Love and tea: A comedy-drama of colonial times in two acts — Key Ideas to Explore

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In Category - Fantasy Juvenile Worlds

Authors: See, Anna Phillips Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2022 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Drama Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 11,400

Reading time 50 min

Text sections 9

The catalog record for Love and tea: A comedy-drama of colonial times in two acts — Key Ideas to Explore provides practical reading context through 11,400 words, 50 min estimated reading time, and 9 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 10.2 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Drama,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #68194

Anna Phillips See's two-act comedy-drama, written for the D.A.R., uses the Revolutionary War's tea boycott and spy accusations to examine loyalty and reputation in a colonial village, with a despotic spinster at its center.

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Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
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Edition quality

File: pg68194

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Farce in Three Acts. Seven males, five females. Costumes, modern; scenery, not difficult. Plays a full evening.

Farce in Four Acts. Ten males, nine females. Costumes, modern society; scenery, three interiors. Plays a full evening.

Farce in Three Acts. Seven males, four females. Costumes, modern; scenery, two interiors. Plays two hours and a half.

Comedy in Four Acts. Four males, ten females. Costumes, modern; scenery, two interiors and an exterior. Plays a full evening.

Comedy in Four Acts. Nine males, four females. Costumes, modern; scenery, three interiors. Plays a full evening.

Comedy in Three Acts. Ten males, five females. Costumes, modern; scenery easy. Plays two hours and a half.

Drama in Five Acts. Seven males, seven females. Costumes, modern; scenery, three interiors. Plays a full evening.

Play in Four Acts. Eight males, seven females. Costumes, modern; scenery, four interiors, not easy. Plays a full evening.

Drama in Four Acts and an Epilogue. Ten males, five females. Costumes, modern; scenery complicated. Plays a full evening.

Farce in Three Acts. Twelve males, four females. Costumes, modern; scenery, all interior. Plays two hours and a half.

Sent prepaid on receipt of price by

Walter H. Baker & Company No. 5 Hamilton Place, Boston, Massachusetts

A Comedy-Drama of Colonial Times in Two Acts

_Written at the instance of the D. A. R._

By ANNA PHILLIPS SEE _Author of “When Women Vote,” etc._

The professional and moving picture rights in this play are strictly reserved and application for the right to produce it should be made to the author in care of the publishers. Amateurs may produce it without payment of royalty on condition that the name of the author appears on all programmes and advertising issued in connection with such performances.

BOSTON WALTER H. BAKER & CO. 1915

MISS LAVINIA BOLTWOOD, _a despotic spinster_. BETTY BOLTWOOD, _her niece_. MRS. COWLES, _a neighbor_. MRS. ADAMS, _a neighbor_. MRS. STRONG, _the village gossip_. MANDY, _slave of Miss Boltwood_. JUDGE INGRAM, _a middle-aged bachelor of mild Tory sentiments_. WILLIAM DICKINSON, _a fiery young Minuteman_.

ACT I.--Place, the living-room of a comfortable village home. Time, April 1775, a few days after the Battle of Lexington. ACT II.--Place, the same. Time, June 1775, not long after the battle of Bunker Hill.

THE STORY OF THE PLAY

Miss Boltwood, a despotic spinster, is persuaded to join a band of ladies who have sworn to give up tea and all taxed articles till the Revolutionary War is over. The tea habit is too strong for Miss Boltwood and she drinks it secretly. Her niece, Betty, discovers this and uses the information to compel her aunt to consent to her (Betty’s) engagement to the young minuteman, William Dickinson.

Miss Boltwood also has a lover, the Tory, Judge Ingram, whom she has kept dangling for years. When he joins the Patriot cause and she hears the (false) report that he has been arrested as a spy, she champions him and finds that she loves him; she becomes an ardent Patriot also--all this just as he has decided that their _friendship_ is ideal! Mandy, who is a privileged character, furnishes much fun.

_All rights reserved._

SCENE.--_The living-room of_ MISS BOLTWOOD’S _home. There are doors to_ L. _and_ R., _a closed window near_ R., _a fireplace with fire near_ C. _and over it a cupboard that locks; a tea table, four straight chairs, a high winged chair or settle, a mirror, furnishings of a colonial tea table, a black cat (toy), etc._

(MANDY _is discovered on stage. She pokes fire, looks into kettle, stumbles over cat by the hearth._)

MANDY. Dere’s dat cat agin! Here you, Salem, git out from under Mandy’s feet ’fore I break my neck or yours! Black imp o’ Satan! (_The cat is supposed to spit._) He spits! I pray you, spit not at poor old Mandy, please, Mr. Cat! Oh, you looks a very witch cat! Good Salem! Good pussy!

_Enter_ BETTY BOLTWOOD _in afternoon dress but with an apron on_.

BETTY. Mandy, aunt bids you assist me with the porcelain against the tea-drinking this afternoon. Fetch the linen towel and the tray.

MANDY. Yes, missy. Here dey is.

(MANDY _gets towel and tray and she and_ BETTY _wipe the dishes and arrange them on the tea table_.)

BETTY (_holding up cream pitcher_). I like well this tea set, Mandy. ’Twas a most pleasing gift that aunt’s cousin fetched her from China. She surely hath a vast love for tea. ’Tis almost a carnal weakness!

MANDY. True, missy. You’ aunt do love tea most ’stravagantly, an’ cats too! (_Looks scornfully at_ SALEM.) A true sign she will never marry. But Missy Boltwood am so sperity de mens am ’fraid of her, mebbe.

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The play opens in April 1775, days after Lexington, with Miss Lavinia Boltwood, a 'despotic spinster,' presiding over a living room where tea—and loyalty—are under scrutiny. The dialogue quickly establishes a web of suspicion: Mrs. Strong, the village gossip, reports that Judge Ingram, a mild Tory, has been arrested as a British spy. Miss Boltwood's fierce defense ('I will not hear Stephen Ingram traduced') contrasts with the neighbors' malicious relish. The scene hinges on reputation and rumor, not action; characters react to news rather than drive events. See uses the tea boycott as a backdrop for personal conflicts, weaving political tensions into domestic exchanges.

Rumor as Plot Engine

The excerpts show that the plot advances almost entirely through reported events and hearsay. The central crisis—Judge Ingram's arrest as a spy—reaches the stage secondhand, via Mrs. Strong and Mrs. Cowles. Miss Boltwood's indignation ('I care not what reports are rife; I know the man') sets up a contrast between public accusation and private conviction. The play's comedy-drama tension arises from this gap: characters must act on incomplete information, and their choices reveal character. Mrs. Strong's spiteful line 'Mayhap you would prefer solitude for the recovery of your equanimity' exemplifies how gossip serves both plot and characterization.

The Spinster's Authority and Vulnerability

Miss Boltwood is described as 'despotic,' yet the excerpts show her as emotionally exposed. When she hears of the Judge's arrest, she nearly faints; Betty fetches wine, and Mrs. Cowles burns a turkey feather as a restorative—a comic detail that undercuts the gravity. Miss Boltwood's authority is asserted through commands ('Mandy! Run to Clapp’s Tavern') but also through her insistence on personal loyalty over public opinion. Her declaration 'Methinks I have some influence on both sides of this quarrel' suggests a woman navigating a divided community, but the excerpts leave unclear whether her influence is real or imagined.

Staging the Revolutionary Home Front

The play's setting—a comfortable living room—becomes a microcosm of colonial conflict. Characters enter bearing news, roses, or wine; the stage directions emphasize domestic props (turkey wing, basket, guinea) that ground political drama in household routines. The arrival of Judge Ingram in minuteman uniform, supporting the wounded William, shifts the tone from gossip to action, but the scene remains interior. See uses the home as a space where women and men negotiate loyalty, but the excerpts offer only a glimpse of this shift. The play's two-act structure, spanning April to June 1775, suggests a compression of historical time into personal crisis.

Readers should attend to how See balances the play's comedic elements—burnt feathers, rolling eyes, sharp asides—with the gravity of espionage accusations. The excerpts leave key questions unanswered: Is Judge Ingram truly innocent? Does Miss Boltwood's journey to Boston succeed? The play's brevity (11,400 words) and its origin as a D.A.R. commission suggest a patriotic resolution, but the text's humor and ambiguity reward close attention to its ironies.

I finished that little D.A.R. comedy last night, and it left me thinking about how easily reputations unravel. The tea boycott feels so contained, yet the weight of suspicion presses on everyone. It reminded me of a play I stumbled on once, Waste: A Tragedy, In Four Acts — Text and Context, where the ruin is quieter but just as absolute. Both stayed with me like a faint, unresolved ache.