to see the great Miss Sarah Bernhardt in Madame X, a pOpular EurOpean courtroom play. The American drama, though primarily commercial in intent, was definitely showing promise after the turn of the 3 century. Romantic verse tragedies were being replaced by lMoses, Cambridge History of American Literature, 280. 21bid., 282. 3William Archer, "The Development of American Drama," Harper's Monthly Magazine, CXLII (1921), 75. 56 more realistic works; Anglo-French imitations were less fre- quent on the American stage; and melodramas, in Which the heroine was snatched from the clutches of a villain or an un- merciful railroad engine, were almost a thing of the past. A group of American playwrights were now putting emphasis upon the right of self-expression by the individual. They were also becoming more aware of the evolution of character in their plays, laying aside some of the superficial characteristics of plot and character personality. By the end of the first de- cade of the twentieth century, the American drama also began to show "a greater sensitiveness to the social forces of the 1 The influences of realism were now evident in the times." works of James A. Herne and Clyde Fitch. George Broadhurst and Charles Klein were trying to give a journalistic "look" to plays about the conditions of the business world. Plays about married life were also pOpular, reflecting the desire for more intimacy in the drama. Charles Rann Kennedy wrote significantly on religious subjects. William Vaughn Moody wrote plays of ideas in which Opposing points of view were brought into dramatic conflict. Edward Brewster Sheldon wrote important thesis dramas such as The Nigger and The Boss. Finally, Rachel Crothers produced important plays that com— mented on contemporaneous American civilization. The romances lMoses, Cambridge History of American Literature, 286. 57 and melodramas became more thoughtful and the thesis plays more purposeful during this period of American dramatic his- tory. After the turn of the century the courtroom play seemed to have a natural affinity for the social problems and domestic situations being presented on the stage during this time. Common Clay, for example, produced in 1915 and written by Cleves Kinkead, is a commentary on American social strata. Just A Woman and The Unwritten Law are both concerned with divorce problems. A Grand Army Man and Young America relate the specific problems of children and the law. The Governor's .ngg, The Last Resort, and Mills of the Gods cover the subjects of politics and big business, mirroring the interest of the theatre-goer in themes of American life. The novel continued to be an influencing factor on the drama. Earlier it was pointed out that this influence began about the time the Civil War ended. The influence con— tinued to rise until the First World War. The influence of William Dean Howells, the leading exponent of realism in nineteenth century America, was clearly shown in the works of Charles Klein, George Broadhurst, and Clyde Fitch, all of Whom were writing plays after the turn of the century. Though the influence of the novel continued, American playwrights did not relate their work to any specific literary movement 58 or social evolution.1 In fact, native American playwrights lagged behind the novel, which insisted upon verisimilitude, although the desire for verity was "the dominant literary mood"2 of the period. A great number of novels and stories achieved drama— tization during this period. The dramatized novel was at the height of pOpularity around 1900. Dramatized novels of the law courts were also brought to the stage. Paul M. Potter's dramatization of Nancy Stair, for example, is a courtroom play taken from a pOpular novel. Back Home by Bayard Veiller, another courtroom play, is constructed from the very pOpular stories of the day, in which Judge Priest is the leading character. The process of novelizing plays also became pOpu— lar around fluaturn of the century, but the results were mostly "hack work."3 By 1910 many of the great names in American drama who had long been contributing to the theatre, were no longer appearing in theatre programs. Fitch and Moody were dead; Thomas, Gillette and Belasco had written their best plays. By this time also, the motion picture had become a competitor lIbid., 292. 2Richard Burton, The New American Drama (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1913), p. 78. 3Burton, 215. 59 to the legitimate stage. There had been progress, however, for by the time of World War One, the American dramatist, no longer relying upon foreign models, had reached a stage of independence, resulting in genuine promise for the future. Up to this time most American plays had "the semblance of 1 reality often without the substance." It had been a drama of novelty rather than a reflection of life. The promise was bright, however, because a wider variety of subjects were now finding their way to the American stage. It was about this time, too, that some forces of regeneration were at work. Moses describes it in the following manner. Then, suddenly, something happened to the theatre. A new breath of life blew through the Open door. The spirit of reform began to under- mine the commercial manager‘s grip. This change came not from the theatre itself but from out- side. It did not directly challenge the theatre at first, but began an insidious propaganda among 'those whose money flowed through the box-office. The publishing of plays found a yearly increasing reading public, whose taste for the better thing began to be whetted. Independent producing groups - amateurs to be sure, but potential entities later to develOp into such organizations as the Theatre Guild and the Provincetown Players - began to challenge the commercial manager on his own ground.2 Around the beginning of World War One a few keenly skill- ful playwrights, led by Eugene O Neill and Elmer Reizenstein lCharlton Andrews, The Drama To-Day (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1913), 103. 2Moses, The American Dramatist, 418. 60 (later Rice), were making significant contributions in their early careers. There was also an evident change in the Amer- ican's attitude toward social customs; sentimentality and the simpler phases of life were no longer dominating the national mood.1 Cleve Kinkead's Common Clay, Elmer Rice‘s On Trial, and Charles Klein‘s The Third Degree, all courtroom plays, re- flected the public's desire for forceful and penetrating drama. At the same time, audience reaction to Bayard Veiller's Back Home and Fred Ballard's Young America indicated sentimental drama and the romantic spirit was still very much a part of American drama. The Plays American History The courtroom plays in this chapter are discussed, as they are in the preceding chapter, in terms of their subject matter. There are twenty-two plays discussed in this chapter, sixteen more than the number in Chapter Two; therefore, the plays naturally fall into groupings, the size of the grouping depending on the frequency of the subject matter. The plays are not presented chronologically; however, important dates applicable to the discussion of the plays, are included as 1Burton, 78. 61 guidelines for the reader. The first group of plays discussed are based on various aspects of American history. American history became specifically manifest in four courtroom plays produced between 1892 and 1906. The Ensign (1892) by William Haworth concerns a Naval court—martial in the wake of an heroic effort by a young Union officer to defend the Flag; Peter Styvesant (1899) by Bronson Howard and Brander Matthews, is a comedy in which the Governor of New Amsterdam is the central figure; The Judge and The Jury (1906) by Harry D. Cottrell and Oliver Morosco is about a young girl's adven- tures in the rugged American Western frontier; and, Giles Corey, Yeoman (1893) by Mary E. Wilkins, tells the story of one of the principal figures in the Salem witch trials of the late seven- teenth century. Of the four, Giles Corey, Yeoman is the most important. Twenty-five years before Mary E. Wilkins' play, Giles Corey, Yeoman, first appeared on the stage, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used similar material for his play, Giles Corey of the Salem Farms. The Salem witch trials of 1672 have been the subject for a number of American stories, novels, and plays. Arthur Miller's The Crucible (1953) is perhaps the dramatiza- tion considered to be the most acceptable theatrical work. In Miller's play, Giles Corey is a minor role. The similar- ities between Giles Corey, Yeoman and The Crucible, will be 62 pointed out in Chapter Four, where the latter is discussed at length. Mary E. Wilkins' play is a six act tragedy telling the story of the accusation, trial, torture, and death of Giles Corey, citizen of Salem, Massachusetts. When the play was produced in New York the critic for The New York Times felt that the play possibly was much better reading than a work for the stage.1 The critic proceeded, however, to praise the author's acumen for historical study, as noted in the following excerpts: I The author's gift of analysis has enabled her, it seems to us, to get more closely at the truth of the witchcraft in old Salem than any one Who preceeded her in the task of literary investi- gation in her field. . . Miss Wilkins shows us exactly how, with a vague foreboding in the colony, born of cruel superstition, gross ignorance. . .the maundering of an old hag, the prattle of a child, the idle talk of a self—satisfied householder, and a jealous girl's thirst for vengeance, brought death and dishonor upon a simple, virtuous family. This exposition is remarkably clear and powerful. It carries conviction with it. . .2 The New York Times critic also found the pathos in the . . . 3 . play eluding him because it was not life-like. "The heart is not touched,"4 the critic said. Giles Corey, Yeoman was pro- duced in New York and Boston by ”the so-called Theatre of Arts 1The New York Times, April 17, 1893, p. 4. 21bid. 31bid. 41bid. I - I'I . Inq- o-ud. :- and- -y\- . ll~ ..> 63 and Letters."1 Mary E. Wilkins' biographer, Edward Foster, indicates the produced version by the Theatre of Arts and Letters was only a "garbled version"2 of Miss Wilkins' orig- inal play. In either case, The New York Dramatic Mirror found the New York production to be mildly terrifying and having some dramatic moments.3 Brander Matthews pays tribute to Miss Wilkins' ability to tell a story, but also finds her "not equipped with the technic or with the instinct of a born play- maker."4 All the characters in Giles Corey, Yeoman were actual participants in the trials in Salem.5 Probably the finest attribute of Miss Wilkins' play is its genuine quality of documentary story-telling. The following passage is from a scene in the Salem court, in which Martha Corey, Giles Corey's wife, is being questioned by Judge Hathorne: lBrander Matthews, These Many Years (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917), p. 337. 2Edward Foster, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (New York: Hendricks House, 1956), p. 112. 3 New York Dramatic Mirror, April 22, 1893, p. 3. 4Brander Matthews, 337. 5Robert Calef, ”More Wonders of the Invisible World," Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases,_l648-1706, ed. George Lincoln Burr (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914), pp. 343-344. More characters appearing in the play are discussed in: "A Brief and True Narrative by Deodat Lawson, 1692," Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706, pp. 154-156. Calef's narrative was written in 1700 and Lawson's in 1692. 64 Hathorne What say you to the charges that your hus- band, Giles Corey, hath many a time brought against you in the presence of witnessed - that you hindered him When he would go to prayer, causeing the words to go from him strangely; that you were out after night- fall, and did ride home on a broomstick; and that you scoffed at these maids and their afflication, as if you were a witch yourself? G_ilss I said not sol Martha, I said not so: Hathorne What say you to your husband's charge that you did afflict his ox and cat, causing his ox to fall in the yard, and the cat to be strangely sick? Giles Devil take the ox and the cati I said not that she did afflict them. Hathorne Peace, Goodman Corey; you are now in court. The dialogue seems strikingly realistic to have been written in 1893. Martha's impassioned defense of her innocence is another example of Miss Wilkin's ability to authenticate her dramatic work: Martha (with sudden fervor) I am no witch. There is no such thing as a witch. Oh, ye worshipful magistrates, ye ministers and good people of Salem Village, I pray ye hear me speak for a moment's space. Listen not to this testimony of dis— tracted children, this raving of a poor lWilkins, Mary E., Giles Corey, Yeoman (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1893), p. 47-48. 65 lovesick, jealous maid, who should be treated softly, but not let to do this mischief. Ye, being in your fair wits and well acquaint with your own knowledge, must know, as I know, that there be no witches.l In reading Giles Corey, Yeoman it seems apparent that Miss Wilkins could not have written the play in the realistic manner in Which it appears, unless she had considerable knowledge of the trials. The play also appears to be much unlike the other dramas of the period in that the playwright does not place emphasis on plot, but on characterization. Most of the melo— dramas of the 1890's were constructed with an emphasis on a succession of situations out of which grew a rather superfi- cial plot; Giles Corey, Yeoman is an exception to this practice. Moreover, the characters seem to have real motive and purpose rather than the heavily accented heroes and heroines of the more pOpular plays of the period. In a body of several prose works, Miss Wilkins' main gift to literature is her "dispas- sionate observation of local character and constitutes an important contribution to the local-color school by its study of repressed peOple in a decaying social system, capturing their spirit through their dialect."2 History, and certainly the critics, may have been unfair to Miss Wilkins' play about the Salem trials, for Giles Corey, Yeoman fits into the lIbid., 56. 2James D. Hart, The Oxford Companion to American Lit— erature (4th ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), pp. 295, 296. 66 description of her contributions. Giles Corey, Yeoman, more— over, is in direct contrast to another historical play of the period, The Ensign by William Haworth. The Ensign was apparently inspired by an incident during the Civil War, in which Capt. Charles Wilkes, Commander of the San Jacinto, United States Navy, intercepted two emis— saries of the Confederacy to the British Government, resulting in the capture of the emissaries, but almost provoking England to make war against the United States for intercepting a steamer, the Trent, bearing the English flag. In the play two British naval officers - one a credit to his country and the other a renegade American, learn of the plan of Captain Wilkes to intercept the Trent. The rascal seeks to pre- vent the departure of the San Jacinto by pro— voking a quarrel with Ensign Ben Baird, and he succeeds so well that he is killed in the attempt by the Ensign, but the San Jacinto sails just the same. Then comes court-martiol, [sic] con- viction by Judges Who uphold the justice of the killing, but bow to their duty under the law, appeals by a heart-broken mother and sweetheart, a big-hearted gruff, old 'sad sea dog,‘ and a child to President Lincoln for pardon, and, in the last act, just as the Ensign is about to be strung up to the yardarm, in the presence of all his sorrowing friends, the pardon arrives, and all is joy.1 The critic for the New York Times found The Ensign overflowing - 2 "with patriotism, love, pathos, and fun." The New York 1The New York Times, December 6, 1892, p. 4. 21bid. 67 Dramatic Mirror was not as favorable, finding the play pre- dictable.l Apparently the audiences agreed with the Dramatic Mirror, for the play ran only two weeks. The Ensign is typical of the action—filled melodrama of the eighteen-nineties; a plethora of this kind of play filled the American stages during the era in which audiences seldom took things for granted. The theatre-goer demanded his action in large, bold strokes. Moses says of these melodramas: "The emotions were not subtle; they ascended toward the climax, not in flowing consistency, but with intermittent thumps.”2 This kind of play was seen on American stages until well past the turn of the century; however, their pOpularity began to wane soon after 1900. A courtroom play, The Judge and The Jury, by Harry D. Cottrell and Oliver Morosco, produced in 1906, is a melodrama of the type described by Moses. The Judge and The Jury was perhaps a victim of the waning pOpularity of the sensational melodrama after the turn of the century. The story concerns a young girl whose parents are killed by Indians, is rescued, and "nourished by a rough but golden-hearted tavern keeper, and grows up to be loved by a stalwart, honest miner, a monosyllabic Apache, and a city . . . , 3 chap With the gift of gab and a susceptible heart." The 1New York Dramatic Mirror, December 10, 1892, p. 4. 2Moses, 301. 3The New York Times, December 6, 1892, p. 4. ‘I nu .i‘. A’,‘ no. .... . .v- d.‘ 68 miner and the city man eventually fight for the affections of the girl, but a shot in the dark by a third party complicates the life for the heroine. The misunderstandings are settled by a trial and the story ends happily. The New York Times dismissed The Judge and The Jury by finding "little reason for much of the fuss. . ."l The collaborators, Harry D. Cottrell and Oliver Morosco, made no significant contribution to Amer- ican drama with The Judge and The Jury or any other work. Two other collaborators, however, also using a segment of American history as a basis for drama, made major contributions to the American drama throughout their careers; Bronson Howard and Brander Matthews collaborated on the courtroom play, Peter Styvesant. ‘;:Bffihson Howard was recognized as the outstanding Amer- ican dramatist of his time.2 From 1870 to 1906 he contributed articulate stage creations to American audiences. His out- standing works include Saratoga, Aristocracy, and Shenandoah. Brander Matthews is also a significant figure in the history of American drama, particularly in the area of the one—act play. After his playwriting days, Matthews became a noted critic and interpreter of the drama. lIbid., September 2, 1906, p. 9. 2Quinn, A History of the American Drama from the Civil War to the Present Day (Volume One), pp. 39—65. Quinn's chap— ter on Bronson Howard is probably the most comprehensive to be found in American drama histories. 69 Peter Styvesant is the story of Dutch life in New Am- sterdam and was classified as a comedy by the New York Dramatic Mirror.1 The main character of the work is Peter Styvesant, the governor of New Amsterdam. The setting is the seventeenth century in New York. William H. Crane, popular actor at the turn of the century, was star and producer of Peter Styvesant. The play first opened early in 1899 in Providence, Rhode Island, and was a,quick failure.2 I Considering the talents of the collaborators, Peter Styvesant should have been more successful. In NEW York it also met with failure. The following comments are from The New York Times on the Opening of Peter Styvesant in that city: That the authors, Messrs. Bronson Howard and Brander Matthews have been at pains to put some sort of appreciable historical quality in their laboriously manufactured piece. . .But What we all want in a play. . .is vitality, and there is precious little Of that in this elabo— rately artificial story. . . The play, it seemed, ought to have been effective, because all its essential scenes have been done over and over again. The Old Governor's soft heart and fierce manner, his blundering when he meddles with love affairs, his grief when he believes his ward, Conrad, guilty of treachery, and his Brutus-like heroism at the trial. . .3 1New York Dramatic Mirror, October 7, 1899, p. 16. 2Lewis C. Strang, Players and Plays of the Last Quarter_Century (Boston: L. C. Page and Company, 1903), p. 146. 3 The New York Times, October 3, 1899, p. 5. 70 Brander Matthews was asked to write the historical play for William H. Crane.l The audiences wanted to see Crane in the comedy, but because there was an unusual mixture of comedy and pathos, the audiences did not accept it.2 In Jack E. Bender's dissertation on Brander Matthews, only a brief 3 reference is made to Peter Styvesant. Domestic Problems Along with the trend toward verisimilitude in American plays, the playwrights began to take an interest in man's social spectrum as a motive for writing a drama; i.e., Amer- ican playwrights, between 1895 and the end of World War One, wrote on the relationships of the individual and his family, of poverty and wealth, of class and creed, of crime and crimality, and of man's relationship to woman in marriage. This interest produced a great number of plays concerning the domestic problems of divorce, unwed mothers, adOpted children, and the class conflicts involved in each of these problems. Seven courtroom plays produced between 1899 and 1916 were written specifically about domestic problems. The most 1 . . Playwright Matthews discusses how he developed the plot of Peter Styvesant in his recollections; Brander Matthews, These Many Years, pp. 338—339. 2Matthews, These Many Years, 340. 3Jack E. Bender, "The Theatre of Brander Matthews" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1954), p. vi. 71 popular of the seven was Common Clay by Cleves Kinkead, which ran 316 performances in New York. Common Clay was presented for the first time at the castle Square Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, January 7, 1 . . . . . . 1915. The Boston Transcript critic had high praise for Kinkead's work; he also placed emphasis on the strong language of the play, and the reasons for the play's popularity, as shown in the following comments: . . .he [Kinkead] has unmistakable instinct for the directness, the vigor, the swift, yet cumu- lating "punch" that is the mode of the hour in the American theatre. . . The virtues of Mr. Kinkead's play by no means halt at this well-invented, well-conducted, ably cumulated, close—knit, direct, vigorous, plausible and human narrative suspensively told in true terms of the theatre. They shine out of much pungent and sharply-set speech, that calls things and conditions commonly existent by the names by which they are commonly known in common talk; that is in harsh characters with the "shyster" lawyer and the "common woman"; that is nowhere mealy—mouthed and that teems with acrid humor - a speech of men and women speaking as they really are and without thought of the glosses of theatre and parlor. Not, possibly, always a Speech for the ears of boys and maidens. Common Clay takes place in a large American city in the middle west. A prominent and wealthy family living in this city are a Mr. and Mrs. Fullerton and their son, Hugh. The Fullerton's have had trouble getting domestic help. As lBoston Transcript, January 8, 1915. 21bid. 72. the play Opens they have just hired a new domestic, Ellen Neal (played by the famous actress, Jane Cowl) Who is made love to by Hugh Fullerton. Later, we learn there has been a baby boy and Ellen demands part of the Fullerton fortune even if the child does not bear the prominent name. An old family friend of the Fullertons, Judge Filson, is called in as counsel. In court, Ellen's pitiful story falls on the sympathetic ears of Judge Filson. As a coincidence, we learn that the Judge's mis- tress had given birth to Ellen, after which the mistress died. In an epilogue Ellen is found in Paris, having been sent there to study by Judge Filson. In Paris she falls into the arms Of Hugh Fullerton. The New York papers generally praised the play. .Thg New York Times said of Kinkead's work: ". . .what he has really given us is a graphic illustration of the injustice and cruel irony in society's immemorial attitude toward the woman with a child born out of wedlock — particularly when the man 1 and woman come from different walks of life." The same news- paper also claimed that Common Clay contained the same kind of social criticism found in the works of the French play— 2 wright, Eugene Brieux. The New York Dramatic Mirror paid 1The New York Times, August 27, 1915, p. 9. 2Ibid. Eugene Brieux's plays are generally conceded to be social documents Of considerable significance. Kinkead may have been familiar with Brieux's work since the French— man's plays were being produced in America in 1915. 73 particular notice to the "graphic court scene."1 The author of Common Clay, Cleves Kinkead, was a lawyer from Kentucky. He was a student in Professor George Pierce Baker's playwriting class at Harvard. Common Clay was a result of the class, and received a literary award. Noted critic and dramatic theorist, Walter Prichard Eaton, held very little praise for Common Clay. He wrote it off as being designed for the commercial tastes of the public. He said, for example, that Common Clay "has two great assets to pOpularity - the long arm of coincidence and a ruined female. The public dearly loves them both. . .the result is. . .a rather false and artificial melodrama."2 The "ridiculous coincidences"3 in Common Clay are evi- dent in the plot description; chance meetings and abrupt turn- ings of plot, however, were in pOpular usage by American play- wrights from 1895 to the end of World War One. In a review of another courtroom play similar to Common Clay in plot, The Guiltngan by Ruth Helen Davis and Charles Klein, a critic sums up his feelings about this type of courtroom drama in these words: We have had it all before. We had it in "Madame X" and we had it only last season in 1New York Dramatic Mirror, September 1, 1915, p. 8. 2Walter Prichard Eaton, Plays and Players (Cincinnati: Stewart and Kidd Company, 1916), p. 111. 3Ibid. 74 "Common Clay." For that matter, we had it only last week in "The Silent Witness," which, however much embarrassment it may cause, simply must be recognized as a poor relation of "The Guilty Man." For the new play at the Astor is one of those built on a criminal trial wherein the prisoner at the bar turns out to be a long lost child, preferably illegitimate, of some dignitary of the court, preferably the prosecuting attorney. In "The Guilty Man," the one on trial for murder is the natural daughter of the prosecuting attorney; in "The Silent Witness" it is his son. In "Madame X," the woman on trial for murder turned out to be the mother Of the boyish lawyer assigned to her defense. In "Common Clay," as you surely recall, the poor girl in the witness box was suddenly recognized by the heckling lawyer on the other side as an illegitimate child of his own. Of all these plays, that celebrated dramatic critic, George M. Cohan, made no end of fun when he staged a trial scene, (subtly given in rhyming couplets.) wherein everybody - judge, prisoner, witnesses and all - were found to be long lost members of one family.1 The 316 performance run of Common Clay in New York's Republic Theatre attests to its popularity. This dramatiza- tion today, however, might seem cliched, too melodramatic, and lacking in subtlety to audiences. The following dialogue might serve as an example; the scene is between Ellen Neal and Judge Filson, her newly discovered father: Ellen If you want to do anything for me you can't go snOOping around on the sly about it. (Passionately) I won't be shoved off into dark corners. I'm tired of having every- body ashamed of me when they are all doing as I've done. The big peOple are no better lThe New York Times, August 19, 1916, p. 7. 75 than the other ones - and I'm going back into the streets. (She starts toward the door hastily. As she opens it, Filson, his face writhing in pain, cries her name) Filson Elleni Elleni (He sways slightly and puts his hand on railing for support. He drOps his head and his lips move without speech. Ellen pauses and looks at him. Slowly she closes the door and stands, hand on knob, thinking) Ellen I - I can't leave you if it hurts you that much. (pauses) I'll do as you say. (Pauses) Maybe you're right — (Pauses and takes hand off door—knob) But there's something bigger than right or wrong - (Starts toward him) it's helping one another. (She falls in his arms and clutches his shoulder. He looks upward, his lips move, and he caresses her) Some similarities have already been pointed out between Common Clay and other courtroom dramas of the period concerning do- mestic problems. In the introductory portion Of this chapter, a discussion was made of how many playwrights in America during this period were affected by EurOpean models. It was seen that this influence was also accompanied by a tendency of American playwrights to begin writing on a journalistic level, prompted by a desire on the part of audiences and man— agers to pOpularize newspaper headlines on the stage. The European influence and the effects of journalism are both 1Cleves Kinkead, Common Clay (New York: Samuel French, 1914), pp. 83-84. "- 'n p.‘ “1 '1 .A. '- 0., . -g 76 manifest in The Guilty Man, by Helen Ruth Davis and Charles Klein. The Guilty Man is based on a French novel by Francois COppée, Le Coupable. The New York Dramatic Mirror has re- served praise for it. It said: "In part at least it is power- ful drama. The whole subject matter suggests Emile Zola in its ruthless revelation of character, its penetrative force into the vital spirit of low life and in its general achievement of theatrical situation."1 The story of The Guilty Man takes place in France. The plot complications begin with an affair between Claude Lescuyer, a young law student, and Marie Forgeat. Marie becomes preg- nant. Eighteen years later Marie is seen married to a brutal dance hall prOprietor. The dance hall prOprietor wants Claudine, Marie's young daughter, to marry a much older, lecherous man. Eventually, there is a physical struggle during which Marie kills the Old man. A trial ensues, and the public prosecutor happens to be Claude Lescuyer, the father of Claudine. he makes a good case until he sees Marie in the pre-hearing. At the trial he pronounces himself guilty for all that happened. At first the daughter spurns her father, but at the end of the play, the three miserable 1 New York Dramatic Mirror, August 26, 1916, p. 3. 77 people, Claude, Marie, and Claudine, walk out together. "Here we have a someWhat overworked but always interesting story re- told to enforce and even more familiar thesis - that when the nameless child of an outcast mother is driven to crime, the renegade father is the guilty man."1 The Guilty Man played 52 performances at the Astor Theatre in New York in 1916. In the same season another courtroom drama, in which happenstance and plot surprise were also important, had greater success; Just A Woman by Eugene Walter had a run of 136 performances. The plot of Just A Woman is simple. It concerns a husband and wife, both social climbers, who live in Pittsburg. The husband becomes a powerful financier, and in the process grows tired of his wife. He attempts to shame her into a divorce by placing his lover in his home. The financier and his wife have raised a son; prior to the divorce trial we learn the husband wishes to keep the son. In the climactic trial scene the wife claims the son does not belong to the wealthy husband, therefore, he cannot claim him. Just A Woman was generally praised, but particular attention was given to the play 5 trial by The New York Times and the New York Dramatic Mirror. The Times had this to say about the trial scene: 1The New York Times, August 19, 1916, p. 7. 78 This turning of the woman comes at the end of the third act, as the climax of the play. It marks the end of the scene devoted to the divorce trial, a scene every moment of which is filled with acute, cunningly builded suspense and which ends with a violent, leathern-lunged outburst that is as melodramatically effective as any you would be likely to hear in an exhaustive tour of Broadway. The New York Dramatic Mirror described the same scene in this manner: "His [the playwright‘s] court room scene, which formed this act, was powerful in its realism, its quality of suspense, its truthfulness to detail, and the plausibility with which its gripping climax was built up."2 It is very likely that Just A Woman would not be acceptable to modern audiences; for example, the machinations of plot intended for surprise in this play have been used frequently in other stage plays, motion pictures, and television, and have become commonplace. The ending of the play, as the critics stated, was obviously an unexpected surprise in 1916. Today the ending might appear predictable. A comment by Eugene Walter in Just A Woman deserves attention; it is the description of the Judge who presides over the divorce trial. The scene represents "a commonplace . . . 3 court room in Pittsburg, in Allegheny County, Pa." The 11bid., January 18, 1916, p. 12. 2New York Dramatic Mirror, January 22, 1916, p. 8. 3Eugene Walter, "Just A Woman“ (unpublished typescript version housed in The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center), Act III, p. 2. 79 Judge enters. He ”is a young man about 33, representingwhat might be called the new progressive element in our Jurisprué dence. [italics mine] As is the custom in Pa. he wears no gown, but is dressed in a dark sack suit."l It is difficult to know what playwright Walter had in mind in describing the Judge in this manner, unless he was equating the youthful ap-‘ pearance of the Judge with ”the new progressive element in our jurisprudence." In any case, it indicates that Eugene Walter was trying to create a character for his play, that was gap the stereo-typical image of the older, omnipotent, fatherly, classically garbed Judges, seen in so many other plays. Another courtroom play concerning the problem of di- vorce was Edwin Milton Royle's The Unwritten Law. It was received unfavorably by both critics and audiences and ran only 19 performances at the Fulton Theatre in New York. The melodramatic plot involves a divorce case, out of which comes the murder of a rather unsavory ward politician by his lover, a Mrs. Wilson. Mrs. Wilson 5 husband claims that he is the killer. When the case is called before the grand jury the prosecuting attorney permits a physi- cian to try hypnosis on Mrs. Wilson, whose mind has become a blank. She then tells the entire story; and the attorney whispers to Wilson that the foreman has just said the ver- dict will be "the unwritten law."2 lIbid. 2New York Dramatic Mirrgr, February 12, 1913. 80 There is no such legal concept as “the unwritten law" in Amer- ican jurisprudence, but apparently in the minds Of many citi- zens, adultery by a party is grounds for "justifiable homicide" by the mate. Edwin Milton Royle's play about the theory of "the unwritten law” received comments of "unrelieved gloom"1 and "acute misery"2 by the critics. The use of hypnotism in the courtroom play was not a novelty to audiences in 1913, either. It was used deftly in Charles Klein‘s The Third Degree, to be discussed later. The domestic courtroom plays heretofor discussed in this chapter, Common Clay, The Guilty Man, Just A Woman, and The Unwritten Law, were all produced in approximately a three year period, from 1913 to 1916. All Of them may have had precur- sors in the plays of Clyde Fitch, one of Which was a court- room drama, The Cowboy and The Lady. The following comment about Clyde Fitch's work subscribes to this theory: Mr. Fitch's distinctive contribution to our stage seems to me to lie in his power of seizing upon certain phases of city life which have to do with the prosperous commercialism resulting in a certain kind of domestic menage: the family well-to-do, pleasure loving, wonted to luxury, touched with the fever of getting and spending. With genuine observation, a sympathetic feeling for these types and an instinct for setting them in novel situations, Mr. Fitch has thus, within his limits, been a social historian.3 1New York Times, February 8, 1913, p. 13. 2New York Dramatic Mirror, February 12, 1913. 3Richard Burton, 89. 81 The courtroom play, The Cowboy and The Lady, is in no way Clyde Fitch's best play. "The story is not particularly ingenious, nor is the develOpment Of the plot either facile or original. Yet there is some capital humor in 'The CoWboy and the Lady,‘ much of the characterization is clever, and some of the dialogue is smart."1 The hero of the play is Teddy North who is in love with a Mrs. Weston. Mrs. Weston has a disreputable husband. Teddy finds a cause in protecting peOple from Weston, and in the process is accused of murdering him. He thinks Mrs. Weston committed the murder; therefore, he refused to defend himself. When the complications are straightened out, a happy ending is in View. Strangely, The Cowboy and The Lady Opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in London before it played the New York stage. Critic Max Beerbohm, writing for The Saturday Review, had conditional praise for the play; he found it a mixture of 2 both comedy and melodrama, oscillating between the two types. He praised Fitchas ability to make the changes from comedy to melodrama and from melodrama to comedy in "perfect natural— 3 ness." The English critic also used The Cowbgy and The Lady as an Opportunity to express his Opinions about courtroom 1The New York Times, December 26, 1899, p. 7. 2 p. 718. 3 Max Beerbohm, The Saturday Review, June 10, 1899, 82 drama. His remarks on the subject follow: A trial on the stage is simply a formal repetition of what the audience already knows. It is effective only when the audience cannot foresee the verdict. In a comedy-melodrama, one knows that the hero will finally be acquitted, and one is not much excited. More- over, a murder-trial in Colorado seems to be a very poor, unassuming kind of business. One misses that Which has often made the dullest stage-trial impressive for us: the awfully measured dignity of the procedure in a French or English court. One tries in vain to think that anything very important can be decided in a bright little room furnished like a school— room, and one feels, anyway, that death would lose half its sting if sentence of it were passed by a good-humoured man in broad-cloth, seated at the teacher 3 desk and made up after the combined models of Brother Jonathan, Abraham Lincoln and Uncle Sam. Here, in fact, the local colour is against the play. In the other acts, however, the local colour is Of great service. . .1 A courtroom in Silverville, Colorado, would certainly seem contrasting to English courts familiar to critic Beerbohm; however, the play did succeed in New York, running 358 per- formances,2 after failing in London. Regardless of his reser- vations about the play, Beerbohm did call The Cowboy and The . . 3 . . Lady "capital entertainment." Historically, The Cowboy and The Lady is one of a number of cowboy plays that enjoyed 1Beerbohm, The Saturday Review, 718° 2Burns Mantle (ed.) and Garrison P. Sherwood (ed.) Best Plays of 1899-1909 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1944). p. 358. 3Beerbohm, The SaturdayTReview, June 10, 1899, 719. 83 popularity around 1900. The pOpularity of cowboy stories of the American Western life portrayed on the motion picture and television screens since 1900 is well known. As a courtroom play, Margaret Mayorga says The Cowboy and The Lady "is a vivid and interesting Western melodrama, thoroughly well constructed, and with an especially dramatic moment when the lady in the witness stand is compelled to confess her love for the cowboy hero.l It should be noted that this praise for the play's construction was not shared by The New York Times. The follow- ing scene is the one to which Mayorga refers; the similarity between this scene and the scene from Common Clay above is easily recognizable, particularly in the use of stage directions: Mrs. Weston Ii - I — convict him? (She becomes wild, hysterical.) The man is innocent: If I convict him, let me swear again every word I have spoken is a lie: (Jury bus. §h§_ sinks into the witness chairy_her face buried in her arms, sobbing_aloud.). . . Judge . . .Are you aware of the meaning of per- jury, Madam, and of its punishment? Mrs. Weston (Controlling her sobs and risiag) I would rather be punished for perjury than convict an innocent mani. . . Judge (Raps for order) Silence} Silence! (The public is quiet. The Judge motions to the Attornay to continue.) 1Mayorga, 208. 84 Attorney (To Mrs. Weston) That night you found North above the dead body of your husband you did not think he had killed him? Mrs. Weston He himself had sworn to his innocence —-- Attorney But at the scene of the murder and beside the body - the supreme test - he confessed his guilt. (To the Judge) Your Honor, I am finished with the witness. (He sits.) (Judge motions to Teddy. Mrs. Weston turns and looks timidly, pleadingly to Teddy, dis- tressed at what she has already said, wishes his forgiveness, while she dreads her future answers. Teddy rises slowly, as if dreading the ordeal. He does not look at Mrs. Weston until he has risen, then he slowly turns and faces her - they look into each other's eyes a mombnt, then Teddy drOps his and takes a long breath.) 229m Mrs. Weston, you just now said you believed in my innocence? Mrs. Weston Absolutelyi Teddy (AffirmativeTy) But your evidence was true, all the same? (She nods affirmative.) Only your belief in my innocence is so great that you thought perjury justifiable if necessary to save my being unjustly condemned? . Mrs. Weston (Very low voice) Yes--— Teddy (Very embarrassed) I must now ask you an awful embarrasing question. There is an Opinion in the court that isn't so much abso— lute belief in my innocence as love for me 85 that has influenced you in my behalf. The only way to properly disabuse their minds is for me to ask you a question outright, and you will speak the truth, won't you? Mrs. Weston Yes. , .--- Essex (Desperately- very slowTy) Mrs. Weston, do you love me? (Music pp.) Mrs. Weston (Surprised, afraid) The truth? I am to speak the truth? Teddy Yes, on your oath, the truth. (A short pause. Mrs. Weston looks into Teddy's eyes, and the love hitherto concealed wells up into her own. Music very piano, "I love a lovely girl, I do.") Mrs. Weston (Slowly) Yes, I love you better than all the world! (Jury bus. General movement from the public and Jury. Attorney nods his head to the Jury, as much as to say, "I told you so." Teddy is oblivious of every- thing except Mrs. Weston's words; he has even for- gotten that they were against his case. He makes a sudden movement of great surprise and looks at her, dumbfounded, unable to Speak or even to breathe for a minute. She gazes back into his eyes — she, too, forgetful for a moment of her surroundings. The pause should be held as long as possible. Finally, Teddy makes a movement and gesture of not being able to comprehend it or realize it. . .)1 With history on our side, Fitch's dialogue in The Cowboy and The Lady would seem stilted and overly melodramatic to the 1Clyde Fitch, The Cowboy and The Lady (New York: Samuel French, 1908), pp. 102-104. 86 modern ear. Many of his more pOpular plays, particularly The Girl with the Green Eyes, The Truth, and The Climbers, have more subtle dialogue and all are social comedies, not melo- drama. Perhaps this is because Fitch was actually unfamiliar with the American West, and was limited by this fact.1 He was also writing for the Special talentséof the pOpular actor, "Nat" Goodwin, a task to which he was unaccustomed. Ordinarily, "one of Fitch's main merits was an extraordinarily quick and accurate observation of the details Of daily life. He outloOk was spon- taneous and fresh; he went to life itself for his materials; he saw and reproduced directly, with no suggestion of the sec— ond hand."2 The Cowboy and The Lady, unfortunately, was written "second hand," a factor certainly to have affected the results. Though The Cowboy and The Lady was not one of Clyde Fitch's best works, the popularity of the play is not to be dismissed. His skill in telling a story, his broad character portrayals, and his ability to construct exciting plot situ— ations, attracted audiences. Playwrights of his time, and some to follow, found him a direct influence; it was pointed out earlier that the domestic courtroom plays produced be— tween 1913 and 1916 have striking similarities to the plays lQuinn, A History of the American Drama from the Civil War to the Present Day, Volume One, 274. 2The Bookman, October, 1909, p. 136. 87 of Clyde Fitch. Burton's comment seems to sum up the contri- bution of Fitch: "'The Cowboy and The Lady,‘ agreeable though it be, may stand for an illustration of the made-to—order drama to which Fitch too often yielded. It would be foolish and unfair to depreciate the excellence of character drawing and finish of dialogue with which this playmaker has enriched his social pictures."1 The other domestic plays of the period in which the courtroom scenes are the high points, are A Grand Army Man and YOung America. Both of these plays are sentimental pieces con- cerning the misfortunes Of youth, and both are simple tales about ordinary peOple. A Grand Army Man was written by David Belasco, Pauline Phelps, and Marion Short. David Belasco's contributions to the theatre fill volumes. His most important contributions to playwriting are acknowledged to be collaborations,2 though A Grand Army Man is not an outstanding work. Pauline Phelps and Marion Short are practically unknown. Their collaboration with David Belasco resulted in a play called "a model Of simplicity. . . . In plot there is little variation from the ordinary experiences that befall most peOple, especially 1Burton, 90. 2Quinn, A History of The American Drama From the Civil War to the Present Day, Volume One, 198. 88 peOple in a small community, and the characters differ not at all from characters to be found in any rural town north of 1 Mason and Dixon's line." The theme of A Grand Army Man concerns paternal love and the results of the thoughtfulness of youth. William Winter describes the plot as follows: The chief character, Wes Bigelow, is a veteran of the Grand Army of the Republic. He has never been married. In youth he has loved a girl, but has not won her, and she has become the wife of one of his comrades. Years have passed, and the Amer- ican Civil War has occured. That comrade has been killed in battle, the widow has died: but she has left a son, that comrade's boy, and Bigelow has adOpted and reared him. The substance of the play is his experience with the fortunes of that ward. . . The boy, Robert, has been intrusted with money, the prOperty of the Grand Army Veterans, and, instead of placing it in the bank, as directed to do, he has used it in speculation, and lost it. . . the veteran. . .is. . .broken by the conflict be— twixt the sense of shame and the struggle of af— fection. . .the case comes to trial, before a judge who, privately, is hostile to Bigelow, and measures are taken to insure conviction. . .The old soldier makes an impassioned, pathetic appeal to the court, but the hostile magistrate cannot be appeased. Robert is convicted and is sent to prison for one year. A little time passes, and Robert's sweetheart, the daughter of the malicious judge, leaves her father's abode and seeks refuge with Bigelow and the kind old woman Who keeps house for him. Robert is pardoned, at the inter- cession of the veteran's military comrades, and he comes home, to his guardian and his love, on New Year's Day.2 lNew_Xork Dramatic Mirror, October 26, 1907, p. 3. 2William Winter, The Wallet of Time (New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1913), pp. 182, 184-185. 89 The New York Times review of the play directed atten- tion to "an intensely moving scene in the courtroom, where the boy, Robert, breaks down before the tribunal, and is led away, leaving his father, who makes violent outcry against the sentence."1 A Grand Army Man attracted audiences for 149 performances at the Styvesant Theatre (later the Belasco) in New York. To a large degree, the play's pOpularity was prob- ably due to the acting of David Warfield, a pOpular actor of the time who excelled in sympathetic roles.2 He also played similar roles in two other David Belasco plays, The Music Master, in collaboration with Charles Klein, and The Return of Peter Grimm. "All of these plays embody broadly senti- mental themes, at times 'weepy' ones, but themes indicative 3 of one kind of drama which an American audience understands." Audiences were also attracted to the sentimental thesis and charm Of Young America, by Fred Ballard. This "half—humorous, half pathetic little drama of the children's 4 court" was based on a series of stories by Pearl Franklin, in which the leading character was a Mrs. Doray. The char- acters of Mrs. and Mrs. Doray in YOung America were created 1The New York Times, October 17, 1907, p. 9. 21bid. 3Mayorga, 218. 4The New York Times, August 30, 1915, p. 7. 90 by actors Otto Kruger and Peggy Wood. The author, Frederick Ballard, was another pupil of George Pierce Baker at Harvard. Young America oozes with sentiment and the genuine humor of folksy characters; there is no question as to its intended effect. For example, in the Samuel French acting version of Young America, a suggestion is made as to the use of a dog in the play. The note reads: "The dog in this play need not be a trick dog. Any dog that will lie still when told will suffice. The homlier the dog, the better."1 (ital- ics mine). This note indicates that some sentimental value was placed on the idea of using a homely dog, for the story of the play primarily concerns an undernourished, barefooted, likeable boy of fifteen years, Art Simpson, who has a dog named Jasper. Another scene, at the end of Act One, exempli- fies how the author deftly constructed scenes to enhance the tender and sentimental values. The passage to follow also shows how these values were heightened by a theatrical custom of the time, for it was traditional in the American theatre before World War I for actors to take bows following any Of the act breaks preceding the final curtain. We enter the scene just after Jim Reuter and Nels Larsen, two policeman, have caught young Art Simpson stealing chickens from the lFrederick Ballard, Young America (New YOrk: Samuel French), p. 5. 91 Dorays' henhouse: Reuter . . .Grab that dog, Nels: Come on! (Larsen grabs dog and starts to drag him to door. Dog fights him.) Mrs. D. Mr. Larsen, please, please don't hurt that dog. (Business until dog is gaiet) Mrs. Reuter, isn't there some way to prevent this poor boy being sent to the reform school? Reuter . . .Prevent it: Reform schools are built for just such little bums as him. (to Larsen) Hang on to that dog, Nels: Art . . .What are you going to do with that dog? Reuter His license ain't been paid and I'm going to put him in the dog pound, that's what I'm going to do with him. Come on. . . Art (Pulling back and facing Larsen) You let my dog alone, he ainfit hurting you. Reuter Come on, come oni Art (Tugs with all his might to get away from Reuter) You let my dog alone. Let him alone. (with a violent wrench he frees himself from Reutery rushes down to Larsen and begins beating him as hard as he can with both fists on the back. Larsen holds on to the dogLs collar with one hand and with the other hand tries to ward off the boy's blows) Let him alone, I tell youi Let alone: (Reuter grabs Art by the back of the neck and shakes him) Mrs. D. StOpL You stOp hurting that boy! 92 Reuter (without stOpping) I‘ll learn him to strike an officer!. . . Mrs. D. (tries to pull Reuter's hand from Art's collar) StOp, you're hurting him, you're hurting him! StOp, I say! Art (as Reuter drags him Off stage) Jasper! Jasper! I want my dog! I want my dog! (Marjorie, Mrs. King, and Billy Coombs [neigh- bors and townspeople] rush out, followed by Reuter, dragging Arpy followed by Mr. and Mrs. Doray. Nels Larsen fights and tussles with Jasper until thay reach the doorL_then flings him back into roomlpexits quickly, and slams door shut. The dog is left on stage alone jumping_up at door and barking. Patrol effect off rear.) W (2nd Curtain. Dog barking. Patrol effect in distance) (3rd Curtain. Children lined up in front and company at back) (4th Curtain. Company in front and children lined up at back) (5th Curtain. Jasper alone) The Nengork Times called Young America "effective prOpaganda for the children's court, . . .real pathos and genuine drama." It was also called ". . .peculiarly moving"3 and a ”brimful of sentiment without one drOp of treacle. . ."4 lBallard, 49-50. 2The New York Times, August 30, 1915, p. 7. 3New York Dramatic Mirror, September 1, 1915, p. 8. 4The New York Times, August 30, 1915, p. 7. 93 Seven courtroom plays produced between 1899 and 1916 have been discussed. All of them are similar, in that they appear to have been written with the competitive commercial market in mind. "During the season of 1895-1896, the The- atrical Syndicate was formed. From that time. . ., the theatre suffered from a wrong emphasis placed on the word 'commercial', and from a wrong estimate Of. . .what the public wants."1 The period in the American drama covered by the seven plays dis- cussed, was dominated by the desire for box—Office success. For reasons mentioned earlier, Common Clay is the most impor— tant courtroom play of the period portraying domestic problems, and this play "shows that even Harvard's WorkshOp 47 used to uphold the box-office pattern."2 Calculated plots, Wherein the climax comes when the real parent Of an illegitimate child is suddenly revealed, can only be considered superficial playmaking; we find this kind of plot maneuvering in both Common Clay and The Guilty Man. The Unwritten Law, concerning divorce and adultery, also touches only the surface of the subjects. Marital problems, with murder as a by-product, are the subjects of The Cowboy and The Lady; an uneven mixture of melodrama and comedy makes this Clyde Fitch play disappointing. A Grand Army_Man and Young America, both of which concern the lMoses, 351. 2Ibid., 419. 94 paternal affection for children, result in sentimental pieces designed for the commercial theatre. Despite the individual shortcomings of the seven do- mestic courtroom plays, the plays collectively hold some sig- nificance; in them we see American playwrights during this seventeen-year period, seeking to find meaning in the subject matter of domestic problems and relationships. Soon after World War I, these same subjects receive more dignified treat- ment in the plays of Zona Gale, Owen Davis, George Kelly, Sidney Howard, and others. Perhaps Cleves Kinkead, Clyde Fitch, and Frederick Ballard helped pave the way for post- World War I dramatists with a show of promise in the treat- ment of domestic problems in their courtroom plays. A Rural Folk-Comedy Only one courtroom play produced between the Civil War and World War I, Back Home, can be classified as a rural folk- comedy. Back Home, by Bayard Veiller, is a courtroom play which deals sympathetically with the abuses of child labor in cotton mills; its main appeal, however, is its leading char- acter, Judge Priest. Back Home is based on magazine stories by Irvin S. Cobb, pOpular American humorist of the day. The character creation by Cobb, Judge Priest, was later to be popularized again on the screen by the famous Will Rogers. The play, Back Home, ran only 16 performances, but received 95 moderate acclaim. The story of Back Home concerns a crusading writer from the North who investigates child labor conditions in Judge Priest's Southern district. During the investigation the writer gets into a fight with a local bully, and kills him. A lengthy trial is held. The writer is found innocent, mainly because the Southerners in the court discover the convicted man has Southern ties! Judge Priest reacts to this discovery in this way: . . .I've always maintained that Robert E. Lee was the greatest general that the world has ever seen, but at the same time, I've got to admit that Ulyses [sic] S. Grant was considerable of a fighter. As I grow older, I look back a good deal, but I ain't so old to admit that these here United States is a considerable of a suc— cess. . .1 The New York Dramatic Mirror praised the play's trial scenes,2 but The New York Times found the same scenes "plodding."3 The Boston Transcript said ”the trial would be impossible anywhere outside the theatre and the pages of the Saturday Evening . . . 4 Post. . ., but in both it makes savory entertainment.” How- ever, in the 1915 season, when good—humored and folksy plays 1Bayard Veiller, "Back Home" (unpublished typescript version housed in The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center), Act III,]p. 47. 2New York Dramatic Mirror, November 20, 1915, p. 8. 3The New York Times, November 16, 1915, p. 13. 4 Boston Transcript, October 12, 1915. 96 appeared frequently on Broadway, audiences did not respond to Back Home. Violent Crime Unlike the languishing, sentimental qualities Of.§2§£ .Homa_and Young America, another kind Of courtroom drama attracted audiences and critical acclaim between 1879 and 1914, that of the serious melodrama in which the main story line is precipitated by violent crime. Four such plays are discussed in this chapter. The most important play of the period in which violent crime is a principal factor is Elmer Rice'sl On Trial. Rice received commendation for his work, particularly for "telling his story backward, from effect to cause. . ."2 by the use of the "flashback." In the best interests of discussion, the following description of the story, in logical sequence by Clayton Hamilton, is presented: A profligate induces an inexperienced young girl to spend a night with him at a road-house, ac- companied by a woman who is already married to the profligate. The villain runs away, and the 1 In 1914 when On Trial was first produced, Elmer Rice was writing under the name of Elmer L. Reizenstein, his real name. For an interesting and amusing comment about the name change, see: Elmer Rice, Minority Report: An Autobiography, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963), p. 164. The name, Elmer Rice, is used by the writer for the purpose of this study, however, quoted materials in this study describing On Trial in 1914, use Reizenstein. 2Clayton Hamilton, "Chronological Sequence in the Drama," The Bookman, XL (October, 1914), p. 182. 97 girl is taken home by her father. Shortly after- wards, her father dies; and some years later, the girl meets and marries an honourable man. A daughter is born to them and they develOp a very happy home. It appears that the heroine was justi- fied in concealing from her husband the misfortune that had befallen her before she met him. But the husband meets the profligate in the business world, is befriended by him, and even borrows money from him. This money he repays in cash; but the prof- ligate takes advantage of the accidental renewal of acquaintance with the heroine to force her to yield to him again, under threat of allowing the pastiniquity to be exposed. The husband, dis- covering the recent intrigue, seeks out the prof- ligate and shoots him dead. A few moments before the shooting, the private secretary of the prof- ligate has stolen from the latter's safe the cash that had just been paid him by the murderer; and it therefore appears to the police that robbery was motive for the murder. The husband seizes on this circumstantial evidence to shield his wife and child from scandal. He confesses himself guilty of murder for the sake of robbery, and asks only to be sent to the electric-chair. But the court insists on assigning counsel to defend him; and the defendant's lawyer, by calling the wronged wife to the stand, makes clear the real motive for the shooting. The private secretary of the dead \ man is also called as a witness; and when the defendant's counsel succeeds in forcing him to confess that it was he who had rifled the safe and that this robbery had had no connection with the murder, the jury agree at once in acquitting the defendant.1 On Trial is written in a prologue, three acts, and an epilogue, consisting of eleven separate scenes. The scenes alternate between the courtroom and various other interior settings. All of the scenes located outside the courtroom, take place, T2. lHamilton, The Bookman, XL, 181-182. 1' 98 .pimg, prior to the action in the court. Rice accomplished this by the clever use of "flashback" technique. The following transition, from the Prologue to Act One, serves as an example of how the technique was utilized; Mrs. Trask, the widow of the murdered man, is on the stand being questioned by Gray, the District Attorney: Gray Mrs. Trask, are you the widow of Gerald Trask? Mrs. Trask Yes Sir. Gray How long were you married to Mr. Trask? Mrs. Trask Almost fifteen years. Gray Do you remember the night Of June 24th? Mrs. Traak Indeed I do. Gray Where were you on that evening? Mrs. Trask I had been dining out with friends. 93:93: What time did you arrive home? Mrs. Trask About half-past nine. Gray Now, Mrs. Trask, I want you to tell to the court and jury everything that occurred after you arrived home. 99 Mrs. Trask Just as I entered my home the telephone in the library rang. Tights out - Curtain ACT ONE Scene: Trask's librapy, . . At rise of curtain, the telephone rings, Mrs. Trask enters. . .and goes to phone. Mrs. Trask Mr. Trask is not in. . .1 Unanimous praise by the critics was given to Rice for his skill— ful ability in constructing On Trial. The Nation said: "The novelty of the representation consists in the manner in which . . 2 the story is unfolded to the audience.“ Everybody's Magazine . . 3 . . praised the "manner of construction.” and Current Opinion found On Trial to be a . . .startling application of the moving—picture method to the regular drama. The boldness and thoroness [sic] with which the idea was carried out on the stage of living actors, the manner in Which the mechanical difficulties are faced and solved, and the dramatic tradition of time and sequence defied and disregarded, brings success to this stunning experiment. lElmer Rice, "On Trial," Famous Plays of Crime and Detection, comp. Van H. Cartmell and Bennett Cerf (Phila- delphia: The Blakiston Company, 1946), pp. 237-238. 2The Nation, XCIX (August 27, 1914), p. 260. 3 p. 702. Everybody's Magazine, XXXI No. 5 (November 14, 1914), "First Guns of the Dramatic Season," Current Opinion, LVII No. 4 (October, 1914), p. 249. 100 It should be remembered that the motion picture in 1914 was still a relatively new medium of entertainment; however, by this time the "flashback" or "cutback" was an accepted motion picture technique. With On Trial, audiences apparently recog- nized and approved of the innovation for the stage. The Nation explains the significance: The audience was evidently not displeased with this, as who should be whose dramatic conceptions have been formed by cinema sketches wherein, as every one knows the present easily melts into past dreams and past experiences! In this respect "On Trial" is significant. In may indicate a growing influ- ence of the cinema upon other drama, and a very Wholesome influence. The chief hope is that by so wholesale a throwing over of the visual dramatic standards there may in time result a Reductio ad absurdum, to ether with a return to the limitations of true art. With a perspective of several years on the values of On Trial, Quinn wrote on the influence of the "flashback" in the play: The result on the stage was certainly striking and the principle on which it was based has been adOpted in several plays since that time. When On Trial was first produced, the prOphecy was freely made that it would revolutionize play writing, but it has not done so. The "cutback" was of course suggested by the moving picture and the moving picture can produce the effect so much more easily than the play that dramatists have usually wisely left the field to their rival.2 In his autobiography, Rice explains how he became interested in writing On Trial in “flashbacks:" 1The Nation, chx, 261. 2Quinn, A Historyaof The American Drama from the Civil War to the Present Day, Vol. II, 110. 101 . . .I happened to remember an artical in Tpa Bookman by its dramatic critic, Clayton Hamilton, who was a disciple of the famous Columbia Uni- versity drama professor, Brander Matthews. . . In his article he suggested writing a play that went backward in time - that is, in which each successive act antedated the preceding one. I found it an idea worth exploring. But I soon concluded that any play that, so to speak, ended before it began must inevitably be anticlimactic, a difficulty that Hamilton, for all his technical knowledge, had ignored. Further examination of the formula convinced me that it could be effec— tive only if the play gave the appearance of moving backward, while actually it moved forward. For the resolution of a situation, which is the essence of drama, must be achieved progressively, not retrogressively.l Two other examples of courtroom plays, to be discussed later, using the "flashback" technique are Time Limit!, a play of the Korean War by Ralph Berkey and Henry Denker, and Capponsacchi by Arthur Goodrich and Rose A. Palmer. The construction of On Trial received praise, while the play, in general, was criticized for its ordinary story. The story was described as "nothing new,"2 "not. . .timely "3 I E I or. . .novel, and 'tr1te.’ The appeal of On TriaT as a courtroom play is related to the unique construction in this respect: information necessary to resolve the trial is withheld from the audience Rice, Minority Report: An Autobiography, 103. The Nation, XCIX, 260. Hamilton, The Bookman, XL, 181. humid Everybody's Magazine. XXXI, 702. . w 102 by the use of the "flashback;" this gives On Trial distinction as a departure from the usual chronological manner in which a story on the stage is told. The New York Times also found distinction in the manner in which Rice created the environ- ment of a criminal court. The critic said: Mr. Reizenstein has done. . .in a stage courtroom that Which is remarkably life-like, and at point after point the play is the better and the more vivid because a keen observation has brought in some of the little things which make a courtroom interesting to those who go to one to hear the stories told there. . . .he has reproduced with singular success the very manner of our courtroom.l On Trial, Elmer Rice's first produced play, opened in New York When Rice was only twenty-one years old. Since 9p Trial, he has had a distinguished career in the theatre. He became interested in playwriting when he was a law clerk in his cousin's firm in New York. In 1912 he graduated from New York Law School with a degree of LL.B. cum laude, though he never practiced law.2 His days as a law student signifi- cantly affected his playwriting, however, for in On Trial, The Adding Machine, Counsellor-At-Law, and Judgment Day, trials and lawyers are major subject matter. Judgment Day is a courtroom play and will be discussed in Chapter Four. Of On Trial, the author himself wrote in 1963: 1The New York Times, August 20, 1914, p. 11. 2Rice, Minority Report: An Autobiography, 78-97. 103 Steeped in the drama of the Greeks and Shakespeare, of Ibsen, Shaw, Galsworthy, Haupt- mann, Schnitzler, and Synge, I could not under- stand all this acclaim. To begin with, On Trial broke no rules of dramatic technique. . .On the contrary, it followed a murder trial straight through. If the witnesses had simply recited their stories in the usual manner, it would not have occurred to anyone that there was a depar- ture from normal progression. The gimmick - as it would be called today - was that the testi— mony was visualized. But these enactments car- ried the story forwardi as every scene in a well- constructed play must. Robert Hogan's recent work, The Indapendence of Elmer Rice, is an incisive study of the works of Elmer Rice. Hogan places On Trial in historical perspective with the following state- ments: Scrutinizing the play today, one finds it diffi- cult to discover what was impressive. The char— acters are only theatrical stereotypes; the dialogue is flat and undistinguished. However, the American stage in 1914 was both imitative and lowbrow, and Rice's manner of telling his story was for the times startling and unique. His most usual story is made engrossing by his effective arrangement of the plot, and this fea- ture of the play remains effective still. .Qp Trial was not only the first noteworthy eXperi- ment of the modern American drama, but also it really was an effective piece of stage carpentry. .OOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOUOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOO This structure succeeded in disguising the triteer ness of the story and made for an engrossing piece of theatre. It was a remarkable achievement for a man so young to handle so excellently such a com— plicated arrangement, and the play deserved its success. It was good entertainment as well as, lRice, Minoripy Report: An Autobiography, 121. 104 for its time, a technical tour de force.1 Preceding On Trial by five dramatic seasons is another court- room play, that also appealed to audiences because of its novel presentation; The Third Degree also concerns a violent murder Out of which the plot develops. The novelty of the play, in 1909, grew out of a situation in the First Act, in which the hero of the play, Howard Jeffries is psychologically tortured by lengthy and intense questioning by a police captain. This questioning takes the form of a trial. In a kind of hypnotic and weakened state, Jeffries repeats the confession the captain has formulated for him. This procedure to elicit confessions and statements, portrayed number of times on the stage, screen, and television, since 1909, is known as "the third degree." Charles Klein wrote many successful plays between 1900 and 1910. He wrote plays of contemporary life in America. His plots include the story of a Supreme Court Judge and his battles with financial magnates; conflicts of capital and labor; and, the embezzlement of money by attempting to commit a person to an insane asylum. Quinn says of Klein's work: "These plays are all theatrically effective but they do not stand the test of analysis."2 Quinn includes The Third Degree in his comment. 1Robert Hogan, The Independence of Elmer Rice, (Car- bondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1965), pp. 18, 19-20 0 2Quinn, A History of the American Drama from The Civil 'War to the Present Day, II, 104. 105 The critics in 1909 generally qualified their praise. For example, The Nation felt the play advanced "the art of tech- nical construction,"1 but added, "it never rises above the 2 dignity of melodrama." The Forum found it "interesting melo- drama," and referred specifically to the "third degree" scenes as "the best piece of work that Mr. Klein has ever done."4 CurrentaLiterature praised the same scenes as "one of the most startling experiments in melodramatics." The Third Degree played 168 performances in New York, and enjoyed several road companies. The audiences in 1909 may have found it a fresh and picturesque look at the underworld in the City. They may also have found the play's "realistic" touches absorbing; for example, in one scene Klein's stage directions call for a hot iron plate and a pot of cold water, in order to obtain a boiled-over milk effect. A note in the script reads: "This plate must be kept hot, so that when the water is poured on it, the hissing sound is distinctly 1"Drama," The Nation, LXXXVIII No. 2275 (February 4. 1909), p. 122. 2 The Nation, LXXXVIII, 122. 3“Pleasant and Unpleasant Plays," The Forum, XLI (March, 1909), p. 219. 4The Forum, XLI, 220. 5"The Third Degree - Klein's Realistic Dramatization of a Modern Inquisition," Current Literature, XLVII NO. 4, (October, 1909), p. 427. 106 heard - and the steam seen by the audience."1 Audiences in 1909 were unaccustomed to this kind of realness, and may have led the critic for The Forum to say that The Third Degree was "naturally written."2 He added: ”The Third Degpee is not an important play because it isn't about anything which is of serious significance to humanity. But it does. . .tell an interesting story with theatric skill."3 Receiving less favorable notice than The Third Degree and On Trial, are three more courtroom plays of the period, in which murder plays an important part. The Confession, Nancy Stair, and The Silent Witness, all have murder trials in them. The Silent Witness, by Otto Hauerbach, produced in 1916, is a conventional melodrama about a girl named Helen Hastings Who becomes pregnant by a college student. On the eve of their wedding the college student is "killed" in a fire. Helen moves to Colorado to raise her son. Years later, Helen and her son Bud, their name now changed to Morgan after the boy's father, become involved in a murder case. Bud has accidentally killed a boy in a fight and is accused of murder. Into the play comes State Prosecutor's assistant, Richard lCharles Klein, The Third Degree (New York: Samuel French, 1908), p. 85. 2"Pleasant and Unpleasant Plays," The Forum, XLI (March, 1909), pp. 219—220. 3 The Forum, XLI, 220. 107 Morgan. In a recognition scene between Helen and Richard, we discover he is the father of Bud. Somehow he had escaped death in the fire. He finds evidence of his son's innocence, and the boy is acquitted after an impassioned plea to the jury. Audiences viewing The Silent Witness most certainly would have been reminded of the surprise endings of Common Clay, Just A Woman, and The Guilpy Man, had they seen any Of the other plays. The Silent Witness was called "a sentimental, wabbly, and sometimes amusingly naive melodrama,"l by The New York Times. The Confession, by James Halleck Reid, is another murder story, with morality and the Church also factors in the plot. The story concerns a priest who, after hearing the con- fession of a murderer, learns that his own brother has been accused of the crime. He is obligated to his vows to the Church, therefore, he cannot reveal the identity of the murderer. He almost sees his brother hanged without being able to save his life. The Confession had some pOpular appeal for it "kept the majority of women in tears."2 Nancy Stair, adapted from Elinor Macartney Lane's novel of the same name by Paul M. Potter, takes place in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The heroine, Nancy .3. Stair, is loved by Danvers Macgregor. A Duke also loves 1The New York Times, August 11, 1916, p. 7. 2Ibid., March 14, 1911, p. 11. 3Incidenta11y, Nancy Stair was a poetess whose work was sometimes attributed to Robert Burns. 108 her, but Nancy Stair is infatuated with, and engaged to, Danvers. The Duke is killed in a duel with Danvers. After a trial it is learned that a cousin of Nancy's shot the Duke. All is for- given. The New York Times described the courtroom scenes in Nancy Stair in this manner: "Every inch of space is crowded with peOple who conduct themselves as boisteriously as peOple at stage trials usually do, but who provide a lively and color— ful picture for all that."1 The New York Dramatic Mirror found the play a "heterogeneous mass. . .and general hodge podge. . " Nancy Stair had a run of only twenty-nine performances. Politics and Big Business Nancy Stair, The Confession, and The Silent Witness are three courtroom plays that did not add significantly to the American drama; nor as courtroom plays are they partic- ularly outstanding. Another group of plays, however, can be considered important because of their subject matter of politics and big business, and because the subject matter itself grew out of the headlines of the times in which they were written. As in the last group of plays discussed, the individual plays in this group do not contribute significantly _ 1The New York Times, March 16, 1905, p. 9. 2New York Dramatic Mirror, March 25, 1905, p. 16. . 109 to the drama. An incident in New York politics was probably the source for James C. Barcus' play, The Governor's Boss. Eight months before the play was produced in New York City, the State of New York had.seen develOpments in its politics, that resulted in the impeachment of the Governor, William Sulzer. Governor Sulzer was accused of many indescretions and impro- prieties in office. For example, he ostensibly used money contributed to his campaign fund to buy shares of Big Four Railroad stock. Governor Sulzer, after impeachment, was re- moved from office.1 Nannes, in Politics in the American Drama, says "the impeachment was political, brought about by the machines to save their powers." In the play, The Governor's Boss, the Governor is accused of being controlled by a political boss. The governor, however, is true to his Office. He is almost removed from office by impeachment, but everything ends happily for him when evidence of the boss's crooked dealings are made public. 'The Governor's Boss ran sixteen performances on Broad- way. The author, James S. Barcus, was a "former Senator in a lDevelOpments in Governor Sulzer's impeachment and removal from office may be followed in The New York Times from August 15, 1913, to the end of that year. 2Casper H. Nannes, Politics in the American Drama, (Tmashington, D. C.: The Catholic University of American Press, 1960), p. 72. 110 1 , . . . . . Western State." His dramatization, grow1ng out of the inCi— dents of the Sulzer impeachment, was found "poor and uninter- 2 esting." The Sulzer impeachment "contained many dramatic possibilities. This effort of former Senator Barcus, we regret . . . . . 3 to say, does not bring out these pOSSibilities." Political "bossism" is also the subject for The Last Resort, by George Scarborough. The hero of this play is nom- inated for Governor while serving sentence in jail for contempt of court. He is later elected; all ends happily in "this voracious chronicle."4 Though The New York Times called it "a dramatization of big—type headlines. . . and . . . scare- head melodrama,"5 the New York Dramatic Mirror only recognized it for its attempt to show the corruption of some state offi- cials. The following statements are from the latter paper's review of the play. The Last Resort, lacking in the essential points of refinement in the art of playwriting, is a bitter impeachment of the integrity of the judiciary, presented with a direct view to sen- sational effects. . .Members Of the Appellate Court are represented as the veriest scoundrels, 1The New York Times, April 15, 1914, p. 13. 2Ibid., April 15, 1914, p. 13. 3New York Dramatic Mirror, April 15, 1914, p. 12. 4Clayton Hamilton, "Emotional Contagion in the Theatre," The Bookman, XXXIX (April, 1914), p. 146. 5The New York Times, March 3, 1914, p. 9. h ...L. flurmu J. 111 and no mitigating circumstance is introduced to divest them of the odium of the most unscrupulous subserviency to the dictate of self—interest and political prostitution. I 0.....0000000CCOOCOOOOOOOOIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOO The play has the earmarks of;hasty craftsmanship at the hands Of an Opportunist writer wishing to profit by the interest in current events. The audience is constantly reminded of certain recent political occurances in the State, and the author points a direct finger at various well-known per- sonages.l The Last Resort had the same length of run an; The Governor's Boss, playing sixteen performances. Corruption, but in the business world, is also the sub— ject in another courtroom drama of the period, as seen in The Mills of the Gods by George Broadhurst. The main story con- cerns two men, James Clarke and Frederick Payton, Who are brought to trial for embezzlement. Clarke confesses, and, by doing so, implicates Payton. Both are sentenced but Clarke eventually escapes from jail. He goes to Pennsylvania Where he becomes manager of a glass works. Years later Payton appears and blackmails Clarke. Clarke is awarded a pardon because of his "good" life. Payton's fate is uncertain. Although the trial scenes were found to be interest- . 2 ing, the author was "hampered by too close observance of lNewagork Dramatic Mirror, March 4, 1914, p. 6. 2The New York Times, March 5, 1907, p. 9. 112 . ‘ . . 1 certain laws of dramatic construction. . .” The New York Times corroborates this impression by calling The Mills of the 'godp a ". . .drama of the good, old-fashioned sort, with the hero and the villain very plainly labeled at every stage of the proceedings, and the issues never in any sort of doubt."2 In 1934 a motion picture based on The Mills of the Gods was released; it received moderate acclaim by Time magazine. Special Talents The final two plays to be discussed in this chapter almost defy categorizing, unless they could be called "enter- tainments" designed for special talent. They were both written between 1884 and 1891. The first, Fred G. Maeder's Captain Mishler (1884), was designed for the special comedy talents of Gus Williams, a pOpular farceur of the day. It was not seen as a good vehicle for Williams, however.4 It was looked upon as a farcical piece,5 but the following description of the play in the New York Dramatic Mirror implies it was written with a mixture of styles: 1New York Dramatic Mirror, March 16, 1907, p. 3. 2The New York Times, March 5, 1907, p. 9. 3Time, December 24, 1934, p. 22. 4New York Dramatic Mirror, May 31, 1884, p. 2. 5The New York Times, May 27, 1884, p. 6. 113 The story is tinged with melodramatic exag— geration and is replete with sensational episodes. The Captain is the hero. An adventurous rascal, Edward Warker, deserts his wife and child and they find shelter and protection with the good- natured, kind-hearted police official. Warker murders and robs a man at Fleetwood Park. A good young man, Frank Tracey, is falsely accused of the crime, but at the trial Warker is shot'~ through the court-room window, and dying, estab— lished the other fellow's innocence by confessing his own guilt; The Captain is rewarded for his devotion and fidelity by the hand of the murderer's widow, and all ends happily.l There is no available record as to how long Captain Mishler at- tracted audiences; advertisements for the production in New York, however, appeared occasionally throughout the summer of 1884. The other play for which labeling is difficult is Hoss and Hoss, by Charlie Reed and William Collier. In Hopp and Hoss, a variety show company appears before a judge and defends itself by performing various acts. The critics were unfavorable; for example, it was called ". . .one of the non- descript formeless [sic] farces. . .sometimes very funny, and sometimes very stupid."2 The New York Dramatic Mirror said: "Hoss and Hoss will stick in our memory as one of the dullest 3 performances we have sat through at a Broadway theatre." The audience for Opening night was much more unkind; a singing (eiNew York Dramatic Mirror. May 31, 1884, 2. 2The New York Times, November 3, 1891, p. 4. 3New York Dramatic Mirror, November 7, 1891, p. 2. on w“. v-v - iv , . (I) ‘r 'w 114 , l quartette, for example, was hissed, and "the occupants of an upper box persisted in throwing wads of roses at almost every performer."2 The length Of run for Hoss and Hoss is undeterminable. We have examined twenty-two courtroom plays, produced professionally between 1884 and 1917. Between the end of the Civil War and the 1880's, a number of plays included scenes in courtrooms, but the action in the courtroom was not sufficient length to be included as a significant part of this study. A predominance of plays with short scenes is generally attributed to the desire of audiences of the post-Civil War period, who wanted quick changes in dramatic action and numerous settings for the diversified action. Of the plays discussed, it is doubtful that any of them would be accepted by modern audiences, with the possible exception of On Trial by Elmer Rice and Giles Corey, Yeoman by Mary E. Wilkins. On Trial, written in 1914, would possibly be appealing today to those who enjoy well-constructed melo- drama designed mainly to entertain. Giles Corey, Yeoman might stand reviving because of its historical motif of the Salem witch trials, and because the language of the play is so similar to the dialect of the 17th century America, that a lIbid. 21bid. 115 contemporary American playwright might approach the subject matter in the same manner. In fact, Arthur Miller's Thg_ Crucible, written on the same subject and in the patois of early America, has been a pOpular play in America since its first performance in 1953. In general terms, the twenty—three courtroom plays produced professionally in America between 1884 and 1917 collectively reflect: an increased use of native material by American playwrights; an emphasis by American playwrights upon American speech, characters, and setting; deft technical skill by American playwrights in the use of the resources in- herent in the theatre; and, some excellence in playwriting which can be labeled as precursory to the more definitive works by playwrights in the years between 1918 and 1966. CHAPTER IV THE AMERICAN COURTROOM PLAY BETWEEN THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE PRESENT DAY Introduction Between World War One and 1966, the American drama can be divided into three main periods. The first period (1917- 1930), includes the years of America's role in the First World War, the post-World War One period, and the 1920's. This era ends just following the Stock Market crash of 1929, which marked the end of post-war prosperity and the beginning of the biggest depression in American history. From World War Oneeto the Depression, American drama became more entrenched in real- ism, saw an insurgent art theatre affect its product, and found a number of playwrights recognized as important literary fig- ures throughout the world. The second period begins with the Depression in 1930 and ends with the close of World War Two in 1945. During and following the Depression, American dramatists became caught llp>in.the social and political changes taking place on the Ihmerican scene; this resulted in a number of plays of social crtiticism. During the years of World War Two, social drama 116 .A“ 4:" . .. but u. 5r. in v. 117 gave way to conventional escapist fare. The final period embraces the time span from 1945 to 1966. Remindful of the vivid crimes of World War Two and the fear of atomic destruction for Mankind, playwrights following the war became interested in the themes of Man's identity, and the importance of the individual in contemporary society. Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Robert Anderson, all emerged as prominent writers during this period; all wrote on themes of Man's identity, loneliness, and alienation. In the approximate years from 1955 to 1965, experimentation in American drama also took place in New York's off-Broadway theatres. In all the periods from World War One to the present day, homespun, folksy comedies were produced on the American professional stage. Conventional melodramas constructed pri- marily for entertainment, amusement, and mass appeal, also appear in the three periods. In intent and often in presenta— tion these comedies and melodramas do not differ too much from those that appeared frequently on Broadway before World War One, Which at the time was "smugly indifferent to artistic and social forces threatening its own complacency. . ." At the time America entered World War One in 1917, 1Edmond M. Gagey, Revolution in American Drama (New York: Columbia University Press, 1947), p. 1. ‘1‘ a: y 1. 118 the play-goer in New York would very likely seek a play with a well—known theatrical personality, and one which would be lackhugin significant depth and meaning. The theatre of the time was a world of make-believe and escape. The World War, however, had a sobering effect on America, Americans, and Amer- ican drama. Elmer Rice, one of the leading playwrights at the time, describes the change: The old concept of a sanguine and peace-loving country minding its own business and cultivating its own garden in a wide, rich land, securely sheltered by two vast expanses of ocean, was no longer tenable. The whole world was in a state of upheaval and a startled and uprepared American suddenly had a sword thrust into its hand and found itself cast in the role of the savior of humanity — a boy sent to do a man's work! Old behavior patterns and prejudices had to be dis- carded; new responsibilities and attitudes had to be assumed; growing pains, headaches and heartaches had to be endured. America, suddenly conscious of its vital individuality and its high rank in the global hierarchy, swelled with justi- fiable pride and with a new sense of power. His- tory affords ample evidence that at such moments in a nation's career the national genius finds expression not only in vigorous action, but in the arts. The time was already ripe for the as- sertion of American creativity; the war acceler— ated the process.1 The World War also accelerated a native dramatic lit- erature, that was creative and intrinsically related to the liational life. The "new" drama had actually begun as early as 11915, When a group of amateurs formed the Washington Square lElmer Rice, The Living Theatre (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1959), p. 120. 119 Players and produced the first play by America's most respected playwright, Eugene O'Neill.1 O'Neill's work has achieved last— ing prominence all over the world, as well as in America. Led by O'Neill, American playwrights at the end of World War One began to voice a vigorous plea for imagination and poetry in the drama. Some of them, their names now commonplace in Ameri- can dramatic history, became prominent; Sidney Howard, Maxwell Anderson, Paul Green, and Robert Sherwood, to name a few, all became significant playwrights following the first World War. This group wrote on various subjects, but a serious intent prevailed in their plays. Edmond M. Gagey, in the following passage, discusses the attitudes of the American playwright following World War One. At the start the postwar playwrights shared the spirit of disillusioned questioning that pervaded the fiction and poetry of the ”lost generation." The typical attitude was negative, critical, often cynical. In drama it generally took the form of debunking the pretensions and ideals of middle- class culture. All kinds of problems — social, ethical, psychological, religious, political - aroused dramatic comment. The general trend was from disillusion to reform and from reform to prOpaganda.2 The writers of comedy for the American stage, also tended to change their attitude toward their work following lJoseph Wood Krutch, The American Drama Since 1918, (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1957), p. 3. 2Gagey, 121-122. 120 the First World War. Though sentimental and romantic comedy tenaciously held the stage after 1918, SOphisticated comedy be- gan to take the place of the more romantic pieces. Rachel Crothers, Philip Barry, and S. N. Behrman were the principal writers of s0phisticated or high comedy. Other comedies written during this period, however, were more traditional and lacked SOphistication. Lightnin' (1918), by Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon, for example, takes the form of a character study, in Which the leading character, Lightnin' Jones, is reminiscent of Solon Shingle and Rip Van Winkle. Another unusual kind of play, pOpular during this period, was the melodramatic comedy. Chicago (1926), by Maurine Watkins, and The Front Page (1928), by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, both examples of the melo— dramatic comedy, almost completely lack in understatement; they take the form of satirical burlesques. Chicago satirizes the Chicago courts; and The Front Page, a newspaper story, ridicules politics in the same city. The courtroom play from World War One to 1930 also reflected the changing times in America. Fifteen courtroom plays were produced during this period; eight are serious ,plays and.seven are comedies. Among the serious courtroom Ealays only three held the stage for any significant length <>f time. They are: The Woman in Room 13 (1919), by Samuel STnipman and Max Marcin; Caponsacchi (1926), by Arthur Goodrich 121 and Rose A. Palmer; and, The Trial Of Mary Dugan (1927), by Bayard Veiller. The Woman in Room 13 and The Trial of Mary Dugan are conventional melodramas, similar to the pOpular melo- dramas produced in the pre—World War One era, but more real— istic in detail. Cappnsacchi, on the other hand, is a romantic costume play based on Browning's The Ring and the Book. Capon- sacchi's Broadway run of 296 performances attests to the growth in audience maturity after the First World War, for it is a verse play, a form that is not Often pOpular with Broadway audiences. Of the remaining five serious courtroom plays, only Appearances by Garland Anderson, offers any change from earlier courtroom drama; Appearances is the first American courtroom play to be concerned with the plight Of the American Negro. The seven comedies of the period are led by LightninL, which enjoypd a Broadway run of 1,291 performances. For audiences in 1918, Lightnin* had unsurpassed drawing power. Another comedy, Ladies of the Jury (1929) proved to be a mod~ erate success because Of the pOpular appeal Of its “star," Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske. In general terms, the courtroom play between World Flax One and 1930 seems to have held on to the traditions of ‘Ehe past to a greater degree than.the larger body of American druima. Negativism and cynicism are at a minimum in the 122 courtroom plays of this era; this is in contrast to the prom— inent playwrights of the day, O'Neill, Howard, Anderson, and Sherwood. Nor is the courtroom play of this period generally preoccupied with Freud, a desire to preach or spread propaganda, or any of the social and ethical problems of the time that are reflected in many of the plays Of the period. The courtroom comedies and melodramas of this era tend to mirror the prosperity and good times of "The Roaring Twenties." America's economic situation in the early 1930's, initiated by the stock market crash of 1929, was the worst in American history. The theatre was hit hard by this debacle; audiences waned, and many theatres had to close their doors. Probably the most significant development in American drama to come out of the Depression was the number of plays written on the social issues of the day. The plays of the outstanding American playwrights of the 1930's reflect a concern with the social and political issues raised by the economic conditions of the country. The works of Clifford Odets, John Howard Lawson, Maxwell Anderson, Elmer Rice, S. N. Behrman, Paul Green, Irwin Shaw, Lillian Hellman, and Robert Sherwood, all writing plays about social issues during the 1930's, give this decade of American drama particular significance. Some of the