The Gladiator

Gladiator, The (1831), a tragedy by Robert Montgomery Bird.[ Park Theatre, in repertory.] To free his wife, Senona (Mrs. Sharpe), and young son (Julia Turnbull), the captive Spartacus (Edwin Forrest) agrees to fight in a Roman gladiatorial contest. But when his opponent turns out to be his brother, Phasarius (Thomas Barry), and the Romans insist they fight to the death, the brothers decide to rebel. But Phasarius's impetuosity, aggravated by his obsession with the praetor's niece Julia (Mrs. Wallack), undermines their plans. With his brother, wife, and son all dead, Spartacus fights on until he, too, is slain. One of Forrest's most successful roles (he played it more than one thousand times), the actor never fully paid Bird for the work, but at the same time he refused to allow Bird or his heirs to publish it. After Forrest's death, it was revived by John McCullough and others until the end of the century.