The first of the purely Revolutionary plays presented in New York was, probably, _Bunker Hill; or, the Death of General Warren_, and the work of an Irishman, John D. Burke. It was played at the John Street Theatre in 1797; and it was followed the next year by William Dunlap's _Andre_, at the Park. Mr. Brander Matthews, in his introduction to a reprint of _Andre_, published by "The Dunlap Society," for private circulation among its members, enumerates a number of plays written shortly after the Revolution upon the subject of the capture and death of the British spy, many of which, however, were never put upon the stage. Andre had been dead less than twenty years when Dunlap's _Andre_ was first produced, in 1798, and Arnold was still living; and, curiously enough, _The Glory of Columbia_, also by Dunlap, in which Arnold and Andre both figured, was played at the old South Street Theatre, Philadelphia, in 1807, with scenes painted by Andre himself, who had superintended amateur theatricals at that house, and had played upon that very stage. After _Bunker Hill_ and _Andre_ came at different periods in New York _The Battle of Lake Erie_; _The Battle of Eutaw Springs_; _A Tale of Lexington_; _The Siege of Boston_; _The Siege of Yorktown_; _The Seventy-Sixer_; _The Soldier of '76_; _Marion; or, The Hero of Lake George_; _Washington at Valley Forge_; and many more of the same stamp--all of which were popular enough during the first half-century of our history, but during the last half they have entirely disappeared. [Illustration: MAJOR ANDRE.--From a pen-and-ink sketch by himself.]