After the Elizabethans

The drama which was produced in the period between the death of Queen Elizabeth and the closing of the theatres in 1642 is frequently regarded as a mere postscript to Elizabethan glory. Yet it has its own special signature in mood and diction. It is interesting to speculate what course English drama might have taken if Malvolio had not triumphed so effectively over Sir Tobypage 138 Belch in the Civil War, when the problems of human living which the stage alone could make explicit were trampled underfoot, and Cromwell’s soldiers paved the way with broken statues for the grossness of the Restoration. In Stuart drama there is more than entertainment. A world is reflected – a world narrower certainly than that of Shakespearean tragedy, but still without that dichotomy of function which resulted later on one hand in Wycherley’s low life comedy, and on the other in Dryden’s somewhat priggish heroes.

Mr McIlwraith has chosen plays which illustrate well the diversity of the drama of the period. Chapman, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, Webster, Ford – it is as broad a selection as could be made within so small a compass. Of Webster one need hardly speak. But Chapman’s Bussy d’Ambois, through the character of the jealous husband, and Massinger’s The Roman Actor, preserve some of the spirit of Ben Jonson, the formal type figure which nevertheless comes to life. Beaumont and Fletcher in The Maid’s Tragedy demonstrate the easy mingling of farce and serious drama. But John Ford in ’Tis a Pity She’s a Whore moves at a truly original tangent, with the inwardness of great drama which the other dramatists, excepting Webster, are without. It is unfortunate that this play, since it deals with the theme of incest, could not readily be performed on a modern stage. Ford handles hard, clear prose and rich metaphor equally well. The editor is to be congratulated on his selection; and the Oxford Press for making available lesser-known dramatists in a cheap and convenient edition.

1953 (78)