RESTORATION THEATRE - IA

restoration theatre - IA

Tragicomedy: the (im)purity of (a) dramatic form

drydens marriage a-la-modeSOURCES:

Brown, Laura S., The Divided Plot: Tragicomic Form in the Restoration ELH 47 (1980), 67-79 [you can check the online resources at BCU!!]

Canfield, Douglas J., "The Ideology of Restoration Tragicomedy," ELH 51 (1984): 447-64 [you can check the online resources at BCU!!]Coltharp, Duane, Radical Royalism: Strategy and Ambivalence in Dryden's Tragicomedies in Philological Quarterly, Fall 1999 v78

Fisk, Deborah Payne (ed) (2000) The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre Cambridge University Press

Hughes, Derek (1996) English Drama 1660-1700 Oxford: Clarendon Press

Levine, Joseph M (1999) Between the Ancients and the Moderns: Baroque Culture in Restoration England New Haven [Conn.] Yale University Press

Sir Robert Howard, Four New Playes (1665): our best poets have differed from other Nations (though not so happily) at usually mingling and interweaving Mirth and Sadness through the whole Course of their Plays, Ben Jonson only excepted.

1683: George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: The Restauration: Or, Right Will Take Place. A Tragicomedy (obsessive idea E playwrights)

designation included in title

plot familiar to experienced readers of 17-th c drama usurping king harasses dispossessed prince, Philander his countrymen waiting to take arms in his defence foreign prince marry princess become heir to throne true prince assigns a page to princess the 2 accused of illicit love affair death threatens the righteous, everything is moving towards tragic ending, when, alors, the page turns out to be a love-sick woman disguised as a boy creates sexual tremolo dispossessed prince = restored

original of this tragicomedy = John Fletcher _ Francis Beaumont: Philaster, Or Love Lies a Bleeding 1609 commended by Restoration playwrights & plagiarised

Dryden, Essay of Dramatick Poesie, 1668: The first Play that brought Fletcher and Beaumont in esteem was their Philaster Earl of Orrery The Generall 1661- first rhymed heroic play

Dryden, Marriage A-la-Mode 1671: used Fletchers usurper and restored heir major male characters

Playwrights endlessly copied Philaster usurpation-restoration plot + impetuous hero, faithful heroine, self-sacrificing page-lover

Philaster Fletchers alloy of tragedy & comedy above all Restoration audiences craved for tragicomedies

What is tragicomedy?

Elusive & controversial dramatic form large generic field slippery form

e.g. Sir Robert Howard one of the finest playwrights of early Restoration: in the difference of tragedy & comedy, and of Fars it self, there can be no determination but by the taste.

tragicomedy: reception, genesis, definitions

tragicomedy escaped its critical confines spread everywhere popular acceptance even in religious texts John Donne 1629 sermon The Book of Job is a representation of God, in a Tragique-Comedy, lamentable beginnings comfortably ended

Continental influence French especially spurred interest in tragicomedy Ch Is wife, Henrietta Maria French princess strong dramatic interests many Restoration playwrights in exile with Ch II acquired French taste for tragicomedy dominated French dramaturgy last part 16th c after 1660- rapid decline in France Art poetique 1674 most influential work on dramatic theory des not mention tragicomedy discarded by the French, tragicomedy flourished in England amidst vigorous critical debate

Restoration playwrights grew up with tragicomedy mid 16th c tragicomedy took centre stage in Italy Giovanni Battista Guarinis seminal play Il Pastor Fido (1590) started the tragicomedy fad (Ben Jonsons Volpone - Lady Politick Would-be carries a copy predicts all English authors will seal out of this author) 1609 Flecther adapted Guarini to suit the English popular audience 1647 clearly understanding the connection between Restoration and tragicomedy, Sir Richard Fanshawe transl Guarinis play into English & dedicated to usurped Prince Ch, later Ch II

Even though tragicomedy only became popular 17th c concept goes back very far Restoration playwrights educated at Oxford & Cambridge allusions to idea of tragicomedy Socrates noted how people enjoy weeping at tragedies & commented on the condition of the sould at comedies, how there also we have a mixture of pain and pleasure (Philebus, III)

First use of the word Plautus, Amphitryon - translated by Dryden, often cited by Restoration playwrights Mercury asks: Frowning because I said this was to be a tragedy? I am a god: Ill transform it. Ill convert this same play from tragedy to comedy, if you like, and never change a line I understand your feelings in the matter perfectly, I shall mix things up: let it be tragicomedy.

16th c authors of the Christian Terence plays (16th c drama written for moral and religious instruction) designated their plays tragicomedies

e.g. Lodovicus Crucius called 3 of his plays tragicocomoediae cited Plautus Amphitryon to justify his use of this generic designation

thus far: tragicomedy = tragedy with a happy ending

1543 dedicatory epistle of Christus Redivivus a sacred tragicomedy - an Oxford student Nicholas Grimald presented a different concept of tragicomedy: as far as the treatment of this tragicomedy is concerned great things had been interwoven with the small, joyous with sad, obscure with manifest, incredible with probable.

tragicomedy = depicts movement from sadness to happiness: the first act yields to tragic sorrow so the fifth and last adapts itself to delight and joy; likewise in order that variety may be opposed to satiety, in all the other intermediate acts sad and cheerful incidents are inserted in turn. Grimald justifies his work cites another play by Plautus, the Captivi for the first time: identify tragicomedy as tragedy with a happy ending; (plays which start out looking like Tragedies, then, at very end, do a turnabout and become comedies

= Grimald intersperses the sad and cheerful elements of comedy and tragedy throughout the play

thus started the critical struggle which obsessed Restoration playwrights, especially Dryden: the nature of tragicomedy frequently forged classical tragedy into this kind of tragicomedy Guarini defines tragicomedy Compendio Della Poesia Tragicomica 1580s-1590s first and only carefully formulated Renaissance theory of tragicomedy: insists on tragicomedy as a separate independent genre: he who makes a tragicomedy does not intend to compose separately either a tragedy or a comedy, but from the 2 a third thing that will be perfect of its kind and may take from the others the parts that with most verisimilitude can stand together. Sir Philip Sidney dismissed the mungrell Tragy-comedie Apologie for Poetrie 1595

But 1609 Fletcher snatched E tragicomedy from dismissive oblivion stated his theory in the preface to The Faithful Shepherdess (gives us only a limited sense of what he meant by tragicomedy): A tragic-comedie is not so called in respect of mirth and killing, but in respect it wants deaths, which is enough to make it no tragedie, yet brings some near it, which is enough to make it no comedie; which must be a presentation of familiar people, with such kind of trouble as no life be questioned, so that a God is as lawful in this as in a tragedy, and mean people as in a comedy.

Confusing, elementary theory in practice Fletcher insists on clear-cut dichotomies between good and evil (Philaster: the good page opposes the lascivious whore)

Grimalds comments, Guarinis definition, Fletchers practice: do not limit tragicomedy to tragedy with a comic ending but interspersing of sad and comic incidents

in the words of a French critic, Francois Ogier, 1628: To say that it is indecorous to mix in the same piece people discussing serious, important, and tragic affairs, and then forthwith, to discuss common, vain and comic things, that is to ignore the human condition, in which days and hours are very often intersected with laughter and tears, with contentment and affliction, as people are driven by good or bad fortune.

an essentially intuitive perception of reality, tragicomedy imitates the human condition

in tragicomedy 2 views of reality struggle for ascendancy

1. happy ending concept: the views of reality = serial: comedy follows tragedy in the 5th act

2. more common form of tragicomedy in England: alternates opposing views, mixing the elements of tragedy and comedy in every scene. Instead of following each other, the 2 vies struggle for supremacy throughout the play

3. a new kind of tragicomedy flourished in the E Restoration: an olio (Dryden, This Oleo of a Play: this unnatural mixture of comedy and tragedy) : the 2 views of reality are split and run parallel to each other in independent plots independent and separate plots the controlling emphasis on episodic plot wreaks havoc with character development: superficial characterisation, expedient motivation, constant turns and reversals characterise these plays.

Only serious in form, this tragicomedy does not attempt to involve the audience emotionally or to purge it of fear and pity. Instead of provoking a catharsis, tragicomedy distracts, entertains, or works at changing political reality.

The Restoration Critics

Playwrights were also the critics normally defended own dramatic works rather than theorise on the nature of drama.

dramatists = extremely self-conscious about what they were doing. At the outset of the Restoration playwrights published their meagre dramatic criticism in dedications, prefaces, prologues and epilogues

But 1665 Sir Robert Howard started a prolonged critical argument in print with his young kinsman, neophyte playwright John Dryden initiated an abrupt rise in dramatic criticism = texts argued about the nature of comedy and tragedy and debated the merits of tragicomedy not easy to draw conclusions about the nature of tragicomedy playwrights argue constantly and show either ambivalence or an honest attempt to see both sides

Sir Robert Howard: initiated tragicomic debate preface to Four New Playes 1665: echoes Grimald describes plays in which 2 views of reality run a parallel course rather than following one another.

Distinguishes English tragicomedy from French tragedy with a happy ending (described by his French contemporary Samuel Chappuzeau: tragicomedy presents us with the noble adventures of illustrious people menaced with some terrible misfortune, which is followed by a happy ending. Le Theatre Francois)

The English tragicomedy pattern: Howard: regrets our best poets have differed from other Nations (though not so happily) in usually mingling and interweaving Mirth and Sadness through the whole course of their Plays, Ben Jonson only excepted. Convinced: it is most proper to keep the Audience in one entire disposition. (like Dryden, failed to make his practice match his theory)

contrast playwright brother: Edward Howard: speaks for mixt plays of the English native tradition very suitable for the English stage strongly defends English tragicomedy

no one suffered more than Dryden on the issue of tragicomedy agonised over classical precedents yet continued to write irregular tragicomedies curiously presented both sides of the controversy in Essay of Dramatick Poesie

representing Sir Robert Howards position: Lysideius complains that many Scenes of our Tragi-comedies carry on a design that is nothing of kinne to the main Plot; and that we see two distinct webbs in a Play; like those in ill wrought stuffs; and two actions, that is, two Plays carried on together, to the confounding of the Audience maintains with obvious disgust: There is no Theatre in the world has any thing so absurd as the English Tragi-comedie disparages even Ben Jonson - has given us this Oleo of a Play; this unnatural mixture of Comedy and Tragedy Drydens own struggle with tragicomedy clearly emerges: spokesman Neander concludes: A Scene of mirth mix'd with Tragedy has the same effect upon us which our musick has betwixt the Acts, and that we find a relief to us from the best Plots and language of the Stage, if the discourses have been long. Neander turns the Anglo-French paradigm on its head and claims that the French playwrights of late have been imitating of afar off the quick turns and graces of the English Stage. They have mix'd their serious Playes with mirth, like our Tragicomedies. Neander concludes: we have invented, increas'd and perfected a more pleasant way of writing for the Stage then was ever known to the Ancients or Moderns of any Nation, which is Tragicomedie. Throughout his professional life, Dryden wavered on this seesaw alternating between the personae of Lysideius and Neander - Part of Francophile Drydens problem with tragicomedy = rigidity of French neo-classicism + Aware of the unfashionableness of tragicomedy. Yet while complaining bitterly, Dryden kept writing tragicomedies. Defended the genre because the English audience required tragicomedy. Restoration playwrights have a unique, obsessive concern with audience Dryden in particular recognises the need of meeting audience expectations. Neander: we, who are a more sullen people, come to be diverted at our PlayesHow did Restoration playwrights survive the tragicomedy debate? They struggled with box office reality. Theoretically they admired the clear-cut generic distinctions of Ben Jonson, but their audiences demanded Fletcherian tragicomedy. No matter how much they claimed to admire Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, the Restoration playwrights copied Fletcher -------

Dryden: Their Playes are now the most pleasant and frequent entertainments of the Stage; two of theirs being acted through the year for one of Shakespeares or Jonsons: the reason is, because there is a certain gayety in their comedies, and Pathos in their more serious Playes, which suits generally with all mens humoursTragicomedy and Restoration

The playwrights theoretical + practical problems with tragicomedy knew the tragicomedy tradition, brought up in a culture which popularised the genre no experience at writing plays

Edward Howard: complained tragicomedy most difficult kind of play to write because it is not easie to give humour and mirth a natural rise and generous correspondency with the grandeur of the other it being as it were two Plays in one.

clearly considered tragedy the superior genre Thomas Porter carefully designates The Villain. A Tragedy

John Caryll The English Princess, or the Death of Richard III. A Tragedy

Elkanah Settle Cambyses King of Persia. A Tragedy

But: changed their labels erratically inconsistencies of labelling Sir William Killigrew changed Pandora, or the Converts (1665) from tragedy to comedy generic blend nothing subtle about these early tragicomedies plays frequently end with the stage strewn with dead bodies, three marriages take place amidst the goreSerious plays of this era = all variations of tragicomedy. The Restoration playwrights needed tragicomedy to prop up the Restoration embedded the uneasy monarchical myth into the very structure of tragicomedies. During the first decade 2 evanescent forms of tragicomedy developed, flourished and disappeared. Both forms are split with parallel, independent plots

1. divided tragicomedy: splits abruptly & distinctly into upper and lower plots equally dominant characters from one plot seldom if ever communicate with those in the other plot. These dichotomised plots make a subtle psychological and political comment. In the heroic plot: recalled troubles of 1640-60 at the same time distanced them by reassuring low plot which mimicked the everyday life of Ch IIs court new form culminated in Drydens Marriage A-la-Mode abrupt structural split: both the heroic plot and the comic plot achieve romantic closure (constancy is rewarded, inconstancy is punished). Other examples: Richard Flecknoe, Loves Dominion (1664); Dryden, The Spanish Fryar (1680)

2. unified: formal, masque-like rhymed heroic play divides more subtly has only one idealised plot but playwrights create ambivalence of mood, a hesitation about heroic this hesitation separates the heroic fantasy from the reality of everyday life allow audience/reader snicker at the absurdity of the heroic hero imitate masques loftiness of tone & general heroic attitude also imitates its political orientation in contrast to divided tragicomedy, a political theme always organises the rhymed heroic play best represented by Drydens Conquest of Granada Restoration drama - about the emotional history of the Civil War and the Interregnum years tragicomedy lies at the centre of Restoration consciousness tragicomic lesson one major story: villainous Oliver Cromwell murdered holy martyr Ch I, but Providence intervened to bring back his son tragicomedy emotional ambivalence potential for depicting 2 opposing views of reality forms of tragicomedy which exhibits interchangeable ideal (tragic) and pragmatic (comic) worlds

except for formal comedies (some critics maintain) all Restoration plays = tragicomedies

tragicomedy used as a political tool for reinstating the Stuarts compliment to the king reassuring him that all the world rejoiced in his return. Wavering between tragedy and comedy, Restoration England was never sure about the happy ending. The playwrights rewrote tragedies into tragicomedies always tremor of suspense wonder if the happy ending would continue, if king would stay on his throne need for a happy ending no matter what the cost to the art form

new ending to regicide = restoration

tragedy becomes tragicomedy

Playwrights deliberately set up a state of anxiety whose resolution reinforced the established regime and confirmed the divine right of the Stuarts

tragicomedys movement from a threatened environment to a stable one

Laura Brown: tragicomedies subordinate thematics to aesthetics: emphasise formal patterning to virtual renunciation of meaning

intrigue: successful conclusion = all that really interests the audience

the two plots remain thematically disjunctive

the plays please through formal symmetry of plots

Douglas Canfield: tragicomedies: reaffirmation of feudal aristocratic values portrayed as under stress from bourgeois parvenus, libertine lovers, ambitious statesmen

These plays affirm:

hierarchical social order

virtues: loyalty, constancy, fidelity, validated by divine providence

like the heroic plays: attempt to reinscribe the chivalric code, seen to be disintegrating, in the social, cultural texture

unlike the heroic plays: focus less on the heroic in epic situations and more on the ethical-sexual relations (problem of constancy)

socio-political function: the entire superstructure of feudal aristocracy = built on patrilinear genealogy: birth determines entry power elite

sexual promiscuity must be restrained

sexual fidelity = analogue to political loyalty