HEROIC TRAGEDY
Introduction
Heroic Tragedy is a name given to the form of tragedy which had some vogue in the beginning of the Restoration period (1660-1700). The most significant noted trend in the British theatre was found after the restoration of the royal power in England in 1660. A new type of drama come out which was known as the great neo-classical tragedy or heroic tragedies of restoration period.
What is a Heroic Play?
A heroic play (most heroic plays end unhappily, and hence are tragedies), Dryden defined heroic play as ‘an imitation of a heroic poem’. Gallantry, adventure, love-and honour are the usual themes of heroic plays. The writers of heroic plays aimed at the effects of intensity and sublimity and were keen to arouse in the audience admiration for the specific tragic emotions of pity and fear. The diction and verse used by them were in accordance with their aim. They mostly used rhymed pentameter couplets (heroic couplets) which were quite artificial but could be impressively declamatory. For impressing the audience even more, elaborate stage scenery and even live animals were used by theatre managers.
Influence of French Drama
The source of inspiration of this type of tragedy was the French classical drama, especially by the works of Corneille and Racine. The heroic plays of the restoration forms a class by itself and stands between tragedy and romance.
Characteristics: Love, Beauty, Chivalry, and praise
The subject matter of this tragedies are mainly ‘chivalrous - honour, love and war.’ The conflict between love and honor is tried to be depicted in a romantic setting presenting grand heroic personalities with a superhuman ability. Acc. To Hobbes,
“The work of the heroic poem is to raise admiration for three virtues – Chivalry, Love and Beauty.”
It is perceived that the Heroic Tragedies mainly deal with love and honour. Love is considered superior to all virtues in the heroic plays. Antony in ‘All for Love’ renounces all family, friends, country and kingdom for love’s sake, Love is heroic passion. Heroic love purifies the hero of all mean desires and makes him a proper object of admiration.
Artificiality in the Heroic Tragedy
The first striking aspect of the heroic tragedy is artificiality. It creates mechanic world of its own in which life is lived at a heightened label and to which real suffering highly penetrate. In heroic tragedy reality is kept out.
Its Characters
The hero of a heroic play is brave and heroine is virtuous and fair. It is generally built around a larger-than-life heroic warrior who is a master both of swordsmanship and stagy rhetoric. The hero is almost invariably a “king, prince, or an army general. The plot of the play involves the fate of an empire. The principal conflict faced by the hero is between love and honour.
Major Dramatists of the Heroic Tragedy
(1) John Dryden(1631-1700) -
Dryden is the one of the chief exponent of heroic plays. He wrote many heroic plays among which Aurangzeb(1676) The Indian Emperor(1665) Tyrannic Love (1669) The Conquest of Granda(1670). Except Tyrannic Love almost none of these plays can technically be called a tragedy with respect to its ending, but all of them are heroic plays different from the later plays of Dryden like All for Love(1677) and Don Sebastian(1689) which use blank verse rather than rhyme and which avoid the stereotypes of heroic drama.
(2) Thomas Otway(1652-1685) -
With Otway heroic drama loses some of its specifically heroic character ‘and accommodates the elements of pathos and even sentimentalism which are essentially alien to this spirit. In Otway we see the last flicker of Elizabethan glory. His best plays are The Orphan(1680) and Venice Preserved(1682), both in blank verse, Otway excels in the delineation of tender scenes involving lovers and children. Otway paved the way for sentimental comedy of the eighteenth century. Nathaniel Lee(1653-1692) – Nat Lee is described by Bonamy Dobree in Restoration Tragedy as “the most completely ‘heroic’ of all the outstanding heroic writers.” The Rival Queens (1677) which represents the bloody rivalry between the two wives of Alexander the Great, namely, Statira and Roxana. Roxana stabs Statira to death and Alexander is poisoned by the conspirator Cassander. Conclusion: The cult of the heroic drama which lasted for about two decades after the Restoration was largely at product of the French influence. French classical tragedy from Corneille to Racine in the seventeenth century was emulated by heroic dramatists of England led by Dryden. English heroic drama was extremely artificial both in content and style. It was supposed to be the dramatic form of heroic or epic poetry.
