Washington Irving and the Drama

Abstract

In view of Washington Irving's genial character and social position, it is not surprising that the first great American man of letters should have met among other personages in Europe and America some of the well-known actors and playwrights of the time. But it may he surprising to some people familiar only with his sketches, tales, and biographies to learn that Irving knew not a few, but all of the great people of the stage --- many of them with considerable intimacy; that he was throughout his life "passionately fond of the theatre(sic)"; that his earliest published work that received any notice consisted of satirical criticism of the New York theatre(sic); and that he wrote several plays in collaboration with dramatists and one that seems to be largely his own --- the most successful of all. This part of Irving's literary activity is seldom mentioned at any length; yet it seems worthy of more notice than has been given it in biographies and critiques thus far published. "There has among American men of letters of the first rank been none who cared more for the theatre(sic)." It is the object of this paper to gather together and arrange the critical comments of Irving, the record of his actual contact with the stage through his dramatizing and wide range of friendship among stage people, and finally the plays and librettos that he composed alone or in collaboration.