The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Group, by Mercy Warren

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Title: The Group
A Farce

Author: Mercy Warren

Editor: Montrose J. Moses

Release Date: June 26, 2009 [EBook #29224]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES

This e-book contains the text of _The Group_, extracted from
Representative Plays by American Dramatists: Vol 1, 1765-1819. Comments
and background to all the plays and the other plays are available at
Project Gutenberg.

Spelling as in the original has been preserved.

THE GROUP

_By_ MRS. MERCY WARREN

[Illustration: MRS. MERCY WARREN]

MRS. MERCY WARREN

(1728-1814)

Most of the literature--orations as well as broadsides--created in
America under the heat of the Revolution, was of a strictly satirical
character. Most of the Revolutionary ballads sung at the time were
bitter with hatred against the Loyalist. When the conflict actually
was in progress, the theatres that regaled the Colonists were closed,
and an order from the Continental Congress declared that theatre-going
was an amusement from which all patriotic people should abstain. These
orders or resolutions were dated October 12, 1778, and October 16.
(Seilhamer, ii, 51.) The playhouses were no sooner closed,
however--much to the regret of Washington--than their doors were
thrown wide open by the British troops stationed in Boston, New York,
and Philadelphia. A complete history of the American stage has to deal
with Howe's players, Clinton's players, and Burgoyne's players.

Of all these Red-Coat Thespians, two demand our attention--one, Major
Andre, a gay, talented actor; the other, General Burgoyne, whose pride
was as much concerned with playwriting as with generalship. The latter
dipped his pen in the satirical inkpot, and wrote a farce, "The
Blockade of Boston." It was this play that drew forth from a woman, an
American playwright, the retort stinging. This lady was Mrs. Mercy
Warren[1] who, although distinguished for being a sister of James
Oti