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The story of America's earliest extant play begins with a petty
crime-a crime that would have passed largely unnoticed had it not
been for one fact: it prompted a beleaguered royal governor of one
of Britain's colonies to lash out at his enemies by writing a
biting satire. Androboros, A Bographical [sic] Farce in Three Acts
(1715), is universally acknowledged as the first play both written
and printed in America. Its significance stems not simply from its
publication but from its eventual impact. The play inadvertently
laid the foundation for one of the defining rights of the nation
that would eventually emerge some seventy-five years later-the
First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States,
guaranteeing a free press and freedom of expression. Androboros was
not just the first of its kind, it was also ahead of its time in
many ways, preceding the harsh political satires and farces of the
later eighteenth century by some fifty years. Such plays served a
small but essential role in promoting political thought among the
colonists. Written by anonymous authors and passed from hand to
hand, these short, crude, and often bawdy plays and dialogues were
rarely acted due to their inflammatory lampoonery. Nevertheless,
they provided an opportunity for disgruntled colonists to vent
their grievances and promote their ideas to fellow citizens. The
farces of the late eighteenth century drove home the meaning and
message of the American Revolution. Equally significant is that
Androboros may have influenced a few of the key political
discourses published in the 1730s, and these works in turn may well
have shaped the future of the American political landscape for the
next several decades and even into the modern era. But as a closet
drama intended only to be read by close friends and political
supporters, this play has languished as a minor footnote in
American intellectual history. Scholarly research published to date
has been, for the most part, inadequate and occasionally
inaccurate. This study remedies that oversight, providing a full
analysis as well as an annotated typescript and facsimiles of the
original printing.
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