Hamilton (play)/Authors' Preface
Authors' Preface
This play is written for the stage. It is written with a desire to convey to the audience that the builders of the foundation of the American Republic were real people, and not merely a procession of nice gray-headed old gentlemen who were mainly occupied in sitting for their portraits to Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull.
Probably no keen admirer of Alexander Hamilton will be fully satisfied with the play. But the authors console themselves with the reflection that no playwright could do justice to the power and scope of this remarkable man within the limits of an evening's entertainment. In writing a play dealing with a great historical figure it is necessary to select an incident that brings out boldly the predominant characteristics of the hero. Having decided upon the incident, it is advisable not to befog it by the introduction of other important episodes however much they may redound to the credit of the central figure, or however much you may be tempted to use them. Alexander Hamilton achieved distinction in so many different directions—as a shipping clerk, as a soldier, as a powerful and graceful writer, as an orator, as a tactician, as a master of the financial policy of Nations—that to the casual reader of history it might seem difficult to discover this dominant characteristic. But to the student and lover of Hamilton it stands out clear and well-defined—Courage. Not the courage of the blind egoist or of the imperious politician, but the courage which had its roots in love of truth and of honorable dealing.
And so the authors chose the incident which forms the basis of this play. In their opinion, no single event could be found that displays this fine quality of courage more surely and more definitely than the course adopted by Hamilton in the face of the attack by his political enemies. Those descendants of Alexander Hamilton whom the authors have had the honor of meeting, have expressed their satisfaction at the selection of this incident; and the authors feel that it is no breach of confidence to record that they have received words of praise from the two men who know more about Hamilton than perhaps anybody in America—two of his keenest admirers—Senator Lodge and Nicholas Murray Butler.
The historical record on which the play is founded can be seen by any student who is so far interested, by applying to the Lenox Library in New York. It is known as the "Reynolds Pamphlet" and is the document written by Alexander Hamilton himself.
The play keeps very close to history. The main incidents are, in all essential details, historically correct. It has been necessary to take some few liberties but these are of minor importance. The dialogue is not written precisely as it might have been spoken at the end of the eighteenth century. The authors believed that a slavish attempt to eliminate all words and phrases that were probably not in vogue at the time would result in many instances in tedious phraseology and a certain artificiality, which they particularly desired to avoid. They have however endeavored on the whole to maintain the atmosphere of the period.
The stage directions are designed and intended for the guidance of the actors and not for the entertainment of the reader. There is a growing tendency amongst writers of plays to introduce long and humorous stage directions that are often very entertaining in the library but very dangerous and misleading for the stage. They are misleading to a producer because they frequently make a scene appear to be very sparkling, while it is in reality exceedingly dull—the sparkle being confined exclusively to the stage-directions. They are dangerous for the actor because they make him believe that his part is a great deal better than it really is, and so he is apt to regard his audience as stupid because their intelligence fails to appreciate subtleties that he detected at the reading. In reality it is the author who is to blame; he has let the actors into certain dark secrets connected with their characters, without giving them the ghost of an opportunity, through the dialogue or situation, of conveying these confidences to the audience.