e country.

In a record of New England periodicals, his name will figure constantly
as contributing editor. We have letters of his, descriptive of his home
life in Brattleboro, Vermont, filled with a kindly benevolence and with
a keen sense of humour. It was there that he died on August 16, 1826.
But, all told, we fear that even though Royall Tyler has the
distinction of being one of the first American dramatists, he came into
the theatre purely by accident. "The Contrast" is not, strictly
speaking, a very dramatic representation.

When, in June, 1912, Brattleboro celebrated its local history with a
pageant, a production of "The Contrast" was rehearsed and given in a
little hall, fitted up to represent the old John Street Theatre. A scene
from the play was given at an American Drama Matinee, produced by the
American Drama Committee of the Drama League of America, New York
Centre, on January 22 and 23, 1917,--the conversation between _Jonathan_
and _Jenny_. In Philadelphia, under the auspices of the Drama League
Centre, and in cooeperation with the University of Pennsylvania, the
play, in its entirety, was presented on January 18, 1917, by the "Plays
and Players" organization. A revival was also given in Boston, produced
in the old manner, "and the first rows of seats were reserved for those
of the audience who appeared in the costume of the time."

The play in its first edition is rare, but, in 1887, it was reprinted by
the Dunlap Society. The general reader is given an opportunity of
judging how far _Jonathan_ is the typical Yankee, and how far Royall
Tyler cut the pattern which later was followed by other playwrights in a
long series of American dramas, in which the Yankee was the chief
attraction.[3]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The/Contrast,/a/Comedy;/In Five Acts:/Written By a/Citizen of the
United States;/Performed with Applause at the Theatres in
New-York,/Philadelphia, and Maryland;/and published (under an Assignment
of the Copy-Right) by/Thomas Wignell./_Primus ego in patriam/
Aonio--deduxi vertice Musas_./Virgil./(Imitated.)/ First on our shores I
try Thalia's powers,/And bid the _laughing, useful_ Maid be
ours./Philadelphia:/From the Press of Prichard & Hall, in Market
Street:/Between Second and Front Streets./M. DCC. XC. [See
Frontispiece.]

[2] For example, "The Duelists," a Farce in three acts; "The Georgia
Spec; or, Land in the Moon" (1797); "The Doctor in Spite of Himself," an
imitation of Moliere; and "Bari