Representative American Plays/Rip Van Winkle

by Joseph Jefferson

Layout 2

RIP VAN WINKLE
AS PLAYED BY
Joseph Jefferson

Copyright, 1895, by Dodd, Mead and Company

All Rights Reserved

Reprinted by special permission of the heirs of Mr. Joseph Jefferson and of Dodd, Mead and Company.

 

RIP VAN WINKLE

Rip Van Winkle is a growth. The first attempts to dramatize Irving's story began about ten years after its publication in 1819. On May 26, 1828, a play by that name was produced on the Albany stage by Thomas Flynn, written by an anonymous native of that town. Durang tells us that in October, 1829, a new drama founded on Washington Irving's tale was produced for the first time in Philadelphia. He further states that it was by John Kerr, an actor to whom he refers as "Old Mr. Kerr" and that it had a long run of success. Kerr was an English actor, who came to this country in 1827, with his two children, a boy and girl. They were all members of the troupe brought by Francis C. Wemyss for the Chestnut Street Theatre. This version was printed in Philadelphia without date, and gives the cast at the Walnut Street Theatre and at Tottenham Street Theatre in London. In Philadelphia, W. Chapman and later Hackett played "Rip" and J. Jefferson, "Knickerbocker." This may have been the first Joseph Jefferson as he was still acting that season, or it may have been John Jefferson, his son. The cast in London includes Master Kerr as "Gustaffe" and Miss Kerr as "Lowenna," and the date of their arrival in Philadelphia naturally indicates that this version had an earlier performance in London which, indeed, seems to have been the case. Hackett also acted in a version prepared by W. Bayle Bernard, and the second Joseph Jefferson had a version also. Charles Burke, half brother to the third Joseph Jefferson, revised Kerr^s version and acted "Rip" in it, at the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia in 1850. Mr. Jefferson himself acted in this version, taking the part of "Seth Slough," the landlord of the inn. While there are certain changes, notably in expression, Burke's version is much like Kerr's. Mr. Jefferson tells us that the idea of acting "Rip" came to him in the year 1859 when reading the life of Irving and he proceeded first to work up his costume and then with some aid from the older versions to produce a play in three acts which was acted in Washington. The play was disappointing, although the character was there. In 1865 Mr. Jefferson requested Dion Boucicault to revise the play, which he did and this composite drama was produced at the Adelphi Theatre in London September 4, 1865.

This was a three-act version, and Mr. Jefferson later changed it to four acts by dividing the first act into two. A comparison between the versions of Kerr and Burke and that given in this volume will show many changes in the structure of the plot. In the first place the plot is simpler and the ending is more natural. The pathetic scene at the end of the second act in which Gretchen turns Rip out of doors is not found in the earlier versions. In these there is a contract of marriage between Rip's daughter and Gustave; in the Jefferson version this becomes an acknowledgment that he makes to Derrick that he is to give him all his property in exchange for sixteen pounds Derrick has given him. The love story between Knickerbocker and Alice is eliminated and Knickerbocker's election to Congress with the consequent political interest is omitted. The changes in the plot, however, are not so significant as the changes in character drawing and in language. Mr. Jefferson says in his introduction to the play:

"From the moment Rip meets the spirits of Hendrick Hudson and his crew, I felt that the colloquial speech and lazy and commonplace actions of Rip should cease. After he meets the elves, in the third act, the play drifts from realism into idealism and becomes poetical. After this it is a fairy tale, and the prosaic elements of the character should be eliminated, and because Rip is a fairy he neither laughs nor eats in the fourth act." Another idea of Mr. Jefferson's was to arrange that in his interview with the dwarfs no voice but Rip's was to be heard, thus imparting a more lonely and desolate character to the scene.

While the supernatural interest is, therefore, made more definite there is a growth also in the depth of the human interest. Fewer characters are introduced, and consequently there is more time to develop the relations of Rip, his wife and his daughter. The language owes little to the earlier version—outside of a few phrases in the last act, when Rip enters the village, the speeches are practically all different. How much of this difference is due to Boucicault it is of course now impossible to say, but since Mr. Jefferson undoubtedly made changes from time to time it is safe to assume that by the time the play was printed in 1895 it was mostly his own. The text of the play as given by him was first published in that year by Dodd, Mead and Company, sumptuously illustrated, with an introduction by Mr. Jefferson. Through the courtesy of the Jefferson family, especially Mrs. Joseph Jefferson and Mr. Frank Jefferson, and of Dodd, Mead and Company, the editor is able to reproduce this text.

The version by John Kerr, Rip Van Winkle or The Demons of the Catskill Mountains! A National Drama, Philadelphia, n. d. is hard to obtain. The version by Charles Burke, Rip Van Winkle, a Legend of the Catskills, was published by Samuel French as No. CLXXIV, of their "Standard Drama."

Joseph Jefferson was a member of the fourth generation of a family of actors who have borne prominent parts in theatrical history. Thomas Jefferson (1728?-1807) his great-grandfather, an English actor, was the first of the line, and his son, the first Joseph Jefferson (1774-1832), came to this country in 1795, and after a short season in Boston, acted in New York until 1803. He then became the leading comedian at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, and on the stage of this city he remained for twenty-seven years. His son, the second Joseph Jefferson (1804-1842), was also a comedian, though of lesser ability than his father or his son. The third Joseph Jefferson, the son of the second Joseph and the producer of the present play, was born in Philadelphia, February 20, 1829, and was on the stage from early childhood. During his early years, his family moved from place to place, and in 1849 he came to New York, acting at Chanfrau's New National Theatre. After several ventures and a trip to Europe in 1856 he joined Laura Keene's Company in New York. Here he became famous for his performance of "Asa Trenchard" in Our American Cousin, in 1857, the play afterwards known as Lord Dundreary. In 1861 he sailed for Australia and spent four years there, going to London in 1865, and acting "Rip Van Winkle" as above described. He returned to America in 1866 and played the revised version of "Rip" at the Olympic Theatre on September 3d. Though he acted other parts, notably, "Caleb Plummer," "Bob Acres," "Asa Trenchard," and "Dr. Pangloss," he became so definitely associated with his most famous part, that to most theatre-goers he is thought of as the impersonator of Rip Van Winkle. In 1875 he made a second English tour. Mr. Jefferson was twice married, first in 1850 to Miss Margaret C. Lockyer, a member of the company at the National Theatre, New York, who died in 1861. In 1867 he married Miss Sarah Warren, who survives him. Mr. Jefferson continued acting until less than a year before his death, which occurred on April 23, 1905, at Palm Beach, Florida.

For biography of Mr. Jefferson, see The Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson, New York, 1890; William Winter, The Jeffersons, Boston, 1881; M. J. Moses, Famous Actor Families in America, New York, 1906. For the development of the play, see H. S. Phelps, Players of a Century, Albany, 1880; C. Durang, History of the Philadelphia Stage, Second Series, Chap. 48.