SECTION III. Heroic Plays The Rehearsal-Marriage a-la-ModeThe Assignation-Controversy with Clifford-with Leigh —with Ravenscroft-Massacre of Amboyna-State of Innocence. THE rage for imitating the French stage, joined to the successful efforts of our author, had now carried the heroic or rhyming tragedy to its highest pitch of popularity. The principal requisites of 1 ["It is justly observed by Mr Scott, that the French theatre, which was now thought to be in perfection, guided the criticism of Charles the Second's court, and afforded the pattern of those tragedies, which continued in fashion for twenty years after the Restoration, and which were called rhyming or heroic plays. He finds the origin of that unnatural and pedantic dialogue which prevailed through these performances, in the romances of Calprenede and Scuderi; and in the necessity of modifying every expression of passion and feeling, so as not to exceed the decorum prescribed by the presence of a royal spectator. It may be doubtful, however, whether the inflexible nature of French verse, and its want of a proper poetical dialect, will not principally account for these defects. They were, too, established and rendered legitimate by the authority of Corneille, whose genius, in many respects, resembled that of Dryden. It would be ridiculous (although we think Dryden, upon the whole, by far the superior) to balance his heroic plays against Cinna and Polyeucte; but the merits and defects of the two writers are much of the same class. Voltaire somewhere confesses of his countrymen, that he has written no line that ever drew a tear; an avowal, by such a drama are summed up by Dryden in the two first lines of the "Orlando Furioso," "Le Donne, i cavalieri, l'arme, gli amori Le cortesie, l'audaci imprese." The story thus partaking of the nature of a romance of chivalry, the whole interest of the play necessarily turned upon love and honour, those supreme idols of the days of knight-errantry. The love introduced was not of that ordinary sort, which exists between persons of common mould; it was the love of Amadis and Oriana, of Oroondates and Statira; that love which required a sacrifice of every wish, hope, and feeling, unconnected with itself, and which was expressed in the language of prayer and of adoration. It was that love which was neither to be chilled by absence, nor wasted by time, nor quenched by infidelity. No caprice in the object beloved entitled her slave to emancipate himself from her fetters; no command, however unreasonable, was to be disobeyed; if required by the fair mistress of his affections, the hero was not only to sacrifice his interest, but his friend, his honour, his word, his country, even the gratification of his love itself, to maintain the character of a submissive and faithful adorer. the way, which ought to have silenced him, when he affected to set the name of Corneille above that of Shakspeare. Of Dryden, the same may perhaps be said, with very little exception; but each had great knowledge of men; great power of reasoning in forcible and compressed language; and a command of the versification of his own tongue. The following account of these heroic tragedies is lively and just." HALLAM.] Much of this mystery is summed up in the following speech of Almahide to Almanzor, and his answer; from which it appears, that a lover of the true heroic vein never thought himself so happy, as when he had an opportunity of thus showing the purity and disinterestedness of his passion. Almanzor is commanded by his mistress to stay to assist his rival, the king, her husband. The lover very naturally asks, "Almanz. What recompense attends me, if I stay? I no return of love can ever make, But what I ask is for my husband's sake; Your virtue to the hardest proof I bring ;- Almanz. I'll stop at nothing that appears so brave: You've given my honour such an ample field, The king, however, not perhaps understanding this nice point of honour, grows jealous, and wishes to dismiss the disinterested ally, whom his spouse's beauty had enlisted in his service. But this did not depend upon him; for Almanzor exclaims, "Almanz. I wonnot go; I'll not be forced away: I came not for thy sake; nor do I stay. The most applauded scenes in these plays turned upon nice discussions of metaphysical passion, such as in the days of yore were wont to be agitated in the courts and parliaments of love. Some puzzling dilemma, or metaphysical abstraction, is argued between the personages on the stage, whose dialogue, instead of presenting a scene of natural passion, exhibits a sort of pleading, or combat of logic, in which each endeavours to defend his own opinion by catching up the idea expressed by the former speaker, and returning him his illustration, or simile, at the rebound; and where the lover hopes every thing from his ingenuity, and trusts nothing to his passion. Thus, in the following scene between Almanzor and Almahide, the solicitations of the lover, and the denials of the queen, are expressed in the very carte and tierce of poetical argumentation: "Almah. My light will sure discover those who talk.Who dares to interrupt my private walk? Almanz. He who dares love, and for that love must die, And, knowing this, dares yet love on, am I. Almah. That love which you can hope, and I can pay, May be received and given in open day: My praise and my esteem you had before; And you have bound yourself to ask no more. Almanz. Yes, I have bound myself; but will you take The forfeit of that bond, which force did make? Almah. You know you are from recompense debarr'd; But purest love can live without reward. Almanz. Pure love had need be to itself a feast; For, like pure elements, 'twill nourish least. Almah. It therefore yields the only pure content; For it, like angels, needs no nourishment. Almanz. 'Twere well, if I could like a spirit live; Or bid me change, and to the Christians go; Will you not think I merit some reward, When I my love above my life regard? Almah. In such a case your change must be allow'd; I would myself dispense with what you vow'd. Almanz. Were I to die that hour when I possess, This minute shall begin my happiness. Almah. The thoughts of death your passion would remove; Death is a cold encouragement to love. Almanz. No; from my joys I to my death would run, And think the business of my life well done: But I should walk a discontented ghost, If flesh and blood were to no purpose lost." This kind of Amabæan dialogue was early ridiculed by the ingenious author of " Hudibras."1 It 1 In "Repartees between Cat and Puss at a caterwauling, in the modern heroic way: "Cat. Forbear, foul ravisher, this rude address; Canst thou at once both injure and caress? Puss. Thou hast bewitch'd me with thy powerful charms, And I, by drawing blood, would cure my harms. C. He that does love would set his heart a tilt, Ere one drop of his lady's should be spilt. P. Your wounds are but without, and mine within: C. How could my guiltless eyes your heart invade, C. He buys his pleasure at a rate too vain, P. Pain is more dear than pleasure when 'tis past. |