The Contrast | Page 3

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The Contrast
by Royall Tyler
A Comedy
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THOMAS J. McKEE
INTRODUCTION.
THE 'Contrast' was the first American play ever
performed in public
by a company of professional
actors. Several plays by native authors
had been
previously published, the more noteworthy being the

'Prince of Parthia,' a tragedy by Thomas Godfrey
of Philadelphia,
which was probably written, and was
offered to Hallam's company in
1759 (but not produced),
and was printed in 1765, two years after the

author's death.<1>
A comedy called the 'Mercenary Match,' by one
Barnabas Bidwell, is
said to have been performed by
the students at Yale College, under
the auspices of the
Rev. Dr. Ezra Styles, President of the College.
Dunlap
speaks of having heard it read, but does not mention

whether it was from a manuscript or printed
copy. It was printed at
New Haven in 1785.
The 'Contrast,' however, was the first to meet
successfully
the critical judgment and approval of a professional

manager. This fact alone should redeem it
from the neglect and
inattention it has heretofore met
with. Besides, it possesses
considerable intrinsic merit,
and as an acting play will compare
favorably with
many of the English comedies of the period; and

though, perhaps, meager in plot and incident, it is
bright, humorous,
and natural; the dialogue is sparkling
with genuine wit; and its satire
aimed at the evils and
follies of the time is keen and incisive. The
contrast
between the plain and simple honesty of purpose and

breeding of our American home life and the tinseled
though polished
hypocrisy and knavery of foreign
fashionable society is finely
delineated, and no doubt
suggested the name of the play. Thoroughly

natural
in its plan and characters, it was a bold venture of a
young
writer in a new literary domain.
The character of Jonathan is a thoroughly original
conception;
nothing of the typical Yankee, since so
familiar and popular, had as
yet appeared, either on
the stage or in print.
The 'Contrast' was first performed<2> at the John
Street Theater,
New-York City, on the 16th of April,
1787, and undoubtedly met
with the approval of the
public, as it was repeated on the 18th of
April, the 2d
and 12th of May the same season, and was reproduced

with success later at Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
Boston. It was,
as far as can be learned, the first literary
effort of its author, a most
remarkable genius,
and one of the pioneers in several branches of our
literature,
who, up to within a few weeks of its production,
had
never attended a theatrical performance.
Royall Tyler, the author of the 'Contrast,' was
born at Boston, Mass.,
July 18, 1758, and belonged to
one of the wealthiest and most
influential families of
New England. He received his early education
at
the Latin School, in his native city, graduated at
Harvard, and
during the Revolutionary War, and
afterward in Shay's Rebellion,
acted as aid-de-camp
with the rank of Major on the staff of General
Benjamin
Lincoln. It was owing to the latter event that he
came to
New-York, being sent here by Governor Bowdoin
on a diplomatic
mission with reference to the
capture of Shay, who had crossed the
border line from
Massachusetts into this State. This was the first time

that Tyler had left his native New England, and the
first time he
could have seen the inside of a regular
theater, thus confirming the
statements made in the
preface of the play as to the author's
inexperience in
the rules of the drama, and as to the short time within

which it was written, as his arrival in New-York was
within but a
few weeks of its first performance.

Tyler was apparently immediately attracted to the
theater, for he
became a constant visitor before and
behind the curtain, and rapidly
gained the friendship
of all the performers, particularly that of
Wignell, the
low comedian of the company. He gave Wignell the

manuscript of the 'Contrast,' and on the 19th of May,
the same year,
produced for that actor's benefit his
second play, 'May-day in Town,
or New-York in an
Uproar,' a comic opera in two acts. He shortly
afterward
returned to his home at Boston, where, several
years later
(1797) another play from his pen, called 'A
Good Spec, or Land in the
Moon,' was produced. I
have been unable to ascertain whether either
'Mayday'
or 'A Good Spec' was ever printed or not.
Tyler's modesty or indifference as to his literary reputation,
as
evidenced in his treatment of his plays,
characterized his conduct
throughout life with respect
to his other works; so that, of the many
productions of
his pen that have been printed, the only one that bears

his name upon the title-page is a set of Vermont Law
Reports. And
though early in life he acquired among
literary circles a reputation as
a witty and graceful
writer of poetry and prose, it is doubtful whether
he
benefited much by his writings, either pecuniarily or
in
popularity, as an author. They were undoubtedly
the recreation of his
leisure moments, and though
they were thrown off from time to time
without apparent
effort, they bear internal evidence of being