paper: 02; module no: 02: e text (a) personal details
TRANSCRIPT
1
Paper: 02; Module No: 02: E Text
(A) Personal Details:
Role Name Affiliation
Principal Investigator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee University of Hyderabad
Paper Coordinator: Dr. Anna Kurian University of Hyderabad
Coordinator for This Module: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee University of Hyderabad
Content Writer: Dr. Md Monirul Islam Acharya Jagadish Chandra
Bose College, University of
Calcutta
Content Reviewer: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee University of Hyderabad
Language Editor: Dr. Abu Saleh Raja Peary Mohan College,
University of Calcutta
(B) Description of Module:
Items Description of Module
Subject Name: English
Paper No & Name: 02; English Literature 1590-1798
Module No & Title: 02; English Tragedy 1590-1798
Pre-requisites: Basic knowledge of English Language and Literature
Objectives: To introduce the students to the development of English
Tragedy between 1590 and 1798
Key Words: Tragedy, University Wits, Shakespearean Tragedy, Revenge
Tragedy, Domestic Tragedy, Heroic Tragedy
2
Content of the Module
1. Introduction
2. Origin of English Drama
3. University Wits: Marlowe and Kyd
4. Shakespearean Tragedy
5. Domestic Tragedy of the late Elizabethan and Jacobean Period
6. Civil War, Restoration and the Heroic Tragedy
7. Decline of Tragedy in the Eighteenth Century
8. Conclusion
1. Introduction
As the title indicates the purpose of this module is to introduce the students to the
development of English Tragedy between 1590 and 1798. In terms of the history of English
literature the module takes as its beginning the last years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign (1558–
1603) and ends with the commencement of the Romantic period with publication of the
Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Apart from the Elizabethan period the other phases of English
literature that falls within the two hundred and eight years covered in this module are the
Jacobean period (1603–25), Caroline Period (1625-49), Puritan Interregnum (1649-60),
Restoration Period (1660-1700) and the Eighteenth Century, variously referred to as the
Augustan Age or the Age of Prose and Reason or the Neoclassical period. Tragedy as a
dramatic form saw many changes over this period of time. English Tragedy that originated in
the 1550s reached a great height in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, but steadily declined
thereafter. This module, therefore, would start with a discussion of the emergence of English
tragedy and its growth and development in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, and would
discuss different forms of tragic drama that developed between 1590 and 1642. It will be
followed by a discussion on the Heroic tragedy of the Restoration period. Finally, there will
be a discussion on the tragedies written in the eighteenth century and the decline of the tragic
drama during the Neoclassical Period.
2. Origin of English Drama
3
Ancient Europe had a very strong dramatic tradition, but the classical drama completely lost
its sway by the Middle Ages. The emergence of the dramatic forms in medieval England was
a native phenomenon. The English drama emerged out of the rituals of the English church.
The earliest dramatic form known as the liturgical drama was the chanted dialogue between
the cleric and the Mass. From eleventh century onwards such dramatic practices are recorded
by the Church. Out of the liturgical drama grew the Mystery and Miracle Plays. Mystery
plays dealt with stories of Creation, Fall and Redemption. Like the liturgical dramas these
plays were written in Latin and performed during festivals like Easter and Christmas by the
clergies. Miracle plays dramatised lives of the saints and stories of miraculous intervention by
Virgin Mary. As the plays were immensely popular, by twelfth century their performances
moved out of the courtyard of the church to the market place. Once in the market place
English started replacing Latin as medium and the Church lost its control over them. Cycles
of Miracle plays exist from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The Miracles and Mysteries were followed by the emergence of the Morality play in the latter
half of the fifteenth century. Morality plays allegorized the battle with the human soul
between good and the evil; vices and virtue were allegorically represented on the stage. A
considerable development of the dramatic form took place in the middle of the sixteenth
century with the emergence of the Interludes, which, with its more secular themes formed the
link between the medieval religious drama and the psychological plays of the Tudor period.
Interludes introduced real characters in place of the allegorical figures. By this time a strong
impact of the Renaissance started to be felt in England and English drama received its proper
form by combining the classical, especially Roman, influence with the native tradition.
Therefore, the first comedies and tragedies came to be written by men of learning having
knowledge of classical drama.
Ralph Roister Doister (1551) considered being the first comedy was written by Nicholas
Udall, a schoolmaster was influenced by the Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence and the
first tragedy, Gorboduc (1562), was written in imitation of the revenge plays of Seneca by
Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville. These early attempts matured into distinctive form of
comic and tragic plays in the last two decades of the sixteenth century in the hands of the
University Wits. Young men like John Lyly (c.1554–1606), George Peele (1556–? 97),
Thomas Kyd (1558–94), Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) and Christopher Marlowe (1564–
93), who studied at Oxford or Cambridge, moved to London and took up writing
4
professionally. They took a leading role in the development of English drama. The last years
of the sixteenth century also saw the construction of a number of theatre houses on the south
bank of the Thames: the Rose was built in 1587, the Swan in 1595, the Globe in 1599 and
the Hope in 1613.
3. University Wits: Marlowe and Kyd
Among the University Wits it was Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd who had major
contribution to the development of the English tragedy. Marlowe’s notable tragedies are
Tamburlaine the Great (published in 1590), The Jew of Malta (performed in1592, published
in 1623), Doctor Faustus (performed in the 1590s, and published in1604), and Edward II
(published in 1592). Striking the dominant note for the Elizabethan tragedy Marlowe wrote
on heroic themes and used blank verse. Influenced by Renaissance humanism Marlowe
created ambitious heroes with strong individual desires. Most of Marlowe’s heroes are low
born Machiavellian figures, iconoclastic in nature and are ambitious having a desire for
power and glory. They speak in a high declamatory manner. The plots of Marlowe’s plays are
not well constructed, though follows a five act structure. Doctor Faustus with its very
episodic plot and a lot of comic scenes in the in the third and the fourth act deals with the fate
of Faustus who was born in humble family, became a great scholar in divinity, but falls to
death because he wanted to become as powerful as the a gods through the practice of black
magic. The two parts of Tamburlaine deal with the titanic ambition and fall of the historical
Tamburlaine who rose to great power from a humble shepherd boy.
In The Jew of Malta Barabas is a cunningly Machievellian and ambitious rogue who
overreaches himself and is overthrown by a more cunning villain, Ferneze. Marlowe’s
historical tragedy Edward II puts on the stage the life and death of King Edward II, who was
the king of England from 1307 to his death in 1327. The conflict between the personal and
the political brings about the downfall of the king. Edward gives more importance to his love
for Gaveston than his duty to look after the affairs of the state. Marlowe’s plays with their
deft use of blank verse and well developed characters of the heroes and villains, though weak
in plot construction, foreshadowed much of what is seen in Shakespearean tragedies.
Thomas Kyd was another very talented dramatist. Kyd is said to have written a
number of plays but his reputation as a dramatist today rests on The Spanish Tragedy; or,
Hieronimo is Mad Again. It was presented in the Rose theatre in 1592. The play is significant
5
in firmly establishing the revenge conventions on English stage. Almost all the conventional
elements of revenge tragedy—ghost, madness, suicidal tendency of the hero, delay in the act
of revenge, a play-within-the-play, murder, bloodshed and horror—are used by Kyd in the
play. It tells the story of Hieronimo’s revenge forthe death of his son, Horatio, who is
murdered by Lorenzo and Balthazer. When Hieronimo discovers the murder he apparently
plunges into madness, but feigning madness Hieronimo wants to discover the identity of the
murderers and to exact vengeance. However, even when he has knowledge of the murderers
his act of revenge is delayed because his enemies are men in power. Hieronimo arranges a
play-within-the play where all the important characters including Horatio’s murderers will act
and plans to kill Lorenzo and Balthazer in the course of it. With the help of Horatio’s beloved
Bel-imeria, Hieronimo able to take revenge as the illusion of murder within the play turns out
to be real. All this action of murder and bloodshed is overseen from hell by Revenge and the
Ghost of Andrea who was earlier killed by Balthazar in a combat.
The revenge convention established by Kyd was followed by a number of Elizabethan
and Jacobean dramatists. Among the Shakespearean tragedies Hamlet is a complete revenge
play. Hamlet’s father is secretly murdered by his uncle Claudius. The Ghost of Hamlet’s
father directs Hamlet to avenge the deed. His revenge is delayed as he has some initial doubts
about the words of the Ghost. To ascertain his uncle’s act of betrayal he feigns madness and
the play-within-the play scene confirms Claudius’s guilt. Hamlet suffers form much dilemma
and finally he takes his revenge, but also dies in the process.
The revenge convention was carried forward in the Jacobean period by a number of
dramatists and a key figure among them was John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1634). Webster’s
The Duchess of Malfi (c. 1613) is a significant revenge play, which, in contrast to the earlier
revenge plays where the protagonist exacts revenge upon the villains, shows the innocent
widowed Duchess being tortured and murdered by her Machiavellian brothers, Ferdinand and
the Cardinal. The two brothers are assisted by the malcontent Bosola. The reason behind the
torture meted out to her seems to be her remarriage. She secretly marries her steward Antonio
against the will of her brothers. However, there is a second revenge thread, in which Bosola
exacts revenge upon the two brothers, when he fails to get the reward for what he has done
for them. The play has its share bloodshed and horror and keeping with the revenge
convention all the major characters perish in the play. Webster’s The White Devil (c.1609-
12) set in Italy like the earlier play, once gain deals with the issue of retribution and revenge
6
employing standard revenge elements of murder, bloodshed, madness (feigned), and scenes
of horrible torture etc.
The decadent social and moral order of the time is well captured in Webster’s
tragedies. As a prolific writer of the time Webster collaborated with several contemporary
dramatists: with Dekker he wrote Westward Hoe (1604) and Northward Hoe (1605), with
William Rowley and others in Keep the Widow Waking (1624); worked with Thomas
Middleton in Anything for a Quite Life (written in c. 1620) and with John Fletcher in The
Fair Maid of the Inn (1625). He also helped expanding The Malcontent of John Marston.
Apart from Webster’s plays, the other notable revenge plays from the Jacobean period
include George Chapman’s (c.1559-1634) Bussy’ the Amboise and The Revenge of Bussy’
the Amboise (printed in 1613) , John Marston’s(1576-1634) Antonio’s Revenge (printed in
1602) , Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy (printed in 1607) and The Atheist’s
Tragedy (printed in 1611) etc. Middleton comments on the morality of revenge and it is
advocated that justice should be left for God to deliver. In fact, unlike Seneca’s plays,
revenge as a form of justice is never fully endorsed in English revenge tragedies and the
revenging hero invariably dies with the object of revenge.
4. Shakespearean Tragedy
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) brought perfection to the English dramatic literature. He
wrote thirty seven plays that includes history plays, tragedies, comedies, and tragi-comedies.
Written between 1590 and 1610, Titus Andronicus(c.1587), Romeo and Juliet(c. 1594-
93), Julius Caesar(c.1599), Hamlet(c.1599-1601), Othello(1604), King Lear(c.1605),
Macbeth(c.1606), Antony and Cleopatra(c. 1606-07) and Coriolanus (c.1608) are
considered to form the core group of tragedies. Like Marlowe, Shakespeare was greatly
influenced by the ideals of Renaissance humanism and most of his tragedies depend on the
strong individual heroes who bring about their own downfall. Unlike the classical tragedy
where fate plays a crucial role in the downfall of the hero, these are tragedies wrought by
character. In Shakespeare tragic conflict is often internal and it is played within the mind of
the hero. Macbeth brings about his own downfall by ambitiously going after the crown, but
suffers from intense dilemma before choosing the path of evil. Hamlet is paralysed by the
quarrel that goes on within his mind.
7
King Lear is psychologically tormented once he realises his foolishness in dividing his
kingdom between Goneril and Regan depriving Cordelia of it. Othello is torn between belief
and disbelief before being overrun by his jealousy and strangulating his beloved wife to
death. Though fate is not a crucial element in Shakespeare, supernatural elements are not
absent from his plays. Ghosts and witches and popular superstitions are used by Shakespeare
in a psychologically convincing manner (e.g. the three Witches in Macbeth, the Ghost of
Hamlet’s father). The plot of a Shakespearean tragedy is well constructed and hardly breaks
the principles of necessity and probability. He, however, does not adhere to the principle of
three unities as advocated by the classicists. Shakespeare also drops in occasional comic
episodes (e. g. the Porter scene in Macbeth, the grave diggers in Hamlet or the Fool in King
Lear) in his plays contrary to the spirit of classical theory of tragedy. Shakespeare’s
contemporary and classicist Ben Jonson followed the classical model in his Sejanus his Fall
(1603) and Catiline his Conspiracy (1611), but these plays were not as successful on stage as
Shakespearean tragedies.
In terms of subject matter of the tragedies Shakespeare’s range is very wide in spite of
the fact that he did not care for originality of the story and generously borrowed from earlier
plays, histories, chronicles and popular tales. He could treat love as matter of tragedy as well
as of comedy. Destruction of life and love due to family feud between Montagues and
Capulets is represented in Romeo and Juliet. Here the family issues are not related to larger
issues of state and society and sate, but in Othello, Macbeth and King Lear, Shakespeare
explores how the disorder within the individual is symptomatic of the chaos and disorder
within the family, the state and the universe. Anything happening at the microcosmic level
relates to the macrocosm.
Among his Roman tragedies Titus Andronicus falls within the category of revenge
tragedy, where Titus dies in the process of completing his revenge. Julius Caesar deal with
the problem in the body politic. Brutus’s love for Rome leads him to kill his friend Caesar
and another friend Antony wants to avenge Caesar’s death, which leads to civil war. In
Antony and Cleopatra the personal and the political are pitted against each other. Antony is
torn between his love for the Cleopatra and his love for his country. In Coriolanus divided
loyalty becomes the cause of the eponymous hero’s death. Martius/Coriolanus’s is torn
between a sense of personal honour and his loyalty to the country. The source of the Roman
8
tragedies was Plutarch’s Lives and they fuse together history and tragedy as Marlowe did in
Edward II. In writing historical tragedies Shakespeare improved on Marlowe in representing
history in a condensed and convincing form of tragedy by leaving out details and inventing
wherever necessary. The tragedies based on English histories like Richard III and Richard II
also succeeded in doing so.
5. Domestic Tragedy of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Period
The concern of much of Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies was the fate of noble men,
emperors, kings and princes. Even when the dramatists present lowborn heroes they are
shown achieving nobility and grandeur. However, a group of plays were written during late
Elizabethan and Jacobean period with their focus on domestic life of the English middleclass
men and women. These tragedies specially focussed on the troubled relationship between the
husbands and wives. These works with their domestic setting probably were influenced by
the religious Morality plays. Thematically most of these plays were centred on the
debauchery of women leading to their tragic end. Two such anonymous plays from the 1590s
are The Tragedy of Mr Arden of Feversham (printed in 1592) and A Warning to Fair Women
(printed in 1599). Another anonymous play of this genre, A Yorkshire Tragedy was printed in
1609. These plays were based on real incidents of murders of the husbands committed by
adulterous and treacherous wives. The story of Mistress Arden’s repeated attempt to murder
her husband with the help of her lover Mosbie told in The Tragedy of Mr Arden of
Feversham, for example, was based on the murder of Thomas Arden, a country gentleman in
1551.
Similarly, A Warning to Fair Women puts on the stage the1773 actual incident of murder of
George Sanders, a London merchant. The most celebrated writer of the domestic tragedy is
Thomas Heywood (c.1574-164) and his best work in the genre is A Woman Killed with
Kindness (printed in 1607). The plot concerns the adultery of John Frankford’s wife Anne
Frankford and Mr. Wendoll. When John discovers the adulterous relationship between the
two, he banishes his wife to the country side where she dies repentant and forgiven by her
husband. Heywood’s The English Traveller (c.1625) once again focuses on adultery and uses
the elements of domestic tragedy, but it is a tragic-comic play. Contrary to the antipathy
shown towards women in the earlier plays The English Traveller, The Fair Maid of the West
(in two parts) presents an intelligent, resourceful and generous heroine in Bess Bridges, a
9
tanner’s daughter. Another important example of the domestic tragedy is Francis Beaumont’s
(c. 1584-1616) and John Fletcher’s (1579-1625) collaborative fruit, The Maid’s Tragedy (c.
1610), though the focus of this play is not the middleclass life. It tells the story of two
women Evadne and Aspatia. Evadne is married to Amintor, who is loved by Aspatia, but
their marriage is not consummated as Evadne being the king’s mistress refuses to sleep with
Amintor on the night of their marriage. In the course of the play Aspatia in the disguise of her
brother is fatally wounded in a duel by Amintor. Evadne, on the other hand, kills the king.
After killing king Evadne commits suicide when Amintor refuses to accept her. The play
ends with Aspatia’s death and Amintor killing himself to be united with her in death.
Thomas Middleton’s Women beware Women (c.1621).
With its two parallel plots woven together in a very complex manner, the play deals with the
themes of woman’s capacity for evil and destructive nature of sexual immorality. The
Changeling (1622) is another play to focus on sexual passion and corruption of women
represented in the play by Beatrice-Joanna. In writing The Changeling Middleton
collaborated with Thomas Rowley (c.1585 –1626). Right into the Caroline period we find
James Shirley (1596-1666) and John Ford (1586-1639) writing plays focused on immorality
of woman using the conventions of revenge tragedy in The Broken Heart and’Tis Pity She is
A Whore. Both of these plays were printed in 1633. An eighteenth century example of the
domestic tragedy is George Lillo’s The London Merchant (1731).
6. Civil War, Restoration and the Heroic Tragedy
The life of the Jacobean tragedy was cut short by the civil war during the reign of Charles I.
James Shirley’s The Traitor (1631) and The Cardinal (1641) are later examples of the genre
of Jacobean revenge tragedy. The entire reign of Charles was fraught with problems. The
quarrel between the king and his opponents led by Oliver Cromwell resulted in considerable
hostilities in 1642 leading to a civil war. The first war was settled with Oliver Cromwell’s
victory for Parliamentary forces in the 1645 Battle of Naseby. The second phase of war ended
with Charles’s defeat at the Battle of Preston and his subsequent execution in 1649.
Cromwell ruled England until monarchy was restored in 1660. Theatre bore the burnt during
these years of turmoil. On the September 6, 1642 the theatres were closed by ordinance as it
was considered unseemly to indulge in theatrical diversions in times of trouble. A further
order was issued in 1647 prohibiting any dramatic performance. However, after the
10
restoration, Charles II re-opened the theatre houses and the two types of plays that took hold
of the British stage were the Comedy of Manners and Heroic Tragedy.
John Dryden (1631-1700) in the preface to the Conquest of Granada commenting on
the theme and style of the heroic drama observed that “an heroic play ought to be an
imitation, in little, of an heroic poem; and, consequently, that love and valour ought to be the
subject of it.” The heroic drama borrowed from the ancient and modern epics, Italian and
French prose romances. Most of these plays were written in rhyming pentameter couplets,
i.e. the heroic metre, but blank verse was also used. To accompany the declamatory passages
highly artificial and spectacular operatic style of staging was the custom. Naturally, these
plays presented characters of superhuman stature. The plays predominantly deal with high
ideals of love, honour, and courage. Love and honour is often shown in conflict as the hero
invariably finds himself fighting against side to his beloved. Faced with a dilemma the hero
either will have to renounce his love and see her slain or letting his enemy go.
An early exponent of the heroic drama was Sir William Devenant, who inaugurated
the genre with The Siege of the Rhodes (1556) and The Spaniards in Peru (1558). Dryden
was the most prolific writer of the heroic tragedy. His most celebrated play in this genre is All
for Love, or The World well Lost (1678). It is based on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
and concentres on the last hours of their life. The play deploys almost every element of the
heroic tragedy, but it is written in blank verse. Dryden’s The Conquest of Granada (in two
parts, 1669 and 1670) written in rhyming couplet depict the troubled love between noble
Almanzor and the beautiful moor woman Almahide. The play does not have customary tragic
ending and the lovers are fortunate to be happily united. Dryden’s Aureng-Zebe (1675) was
based on contemporary Indian history of how the hero wrested power from his rivals.
Following the heroic tradition, the hero is presented as a figure of exemplary virtue and
rationality.
Dryden wrote a number of other heroic plays, such as The Indian Emperor (1665).
Tyrannick Love (1669) and collaborated with Robert Howard in writing The Indian Queen
(1665). Apart from Dryden, Thomas Otway (1651-85), Nathaniel Lee (1653-92), Elkanah
Settle (1648-1724), John Crowne (c. 1640-1703) and Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) wrote in
this form. Otway’s masterpiece, Venice Preserved (1682) deals with the life, love and tragic
death of Jaffeir, a Venetian youth and his wife Belvidera, the daughter of his enemy. Otway
11
treats the conflict between twin brothers, Castalio and Polydore for their love of the orphan
girl Monimia in The Orphan (1680). Lee’s Sophonisba (1676) and The Rival Queens (1677)
are best known plays. Lee uses rhyme in the first one, but blank verse is used in the second.
Settle made his name with The Empress of Morocco (1673), but it is considered to be a poor
example of heroic tragedy. Crowne’s best-known work in the genre is of Caligula (1698).
Rowe wrote heroic plays like Tamerlane (1702), The Fair Penitent (1703), and Jane Shore
(1714) was the poet laureate from1715 to 1718.
7. Decline of Tragedy in the Eighteenth Century
The eighteenth century saw a steep decline of dramatic literature, especially of tragic drama.
The Restoration Comedy of Manners was criticised by puritanical groups as immoral and as a
reaction to the Manners comedy the Sentimental comedy, sometimes called ‘bastard tragedy,’
were popular on the stage. In the latter half of the eighteenth century comic drama was
revived by R. B. Sheridan 1751 –1816) and Oliver Goldsmith (1728 –1774) in their Anti-
sentimental comedies. But no such revival could happen in case of the tragedy. It has been
argued that the neo-classical emphasis on the instructive role of literature was a prime reason
behind decline of the tragic drama, because the tragic form could not be conveniently used
for moral instructions. Satire in verse and prose with its didactic tone was most popular
genre during this period. Another argument proffered to explain the failure of tragedy is that
neo-classicism with its blind adherence to the classical rules choked the creativity of the
writers.
Shakespearean tragedies were still adapted in the eighteenth century English stage and
some of the late productions of domestic tragedy and heroic tragedy were performed. John
Crwone’s Jane Shore (1714) was based on the life of Elizabeth Jane Shore (c.1445 – c.1527),
who was one of the mistresses of King Edward IV. The play uses the form of the heroic
tragedy embedding within it elements from the domestic tragedy. Rowe depicts Jane as
developing an affair with king’s friend Hastings and encouraging him to oppose Richard's
usurpation of power. She is shown being punished by Richard in revenge for conspiring
against him. George Lillo’s domestic tragedy The London Merchant or, the history of
George Barnwell (1731) was acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. The story of
Barnwell’s betrayal of his master Thorowgood under the influence of the seductive London
prostitute, Sarah Millwood was very popular among the theatregoers. Another very popular
12
neoclassical tragedy, Joseph Addison’s (1672 –1719) Cato was produced in1713. It is a
regular neoclassical tragedy dealing with the life of republican Cato who commits suicide
unwilling to submit to the dictatorship of Caesar. Unlike Addison’s play, Dr. Samuel
Johnson’s (1709–1784) blank verse tragedy Irene (1716) did not achieve much success when
it was performed in 1749 by David Garrick under the title Mahomet and Irene. The story is
taken from Richard Knolle’s Generall Historie of the Turkes (1603). It represents the tragic
fate of the Greek slave Irene who is loved by sultan Mahomet.
The influence of neoclassicism started ebbing towards the end of the eighteenth
century and the first Romantic impetus started to be felt in the theatre of the Sturm und Drang
(translated as ‘storm and stress’). The leading works of the movement, Goethe’s play Götz
Von Berlichingen (1773), his novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1773), and Schiller’s
play Die Räuber (1781) were translated into English and influenced the British theatre of the
Romantic period. Gregory Lewis’s gothic play The Castle Spectre (1797), S.T. Coleridge’s
tragedy Osorio (1797), which was revised and performed as Remorse in 1813, and Joana
Baillie’s first volume of Plays on the Passions that included Count Basil, a tragedy on love
and De Monfort, a tragedy on hatred, were influenced by the sturm und drang’s revolt against
literary conventions of neoclassicism. Romantic revolt against neoclassicism, however, took
a lyrical turn and dramatic literature did not have a good life during the Romantic period.
8. Conclusion
The English tragic drama between 1590 and 1798 had its highs and lows. It had its golden
time during the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. Though there was a decline of the tragedy
during the late Jacobean era, tragedies continued to be written and staged until the theatre
houses were closed in 1642. The Restoration tragedy took a different form becoming more
like a heroic poem in its theme and style. The eighteenth century saw an over emphasis on
instructive function of literature and on classical rules leading to further decline of the tragic
drama. In the last decades of the eighteenth century there was a resurgence of passion in
dramatic literature. The plays written during this period, however, never achieved the
greatness of the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.