by his oldest and best loved son, Bird drew one of the most living portraits in our dramatic history. The clever entanglement of "Febro" largely by circumstances and the climax of the fourth act in which "Juana" denounces "Ramon," must have been effective on the stage.
Bird abandoned his dramatic work at the height of success. Discouraged by his financial dealings with Forrest, which brought the author a total of five thousand dollars, while the actor made a fortune out of The Gladiator alone, and prevented from publishing his plays, partly by the copyright laws and partly by Forrest's opposition, he turned to fiction and produced several novels, Calavar (1834), The Infidel (1835), both dealing with Cortez's expedition, and Nick of the Woods (1837), a story of Indian life in Kentucky, which was put on the stage by Louisa Medina and was widely popular. The Infidel was dramatized by Benjamin H. Brewster, and played in Philadelphia in 1835. Dr. Bird travelled extensively in this country and visited England in 1834, then after some excursions into politics settled in Philadelphia as editor and part proprietor of the North American and died January 23, 1854.
None of his plays has been published. The present editor was fortunate enough to find The Broker of Bogota and Oralloossa in manuscript at the Forrest Home at Holmesburg, Pennsylvania, but it remained for Mr. Clement Foust, of the English Department of the University of Pennsylvania, to discover a complete collection of the manuscripts of Dr. Bird in the possession of the latter's grandson, Mr. Robert M. Bird, who has generously presented them to the Library of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Foust has in preparation a life of Dr. Bird, a critical edition of The Gladiator and the other important plays, and a selection from among the many interesting letters to and from Dr. Bird contained in his correspondence with other writers. Among the most interesting of these is a letter from Dr. Bird's son. Rev. Frederick M. Bird, requesting permission from Forrest, who apparently held the copyrights, to publish his father's plays and, in answer, Forrest's curt refusal. Each of the plays exists in several forms and the present text of The Broker of Bogota has been prepared by Mr. Foust after a comparative study of the manuscripts. Through his courtesy the editor is able to reproduce it here.
The text is based primarily upon the complete manuscript copy, made by Mrs. Bird, the wife of the dramatist. This has been collated with the two autograph copies, neither of which is complete, and the resultant text represents, in Mr. Foust's judgment, the reading the dramatist preferred. This text was then compared with the acting version, at the Forrest Home. Additions from this acting version are indicated by square brackets while words, lines, or scenes omitted in stage production are enclosed in brackets of this form < >.
For discussions of Bird's plays, see James Rees, The Dramatic Authors of
