Esmeralda

Esmeralda (1881), a play by Francis Hodgson Burnett, William Gillette. [Madison Square Theatre, 350 perf.] Esmeralda Rogers ( Annie Russell), a winsome North Carolina farm girl, falls in love with her rugged, good‐natured neighbor, Dave Hardy ( Eben Plympton), but her ambitious mother, Lydia Ann ( Kate Denin Wilson), objects. As always, her acquiescent father, Elbert ( Leslie Allen), accepts his wife's ultimatums. When some gold is found on what the Rogerses believe is their property, the newly rich Lydia Ann rushes Esmeralda off to Paris, where she hopes to marry her daughter to the Marquis de Montessin ( Davenport Bebus). The facetious but kindly Mr. Estabrook ( Thomas Whiffen), sensing Esmeralda's unhappiness, manages to delay the wedding until it is learned that the gold is really on Dave Hardy's land. Mrs. Rogers looks on Hardy with new eyes, returns home, and allows Esmeralda to marry Dave. Called a “sweet, harmless play” by George Odell, the dramatization of Burnett's novelette was criticized by some contemporary critics, who suggested that the play really ended in the second act, when Esmeralda marries Hardy. The rest of the story described their early married life. Audiences had no time for such quibbles, so the play enjoyed one of the longest runs of its era and afforded both Russell and other actresses a popular vehicle for the next twenty years.