# Representative American Plays/Madame Butterfly

Japanese woman Cho Cho San, also known as "Madame Butterfly," awaits the return of her American husband, Lieutenant Pinkerton of the warship Connecticut. At the same time, she is being pressured to forget about this marriage and instead wed the wealthy Yamadori, all the while an American friend of Lieutenant Pinkerton has some bad news to deliver.
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MADAME BUTTERFLY A TRAGEDY OF JAPAN DRAMATIZED BY David Belasco From the Story by John Luther Long
Copyright, 1897, by The Century Co.
All Rights Reserved
Printed by permission of Mr. David Belasco and Mr. John Luther Long.
MADAME BUTTERFLY
Madame Butterfly represents the spirit of romance which has never been entirely absent from our stage and which seems to be in process of revival. It represents also the dramatic ability of Mr. David Belasco working with the material furnished by the imagination of Mr. John Luther Long.
David Belasco was born in San Francisco, July 25, 1853. Even before he left school in the early seventies his mind was on the theatre, and during the next few years he was callboy, actor, stage manager, adaptor, and writer of plays. Mr. Belasco wrote or adapted twenty-two plays during his career in California, beginning with A Christmas Night, in which he acted in the Geary Street Hall, San Francisco, and including his share in The Moonlight Marriage and Hearts of Oak, in which he collaborated with James A. Heme. La Belle Busse, which he put on first at the Baldwin Theatre, San Francisco, of which he was stage manager, attracted the attention of Eastern managers and was produced by Lester Wallack at his theatre, May 8, 1882. Shortly afterward Mr. Belasco became stage manager of the Madison Square Theatre in New York where his play, May Blossom, was produced April 12, 1884. After assisting Bronson Howard in Baron Rudolph in 1887, he became associated with Henry C. DeMille in the writing of a number of plays, all well constructed and entertaining, if at times verging on the sentimental and melodramatic. Of these The Wife was produced November 1, 1887, Lord Chumley, in which Mr. E. H. Sothern starred, on August 21, 1888, and The Charity Ball, November 19, 1889, all at the Lyceum Theatre, and all associated with the sterling group of players then gathered together there. Men and Women, also with DeMille, was produced at Proctor's Theatre, October 21, 1890. His next significant play was The Girl I Left Behind Me, with Mr. Franklin Fyles, produced at the Empire Theatre, January 25, 1893, and having its initial performance at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, January 6, 1893. The Heart of Maryland, in which Mrs. Leslie Carter starred at the Herald Square Theatre on October 22, 1895, represents the emotional melodrama of a popular kind, and DuBarry, played at the National Theatre in Washington, December 12, 1901, the melodrama based on historical material.
The next period of his work, and probably the most artistic, was that in which he was associated with Mr. John Luther Long in the field of exotic romance. On March 5, 1900, at the Herald Square Theatre, Mr. Belasco produced his dramatization of Mr. Long's story of Madame Butterfly, in a combination bill with his farce of Naughty Anthony, originally performed on ​January 8th. After a month's run in New York, it was produced at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, April 28, 1900, and ran for over two months. During the next season, it was taken on tour throughout the United States. It was eventually put into the form of grand opera by Signor Giacomo Puccini. The play follows the language of the story almost entirely but there are certain changes in the plot. In the book, "Pinkerton" does not return to the house but leaves money with the consul for "Madame Butterfly," which she refuses. The interview between her and "Mrs. Pinkerton" takes place in the consul's office; and "Madame Butterfly" lets her mother love conquer and after attempting suicide decides to live.
Mr. Belasco and Mr. Long next collaborated in the writing of Adrea, a romantic tragedy laid in the fifth century, a.d., produced January 11, 1905, with a company headed by Mrs. Carter. On December 3, 1902, The Darling of the Gods, by Mr. Belasco and Mr. Long, was produced. This is the romantic tragedy of a Japanese princess, played by Blanche Bates, in which the themes of love, loyalty, and patriotism were artistically blended.
The Girl of the Golden West, played first, November 14, 1905, and The Rose of the Rancho, written with Mr. Richard Watson Tully, and played November 27, 1906, reflect Mr. Belasco's knowledge of the West. The supernatural romance was illustrated by The Return of Peter Grimm, played January 2, 1911. His last play, Van Der Decken, was first played at Wilmington, Delaware, December 12, 1915. A complete list of Mr. Belasco 's plays since he came to New York would number twenty-five, including adaptations from the French, such as Valerie, from Sardou's Fernande (1886), Miss Helyett (1891), Zaza (1899), The Lily (1909), The Secret (1913), one from the German, The Younger Son (1893), and, to complete the list, Naughty Anthony (1900), Sweet Kitty Belairs (1903), A Grand Army Man, with Miss Pauline Phelps and Miss Marion Short (1907), and The Son-Daughter, with George Scarborough (1919).
Mr. Belasco's career as a manager can only be alluded to here. He was a pioneer in the movement toward natural methods in the theatre. Since 1905 he has produced his plays at his own theatre, where he has set a standard for perfection of detail, especially for interesting effects of stage lighting. He was the first to do away with footlights, and the "bridge of light" used in Peter Grimm was unheralded and unseen, but the effect was true to nature.
Mr. John Luther Long was born in Pennsylvania in 1861. He read law and was admitted to the bar, engaging in practice in Philadelphia. In addition to the plays noted above, he was one of the authors of The Dragon Fly, produced in Philadelphia in 1905. Mr. Long has published also a number of volumes of short stories.
The only play of Mr. Belasco's now published is May Blossom, by the Samuel French Company. For criticism of Adrea and The Darling of the Gods see ​William Winter, The Wallet of Time, Vol. 2, pp. 252-7 and pp. 328-32. Plays of the Present, by J. B. Clapp and E. V. Edgett, will be found very useful for individual plays. See also, David Belasco, My Life's Story 2v. N. Y., 1915; W. P. Eaton, The American Stage of To-day, pp. 203-14.
The story of Madame Butterfly, printed originally in the Century Magazine in 1897, has also been issued in book form. The play is now published for the first time through the courtesy of Mr. Belasco and Mr. Long from a manuscript prepared especially for this collection. For the information concerning the plays the editor is indebted to Mr. Belasco and to Mr. Thomas A. Curry of the Belasco Theatre.
Note to Revised Edition.
An authoritative life of David Belasco in two volumes was published in 1918 prepared by the late William Winter. Of especial interest is also The Theatre Through the Stage Door, by David Belasco, edited by L. V. Defoe, New York, 1919.
THE ORIGINAL CAST OF CHARACTERS
Herald Square Theatre, New York, March 5, 1900
Note: During the scene in which Madame Butterfly waits at the shoji for her lover, a night is supposed to pass and the story is resumed on the morning of the following day.
MADAME BUTTERFLY
"I call her the belle of Japan—of Japan Her name it is O Cho-Cho-San, Cho-Cho-San! Such tenderness lies in her soft almond eyes, I tell you, she's just 'ichi ban.'"
(Nakodo bows and Sharpless enters.)
(A child enters.)
"Reg' a bye bebby, Off in Japan, You jus' a picture,
Off of a fan."
"Rog'—a—bye, bebby,
Off in Japan,"
(Lieutenant Pinkerton listens to the song coming from above.)
"You jus' a picture,
Off of a fan."
(Kate, entering hurriedly.)