Alternative Heroes in Nineteenth-Century Historical Plays

DOI 10.6094/helden.heroes.heros./2014/01/02 Dorothea Flothow 5 Unheroic and Yet Charming – Alternative Heroes in Nineteenth-Century Historical Plays It has been claimed repeatedly that unlike previ- MacDonald’s Not About Heroes (1982) show ous times, ours is a post-heroic age (Immer and the impossibility of heroism in modern warfare. van Marwyck 11). Thus, we also fi nd it diffi cult In recent years, a series of bio-dramas featuring to revere the heroes and heroines of the past. artists, amongst them Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus In deed, when examining historical television se- (1979) and Sebastian Barry’s Andersen’s En- ries, such as Blackadder, it is obvious how the glish (2010), have cut their “artist-hero” (Huber champions of English imperial history are lam- and Middeke 134) down to size by emphasizing pooned and “debunked” – in Blackadder II, Eliz- the clash between personal action and high- abeth I is depicted as “Queenie”, an ill-tempered, mind ed artistic idealism. selfi sh “spoiled child” (Latham 217); her immor- tal “Speech to the Troops at Tilbury” becomes The debunking of great historical fi gures in re- part of a drunken evening with her favourites cent drama is often interpreted as resulting par- (Epi sode 5, “Beer”). In Blackadder the Third, ticularly from a postmodern infl uence.3 Thus, as Horatio Nelson’s most famous words, “England Martin Middeke explains: “Postmodernism sets expects that every man will do his duty”, are triv- out to challenge the occidental idea of enlighten- ialized to “England knows Lady Hamilton is a ment and, especially, the cognitive and episte- virgin” (Episode 2, “Ink and Incapability”). While mological values which the concepts of an his- more recent1 fi lmic versions of the past, such as torical past, a cultural heritage, or tradition have Elizabeth (1998) or the Tudors (2007-2010), are conveyed right into our present” (Middeke 1-2). rather kinder towards their subjects, Elizabeth I This challenge, of course, also affects historical and Henry VIII, respectively, the strong concen- heroes and their position, as “postmodern con- tration on their private lives and loves does much cepts of the individual (as, for example, frag- to undermine the exceptionality of these national mentation, role-playing, diffusion of character)” heroes and heroines (Latham 270). This chal- (Huber and Middeke 135) seem adverse to the lenges a central precondition of heroism (Immer idea of an active, self-determined and extraordi- and van Marwyck 19-20) and calls this status nary hero. Similarly, as postmodernism calls into into question. question the meta-narratives of the past – such as imperialism, nationalism, or the “Whig-inter- In high-brow genres such as historical drama, pretation of history” (Herbert Butterfi eld) – it also the anti-heroic stance which has emerged here destroys the narratives in which historical heroes prom inently since the 1960s is even more obvi- have been created. ous (Palmer). Indeed, it has been argued that hero-worship is today largely an element of popular Stressing the postmodern infl uence on the re- rather than high-brow culture.2 John Arden and cent, anti-heroic historical drama, however, sev- Margaretta D’Arcy’s The Hero Rises Up (1969) eral studies emphasize the strong tendency for thus emphasizes Admiral Nelson’s personal hero-worship prevalent in earlier plays. Thus, failures – his bodily and sexual weakness and Mark Berninger contrasts the modern, “innova- particularly his hollow striving for glory: “EMMA. tive” history play of the second half of the twen- If you weep in your uniform all your medals of tieth century with the “conventional” history play, honour / Will be stained and corroded by the which he characterizes as follows: fall of salt water” (Arden and D’Arcy 43). Frank McGuinness’s Observe the Sons of Ulster Mar- ching Towards the Somme (1985) and Stephen helden. heroes. héros. Dorothea Flothow – Alternative Heroes in Nineteenth-Century Historical Plays 6 Interest in the central (mostly male) fi g- However, as Marc Girouard shows in The Return ures of history, concentration on polit i- to Camelot (passim), although the reverence cal and mil itary events […], and a sub- for historical heroes was indeed an important scription to the dominant view of history aspect of Victorian historical culture, a means by and the prevailing interpretation of the which the Victorians attempted to escape their historical events presented. Connected own, domesticated times in favour of a more col- elements include: […] ‘costume dra- orful and adventurous past, this was only part of ma’, hero-worship, and tragic plot. the much more complex popular uses of history.6 (Berninger, „Variation“ 39, my italics) The same diversity, as this paper hopes to show, is true of nineteenth-century historical theatre. As is evident from this quotation, a concentra tion Though history plays featuring successful mili- on historical heroes and heroism is central to tary ‘heroes’ such as Admiral Nelson or Alfred this defi nition of the “conventional” history play, the Great exist in large numbers, the ridiculing which Berninger situates particularly in the nine- of historical hero worship was also an important teenth century. In this, he follows many previous feature, especially in burlesques and travesties. studies, for Victorian historical drama is often Moreover, the nineteenth-century stage also cre- criticized for its hero-worship. Thus, Hildegard ated historical characters as comic yet lovable Hammerschmidt writes: domestic anti-heroes. King Charles II, an English monarch not traditionally considered a “hero” of In der viktorianischen Geschichtsdra- English history,7 as his wars against the Dutch matik wurde die Wahl des Stoffes wie- were unsuccessful and his domestic policy was der weitgehend von der Größe der his- dominated by political strife,8 features especially torischen Gestalt und Bedeutung des frequently in this role in the many plays on him Geschehens für die Geschichte der written throughout the nineteenth century. In that Nation abhängig gemacht. Die drama- they concentrate on the private life of an histori- tische Idee entspringt dem Heroenkult cal character and his personal charms, however, und dem übersteigerten Geschichts- these plays also refl ect a wider trend, for many bewußtsein des gesamten Zeitalters. plays of the nineteenth century showed their his- (Hammerschmidt 15; cf. also Watt 134) torical protagonists “at home” (Palmer 46), thus offering alternative views of them, some of them The reverence for historical heroes, then, is seen far from heroic, as will be shown. as characteristic of nineteenth-century historical drama, and, by extension, of Victorian popular As I will argue in the following on the basis of historical culture as a whole. selected plays representing different dramat ic genres by some of the most successful and pro- With this criticism, these studies implicitly mir- lifi c playwrights of the time (for instance Doug- ror a previously widely-held prejudice that las Jerrold, Edward Fitzball, James Sheridan nineteenth-century theatre presented “popular Knowles, Tom Taylor and Robert Brough), rather culture”, that is, bad, formulaic and escapist en- than showing a monolithic heroic version of the tertainment for the working classes.4 Though re- past, nineteenth-century plays with an historical cent studies agree that even in the nineteenth setting,9 many of which would have reached a century theatre’s reputation was low in general wide audience and thus would have been infl u- and that it was frequently opposed to literature, ential in their depiction of the past, thus display that is, “high culture” (Marcus; Emeljanow 3-6), a multitude of different attitudes towards histori- the negative assessment of the theatre has cal heroes and the heroics, anticipating trends been called into question. Instead, recent stud- prominent in twentieth-century plays. How, then, ies have pointed to the centrality of the theatre are heroism and historical “greatness” created to nineteenth-century culture as a whole. Thus, in these plays, what counts as heroic, and how Nina Auerbach sees the theatre as the “domi- is the past used to create heroic and anti-heroic nant medium through which audiences under- role models?10 stood the world” (Auerbach 4; cf. also Moody). As popular entertainment, it reached large parts of the population (Tönnies); indeed, as Jim Davis and Victor Emeljanow have shown, audiences were much more mixed, socially, than had previously been assumed.5 Undoubtedly “popular”, theatre’s infl uence on nineteenth-century culture should thus not be ignored. helden. heroes. héros. Dorothea Flothow – Alternative Heroes in Nineteenth-Century Historical Plays 7 Sykes, who presents the typical brave lower- Historical Heroism in Nineteenth- class fi gure of much melodrama, cannot contain Century Plays his excitement at seeing Nelson wounded and threatens to “blubber” (ibid.). Nelson, then, re- It cannot be denied that heroism was indeed an presents military heroism commonly associated important feature of nineteenth-century plays, with nineteenth-century historical drama: mili- both of more popular genres such as melodrama tary success, self-sacrifi ce and the fulfi llment of and of more literary verse plays. When one goes one’s duty for the greatness of England. through the play lists, Thomas Carlyle’s famous defi nition of history as “the History of Great Men” Nelson’s heroism is strengthened by the melo- (Carlyle 1) seems to be confi rmed, for titles such dramatic conventions evident in the play:15 They as James Sheridan Knowles’s Alfred the Great; include the contrast between Nelson’s unque- or, The Patriot King (1831), Andrew Cherry’s Pe- stioningly accepted heroism and the comic co- ter the Great; or, The Wooden Walls (1807), and wardice of the stereotypical lower-class sailors Edward Fitzball’s Nelson; or The Life of a Sail or Ben Backstay and Sammy Suckling (who are (1827) reveal the popularity of famous war he- also contrasted with the brave tar Jack Sykes).16 roes of English and European history.

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