BARBARA FRIETCHIE

Barbara Frietchie: translation

   Clyde Fitch s historical romance deals with the Civil War episode known to all Americans from John Greenleaf Whittier's poem of the same title. Produced by Charles Frohman, the play opened on 23 October 1899 at the Criterion Theatre and ran for 83 performances. Barbara Frietchie, unlike Whittier's poem, creates romantic interest for Barbara (played by Julia Marlowe), who is torn between her family's Southern sympathies and her love for a Union officer. It is the death of her beloved that impels Barbara to fly the Stars and Stripes from her balcony, and despite Stonewall Jackson's famous command, she is shot and joins her love in death. It became the basis for the 1927 operetta My Maryland.