ROYALL TYLER (1757-1826) and The Contrast

Remembered primarily as the author of The Contrast, the first comedy written by an American to be produced by a professional company, Tyler's remaining plays make us lament that he had other more respectable means of making a living.

Born in Boston July 18, 1757, Tyler's father was a prominent merchant He attended Harvard College graduating in 1776. Later that year he received a BA from Yale. Already part of a group of young men interested in the arts, Tyler studied law and in 1778 the new Major Tyler served as aide to General Sullivan so that he was in a position to observe the attack on Newport that turned into such a fiasco when D'Estaing sailed into a storm to engage General Howe.

After two more years, Tyler was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Maine and Massachusetts. While in Braintree, Massachusetts (now Quincy), he became engaged to John Adams' daughter Abby. But his betrothed went to Europe with her mother and because of the "gaiety" of her affianced nature, she broke it off, sending Tyler into a depression that caused him to cease his practice of law until he found consolation with Mary Palmer who was to become his wife.

Later during Shay's Rebellion, he became aide-de-camp to General Benjamin Lincoln and when pursuit of the rebels took him to New York City, he saw Hallam and Henry's production of The School for Scandal at the John Street Theatre. This must have been pretty stressful service. He also could have seen Farquhar's The Provok'd Husband as well as O'Keefe's The Poor Soldier. In any case, inspired by what he saw, he wrote The Contrast , in only three weeks. Remarkably, this first play was performed by the American Company April 16, 1787 with the following cast:

The principal role of Johnathan was played by Thomas Wignell (center in Dunlap's engraving above). It was the first example of the stage Yankee which was to hold the stage in various incarnations for more than a century. Some would argue that the character evolved into the American anti-hero that emerged in the first half of 20th Century and is still with us. The play was a success and was repeated in New York three more times, and played in Baltimore in 1787 and 1788, in Philadelphia in 1790 and even in conservative Boston in 1792. The play is genuinely witty and the character types Tyler satirizes are still recognizable today. Charlotte and Letitia who open the play are surely the mall-prowling "valley girls" of their day. It was a performance of The Contrast that inspired William Dunlap to write his first play.

Tyler followed his palpable hit with a new comic opera called May-Day in Town, or New York in an Uproar on May 19, 1787. Then running into "pecuniary difficulties" upon his return to Massachusetts, Tyler moved to Vermont. It was ten years before another play came from his pen, this one called A Georgia Spec, or Land in the Moon, a three act comedy satirizing the frantic land speculation going on in the South. Both these plays have been lost, though they received favorable notice from contemporary critics.

According to his son, Tyler wrote several more plays and a novel. The first mentioned is The Farm House, or The Female Duellists, which was announced for May 6, 1796 at the Boston Theatre. Professor Quinn speaks of a play by the same name (though Boaden makes no mention of it), written by John Philip Kemble and played Drury Lane in 1789, the suggestion being that Tyler's play may be an alteration of Kemble's play. In any case, this play is lost. Four manuscript plays are extant: The Island of Barrataria taken from Cervantes' Don Quixote; and three blank verse "sacred dramas" The Origin of the Feast of Purim, or The Destinies of Haman and Mordecai, Joseph and His Brothers, and The Judgement of Solomon. Tyler also wrote a novel The Algerine Captive (1797) which satirizes the medical profession. He also wrote a great many essays, a great deal of humorous verse, and a series of "letters" supposedly sent to his friends called Yankey in London (1809).

He became a successful lawyer ascending to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont (1807-13) and held the post of Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Vermont (1811-14). Tyler died in Brattleboro, Vermont August 26, 1826.