The Boston Dip: A Comedy, in One Act

In Short

The Boston Dip is a one-act 19th-century American comedy by George M. Baker that satirizes social climbing and nouveau riche pretensions. Set in a dancing academy's private drawing-room during a grand ball, the plot revolves around Mrs. Mulligrub's secret ambition to learn the latest dance craze, the "Boston Dip," away from her wealthy speculator husband. Meanwhile, two opportunistic suitors attempt to court the Mulligrub daughters for their money. Through escalating misunderstandings, hidden screens, and misplaced notes, the play pokes gentle fun at marital suspicion, social posturing, and pretension, enduring as a lighthearted farce of manners.

The Story

The comedy opens in the drawing-room of Monsieur Adonis’s dancing academy, where sisters Ida and Eva Mulligrub are practicing the "Boston Dip" to Strauss's waltz music. While admiring the dance, they discuss their wealthy suitors, Richard Dasher and Lavender Kids, whom they suspect of being fortune-hunters interested in their father’s bank-book rather than true love. Mrs. Mulligrub enters, eagerly plotting to take secret waltzing lessons from Monsieur Adonis behind her husband's back. She hopes to master the fashionable step without looking foolish before society, believing her husband, Moses Mulligrub, is safely at home asleep.

Soon, the suitors Dasher and Kids arrive separately, each stumbling into the private room to engineer romantic declarations to Eva and Ida. Both young men wrap their proposals in melodramatic metaphors about standing on the brink of a frightening precipice, hoping to secure a wealthy match. The daughters expertly dodge these overtures while keeping the men close enough to provide valid dancing partners.

Unbeknownst to them, Moses Mulligrub arrives early to spy on his family's high-society behavior. While searching the room, he discovers a dropped note addressed to his wife from a mysterious figure named "Boston Dip," reading, "Meet me in the private drawing-room while the company are waltzing. Do not fail me." Believing "Boston Dip" to be a rival suitor and a dangerous sparring partner cuckolding him, Moses vows violent revenge and hides behind a decorative screen to monitor the unfolding betrayal.

As the evening progresses, both Dasher and Kids separately return to the room to corner Eva and Ida, only to be repeatedly interrupted by sudden exits or hidden distractions, leaving the suitors stranded on their metaphorical precipices. Finally, Mrs. Mulligrub enters to take her private lesson, accompanied by Monsieur Adonis. As the dancing-master instructs her on waist placement and steps, Moses overhears the romantic coaching and reaches his breaking point.

Slamming the screen down in a fury, Moses leaps out, screams at his wife, and physically attacks Monsieur Adonis by the throat while accusing him of being the infamous "Boston Dip." Chaos ensues as the daughters, Dasher, and Kids rush into the room. The truth is rapidly untangled: "Boston Dip" is revealed to be a dance movement rather than a man, and Mrs. Mulligrub's note was merely a request for private instruction. Mortified by his absurd error, Moses humbles himself, apologizes to the dancing-master, and begs his wife's forgiveness. The play concludes amicably as Moses retires upward, and the couples join together to waltz to the "Blue Danube."

How It Unfolds

• The new novelty — The play opens with Ida and Eva waltzing to Strauss's music while discussing the fashionable young men who frequent the academy.
• The secret scheme — Mrs. Mulligrub arrives determined to pay Monsieur Adonis for private waltzing lessons so she can learn the popular step without public embarrassment.
• The melodramatic suitors — Dasher and Kids arrive to pursue the daughters, clumsily framing their romantic proposals around theatrical warnings of dangerous precipices.
• The incriminating note — Moses Mulligrub discovers a misplaced appointment note signed by his wife and addressed to an unknown figure named "Boston Dip," sparking intense jealousy.
• The hidden observer — Moses secretes himself behind a room screen, watching and misinterpreting successive romantic advances and private coaching sessions.
• The explosive confrontation — Driven to rage by what he believes is an affair, Moses bursts out from behind the screen and attacks Monsieur Adonis, leading to the comedic unravelling of the entire misunderstanding.

The People

Moses Mulligrub is a wealthy speculator who once peddled fish from a handcart. Proud of his financial success but deeply insecure about high-society snobbery, his protective instincts and quick temper lead him to suspect his wife of infidelity, ending the play humbled and apologetic after discovering his own foolish mistake.

Mrs. Moses Mulligrub is an ambitious matriarch eager to shed her humble past and master fashionable accomplishments. Unwilling to look foolish learning public dances at her age, she arranges secret lessons, accidentally triggering her husband's jealous fury.

Miss Ida Mulligrub and Miss Eva Mulligrub are the sharp-witted daughters who see right through the mercenary motives of their suitors. They enjoy the young men's dancing skills while actively blocking their marriage proposals, determined not to be exploited for their father's money.

Monsieur Adonis is the polished, extremely polite French dancing-master who runs the academy. Completely focused on grace, fees, and customer satisfaction, he finds himself violently choked by an irate husband before the misunderstanding is cleared up.

Mr. Richard Dasher and Mr. Lavender Kids are fast, superficial gentlemen of fashion. Heavily in debt or eager for luxury, they attempt to marry into wealth through dramatic declarations, only to be repeatedly left stranded by the sharp daughters.

In Its Own Voice

Bless that dear Monsieur Adonis.

This line is spoken by Eva as she praises the dancing-master for introducing the latest waltzing craze to his assembly.

I’m blushing with shame, petrified with mortification, and stunned with grief, to hear such words as those proceeding from your lips.

Mrs. Mulligrub expresses utter dismay upon hearing her daughter casually reference her father's old fish-cart hawking days.

I’ve never seen him, but people say he’s immensely rich.

Dasher speaks these words directly to Moses Mulligrub—unaware of his true identity—while inquiring about the old man's wealth.

What It's Really About

The play explores the anxieties of class mobility and the friction between humble working-class roots and newly acquired bourgeois wealth. The Mulligrubs have risen from selling fish on the streets to moving in fashionable circles, yet they struggle to bridge the gap between their authentic past and the affected manners of high society. Beneath the light farce, the text satirizes the transactional nature of romance among the period's idle rich, where young men like Dasher and Kids view marriage purely as a financial bailout to fund fast horses and luxury. It also examines marital communication, showing how suspicion and a lack of trust can inflate a harmless misunderstanding into a theatrical crisis.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy light 19th-century drawing-room farces and snappy Victorian wit will find plenty to love in this brisk, entertaining piece. Reading it feels like stepping into a briskly paced parlor comedy where theatrical timing and verbal absurdities take center stage. The humor relies heavily on malapropisms, particularly Mrs. Mulligrub’s hilarious mangling of foreign and sophisticated vocabulary, and Kids's preoccupation with his own phrenological brain directory. Modern readers should approach it with an awareness of period conventions, recognizing that its light treatment of social climbing and opportunistic courtship reflects the middle-class theatrical tastes of the 1870s. What stays with you is the sheer comic momentum of Moses Mulligrub lurking behind a screen, growing more and more outraged over a dance step he mistakes for a rival.