University of Virginia Library

The Merit of the tragic Scenes in this Play, has been universally acknowledged; because their Power has been universally and forcibly felt: The Plot is simple, yet there is a sufficient Number of Events to make the Representation active and busy; to raise and gratify Expectation; and to render the Issue interesting and important: The Attention is, throughout, invariably fixed upon the two principal Characters, Oroonoko and Imoinda; who are so connected as to make but one Object, in which all the Passions of the Audience, moved by the most tender and exquisite Distress, are concentered.

It was therefore justly regretted, that these Scenes were degraded by a Connexion with some of the most loose and contemptible that have ever disgraced our Language and our Theatre: This Part of Oroonoko, if it stood alone, could not with respect to it's mere comic Merit be ranked higher than a Droll for a Fair, where its Immorality ought to prevent its Exhibition; but as it is connected with the tragic, it is in a still higher Degree preposterous, absurd, and pernicious.

For these Reasons, an Attempt is now made to render Oroonoko a regular Tragedy of five Acts, in which the Editor proposed to himself the following Plan.

1st. To reject all the comic Scenes.

2dly. To alter the tragic as little as possible.

3dly. To lengthen it, not by Declamation, but Action. And

4thly. To make this Action perfectly coincide with the original dramatic Story, as the Addition of foreign Events might raise a new Interest; and by dividing the Distress necessarily diminish its Force.

In the Prosecution of this Plan, no new Character has been introduced; but the Parts of Aboan and Hotman, have been considerably enlarged: Hotman's treachery is made an Instrument to produce new Incidents of Fidelity, Generosity, and Affection, between Aboan and Oroonoko; and several new Scenes are added, to account for Aboan's precipitate Attempt to recover his Liberty, and to form and carry on the Conspiracy: Some tender Expostulations of Imoinda against the Governor's Importunity, have also been inserted in the first Scene between them, expressing that refined Sensibility which always increases Pity, by at once heightening the Character of the Sufferer and our idea of the Distress.

A total Alteration has also been made in the musical Part, as it was thought that the Songs supposed to be sung by the Slaves on this Occasion, should, though amorous, be plaintive, the Expression of Beings at once capable of Love, and conscious of a Condition in which all its Delicacies must become the Instruments of Pain.

When the Conduct of the dramatic Action was farther pursued, with the critical Attention which the proposed Alterations made necessary, several Inaccuracies appeared which it was thought proper to remove.

In the first Scene of the third Act (Old Edit. p. 37, and 38.) Aboan was represented as suspecting Hotman of Treachery, from his Violence; yet at the same Time intimating that something was in Agitation, with sufficient Plainness to enable him, if false, to prevent the Execution of it, by putting the Planters upon their Guard: He says indeed in the same Breath, that he will know him more before he trusts him farther; but after having trusted him so far, a Resolution not to

trust him farther could not prevent the Mischief he had Reason to dread: But this is not all; after Aboan has thus determined to trust Hotman no farther without farther Trial, we find that without farther Trial he is farther trusted; for, in the fourth Scene of the same Act (p. 47), Aboan suffers Oroonoko to disclose his whole Scheme in Hotman's Presence, and even mentions the seizure of the Ship himself; yet immediately after he has been thus trusted, Oroonoko makes an absurd Proposal to discover whether he ought to be trusted or no; and even after the Suspicions of Hotman had been confirmed by Experiment, after Oroonoko had declared it to be his Opinion that he would certainly betray them (p. 49, l. 29.); and after Aboan had provok'd him by an Insult (p. 50, l. 9.), he is trusted with the only Particular that he did not know before, the Time of the Rendezvous (p. 50, l. 10), and no Step is taken to prevent the ill Consequences of his Perfidy: There seems also to be an Inconsistency in what Oroonoko and Aboan say to each other, upon the Detection: Oroonoko says it was Hotman's Violence made him first suspect him; but it was Aboan only, and not Oroonoko, that was Witness of this Violence (p. 37, and 38, l. 15.): Aboan, we know, suspected him from this Violence; yet Aboan now expresses his Wonder that such a Blaze should be without Fire: And, indeed, that there should be Blaze without Fire, was enough to make any Man wonder (See p. 49, l. 17, 18, 19, 20.). Besides, tho' Aboan considers Hotman's Violence as a Mark of Treachery, it does not any where appear that his Suspicions were well founded, 'till the Discovery is actually made: We are left to judge of him, wholly from the Trial; and the Trial, when it is at last made by Oroonoko, is such as could only bring his Courage, not his Fidelity, to the Test; but tho' his Fear only is discovered, yet both Aboan and Oroonoko infer that he is guilty; an Impropriety not less manifest than that of making this Trial before the rest of the Conspirators, whose Firmness was certainly endangered by an artful, pathetic, and exaggerated Representation of the Dangers they would incur.

In the same Act, tho' Oroonoko declares, The Means that lead to Liberty must not be bloody (p. 45, l. 5, 6.), yet he resolves to strike first (p. 44, l. 24.); it follows therefore, that by not being bloody he can only mean that no Blood shall be shed in Revenge, but such Blood only as the Struggle for Liberty makes necessary; but the Resolution to strike first, was an unjustifiable Resolution, as Oroonoko himself abundantly proves in this very Conference with Aboan; who, being unable to answer his Arguments, works him to his Purpose by alarming his Passions. Oroonoko had yet nothing to resent that could justify his taking Arms; he had been wronged only by the Captain; to all others, for ought he knew to the contrary, he had equal and uncommon Obligations; this seems, therefore, to be a Fault in his Conduct, which renders him somewhat less worthy both of Reverence and Pity, than if his Misfortunes had arisen from the Fault of another.

In this Act, therefore, the following Alterations have been made; Oroonoko absolutely refuses to break any Tie of Honour, merely through Fear that others first should break them; Aboan is represented as effectually deceived by Hotman's Zeal, and in consequence of this Deception as trusting him with the Conspiracy before Oroonoko had seen him: Hotman is afterwards represented as practising the same Arts upon Oroonoko, which his superior Penetration detects; not by alarming his Fears, but by shewing his Consciousness of Guilt; and he makes his Experiment, only as a Proof of Aboan's fatal Mistake; not as a Means of avoiding Danger, but as a Demonstration of Danger already incurred: This Alteration, besides obviating the Inconsistency of the Original, produces a new Incident of that Kind which has generally been thought affecting in a great Degree. Aboan is overwhelm'd with the Thought of having defeated

the whole Enterprize upon which the Liberty and Life of his Prince depended, by his Precipitation and Credulity; and Oroonoko, tho' his superior Sagacity had detected the Artifice by which his Friend had been deceived to their mutual Ruin, is so far from reproaching him, or aggravating his Failing into a Fault, that he sooths the Anguish of his Mind, and prevents his laying violent Hands on himself: Hotman is not made privy to the Time and Place of meeting, and a Resolution is taken between Oroonoko and Aboan to rendezvous yet earlier than the Time appointed; this preserves them from Despair, and makes it possible that they may get on board the Vessel before Hotman has made his Discovery, at least before Measures could be taken to prevent them: Thus a new Situation of Distress is produced, which, if their Hope had never been revived by an Alteration of their Plan, could never have happened; for just at the Crisis, when this Hope was about to be fulfilled, it is suddenly and totally disappointed, by an Account that Hotman has perpetrated his Treachery, and that the Governor is in Arms.

These Observations, however, are less intended to sollicit Praise, than to prevent Censure; and it is not necessary farther to mention the Alterations, or the Reasons upon which they were made; they will be easily discovered upon a Comparison of the two Copies, if it is ever thought worth while to make it. Some Passages are left out, merely because the Speeches in which they occurred, were too long both for the Audience and the Actor; and one or two, because the Sentiment or Expression was thought exceptionable.

Oroonoko, when he mentions the Father of Imoinda to Blandford (p. 27, l. 30), calls him “a Man of many Virtues,” yet says that he chang'd Christianity for Paganism; a Sentiment, of which the evil Tendency is too manifest to be proved.

Blandford and Stanmore, in their Speeches to Oroonoko, when they find him chain'd to the Ground (p. 70.), allude to the poetical Fictions of Cadmus and the Titans, which it was impossible he could understand: And in the Speech of Oroonoko, when he surrenders his Sword to Blandford, there were two Verses of which the Imagery should never be exhibited (p. 62, l. 26, 27.).

As to the general Tendency or Moral of the whole, it is not much influenced by the Alterations or Additions, except that Hotman is not suffered to escape unpunished; and that the same Disposition of Aboan, which urged him to propose Methods of Deliverance that were bloody and revengeful, betray'd him into a Folly that subverted all his Hopes, and terminated in the Destruction of those whom he most wished to save.