His name was Robert Munford III, and while he is remembered today as a playwright, in his time he was best known as a member of the House of Burgesses and an officer who served under George Washington during the French and Indian War. Politically, Munford was an anti-tax moderate who opposed the Revolutionary War and vented some of his frustrations in the form of comedies he wrote but never produced. The Patriots (1777), the second of Munford’s two plays, addresses the serious question of wartime dissent in Virginia, which on occasion resulted in violent attacks on those not deemed to be sufficiently patriotic. Munford himself was accused of being a British sympathizer despite being on the record in favor of independence, and was therefore especially vehement in condemning those who equated loud patriotism with true patriotism. The character Meanwell, a gentleman accused of disloyalty, says, “I hope my zeal against tyranny will not be shewn by bawling against it, but by serving my country against her enemies; and never may I signalize my attachment to liberty by persecuting innocent men, only because they differ in opinion with me.”
Further Reading:
Rodney M. Blaine, Robert Munford: America’s First Comic Dramatist (1967)
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Meriah L Crawford is an adjunct instructor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University
