Theatre
Andre
William Dunlap · 1798
Opening lines
Melville
The solemn hour, "when night and morning meet,"
Mysterious time, to superstition dear,
And superstition's guides, now passes by;
Deathlike in solitude.
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
At the camp at Tappan, in 1780, Major André, a British officer captured in civilian clothes behind the American lines, awaits his fate in prison. Young Bland, whom he had treated as a brother when Bland was a prisoner of the British, pleads for him with the commander-in-chief and, rebuffed, tears the cockade from his hat. His mother learns that her husband, a captive in New York, will be executed in reprisal if André dies, and hurries there in her turn. Melville, an American captain, himself doubts that this man should be hanged, and Honora, whom the play makes the prisoner's wife, comes to join him.
Context
The first performance took place on 30 March 1798 at the Park Theatre, by the Old American Company. On the first night, the actor Cooper, in the role of Bland, tore the American cockade from his helmet and threw it down: the house rose and hissed, seeing in it an attack on the Revolution, and the author at once added lines in which Bland receives the cockade again. The printing of the same year adds to the text documents on the affair, including the record of the court martial. The play did poorly; a large part of the text then passed into a patriotic spectacle, The Glory of Columbia, which was an immediate success.
Who it is for
Five acts in blank verse, with the action taking place over about ten hours. No French translation.
Prizes and reception
Poorly received at its premiere, it is today its author's best-known play and is thought to be the best.