“The original orphan of China” (Publication, 1953)
Year
1953
Text
Liu, Wu-chi [Liu Wuji]. The original orphan of China. In : Comparative literature ; vol. 5, no 3 (1953). [Betr. Arthur Murphy, William Hatchett].
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1768912.pdf. (LiuWu1)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1768912.pdf. (LiuWu1)
Type
Publication
Mentioned People (2)
Hatchett, William
(York 1701-1768 ?) : Dramatiker, Schauspieler, Produzent, Autor
Murphy, Arthur
(Clooniquin, Roscommon, Irland 1727-1805 Knightsbridge, London) : Dramatiker, Schauspieler
Subjects
Literature : China : Drama and Theatre
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Literature : Occident : Great Britain : Theatre
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Periods : China : Yuan (1260-1368)
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References / Sources
Chronology Entries (2)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1741 |
Hatchett, William. The Chinese orphan [ID D19761]. Sekundärliteratur Fan Cunzhong : Hattchett's adaptation was never produced, it was 'totally unfit for representation'. Probably it was never intended for the stage : it was essentially an opposition pamphlet. Hatchett seems to have made an attempt to introduce orientalism in The Chinese orphan. In the dedication he says : 'China has furnish'd us long with the Produce of her Earth ; with her Manufactures ; and I am willing to flatter myself, the Importation of her Poetry will serve to regale in its Turn'. But there is nothing oriental about 'the dull rhetoric of its blank verse' except the presence of some exotic terms. The dramatis personae indeed look like Chinese, yet what an odd jumble of historical characters ! There one finds Laotze, the famous sophis, an elderly contemporary of Confucius ; Kio Hamti, by which Hatchett probably meant Han Kaoti, the first emperor of the Han dynasty ; Siako, or Hsiao-ho, minister to the great Han emperor ; Camhy (K'ang-his), the second emperor of the Manchu dynasty ; and Ousanquee (Wu San-kwei), a rebellious general during the reign of Camhy. 'Camhy', which in Chinese means prosperity and happiness, is intended by Hatchett to signify 'bitterness and sorrow'. The Chinese tragedy has for its theme murder and revenge. A monstrous minister of state murders his political rival and all his household except an orphan, who is of royal blood. A couple of faithful friends of the victim take the orphan under their protection, even at the risk of their own lives. The orphan grows up, and at the age of twenty he wreaks vengeance upon the murderer. The plot is crude and loose and shows flagrant violation of decorum and all the unities of the drama. Hatchett considered it 'very rude and imperfect' ; but he was struck by 'certain Strokes of Nature in it, Scarce to be equall'd by the most celebrated of the European Drama'. He discovered in it a political significance. His adaptation was dedicated to the second Duke of Argyle. By 1741 the impetuous Duke had won an unusual popularity : he had been deprived of all his offices after virulent attacks upon Walpole. Hatchee addresses his Lordship thus : 'As the Chinese are a wise discerning People, and much fam'd for their Art in Government, it is not to be wonder'd at, that the Fable is political : Indeed, it exhibits an amazing Series of Male-administration, which the Chinese Author has wrought up to the highest Pitch of Abhorrence, as if he had been acquainted with the Inflexibility of your Grace's Character in that respect. It's certain, he has exaggerated Nature, and introduced rather a Monster than a Man ; but perhaps it is a Maxim with the Chinese Poets to represent Prime Ministers as so many Devils, to deter honest People from being deluded by then'. The villain of the piece is Siako, Prime Minister to the Emperor Kio Hamti. Opposed to his is Olopoen, a meritorious general, whose descendant Camhy, 'conceived in bitterness and sorrow' is the Chinese orphan. Grouped about the orphan are a number of loyal friends ; Kifang, a physician ; Vanson, a great officer of the Court ; Susan, Captain of the Guards ; Ousanquee, friend to the physician ; and Laotze, a retired mandarin. The device, though ingenious, is transparent. Under the thin veil of dramatic characters with exotic names one can easily recognize George II, Sir Robert Walpole, and His Majesty's opposition under the leadership of the Prince of Wales. The Duke of Argyle is there, so are perhaps Lord Chesterfield and Lord Bolingbroke. When The Chinese orphan was published in 1741, furious attacks upon Walpole had flared up again in Parliament : they were led by Carteret in the Lords and by Sandys in the Commons. A motion was introduced, though it failed to be carried, that an address made to the Crown for the removal of Walpole 'from His Majesty's presence and counsels for ever. The appearance of The Chinese orphan was opportune. Liu Wu-chi : In his Chinese orphan, Hatchett introduced a series of long political harangues that are irrelevant to the story and hinder the development of the dramatic action. The hero is no longer Ch'eng Ying, or Kifang in Hatchett's play, who was instrumental in the orphan's revenge, but T'u An-ku, renamed Siako, an archvillain of a politican. Wheras his prototype, T'u An-ku, was a simple villain bent upon the destruction of his rival's family, in which were embodied all the traits of such an unscrupulous politician as Sir Robert Walpole might have seemed to be to his foes. One of the most important changes made by Hatchett is the shortening of the time duration in the play. In Chi Chun-hsiang's story, twenty years elapsed between the third and fourth acts. During this time, the orphan grows up to be a brave and strong youth ready to carry out his revenge. In Hatchett's play, the orphan remains a minor and performs no active part. The revenge motif is therefore considerably lessened ; though Siako meets his deserved death, it comes as a result of his political failure rather than of a family feud. Hatchett retains the use of pictures to reveal the tragedy of the persecuted family, but these are not painted on a scroll for the curious eyes of the orphan, as in the original play ; instead they are embroidered on an imperial robe to be presented to the emperor, who learns from them how wicked his trusted minister has been. Hatchett's version is less effective than the original, in which the intensity of the orphan's feeling increases when he learns the secret of his birth and the tragic story of his family. In Hatchett's play the scene becomes tediously long, as the king finds out for the first time from story after story what an egregious ass he has been to let the crafty Siako cajole and hoodwink him all these years ! Hatchett also altered the characters of the Chinese play. Besides giving them entirely different names, such as Kifang for Ch'eng Ying, Siako for T'u An-ku, and, rather ridiculously, Laotse for Kung-sun Ch'u-chiu, he introduced new characters such as Bonze, the Chief Priest ; Ousanguee, Kifang's friend and painter of the pictorial robe ; and Lyping, wife of Kifang. Lyping was introduced to provide an emotional scene in which she cries to have her baby back when she learns that it has been sent away by Kifang and replaced by the orphan. But her hysteria contributes little to the plot ; nor does she appear again in the play. As for the songs that are interspersed in the play 'after the Chinese matter', they are of little value or interest. They add neither to the embellishment nor to the development of the drama ; and they are as much unlike the Chinese songs as is the blank verse in which The Chinese orphan is written. As a matter of fact, Hatchett's only authentic notation is the 'bamboo discipline' giben Laotse, the retired old courtier. Hatchett assumes quite a new form, and the alterations are no improvement. Willy Richard Berger : Hatchett ist der erste, der den Stoff vom chinesischen Waisenkind adaptierte. Das Stück ist ein politisches Pamphlet gegen Horace Walpole, ist aber vermutlich nie aufgeführt worden. Bei Hatchett ist ein verbrecherischer und machtgieriger Mandarin der Verfolger des Waisenkindes, das wie im Original durch den Arzt, der die Kinder vertauscht, gerettet wird. Den Bösewicht ereilt die verdiente Strafe, als seine Verbrechen offenbar werden, hier aber durch den König selbst, denn das Wagnis, den Waisenknaben im letzten Akt in der Rolle des erwachsenen Rächers auftreten zu lassen, traute sich ein englischer Dramatiker nicht zu. Hatchett hat sich recht genau an die chinesische Vorlage gehalten. Die politische Tendenz des Stücks schlägt erst in den letzten beiden Akten durch, die er aus A description of the empire of China and Chinese-Tartary kannte und ganze Szenen beinahe wörtlich übernommen hatte. |
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| 2 | 1759 |
Murphy, Arthur. The orphan of China [ID D19836]. Arthur Murphy included a letter to Voltaire in the first and second editions of the play Orphan of China. To M. De Voltaire. Sir A letter to you from an English author will carry with it the appearance of corresponding with the enemy, not only as the two nations are at present involved in a difficult and important war, but also because in many of your late writings you seem determined to live in a state of hostility with the British nation… As I have attempted a Tragedy upon a subject that has exercised your excellent talents ; and thus have dared to try my strength in the Bow of Ulysses, I hold myself in some sort accountable to M. De Voltaire for the departure I have made from his plan, and the substitution of a new fable of my own. My first propensity to this story was occasioned by the remarks of an admirable critic of our own, upon the Orphan of the House of Chau, preserved to us by the industrious and sensible P. Du Halde, which, as our learned commentator observes, amidst great wildness and irregularity, has still some traces of resemblance to the beautiful models of antiquity… In this state of mind, Sir, I heard with pleasure that M. De Voltaire had produced at Paris his L'orphelin de la Chine : I ardently longed for a perusal of the piece, expecting that such a writer would certain.ly seize all the striking incidents which might naturally grow out of so pregnant a story, and that he would leave no source of passion unopened… A scantiness of interesting business seemed to me a primary defect in the construction of the French Orphan of China, and that I imagined had its source in the early date of your play… You will perceive, Sir, in the English Orphan some occasional insertions of sentiment from your elegant performance. For this I shall make no apology, either to the public or to you : none to the public, because they have applauded some strokes for which I am indebted to you ; and none certainly to you, because you are well aware I have in this instance followed the example of many admired writers… But whatever may be your opinion of it, I must beg that you will not make it the criterion by which you would decide concerning the taste of the English nation, or the present state of literature among us. What you have humbly said of yourself, in order to do honour to your nation, I can assert with truth of the author of the English Orphan, that he is one of the worst poets now in this country… One thing further I will assure you, in case you should discover any traces of barbarism in the style or fable, That if you had been present at the representation, you would have seen a theatrical splendor conducted with a bienseance unknown to the scene Françoise ; the performers of Zaphimri and Hamet, by their interesting manner, would have made you regret that you had not enriched your piece with two characters, to which a colourist, like you, would have given the most beautiful touches of the pencil, had the idea struck your fancy ; and, though a weak state of health deprived the play of so fine an actress as Mrs. Cibber, you would have beheld in Mandane a figure that would be an ornament to any state in Europe, and you would have acknowledged that her Acting promises to equal the elegance of her person : moreover, you would have seen a Zamti, whose exquisite powers are capable of adding Pathos and Harmony even to our great Shakespear[e], and have already been the chief support of some of your own scenes upon the English stage… Sekundärliteratur Yang Chi-ming : Murphy's Chinese tragedy opens with success at London's Drury Lane Theater. It receives detailed reviews in magazines of the day, and when it appears soon after in print, it is said that 'Every one has, by this time, seen or read, and most have applauded it. There are several reasons behind its success. First, it follows the impetus of Restoration tragedy, which banks on the 'remote regions of the world' – improbable, exotic – to further heighten the grandeur and drama surrounding ethical and emotional conflict and produce the distance between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Add to that England's proto-imperialist fascination with the large-scale founding and falling of past empires : China's history of conquest is popularized in the theatrical tradition of heroic conquest tragedies, modeled after epic poetry. The orphan of China is a mid-century melodrama which doesn't at first appear to fit within the genre and period of heroic virtue, action and stylistics. It does also draw from detailed ethno-histories of the Tartar-Chinese border wars and participate in the early modern imagining and re-imagining of China's invasions by the pseudo-mythic Tartary, long a symbol of ancient conquest and the permeability of borders between East and West. Liu Wu-chi : Murphy had already made his name as a writer of farces when he chose a Chinese theme for his first tragedy. He claimed that he had been attracted by Prémare's play, but, as a matter of fact, his play closely resembles Voltaire's L'orphelin, which was clearly its model. The interest in the Orient, aroused by Du Halde and Voltaire in France, had spread to England, where the performance of Murphy's play was a further stimulus. The delay between the writing of Orphan of China and its appearance at the Drury Lane Theater was occasioned by a long altercation between Murphy and David Garrick. The trouble was caused by the reluctance of Garrick to accept Murphy's play for Drury Lane and by his putting off the performance as long as possible. It appears that Garrick had long taken an interest in China as a theatrical possibility, and had been contemplating an adaptation from Voltaire when Murphy stole the thunder from him. But finally, with the support of Henry Fox, Horace Walpole and William Whitehead, Murphy succeeded in forcing Garrick to stage the play. In Murphy's Orphan was little of the morals of Confucius. Unlike Voltaire, he was not so much interested in proving the superiority of culture over barbarity as in presenting an effective, well-made play that would attract a large audience. Murphy based his Orphan upon Voltaire's ; but he made a number of important changes. In the main what he did was to drop the love story of the Tartar conqueror and give the orphan, Zaphimri, and active part in the drama. This hint he took from the Chinese play. In place of Voltaire's ending, Murphy reasserted the theme of revenge by making Zaphimri, a vigorous young man of twenty, the avenger of his family's and nation's wrongs. The play remains a tragedy with the death of Zamti and his wife Mandane. Though the story and the characters have been greatly altered, Murphy's Orphan retains as a whole the spirit of the Chinese tragedy and is closer to it than any other European adaptation. Ou Hsin-yun : In April 1759 Arthur Murphy's The orphan of China opened successfully at Drury Lane. Actor-manager David Garrick played the leading role of the Confucian patriot Zamti, with Mary Ann Yates as Mandane, his wife. Garrick was impressive as a national hero, but Mrs. Yates's performance as a brave mother also attracted considerable attention. Thanks to a large part to Marx. Yates's stage presence and Chinoiserie costume, the production may have been more remarkable than the dramatic text. Set amidst an Oriental setting and garbed in a fashionable Oriental costume, the body of the English actress was integrated into an exotic spectacle – a stage spectacle that both contrasted and mirrored the social situation of English women. The conflicts between Mandarins and Tartars in the play represent contemporaneous tensions between England and France ; that Mandane, who opposes her husband's absolutist patriotism and patriarchal authority, is the author's spokesperson against Chinese and French anti-egalitarianism ; and that the ideologically charged figure of Mrs. Yates may undercut Mandane's potency as an authorial voice. English society tended to associate consumer culture with women, and, although female consumption surely contributed to the expansion of the British economy, it may also have weakened patriarchal control of women. Thus the female body of an actress wearing Chinoiserie costuming might undermine the credibility of the heroine's political objectives. Murphy, who transformed French-inflected Chinese exoticism and absolutism into English aspirations for national liberty, also succeeded in rendering Mandane as a more sympathetic, self-determinate heroine. His departure from Voltaire's pseudo-Confucian ideas about women can be ascribed to an emerging intellectual trend that connected better treatment of women with social progress. The presence of a defiant Oriental heroine in Murphy's play echoes widespread debates about the role of women in an era when women's status was beginning to change, and suggests that Murphy also was aware of the role played by women in the construction of English national identity. By forgrounding Mandane's defense of individual rights, the play criticizes the Chinese (and implicitly the French) patriotic enthusiasm for absolutist monarchy. Mandane resists the socially prescribed absence of women from public affairs, thereby illuminating the idea that wives and mothers are also citizens of the nation. The play then, thus affirming the familial private space as no less important than the public sphere of national interest. Murphy turned the Tartar invasion of China into an allegory of French cultural incursions into England, which succeeded largely because of the English aristocracy's appetite for foreign goods. The epilogue, spoken by Mrs. Yates, apologizes for the play's use of fashionable Chinoiserie costume : 'Ladies, excuse my dress - 'this true Chinese'. This apology may allude to certain social and economic shifts during the eighteenth century, a period when acts of consumption were increasingly being gendered 'female'. Mrs. Yates, an English woman wearing foreign costumes that evoked British imperial trade, represents two figures of femininity associated with contemporary social concerns ; the elegant lady of quality as a mercantile consumer, and the frantic woman as a waster of colonial commerce. Mrs. Yates performed an image of femininity that supported overseas trade, thereby helping to create greater desire for exotic consumer goods. The World vehemently attacked Chinoiserie dresses for 'their red, their pompons, their scraps of dirty gauze, flimsy satins, and black calicoes'. The English aristocracy, whose members were hungry for French imported luxury goods, manners, and language, initiated the trend. Paradoxically, the firs production of The orphan of China not only exploited the vogue for Chinoiserie, but also fueled English national patriotism. Projecting English social progress onto its Oriental subject, the play employed gender and Orientalist discourses, not only as polemical mechanisms to investigate the relationship between man and woman or between the Occident and the Orient, but also as nationalistic propaganda to celebrate English national identity by arguing for English cultural superiority over France. Murphy's play refrained from glorifying the contemporary vogue for Chinese fashion, and transformed Chinese exoticism and French absolutism into English aspirations for national liberty. By rendering the Oriental heroine as a more sympathetic, self-assured character, Murphy departed from Voltaire's pseudo-Confucian ideas about women. Ou Hsin-yun : As Murphy's depiction of his Chinese heroine holds a mirror up to the shifting contemporary English views of women, Murphy's tragedy is a social, cultural and historical product of its own era and arena. It is therefore imperative to consider Murphy's theatrical adaption not only with the context of the European concepts of Chinese culture, but also in the specific social and theatrical contexts available to Murphy in mid-eighteenth-century London. In several points of the play, Murphy is keen to demonstrate his knowledge about Chinese cultural practices. The epilogue mentions Chinese 'taste and fashions', including women's confinement, foot-binding and the Chinese way of writing words. A tremendous amount of information about Confucianism was available in London long before Murphy wrote his play about China. Murphy's attitude towards Confucianism, is mitigated between contemporary European polarized views that celebrate or attack Confucian ethics. He depicts Zamti as a Confucian disciple who sometimes could turn into an unhumane patriarch, a 'marble-hearted father' as Mandane calls him. Mandane goes beyond the role of a conventional virtuous woman in Confucian terms, and is portrayed with sympathy as a woman who chooses her own role as an affectionate mother when she is unable to play simultaneously her other roles as an obedient wife and a loyal subject. This Chinese woman as envisioned by Murphy is far different from what most Confucian followers could have expected according to their gender notions. On the other hand, Murphy's presentation of his Chinese heroine reacts to the active contemporary English debates about gender roles, and echoes viewpoints expressed in his other writings. Murphy's view of woman differs from Confucian gender concepts, as Mandane embodies a resolute force against patriarchal domination. Murphy's authorial voice can be heard in Mandane when she convey his objection to either Zamti's Absolutist Monarchy or Timurkan's colonialism, and she has the sympathy of all the major Chinese characters at the end of the play. She challenges the masculine authorities in a play that is ostensibly a heroic tragedy, which usually centres on heroes of prowess and honour and heroine with unalloyed faithfulness to the heroes. Mandane's rebellion against Zamti's loyalty to an Absolutist Monarch, in accordance with the English political trend of Constitutional Monarchy, consolidates her position as representing a significant chorus figure of Murphy's play in reacting to the current social and political changes. Also, Mandane interrogates Zeami's authority as a patriarch in her family through her emphasis on contractual patriarchy, which requires a husband to abide by his martial vows before he can rightfully demand his wife's subjugation, much as the modified kingship under Constitutional Monarchy needs to observe constitutional duties to the people. Condemning Zamti's failure in his family duty to protect their son, Mandane places more emphasis on the notion of loyalty to one's family than to a monarch. Murphy's theme reconsiders the virtues of patriarchy and patriotism, while clearly directing these to notions of gender and nationalism in British society. Murphy's portrayal of Mandane's emotional outburst, exhibits irrational female passions that are dangerously subversive to a stable English society dominated by patriarchal patriotism. Mandane's fervour in defending her son's right to live, as well as her defiance against her husband's commands not to reveal their son's identity and not to commit suicide, designates a mode of rebellion that potentially jeopardizes the prospect of a nation founded on patriarchal rationality. |
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Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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