Burlesquing “Otherness” in Nineteenth-Century American Theatre: The Image of the Indian in John Brougham’s Met-a-mora; or, The Last of the Pollywogs (1847) and Po-Ca-Hon-Tas; or, The Gentle Savage (1855).

When John Brougham’s Indian burlesque, Met-a-mora; or, The Last of the Pollywogs, opened in Boston at Brougham’s Adelphi Theatre on November 29, 1847, it won the lasting reputation of an exceptional satiric force in the American theatre for its author, while, at the same time, signaled the end of the serious Indian dramas that were so popular during the 1820s and 1830s. Eight years later, in 1855, Brougham made a most spectacular comeback with another Indian burlesque, Po-Ca-Hon-Tas; or, The Gentle Savage, an “Original, Aboriginal, Erratic, Operatic, Semi-Civilized, and Demi-savage Extravaganza,” which was produced at Wallack’s Lyceum Theatre in New York City.¹ Both plays have been invariably cited as successful parodies of Augustus Stone’s Metamora; or, The Last of the Wampanoags (1829) and the stilted acting style of Edwin Forrest, and the Pocahontas plays of the first half of the nineteenth century. They are significant because they opened up new possibilities for the development of satiric comedy in America² and substantially contributed to the transformation of the stage picture of the Indian from the romantic pattern of Arcadian innocence to a view far more satirical, even ridiculous.

In just a few years after his arrival in America in 1842, Irish-born John Brougham realized his own American dream by launching an extraordinary career as both actor and playwright winning the enthusiastic applause of American audiences, the praise of American critics, and the enviable title of America’s Aristophanes.³ Already familiar with the genres of burlesque and extravaganza, Brougham quickly worked himself into American popular culture and national consciousness with plays that vibrated to the rhythms of the American social and cultural life.⁴ His success seems to have depended on his ability to produce a witty dramatic language and the fact that he caught the public fancy quickly. He was lucky because he began writing at a time when burlesque was thriving on the American theatrical scene. As Constance Rourke has eloquently stated, during the 1840s and 1850s the American burlesque was “abroad in the land like a powerful genie let out of a windbag.”⁵ Although the term was never really used with great precision, as it could be applied to a number of forms of comic entertainment like travesty, extravaganza, and minstrelsy, burlesque usually aimed at a particular style of acting or dramatic trend considered fashionable and enjoyed primarily by upper-class audiences.⁶

It is not accidental that burlesque on the American stage reached the peak of its popularity at a time when the American society was undergoing a series of social, economic, and cultural changes.⁷ The growth of industrial capitalism between 1825 and 1850 caused major shifts in capital investment, the rise of factory production, waves of cheap labor from Ireland and Germany, and high unemployment among the working classes. Furthermore, the political controversies of the 1840s and 1850s, such as the New York labor struggles, the abolitionist movement, the Seneca Falls Convention, and the Astor Place Riot, reflected intense racial, class, and ethnic relations as well as the changing gender patterns of American society. As would be expected, urban entertainment was affected by the new social and economic conditions. Theatres began to cater to the diverse needs of an essentially diverse audience. Increasing immigration and urbanization spurred theatre-managers to compete for working-class patronage. Thomas S. Hamblin at the Bowery Theatre⁸ as well as managers of other theatres, like the Chatham, the Chambers Street, and the Olympic, largely ignored the tastes of the upper classes and concentrated on comic and musical entertainment for working-class spectators. As Mary C. Henderson has pointed out, “during the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century, the Bowery began to develop an independent theatrical life of its own. The theatres built along it appealed mainly to the residents of the area and never constituted a strong threat to...