Murphy, Arthur
(Clooniquin, Roscommon, Irland 1727-1805 Knightsbridge, London) : Dramatiker, Schauspieler
Subjects
Index of Names : Occident
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Literature : Occident : Great Britain
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Literature : Occident : Ireland
Chronology Entries (5)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
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| 1 | 1753 |
William Whitehead schreibt in The world ; no 12 (22 March 1753) : "A few years ago everything was Gothic. According to the present whim, everything is Chinese, or in the Chinese manner : or, as it is sometimes more modesly expressed, partly after the Chinese manner." Ch'en Shou-yi : Whitehead's attitude was decidedly antagonistic. Like many other writers of the time, he condemned both the Chinese and the Gothic as lacking the charm of simplicity. But as he concerned himself chiefly with the current fashion in English furniture, the word 'everything' which occurs in the passage above, must be considered merely as a sweeping overstatement. But that a considerable amount of irritation must have been present to warrant Whitehead's condemnation of the Chinese tast, can be taken for granted. |
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| 2 | 1759 |
Goldsmith, Oliver. The orphan of China by Arthur Murphy [ID D26913]. Er schreibt : Orphan of China was originally a Chinese play, the story of which Du Halde retold in plain prose and included in his Description. Premare afterwards translated the whole piece. Later, Voltaire made it the groundwork of one of his best tragedies, L'orphelin de la Chine. Murphy remodeled the plot and gave the first performance of the play on 21 April 1759. When luxury has exhausted every mode of enjoyment, and is palled by an iteration of the same pursuits, it often has recourse even to absurdity for redress, and vainly expects from novelty those satisfactions it has ceased to find in nature. Like the Asiatic tyrant of antiquity, wearied of the old pleasures, it proposes immense rewards, and eagerly seeks amusement in the new. From the prevalence of a taste like this, or rather from this perversion of taste, the refined European has, of late, had recourse even to China, in order to diversify the amusements of the day. We have seen gardens laid out in the eastern manner; houses ornamenttd in front by zig-zag lines ; and rooms stuck round with Chinese vases and Indian pagods. If such whimsies prevail among those who conduct the pleasures of the times, and consequently lead the fashion, is it to be wondered, if even poetry itself should conform, and the public be presented with a piece formed upon Chinese manners ? — manners which, though the poet should happen to mistake, he has the consolation left, that few readers are able to detect the imposture. Voltaire, than whom no author better adapts his productions to the colour of the times, was sensible of this prevalence of fashion in favour of all that came from China, and resolved to indulge its extravagance. He has accordingly embroidered a Chinese plot with all the colouring of French poetry ; but his advances to excellence are only in proportion to his deviating from the calm insipidity of his eastern original. Of all nations that ever felt the influence of the inspiring goddess, perhaps the Chinese are to be placed in the lowest class : their productions are the most phlegmatic that can be imagined. In those pieces of poetry, or novel, translations, some of which we have seen, and which probably may soon be made public, there is not a single attempt to address the imagination, or influence the passions; such therefore are very improper models for imitation : and Voltaire, who was perhaps sensible of this, has made very considerable deviations from the original plan. Our English poet has deviated still further, and, in proportion as the plot has become more European, it has become more perfect. By omitting many of the circumstances of the original story, and adding several of his own, Mr. Murphy has given us a play, if not truly Chinese, at least entirely poetical. Perhaps it was the intention of this ingenious writer, to show the strength of his imagination in embellishing a barren plot, and, like the artist we have sometimes heard of, who was famous for dressing a pair of shoes into a fricasee, chose rather to have us admire his manner than his materials. The first error in the plot of this piece is, that the pathos begins without a proper preparation of incident. The most poignant anguish begins in the second act, where Mandane, the only woman of the play, feels all the distress of passion, conflicting between a subject's duty and a mother's tenderness. When the poet thus attempts to move us before his time, the most he can do is to raise an equally moderate degree of pity through the whole, which all his art cannot raise into that fine agony of distress, so common among the great masters of his art. All enthusiasms are of short continuance ; nor is it in the power of genius to keep our sorrows alive through five acts, unless it diversifies the object, or, in every act excites some new and unforseen distress; but neither of these the Chinese plot in view admits of. Shakspeare, Otway, and Rowe, seemed to have been perfect economists of their distress (if we may use the expression) ; they were so sensible of a necessary gradation in this respect, that their characters frequently make their first appearance in circumstances of joy and triumph. They well knew that we are apt to pity the sufferings of mankind, in proportion as they have fallen from former happiness. Othello, therefore, meets the mistress he must soon kill, in all the ecstacy of a happy lover. Acasto surveys the felicity of his family with the most unreserved degree of rapture; and the father of the Fair Penitent, who so soon is to be wretched indeed, begins in a strain of exaltation, that forces us almost to envy his felicity. We have been led into these reflections, from observing the effect the ingenious performance before us had upon the audience the first night of its representation. The whole house seemed pleased, highly and justly pleased ; but it was not with the 'luxury of woe' they seemed affected: the nervous sentiment, the glowing imagery, the well-conducted scenery, seemed the sources of their pleasure ; their judgment could not avoid approving the conduct of the drama, yet few of the situations were capable of getting within the soul, or exciting a single tear ; in short, it was quickly seen, that all the faults of the performance proceeded from vicious imitation, and all its beauties were the poet's own. And now we are mentioning faults (faults which a single quotation from the play will happily expunge from the reader's memory), the author has, perhaps, too frequently mentioned the word 'virtue'. This expression should, in the mouth of a philosopher, be husbanded, and only used on great occasions ; if repeated too often, it loses its cabalistic power, and at last degenerates into contempt. This was actually the case at Athens, became contemptible even among the most stupid of their neighbouring nations ; and towards the latter end of their government they grew ashamed of it themselves. But, to do the writer ample justice, we will lay one scene against all his defects, and we are convinced that this alone will turn the balance in his favour. Works of genius are not to be judged from the faults to be met with in them, but by the beauties in which they abound. Zamti, the Chinese high-priest, is informed, that his own son is going to be offered up as the orphan-heir of China ; after a short conflict, his duty gains a complete victory over paternal affection : he is willing his son should die, in order to secure his king; but the difficulty remains to persuade his wife, Mandane, to forego a mother's fondness, and conspire also in the deceit. . |
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| 3 | 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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| 4 | 1759 |
Murphy, Arthur. The orphan of China : a tragedy [ID D19836]. William Whitehead schreibt im 'Prologue' : Enough of Greece and Rome. The exhausted store, Of either nation now can charm no more : Even adventitious helps in vain we try, Our triumphs languish in the public eye ; And grave pocessions, musically slow, Here pass unheeded - as a Lord Mayor's shew. On eagle wings the poet of to-night, Soars for fresh virtues to the source of light, To China's eastern realm, and boldly bears Confuicus' morals to Britannia's ears. Accept th' imported boon, as echoing Greece Received from wand'ring chiefs her golden fleece ; Nor only richer by the spoils become, But praise th'advent'rous youth who brings them home. One dubious character, we own, he draws, A patriot, zealous in a monarch's cause ! Vice in the task the varying hand to guide, and teach the blending colours to divide ; Where, rainbow-like, th' encroaching tints intvade Each other's bounds, and mingle light with shade. If then, assiduous to obtain his end, You find too far the subject's zeal extend : If undistinguished loyalty prevails, Where nature shrinks, and strong affection fails, On China's tenets charge the fond mistake, And spare his error for his virtue's sage. From noble motives our allegiance springs, For Britain knows no right divine in kings. From Freedom's choice that boasted right arose, And through each line from Freedom's choice it flows. Justice, with mercy joined, the throne maintains ; And in his people's hearts, our monarch reigns. |
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| 5 | 1791 |
Boswell, James. The life of Samuel Johnson [ID D27046]. Anekdote von Samuel Johnson über die Übersetzung von Du Halde's Description von Edward Cave : "Green and Guthrie, an Irishman and a Scotchman, undertook a translation of Du Halde's History of China. Green said of Guthrie, that he knew no English, and Guthrie of Green, that he knew no French ; and these two undertook to translate Du Halde's History of China. In this translation there was found 'the twenty-sixth day of the new moon'. Now as the whole age of the moon is but twenty-eight days, the moon instead of being new, was nearly as old as it could be. Their blunder arose from their mistaking the word, 'neuvième', ninth, for 'nouvelle' or 'neuve', new." "He [Johnson] talked with an uncommon animation of travelling into distant countries; that the mind was enlarged by it, and that an acquisition of dignity of character was derived from it. He expressed a particular enthusiasm with respect to visiting the wall of China. I catched it for the moment, and said I really believed I should go and see the wall of China had I not children, of whom it was my duty to take care. " "Sir, (said he,) by doing so, you would do what would be of importance in raising your children to eminence. There would be a lustre reflected upon them from your spirit and curiosity. They would be at all times regarded as the children of a man who had gone to view the wall of China. I am serious, Sir." "Murphy is to have his Orphan of China acted next month; and is therefore, I suppose, happy. I wish I could tell you of any great good to which I was approaching, but at present my prospects do not much delight me; however, I am always pleased when I find that you, dear Sir, remember, your affectionate, humble servant, Sam Johnson". "At this time I think he had published nothing with his name, though it was pretty generally known that one Dr. Goldsmith was the authour of An Enquiry into the present State of polite Learning in Europe, and of The Citizen of the World, a series of letters supposed to be written from London by a Chinese." Johnson called the East-Indians barbarians. Boswell : "You will except the Chinese, Sir". Johnson : "No, Sir." Boswell : "Have they not arts ?" Johnson : "They have pottery". Boswell : "What do you say to the written characters of their language ?" Johnson : "Sir, they have not an alphabet. They have not been able to form what all other nations have formed." Boswell : "There is more learning in their language than in any other, from the immense number of their characters." Johnson : "It is only more difficult from its rudeness ; as there is more labour in hewing down a tree with a stone than with an axe." |
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Bibliography (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1759 |
Murphy, Arthur. The orphan of China : a tragedy. (London : Printed for P. Vaillant, 1759). [Adaption nach Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste. Description... [ID D1819]. [Ji, Junxiang. Zhao shi gu er]. [Adaptation von L'Orphelin de la Chine von Voltaire ; geschrieben 1754 ; Aufführung 1759 im Drury Lane Theater mit David Garrick als Zamti und Mary Ann Yates als Mandane ; Aufführung in Dublin 1761 ; Aufführung im Southwark Theater Philadelphia 1767 ; Aufführung John Street Theater New York 1768]. http://books.google.at/books/about/The_orphan_of_China.html?id=rm8GAAAAQAAJ. |
Publication / Mur1 |
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Secondary Literature (4)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1759 |
Goldsmith, Oliver. The orphan of China by Arthur Murphy . In : Critical review (May 1759). In : The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith. Vol. 1-4. (London : John Murray, 1837). Vol. 4. XVIII. http://books.google.ch/books?id=AAU1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA454 &lpg=PA454&dq=of+all+nations+that+ever+felt+the+ influence+of+the+inspiring+goddess,+perhaps+the+chinese +are+to+be+placed+in+the+lowest+class&source=bl&ots= IoKOsl7F5Z&sig=GB8JugWyZNExVPQd2UkIQc7NoGI&hl =de&ei=NYZ5Toj9DeWc0AXc7snAAQ&sa=X&oi=book_ result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage &q=of%20all%20nations%20that%20ever%20felt%20the% 20influence%20of%20the%20inspiring%20goddess%2C%20 perhaps%20the%20chinese%20are%20to%20be%20placed% 20in%20the%20lowest%20class&f=false. |
Publication / GolO13 |
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| 2 | 1953 |
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. |
Publication / LiuWu1 | |
| 3 | 2007 | Ou, Hsin-yun. Arthur Murphy's views of Confucianism and gender. In : NTU studies in language and literature ; no 17 (2007). | Publication / Mur2 |
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| 4 | 2008 | Ou, Hsin-yun [Ou, Xinyun]. Gender, consumption, and ideological ambiguity in David Garrick's production of The orphan of China (1759). In : Theatre journal ; vol. 60, no 3 (2008). | Publication / Ou1 |
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