Representative American Plays/The Broker of Bogota

by Robert Montgomery Bird

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THE BROKER OF BOGOTA
BY
Robert Montgomery Bird

The Broker of Bogota is printed for the first time, from the original manuscript presented to the Library of the University of Pennsylvania by Mr. Robert Montgomery Bird.

 

THE BROKER OF BOGOTA

The Broker of Bogota represents the romantic verse tragedy, written under the inspiration of Edwin Forrest. It represents also the interest in the Spanish colonies in America, in which its author, Robert Montgomery Bird, laid so many of the scenes of his plays and novels. Bird was born February 5, 1806, in New Castle, Delaware. After completing his school life at Germantown Academy, near Philadelphia, he entered the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating on April 6, 1827. Although he started practice and at a later time (1841–3) was a member of the Faculty of the Pennsylvania Medical College in Philadelphia, medicine was never the main interest in his life. While still attending the University he was writing plays, and completed in 1827 two romantic tragedies, The Cowled Lover and Caridorf, and two comedies, A City Looking Glass (1828) and News of the Night, both dealing with life in Philadelphia. None of these was acted.

Pelopidas or The Fall of the Polemarchs, a tragedy laid in Thebes, was finished in 1830 and was accepted by Edwin Forrest. It was, however, not played by him, probably since it did not provide an opportunity for Mr. Forrest properly to exhibit his talent. Instead The Gladiator, which was based on the revolt of Spartacus against the tyranny of Rome, was substituted and was played for the first time in New York City, September 26, 1831, at the Park Theatre, and for the first time in Philadelphia at the Arch Street Theatre, October 24, 1831. The Gladiator has been produced by Edwin Forrest, John McCullough, Robert Downing and other actors, hundreds of times since that day. Of Dr. Bird's other successful plays, the first, Oralloossa, was produced for the first time at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, October 10, 1832, and was a tragedy founded on the Spanish Conquest of Peru. It was successful, running at its initial presentation for five nights against the strong counter-attraction of the Kembles at the Chestnut Street Theatre, but it never had the wide popularity of The Gladiator.

The Broker of Bogota was put on at the Bowery Theatre in New York, February 12, 1834, and was played by Forrest at least thirty years. Among the Bird manuscripts is a letter from Forrest to Dr. Bird, dated February 12, 1834, in which he says: "I have just left the theatre—your tragedy was performed and crowned with entire success. The Broker of Bogota will live when our vile trunks are rotten." Certainly in the character of "Febro," with his middle-class mind, lifted into tragedy by his passionate love for his children and his betrayal by his oldest and best loved son, Bird drew one of the most living portraits in our dramatic history. The clever entanglement of "Febro" largely by circumstances and the climax of the fourth act in which "Juana" denounces "Ramon," must have been effective on the stage.

Bird abandoned his dramatic work at the height of success. Discouraged by his financial dealings with Forrest, which brought the author a total of five thousand dollars, while the actor made a fortune out of The Gladiator alone, and prevented from publishing his plays, partly by the copyright laws and partly by Forrest's opposition, he turned to fiction and produced several novels, Calavar (1834), The Infidel (1835), both dealing with Cortez's expedition, and Nick of the Woods (1837), a story of Indian life in Kentucky, which was put on the stage by Louisa Medina and was widely popular. The Infidel was dramatized by Benjamin H. Brewster, and played in Philadelphia in 1835. Dr. Bird travelled extensively in this country and visited England in 1834, then after some excursions into politics settled in Philadelphia as editor and part proprietor of the North American and died January 23, 1854.

None of his plays has been published. The present editor was fortunate enough to find The Broker of Bogota and Oralloossa in manuscript at the Forrest Home at Holmesburg, Pennsylvania, but it remained for Mr. Clement Foust, of the English Department of the University of Pennsylvania, to discover a complete collection of the manuscripts of Dr. Bird in the possession of the latter's grandson, Mr. Robert M. Bird, who has generously presented them to the Library of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Foust has in preparation a life of Dr. Bird, a critical edition of The Gladiator and the other important plays, and a selection from among the many interesting letters to and from Dr. Bird contained in his correspondence with other writers. Among the most interesting of these is a letter from Dr. Bird's son. Rev. Frederick M. Bird, requesting permission from Forrest, who apparently held the copyrights, to publish his father's plays and, in answer, Forrest's curt refusal. Each of the plays exists in several forms and the present text of The Broker of Bogota has been prepared by Mr. Foust after a comparative study of the manuscripts. Through his courtesy the editor is able to reproduce it here.

The text is based primarily upon the complete manuscript copy, made by Mrs. Bird, the wife of the dramatist. This has been collated with the two autograph copies, neither of which is complete, and the resultant text represents, in Mr. Foust's judgment, the reading the dramatist preferred. This text was then compared with the acting version, at the Forrest Home. Additions from this acting version are indicated by square brackets while words, lines, or scenes omitted in stage production are enclosed in brackets of this form < >.

For discussions of Bird's plays, see James Rees, The Dramatic Authors of America, Philadelphia, 1845, and his Life of Edwin Forrest, Philadelphia, [1874] ; W. R. Alger, Life of Edwin Forrest, Philadelphia, 1877; Lawrence Barrett, Edwin Forrest, Boston, 1882, who gives (p. 51) the east of The Gladiator at Drury Lane, October 17, 1836; Charles Durang, History of the Philadelphia Stage, Third Series, Chaps. 16, 25; P. C. Wemyss, Twenty-six Years of the Life of an Actor Manager, New York, 1847, Vol. 2, p. 239; E. P. Oberholtzer, Literary History of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 1907.

Note to Second Edition.

In 1919, Dr. Clement Foust published the Life and Dramatic Work of Robert Montgomery Bird, containing a reprint of The Broker of Bogota, and printing for the first time The Gladiator, Pelopidas and Oralloossa.

On May 21, 1920, the Zelosophic Society of the University of Pennsylvania reproduced The Broker of Bogota at the Bellevue-Stratford Ball Room, Philadelphia, under the direction of Mrs. William Merriman Price. The production revealed clearly the great appeal of the play from the point of view of dramatic structure, and the fine quality of the blank verse was apparent. As had been expected, the characters of "Febro" played by Kirk Heselbarth, of the Class of '21, and of "Juana" played by Elizabeth Canning of the Class of '20, were the most appealing, and it was interesting to see that in a play written for Edwin Forrest, the most effective scene (Act IV, Scene 4) was one in which he was not on the stage.