Young Mrs. Winthrop

Young Mrs. Winthrop (1882), a play by Bronson Howard. [Madison Square Theatre, 190 perf.] Douglas Winthrop ( George Clarke) is as preoccupied with business as his wife, Constance ( Carrie Turner), is with playing the social game. When Douglas, claiming the call of business, asks his wife not to go to a ball and instead to remain home with their ailing child, she agrees. Then she hears rumors questioning Douglas's fidelity, so she changes her mind. Douglas, in fact, has gone to the home where the ball is being held, but on legitimate matters. While they are away the child dies, and this leads to the couple's separation. The kindly family lawyer, Buxton Scott ( Thomas Whiffen), brings about a reconciliation and makes both husband and wife see the excessiveness and consequences of their preoccupations. One of the first important American plays to deal with materialism and social climbing without satire, it was praised by the Times as “a play which tells what we understand; which has a genuine purpose, though not a didactic heaviness, and which hoes to its mark simply, directly, and effectively.” It remained a favorite in stock at least until World War I.