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Search - Restoration Tragedy 1660-1720

Restoration Tragedy 16601720
Author: Bonamy Dobree

Restoration TRAGEDY I66O-I72O BY BONAMY DOBREE OXFORD At the Clarendon Press Study is only a serious form of gossip E. M. FORSTER To T. S. ELIOT 6608194 PREFACE It was the writing of the chapter Cleopatra and that Critic all tf arr as a separate study which stimu lated my curiosity beyond that of the ordinary cursory reader of Restoration traged... more »y , to the making of this book. That chapter appeared in a shorter form in The Times Literary Supplement. I was further spurred on by an invitation to write an article on Otway in the same paper when the Nonesuch edition ofOtways works was published. An article on quot Dry den was also printed in the same place. Though these chapters have undergone a certain amount of expansion and alteration to fit them into the scheme of this book I wish to thank the editor of the Literary Supplement both for the hospitality of his columns and for permission to reprint the articles here. My thanks are also due indeed long overdue to the quot Delegates of the Clarendon Press and their staff for their unfailing patience and courtesy and not only for their encouragement but also for the ready assistance they have given me on several occasions. J should also state that some of the material scattered about the book has appeared in different form in the Introduction to the World s Classics edition of Five Restora. tion Tragedies. B, D. October CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE Introduction ..... p I. The Necessity for Heroism . . 1 3 II. Restoration Criticism and the Trend of Writing ...... 2,5-III. Blank Verse and the Heroic Couplet . 46 IV. Cleopatra and That Criticall Warr . 66 V. John Dryden and Artificial Tragedy . 91 VI. Nat Lee and the Tragedy of Humours no VII. Thomas Otway 132, VIII. Nicholas Rowe i-p IX. The Mourning Bride and Cato . .167 Conclusion. . . . . 7P Bibliography . . . . .183 Index 187 INTRODUCTION IF it be true that all art is an exploration of life, just as philosophy and science are so in their diverse ways, then it should be possible to distinguish between the various forms of art by mapping out the regions they attempt. Precision is not to be hoped for, since overlapping is at once obvious, and the geographer must of necessity be allowed vagueness at the edges. In literature we may, for instance, try to define the lyric as the form in which man explores his impulses, and often his revolt the epic, that where he investigates his sense of adventure, physical or spiritual comedy, that where he inquires into himself as a social animal but each realm would stake out its boun daries well within the neighbouring country. Keeping such latitude in mind, tragedy, which perhaps has a wider span than any other form, might be described as the realm where man explores his daring against the overwhelming odds of life, and tests the depth of his acceptance. It is somewhere here that the power of tragedy must be sought, with pity and fear as the means, not the end, as the accidents of the countryside, not the country itself. Tragedy, we may say, is man s trial of his individual strength, a trial becom ing increasingly unpopular, indeed incomprehensible, with the advance of democracy. One result immediately flows from this or perhaps it would be wiser to say that one observed fact, which can readily be put to the proof by any one, comes to the support of this doctrine. It is that tragedy, from the spectator s point of view, is the most personal of the literary forms. We identify ourselves with the persons of a tragedy as we watch it we are Orestes, or Macbeth, or John Gabriel io Restoration Tragedy Borkmann but we are not Philocleon, or Tartufe, or Lady Wishfort, whatever the moralists may say. In this con nexion we can note Shakespeare s amazing capacity for making his people seem to act a part in life before them selves, and to this faculty may well be due some of his success as a writer of tragedy for by his making his per sonages seem to act, the spectators more easily live the actors parts...

ISBN-13: 9781406749380
ISBN-10: 1406749389
Publication Date: 3/15/2007
Pages: 188
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Duey Press
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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