The Indian Princess; or, La Belle Sauvage, is a musical play with a libretto by James Nelson Barker and music by John Bray, based on the Pocahontas story as originally recorded in John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia (1621). The piece is structured in the style of a ballad-opera, with songs and choruses, and also has music underlying dialogue, like a melodrama. Pocahontas persuades her father, King Powhatan, to free Smith and becomes attracted to John Rolfe, breaking off her arranged marriage with a neighboring tribal prince, an action that leads to war. Her tribe wins the war, but her father loses trust in the white settlers; Pocahontas warns the settlers who reconcile with Powhatan. Several comic romances end happily, and Smith predicts a great future for the new country.
The play deals with relations between Native Americans and the first European settlers in America. Scholars have debated whether the piece is progressive in its depiction of the natives and have commented that the work reflects an emerging American dramatic and musical sensibility. It served to popularize and romanticize the Pocahontas story as an important American myth.
The comedy was first performed in 1808 at The Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. It has been cited as the first play about American Indians by an American playwright known to be produced on a professional stage, and possibly the first play produced in America to be then performed in England, although the validity of both statements has been questioned. Its portrayal of Native Americans has been criticized as racially insensitive, but the piece is credited with inspiring a whole new genre of plays about Pocahontas specifically and Native Americans in general, that was prevalent throughout the 19th and early 20th Century. The play was subsequently produced throughout the country.
Background
Barker was motivated to create a truly "American" style of drama to counteract what he saw as "mental colonialism" and the American tendency to feel culturally inferior to Europe. For this reason, he looked to native subject matter for the play, as opposed to other American dramatists like John Howard Payne who neglected American subject matter and locations.
Although in his preface, Barker cites his primary source of inspiration as John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia (1624), he was likely more influenced by a series of popular books by John Davis, including, Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America (1803), Captain Smith and Princess Pocahontas (1805), and The First Settlers of Virginia (1806) which featured a more sexualized and romanticized characterization of Pocahontas.
Much of the known background about the piece comes from a letter Barker wrote to William Dunlop, dated June 10, 1832. In it, he indicates that he had been working on The Indian Princess for a number of years before it was first produced in 1808. In fact in 1805, he wrote a Masque entitled "America" (which has not survived) that he intended to serve as a conclusion to the play, in which characters called "America," "Science," and "Liberty" sing and engage in political debate. Barker originally intended the piece as a play without music, but John Bray, an actor/translator/composer employed by The New Theatre in Philadelphia, convinced him to add a musical score.
Character list The published dramatis personæ divides the character list into "Europeans" (the settlers) and "Virginians" (the natives), listing the men first, by rank, followed by the women and the supernumeraries.
Europeans Delawar, an English Lord Captain Smith Lieutenant Rolfe Percy, a member of Smith's party Walter, an English settler Larry, an Irish settler Robin, an English settler Talman, an English settler Geraldine, Percy's lover Kate, Larry's wife Alice, Walter's wife Soldiers and Adventurers
Virginians Powhatan, king Nantaquas, his son Miami, a prince Grimosco, a priest Pocahontas, the princess Nima, her attendant Warriors and Indian Girls
Plot synopsis
Act I At the Powhatan River, Smith, Rolfe, Percy, Walter, Larry, Robin, and Alice disembark from a barge as the chorus of soldiers and adventurers sing about the joy of reaching the shore. Larry, Walter, Alice (Walter's wife), and Robin reminisce about love, and Robin admits to Larry his lustful feelings about Alice. Meanwhile, Nima is preparing a bridal gown for Pocahontas in the royal village of Werocomoco, but Pocahontas expresses displeasure about the arrangement her father made for her to marry Miami, a rival Indian prince. Smith is then attacked by a party of Indians, including Nantaquas, Pocahontas's brother. Due to his fighting prowess, Nantaquas thinks he is a god, but Smith explains he is only a trained warrior from across the sea. The Indians capture Smith to bring him to their chief. Back at the Powhatan River, Robin attempts to seduce Alice, but is foiled by Walter and Larry. When Walter tells the group about Smith's capture, they depart to go after him. Before they leave, Rolfe tries to convince Percy to move on after his lover, Geraldine, apparently was unfaithful.
Act II When King Powhatan is presented with the captured Smith, he decides, at the urging of the tribe's priest Grimosco, to execute him. Pocahontas, having been moved by Smith's nobility, says she will not allow Smith to be killed unless she herself dies with him. This persuades Powhatan to free Smith. Soon, Percy and Rolfe encounter Smith and his Indian allies on the way back to the settlement, and Rolfe is immediately struck by Pocahontas, whose manner suggests the attraction is mutual. They speak of love, but Rolfe must soon depart with Smith. Pocahontas confesses her love for Rolfe to Miami, who receives the news with anger, jealousy and rage. Pocahontas convinces her father to dissolve her arranged engagement with Miami, which will mean war between their two tribes.
Act III Jamestown has now been built and Walter tells his wife Alice about Powhatan's victory over Miami. They then discuss a banquet hosted by Powhatan that Smith, Rolfe and Percy will attend. Meanwhile, Pocahontas and Nima witness Grimosco and Miami plotting to kill the European settlers. When Grimosco coerces Powhatan into believing he should kill all the White men, by casting doubt about their intentions, creating fear about how they will act in the future, and invoking religious imagery, Pocahontas runs to warn the settlers about the danger. Back in Jamestown, a comic bit ensues in which Larry's wife Kate has arrived disguised as a male page, and teases him before revealing herself. She says she has come with Percy's lover, Geraldine, also disguised as a page, who has come to convince Percy he was wrong about her infidelity. Pocahontas arrives and convinces the settlers to go to Powhatan's palace to rescue their colleagues from Grimosco's plot. They arrive just in time to prevent the disaster. Grimosco is taken away, and Miami stabs himself in shame. Everyone else has a happy ending: Pocahontas is with Rolfe, Walter is with Alice, Larry is with Kate, Percy is with Geraldine, and even Robin is with Nima. Smith forgives Powhatan, and gives the play's final speech, predicting a great future for the new country that will form in this land.
Score The surviving published version of the musical score appears in the format of a simplified keyboard transcription using a two-staff system (treble and bass). It includes only occasional notations about the instruments used in the original full orchestral score, which has not survived. Therefore, musical elements from the original production such as inner harmonic parts, countermelodies, and accompaniment figurations are no longer known. Based on records of payments made to musicians at The Chestnut Street Theatre at the time of the premiere, it was likely that the production employed approximately 25 pieces, which may have consisted of pairs of woodwinds (flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons) and brasses (horns and trumpets) as well as some timpani and strings. Typically, however, the entire orchestra was used only for the overture and selected large chorus numbers, while solo numbers were accompanied by strings and one or two pairs of woodwinds. The brasses and timpani may have been used to invoke a sense of the military in numbers like Walter's "Captain Smith."
Performances The play first premiered at The Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia on April 6, 1808. In Barker's letter to Dunlop, he writes the performance was done as a benefit for Mr. Bray (who also played the role of Walter). However, other sources suggest it was a benefit for a Mrs. Woodham. In any case, it is clear that the performance was interrupted by an offstage commotion which may have cut the performance short. Mr. Webster, a tenor who played the role of Larry, was an object of public scorn at the time because of his effeminate manner and dress, and audience members rioted in outrage at his participation, causing Barker himself to order the curtain to be dropped. The play was subsequently performed again in Philadelphia on February 1, 1809, although it was advertised for January 25.
There is some discrepancy about the date of the New York premiere, which took place at The Park Theatre, either on June 14, 1808, or on January 14, 1809, as a benefit for English actress Mrs. Lipman. It was performed again in New York as a benefit for Dunlop on June 23, 1809, There was a performance benefiting Bray and an actor named Mr. Cone advertised for August 25, 1808, at The Alexandria Theatre in Virginia. There was also a gala premiere on an unspecified date in Baltimore. Barker wrote in his letter to Dunlop that the play was subsequently and frequently performed in all the theatres across the country. It was the standard practice in all these productions for the Native American roles to be played by white actors wearing dark makeup.
The Indian Princess has been cited as the first well-documented case of a play that was originally performed in America being subsequently staged in England. Although records indicate there was a play called Pocahontas; or the Indian Princess, credited as being adapted by T.A. Cooper, that played The Theatre Royal at Drury Lane in London on December 15, 1820, and subsequently on December 16 and December 19, the piece differed drastically from Barker's original and featured a completely different cast of characters. Barker himself wrote that the production was done without his permission or even his knowledge, and based on a critical response he read of the London performance, he deduced that there was very little in the play that was his own. Other evidence suggests that the script used in England was not only a completely different play, but that it was likely not even originated by an American. This assertion is based primarily on three factors: the kinder and meeker portrayal of the Natives, which reduces the grandeur of the play's American heroes, the more vague listing of the setting as "North America" rather than specifically "Virginia," and the lack of implications about America's great destiny that was evident in Barker's version. The distinction between the London and American versions is also supported by a review of the London production, in which the reviewer cites a lack of comic characters (Barker's version included several), and the presence of a character named "Opechancaough," who is nowhere to be found in Barker's play.
Style and structure