name in New York. This was the Dubellamy of the English stage, a
first singer and _walking-gentleman_. He was now past his
meridian, but still a handsome man, and was found sufficiently
easy of access and full of the courtesy of the old school. A
meeting was arranged at the City Tavern, and a bottle of Madeira
discussed with the merits of this first-born of a would-be
author. The wine was praised, and the play was praised--the
first, perhaps, made the second tolerable--that must be good
which can repay a man of the world for listening to an author
who reads his own play.

In due course of time, the youthful playwright reached the presence of the
then all-powerful actors, Hallam and Henry, and, after some conference
with them, the play was accepted. But though accepted, it was not
produced, that auspicious occasion being deferred whenever the subject was
broached. At this time, young Dunlap was introduced to the stony paths of
playwriting. He had to alter his manuscript in many ways, only to see it
laid upon the shelf until some future occasion. And, according to his
confession, the reason the piece did not receive immediate production was
because there was no part which Henry, the six-foot, handsome idol of the
day, could see himself in to his own satisfaction.

Dunlap's next play was "The Father; or, American Shandy-ism,"[1] which was
produced on September 7, 1789. It was published almost immediately, and
was later reprinted, under the title of "The Father of an Only Child."

Most historians call attention to the fact that to Dunlap belongs the
credit of having first introduced to the American stage the German dialect
of the later Comedian. Even as we look to Tyler's "The Contrast" for the
first Yankee, to Samuel Low's "Politician Out-witted" for an early example
of Negro dialect, so may we trace other veins of American characteristics
as they appeared in early American dramas.

But it is to "Darby's Return,"[2] the musical piece, that our interest
points, because it was produced for the benefit of Thomas Wignell, at the
New-York Theatre (November 24, 1789), and probably boasted among its
first-nighters George Washington. Writes Dunlap:

The eyes of the audience were frequently bent on his
countenance, and to watch the emotions produced by any
particular passage upon him was the simultaneous employment of
all. When Wignell, as _Darby_, recounts what had befallen