Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage
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Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage (subtitled "An Original Aboriginal Erratic Operatic Semi-civilized and Demi-savage Extravaganza") is a two-act musical burlesque by John Brougham. It debuted in 1855 and became an instant hit. Po-ca-hon-tas remained a staple of theatre troupes and blackface minstrel companies for the next 30 years, typically as an afterpiece.
The play parodies the Indian narratives that were popular at the time in the United States, particularly those featuring Indian heroines in the Noble Savage mould. The burlesque is usually credited with bringing the fad for Indian narratives to an end.[1][2]
The plot very loosely follows events in the life of the historical Pocahontas. It begins with the arrival of white men led by John Smith, who says they are there to "ravage the land and steal gold".[3] Smith and company raid the "Tuscarora Finishing School of Emancipated Maidens" and there meet Pocahontas. The remainder of the play revolves around the love triangle formed by Pocahontas, Smith, and John Rolfe, concluding with a card game between Smith and Rolfe for the hand of the Indian princess.
However, Brougham's narrative merely adds some action to what is otherwise a collection of gags and puns rapidly delivered in the form of rhymed couplets. For example:
POCAHONTAS
Husband! for thee I scream!
SMITH
Lemon or Vanilla?
POCAHONTAS
Oh! Fly with me, and quit those vile dominions!
SMITH
How can I fly, beloved, with these pinions?[4]Many of these jokes hinge upon the play's cavalier approach to historical accuracy. For example, in a scene where Smith attempts to win the affections of the Native American princess, she denies him with an appeal to historian George Bancroft:
Stop! One doubt within my heart arises! A great historian before us stands, Bancroft himself, you know, forbids the banns!
SMITH
Bancroft be banished from your memory's shelf,
for spite of fact, I'll marry you myself.[4]Even the stage directions are written for farce. Upon one entrance of Pocahontas, "her overburdened soul bursts forth in melody."[5] Other directions parody Italian opera: "GRAND SCENA COMPLICATO, In the Anglo-Italiano Style".[6] Musical numbers to the tunes of popular songs punctuate the jokes. Some of these reiterate the play's theme of the white man despoiling virgin America:
-
- Grab away
- While you may
- In this game, luck is all
- And the prize
- Tempting lies
- In the rich City Hall.
- Grab away
- While you may,
- Every day there's a job.
- It's a fact,
- By contract
- All intact you may rob.[7]
Theatre companies and orchestra leaders took great liberties with the music, often substituting popular songs with little or no connection to the plot. For an 1860 staging in New Orleans, for example, Mrs. John Wood performed "Dixie" for a concluding scene featuring a Zouave march.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Tilton 75.
- ^ Barker-Benfield 23.
- ^ Quoted in Hall 30.
- ^ a b Quoted in Tilton 75. Emphasis in original.
- ^ Quoted in Kirk 90.
- ^ Quoted in Kirk 89.
- ^ Quoted in Rourke Chapter IV.
[edit] References
- Abel, E. Lawrence. (2000). Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books.
- Barker-Benfield, G. J. (1998). Portraits of American Women: From Settlement to Present. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Burt, Daniel S. (2004). The Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievement from the Colonial Era to Modern Times. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Hall, Roger A. (2001). Performing the American Frontier, 1870-1906. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Kirk, Elise K. (2001). American Opera. University of Illinois Press.
- Rourke, Constance. (1959) American Humour: A Study of the National Character. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
- Tilton, Robert S. (1994). Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American Narrative. New York: Cambridge University Press.
