THE ORIGIN AND TYPES OF THE HEROIC TRAGEDY. Notorious äs the heroic drama of the Restoration has become, it has been, to all intents and purposes, neglected, äs compared with the theatre of Elizabethan or early Caroline times. The origin of the species has been confused, the demarcation of its types unnoticed, its very characteristics rendered dubious, partly through a lack of critical acumen in regarding its several productions, and partly through a tendency to believe that it is in itself a manifestation of literature easy to deflne and capable of instant classiflcation. The mighty controversy which once raged concerning the use of rhyme or of blank verse in tragedy bas often been confused with this question of the heroic play, bat it is, in reality, and in spite of the testimony to the contrary by the only writer of a monögraph on the subject,1) quite separate from it.2) The employment of Couplets in tragedies, of course, !) L. N. Chase The English Heroic Play (London, 1903). 2) As for chronology, it may be noted that the "heroic" couplet had its greatest vogne from 1665 to about 1676. From 1660 to 1670 there were written about 18 uew plays in this measure: from 1670 to 1680 no less than 24. Ouly one appeared in the succeeding decade, although there was a slight reaction in their favor from 1690 to 1700 and even later — 4 appearing previous to the opening of the Century and some half a dozeu subsequently. Orrery's Altemira appeared at Liucoln's Inn Fields in 1702: an unacted King Sani, possibly by Dr. Trapp, was published in 1703, and in 1705 a miserable tragedy by Alexander Fyfe entitled TAe Royal Martyr, K. Charles I (Genest in Some Account of the English Stage X. 152 gives the date wrongly äs 1709, when there seems to have been a second edition which I have been nnable to trace — cf. Biographia Dramatica III. 229 — and styles it "one of the worat plays ever written"). The last play of Brought to you by | University of Arizona Authenticated Download Date | 6/4/15 3:03 AM 326 ALLARDYCE NICOLL, can be traced back to Elizabethan times,1) and was carried on through the Commonwealth period,2) to receive an additonal impetus from the rhymed translations of French tragedies, produced in the first few years that succeeded the Restoration. ^Undoubtedly, it was those translations, among which ihePowpey (SmockAlley, Dublin), 1662, of Mrs. Catherine Philips, thePowpey the Great (Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1664) of Waller, Buckhurst and Sedley, and the Heraclius, Emperour of the Hast (printed 1664, possibly acted Lincolu's ^Inn Fields, 1667) of Lodowick Carlell take priority, that did most to popularise the new measure: but, because the rhymed couplets best suited Dryden's rants and Settle's heroics, it is rather uncritical for us to mingle and confuse a distinct school of plot and of character with a certain technical form that had its ramifications far outside that school. There can be plays in couplets which are not by any means heroic:8) there are plays in blank verse which partake of the nature of the Drawcansir the type which I have been ahle to discover is The BatÜe of Aughrim: or, The Faü of Monsieur St Ruth (Dablin, 1728) by Robert Ashton (this play is not contained in Genest's or in Whincop's liste, and only a later — 1777 edition was known to the Compilers of the Biographia Dramatica . 50). Of these XVin Century rhymed plays the last two are not con- tained in the list of «ach productions appended to the above-mentioned volume by L. N. Chase. t) Cf. the very influential Mustapha (1683) of Falke Greville, Lord Brooke. 2) Cf. The Tragedy of That Famous Roman Oratour Marcus TuUius Cicero (1651). 8) Apart from the adaptations of Corneille mentioned above, there are comediee wholly or partly in rhyme, such äs Duffett's The Spanish Rogue (Drury Laue, 1674), and Bnlteel's The Amorous Orontus: or, The Love inFashion (unacted, 1665); there are tragi-comedies, such asEtheredge's The ComiccU Revenge or, Love in a Tub (Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1664), Weston's The Amazon Queen: or, The Amours of Thalestris to Alexander the Great (unacted, 1667), Mrs. Behn's The Forc*d Marriage (Dorset Garden, 1672), Tuke's Tfa Adventures of Five Hours (Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1663) and Crowne's Jtdiana: or, The Princess of Poland (Dorset Garden, 1671): there are pastorals, such äs Settle's Pastor Fido (Dorset Garden, 1677), and the anonymous The Constant Nymph (Dorset Garden, 1678): and there are tragedies, such äs Fane's The Sacrifice (unacted, 1686) and Stapylton's Hero and Leander (unacted, 1669): not to mention unclassifiable plays, such äs Ecclestone's Noah's Flood (unacted, 1679) and the anonymous The Traitor to Himself (unacted, 1678). Brought to you by | University of Arizona Authenticated Download Date | 6/4/15 3:03 AM THE ORIGIN AND TYPBS OF THE HEROIC TKAGEDY. 327 school.1) Rhyme in tragedy was but a passing, external fashion in dramatic technique, which synchronised very largely with the main heroic period, but which had an influence but slight when compared with the other features of heroic plays. Heroic verse is really of very little account, historically or otherwise: the heroic play, although ephemeral, is one of the most interesting productions of our theatre. The question of the origin of the "heroic" play proper, that is, äs it is known in Dryden and in Settle, resolves itself into a matter of very various founts of Inspiration: but on a little consideration these founts easily resolve theinselves into four or five well-known dramatic Originals.2) One of its main streams of emotion came undoubtedly from Elizabethan days, the mighty individualism of its heroes deriving, without a question, directly from Tamerlane and all the Mariowesque rants of that period, and its love and honor from Fletcher's tragedies and tragi-comedies.3) That, however, alone would not have provided it with its typical form, for to that Marlowe t) Amoiig these may be named Mrs. Behn's Abdelazar: or, The Moor"s Revenge (Dorset Garden, 1677), which came at the end of the rhyming fever. Settle in bis Pastor Fido (Dorset Garden, 1677) and Ravenscroft in nie King Edgar and Afreda (Drury Lane, 1677) both testify to its abatement in that year, prior, be it noted, to Dryden's recantation, who, in this case, followed the tendency of the time iustead of leading it. Mrs. Behn's play has a few couplets in it, but not many. Heroic plays, however, did not die with rhyme, äs many produced from 1680 onwards can testify. Note may be taken in ^articular of Settle's The Heir of Morocco (Drury Lane, 1682), and the anonymons Eomulus and Hersüia (Dorset Garden, 1682), Southerne's The Loyal Brother (Drury Lane, 1682), Settle's The Distress'd Innocence (Drury Lane, 1691) and Tlie Ambitiow Slave (Drary Lane, 1692) and Walker's Victorious Love (Drury Lane, 1698). There was a perfect galaxy of blank verse tragedies in the XVIII Century with most decided heroic characteristics. This forgotten little section of our dramatic literature I shall deal with in greater detail in a future article. 3) Practically the only essay on this aspect of the snbject is that by C. G. Child entitled The Eise of the Heroic Play (Mod. Lang. Notes XIX. June 6,1904). In this study he lays great stress, and justly, on D'Avenant äs the instigator of the species in England. Professor Saintsbury's remarks in his Dryden (English Men of Letters Series) are also illuminating, bnt are somewhat vague and unsubstantiated. ·) Cf. J. Tupper on The Eelation of the Heroic Play to the Eomances ofBeaumont and Fletcher in Publications of the Modern Language Associa- tion . 589, 590. Brought to you by | University of Arizona Authenticated Download Date | 6/4/15 3:03 AM 328 ALLARDTCE NICOLL, and Fletcher origin, it added the bombast of Corneille and of Racine, leaving out their chill, and brought in many an exaggerated sentiment fom Italian or. Italian derived opersu The chief channel through which these streams of influence descended was undoubtedly D'Avenant Corneille, it is trne, came more directly through the early translators of his works than through the descendant of Shakespeare: but, even he owed something to D'Avenant, who äs Dryden teils us, "heightened his Characters ... from the Example of Corneille"*) while, äs Professor Child has shown, he anticipated Orrery and others in going for plot to the contemporary romance of Mdlle. de Scudery. From Fletcher he developed many themes, and his pre-restoration Love and Honour (Blackfriars, 1634?), even in its title alone, presaged the current tone of later tragic litera- ture, while, äs to the genesis of opera, it is to be noted that his earlier pieces were performed in the "stilo recitativo" — not only the pre-restoration Eutland House and Red Bull experiments, but his fuller production of The Siege of Ehodes at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1662.2) What alone remained to be developed was the later wondrous egoism of the heroes — their miraculous prowess and their heroic rants. The two flrst heroic plays proper, äs distinguished from D'Avenant's heroic operas, were Howard and Dryden's The Indian Queen (Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, 1664) and Orrery's Henry the Fifth (Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1664),*) and this brings one to another consideration of the heroic drama, hitherto little noticed, and that is, a distinct demarcation >) Preface to The Conguest of Granada (1672).