Heroic Drama - Robert Hume (essay date 1976)
Robert Hume (essay date 1976)
SOURCE: Hume, Robert. “Ideas of Greatness: The ‘Heroic’ Play.” In The Development of English Drama in the Late Seventeenth Century, pp. 192-99. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
[In this excerpt, Hume suggests that while many plays designated as “heroic” share important features, there is no single quality or trait shared by all of them.]
How cohesive is ‘heroic drama’? Plainly this depends on your definition. Is a prosperous ending necessary? If so, what is Orrery's Mustapha? Is a villain-centred play truly heroic? I would say no—not unless a character of virtue figures prominently in contrast, as in Tyrannick Love. Does opera count?—and if not, do we ignore The Siege of Rhodes? Is rhyme a sine qua non? A play like The Mourning Bride, in blank verse, falls somewhere between prosperous-ending tragicomedy and the full-blown heroic. Such questions seem to me...
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