The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish

The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish is a romantic drama by William Bayle Bernard..

The original text

Bernard's play is based on James Fenimore Cooper's tale The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (published in 1829),which tells the story of Ruth Heathcoat, who had been abducted by Narragansett Indians as an infant, raised by the tribe and fully adopted its culture. When found by her relatives she had married, taken a tribal name, "Narra-mattah", and given birth to a son.

According to the James Fenimore Cooper Society Website[1], Bernard's version was not the first dramatization of the book. Two earlier versions were Miantonimoh and Narramattah, or The Lost Found (both first performed in New York, 1830).

Bosman (1980: p. 221) lists the play's name (wrongly) as The Weft of the Wish-ton-Wish

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1867: Performed, as The Weft of the Wish-ton-Wish (?), by "Le Roy's Original Company" in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 28 February, with The Legend of St Croix (Anon.).

Sources

James Fenimore Cooper Society Website: http://www.oneonta.edu/external/cooper/drama/wept.html

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.221

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