17 - Shakespeare Burlesques

Summary

In the years that Aldridge had been away from London, he had not been totally forgotten by the theatergoing public. Or, rather, the image of an incompetent black actor butchering lines from Shakespeare hadn't been allowed to fade away. Charles Mathews, by continuing to perform his Trip to America at his annual At Home performances at the English Opera House and on his extensive provincial tours, had kept the stereotype of the bungling African Tragedian alive. After Mathews teamed up with fellow mimic Frederick Henry Yates to own and run the Adelphi Theatre a few years later, they gave new life to this lampoon in 1829 by inserting a fresh version of it in Monsieur Mallet; or, My Daughter's Letter, a burletta written for them by William Thomas Moncrieff, in which Yates played the role of “Oronooko (The New England Roscius, Nigger Help to Patterson, and Principal Performer at the African Theatre, Back Lane, Boston).” This was an obvious slap at the African Roscius, represented here as a servant with stage experience as a star at an insignificant black theater in the United States.

Yates, considered by some as little better than an imitator of Mathews, had indulged in racial caricature even earlier than this. In May 1826 he had performed a one-man show at the Adelphi, Yates’ Reminiscences; or, Etchings of Life and Character, that included a monopolylogue entitled “Mr. Chairman,” in which he played eight different characters, one of whom was “Mister Othello Hoe-and-Scrape, an eminent Sweep, seen only at the very Summit of his Profession.” In Monsieur Mallet Yates came on as another colorful black underling, this time a stage-struck assistant to a wealthy Boston businessman. Oronooko [sic], who spouts mangled lines from Shakespeare and other well-known dramatists almost every time he opens his mouth, is an inflation of the African Tragedian in Mathews's Trip to America; sometimes he repeats virtually the same statements: “Now den is de winter of him discontent made glorious summer by de son of New York!” In addition, he sings about acting Shakespeare at a black theater, setting the ditty to the tune of “Ackee O,” an air popularized in James Cobb's Paul and Virginia, but with these altered lyrics.