My Geraldine
Aside from a reference I found that Maude Adams was performed in the play in 1891, I've only found some general information on the play itself.
=====The White Slave: & Other Plays Book by Bartley Campbell, Napier Wilt; Princeton Univ. Pr, 1941=====
The great period of Campbell's career which began in the autumn of 1879 continued through 1885. In addition to the three successful plays already mentioned, he wrote during this time The White Slave, My Geraldine, Siberia, Separation, and Paquita . Not only did he write these plays, but he directed the production of all of them. He also organized and directed a number of road companies -- there were at least six in 1884 -- which produced his plays throughout the country. From 1879 to 1885 Bartley Campbell was not only the most popular American dramatist, but he was regarded by most critics as one of the best .
The New York Herald thought the story "strong but somewhat familiar" and that it was "told too slowly through three acts, but moved rapidly and powerfully in the two acts which followed." The New York Tribune considered the play but another imitation of Boucicault and said, "It is called Irish because the scene is laid in Ireland and for no other reason."
The piece is unlike the bulk of Irish plays. Its motive is not the enmity of the Hibernian race for their British oppressors; it has no smugglers, red-coated soldiers, constabulary or conspirators. . . . On the contrary My Geraldine is purely domestic. In many respects Mr. Campbell's play is worthy of commendation; in many others it deserves severe criticism. The story is interesting though improbable; the language is less didactic than that to which this particular author has accustomed us. On the other hand the story is tedious and the story is spread out. The scene in the ruined abbey, in which Geraldine goes into hysterics over some imaginary rats, might very properly be curtailed. Many of the incidents are too lurid to coincide with the intense interest of the quiet portions of the play. These rugged faults may assume the guise of virtues to the gallery, but they form no bid to the favor of the downstairs people. -- New York Dramatic Mirror, December 25, 1880.
Mr. Bartley Campbell's new Irish drama, My Geraldine, has now been played for some weeks at the Standard Theatre by a strong company, attracting large and appreciative audiences. The play has a skillfully constructed plot, and contains several very strong situations. It has been produced with new scenery, several of the sets being very handsome and elaborate, notably that of the ruined abbey by moonlight, in the fourth act, which is the subject of our illustration. Mr. Campbell is certainly among the most prolific and enterprising of American dramatists. Four companies are playing his Galley Slave -- one in England, two in America, and still another in Germany. My Partner is now being played in Australia; Fairfax has been running in San Francisco; Van, the Virginian is being played in the Southern States. The English and Australian press speak in the highest terms of Mr. Campbell's ability, one of them saying: "For the first time in the history of Australia an American play has delighted a refined and cultivated audience." The success that the subject of our sketch has achieved is chiefly due to his ability to develop strong situations, and to mingle with his story broad humor and powerful pathos. -- New York Graphic , January 12, 1881.
The story hinges on a disputed marriage and the illegal possession of an estate. There is a villain of the very conventional land agent type, who has a drudge
in the shape of a species of converted Michael Feeney, -- that is to say, he has the body of Michael, "the heart of a weak woman and the soul of a poet." The villain gets his just deserts at the end of the play and suffering Virtue, represented by Geraldine and her mother, is rewarded by gazing upon a scene of perfect happiness as the curtain descends. -- Chicago Tribune, February 1, 1881.
The story is one of strong romantic interest, and, although there can be found throughout the same faults -- though not so strongly marked here -- which the critics have found in his other works, excepting My Partner, the public, we dare say, overlooks those technical blemishes, and only sympathizes with the sorrows of its principal characters, and finds mirth in its excellent comedy. -- Chicago Tribune, February 6, 1881.
=====American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1869-1914 by Gerald Bordman; Oxford University Press, 1994=====
Many reviewers questioned how Irish Bartley Campbell's new Irish drama, My Geraldine ( 12-21-80), Standard), was, with the Tribune insisting, "It is called Irish because the scene is laid in Ireland and for no other reason." Nor, according to critics, was that the play's only problem. The Dramatic Mirror observed, "In many respects Mr. Campbell's play is worthy of commendation; in many others it deserves severe criticism. The story is interesting though improbable, the language is less didactic than that to which this particular author has accustomed us. On the other hand the story is tedious . . . and spread out. The scene in the ruined abbey, in which Geraldine goes into hysterics over some imaginary rats, might be properly curtailed. Many of the incidents are too lurid to coincide with the intense interest of the quiet portions of the play. These rugged faults may assume the guise of virtues to the gallery, but they form no bid to the favor of the downstairs people."
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