Eighteenth-Century Plays

By Ricardo Quintana

Book Overview

Edited, with an Introduction, by Ricardo Quintana

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0075536595
• ISBN13: 9780075536598
• Release Date: August 1966
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
• Length: 484 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 1.0" x 4.0"

Customer Reviews

A Mix of Tragedy, Melodrama, and Comedy - Ranging from the Obscure to the Popular

This Modern Library edition (1952), Eighteenth-Century Plays, offers eight plays and an interesting introduction by Ricardo Quintana. The eighteenth century impresses most readers for its absence of exceptional plays, although the best comedies - The Beggar's Opera, She Stoops to Conquer, The Rivals, and others - are still quite entertaining today. Quintana provides an analysis of the factors that shaped eighteenth century drama, especially the impact of the rapidly growing English middle class. The plays include: Cato (1713): The Roman senator, Cato, stubbornly resisted Julius Caesar's rise to power. Joseph Addison's play focuses on the last days of Cato's life in north Africa as Caesar's forces approach. Cato ultimately commits suicide rather than surrender. This play was popular for decades, and became a literary inspiration for the American Revolution. Four stars. The Tragedy of Jane Shore (1714): Nicholas Rowe, a playwright of moderate capability, produced three so-called she-tragedies. This particular drama, explicitly patterned after Shakespeare, remains in obscurity today. Jane Shore, a married woman, was one of the many mistresses of King Edward IV. After Edward's death, she was forced to do penance by walking the London streets in poor clothing. She was subsequently jailed, but amazingly her charms captivated the King's solicitor, Thomas Lynom, and upon her release they were married. In this play Rowe alters history for dramatic effect, having Jane Shore die of hunger and illness during her forced trek of penance. The tragedy ends on a sermonizing note warning against infidelity. Three stars. The Conscious Lovers (1722): In the prologue Sir Richard Steele states his objectives: "To chasten wit, and moralize the stage" and to 'Redeem from long contempt the comic name". Steele strives to instruct and to ennoble rather than to amuse. The virtuous Bevil Junior would marry Lucinda whom he does not love rather than disobey his father, Sir John Bevil. His behavior towards the woman he does love (oddly named Indiana) is exceedingly Platonic. His virtue is again illustrated by his refusal to accept a challenge to duel as it would be morally wrong. Humor is clearly subordinate to instruction. Two stars. The Beggar's Opera (1728): John Gay's rollicking, rowdy lyrics overlain on traditional English ballads and sentimental melodies had extraordinary appeal. Although having only three acts, The Beggar's Opera has some forty-five scenes, almost all with musical interludes. Breaking tradition, the cast was comprised of cutthroats, pickpockets, thieves, streetwalkers, and highwaymen. Five stars. The Tragedy of Tragedies (1731): Henry Fielding's three-act, madcap comedy ridicules contemporary tragedies; simultaneously, its copious footnotes parody eighteenth century literary criticism. The courageous hero and killer of giants, the diminutive Tom Thumb, is beloved by all, even passionately so by the King's daughter, and the King's wife as well. H