ABSTRACT |
It is a critical commonplace that the tragedy of the
late Restoration period represents the transitional step towards the
bourgeois drama of the eighteenth century. This dramatic shift becomes
especially evident after the Glorious Revolution: William and Mary
epitomize the triumph of the people’s will over arbitrary government or
mere hereditary rights. As Canfield contends, one of the main topics of
the drama of the nineties is self-reliance, which gradually displaces
the pathetic self-denial and passivity of earlier works. An analysis of
John Bancroft’s Henry II, King of England; with the Death of Rosamond
(1693) can illustrate the strategies at work in this change, and the way
they affected characterization and plot. The male heroes of traditional
heroic drama and the courageous martyrs of Restoration ‘she-tragedies’
stand for totally opposed views on human nature and socio-political
realities alike; however, they share a fundamental idealization at their
core. Conversely, Bancroft’s work is a fine example of the way in which
drama during the nineties evolved towards a more humanized presentation
of the characters. Although the protagonists in Henry II seem to
respond to archetypes in characterization traditional since the Popish
Plot at least, they are portrayed as individuals, not as political
allegories. Bancroft’s characters are more credible and complex than
their theatrical forerunners since the motives of their actions, whether
commendable or censurable, are a fundamental part of the intricacies of
the plot. This change, which would shape eighteenth-century drama, is
inextricably linked to the current wave of scepticism in an age when old
ideals were being discarded in order to forge a new political
consciousness.
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