1808

Barker, James Nelson. The Indian Princess; or, La Belle Sauvage. Philadelphia, 1808. Music by John Bray. (Representative Plays by American Dramatists. Ed. Montrose J. Moses. New York: Dutton, 1918.) (The Romantic Indian. Ed. Charles M. Lombard. Vol. 2. Delmar: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1981.) (Early American Drama. Ed. Jeffrey H. Richards. New York: Penguin, 1997.) (John Bray, The Indian Princess. New World Records NW-232.) (New York: Da Capo Press, 1972.) The first play in English about Pocahontas and based, says Barker, on Smith's Generall Historie and "as close an adherence to historic truth has been preserved as dramatic rules would allow of." Which is not much. The English come to the New World for altruistic purposes, to bring civilization to the Indians. Their presence creates a division among the Indians, and the English actually fight with the "good" against the "bad" (led by Pocahontas's Indian lover). Twice Pocahontas saves Smith, whom she treats as a "brother" (asserting the first time, "White man, thou shalt not die; or I will die with thee!"), for it is Rolfe she loves ("I lived not till I saw thee"), though they do not marry within the play. The play ends with a thumpingly patriotic speech by Smith envisioning "a great, yet virtuous empire in the west" disjoined "from old licentious Europe" that underscores Barker's nationalistic purpose.
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