in the stage was constant from childhood, but her first serious dramatic work was Leonora or The World's Own, produced first at Wallack's Theatre, New York, March 16, 1857, with Matilda Heron and the elder Sothern in the leading parts. It ran for over a week, and was considered to be a success. It was later repeated in Boston. Her brother, Samuel, wrote her from New York:
"Leonora still draws the best houses; there was hardly standing room on Friday night"; and again: "Mr. Russell went last night, a second time, bought the libretto, which I send you by this mail—declares there is not a grander play in our language. He says that it is full of dramatic vigor, that the interest never flags—but that unhappily—Miss H—with the soul and self abandonment of a great actress, lacks that grace of elocution, which should set forth the beauties of your verses."
In 1864 she was asked to write a play for Edwin Booth, and the theme of Hippolytus was chosen. The play was written through the summer of that year, but owing to other engagements, Booth had to postpone consideration of it. Finally E. L. Davenport agreed to produce it, Charlotte Cushman being selected to play "Phædra" to Booth's "Hippolytus." Rehearsals were progressing when a difficulty arose and reasons were given for not performing the play that did not seem satisfactory to Mrs. Howe or to the principal actors. The real difficulty was that there was no sufficiently good part for the manager's wife. This failure caused her to give up play writing, though not her interest in the theatre. In 1878 she impersonated "Queen Elizabeth" in a public reading for charity, in which Madame Ristori acted "Maria Stuart." Hippolytus was produced, after Mrs. Howe's death, by Miss Margaret Anglin, in Boston.
For the life of Mrs. Howe, see her Reminiscences, 1899, and Julia Ward Howe, by Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott, 2 vols., Boston, 1915, to which the editor acknowledges his indebtedness. For references to the plays, see Brown, T. A., A History of the New York Stage, vol. 1, p. 492, and Ireland, J. N., Records of the New York Stage, vol. 2, p. 659. A cast has been reconstructed from these sources which is in all essentials correct.
The present text is based on the original edition of the play, published as The World's Own, Boston, 1857.
