Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
sean x. goudieVanderbilt University TheWestIndies, Commerce, and a Play for U.S. Empire Recovering J. Robinson’s The Yorker’s Stratagem (1792) In a 1794 letter to his family, trader James Brown, brother of fa- mous Philadelphia novelist Charles Brockden Brown, urged, ‘‘It is time to decide what we ought to think of the real utility of theatres. A patriot had said...that theatres are a kind of priesthood exercised over thoughts. We should examine whether our theatres should not in future be set aside for mercantile purposes. This question is of greatest importance and I move that it may be referred to the [Philadelphia] Committee of Public Instruc- tion’’ (qtd. in Bingham 150–51). Set on a remote, unnamed West Indian island, J. Robinson’s The Yorker’s Stratagem; or, Banana’s Wedding appears on its surface to have little to do with James Brown’s imperative about the theater as a space for ‘‘public instruction’’ in U.S. commercial policy. First performed three years into Alexander Hamilton’s tenure as Washington’s aggressively pro-commerce secretaryof the treasury, Robinson’s drama has remained obscure since its publication in 1792. It has never been treated in any detail by critics and scholars, and is alluded to but a handful of times, often
Early American Literature – University of North Carolina Press
Published: Feb 17, 2005
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.