Martha Vandrei
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- July 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198816720
- eISBN:
- 9780191858352
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198816720.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Historiography
This chapter focuses on the boundaries between historical and political argument. It discusses the different ways that British antiquity could be politicized by historical writers of the eighteenth ...
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This chapter focuses on the boundaries between historical and political argument. It discusses the different ways that British antiquity could be politicized by historical writers of the eighteenth century. However, despite this, Boudica maintained a patriotic detachment from party fracases in prose literature. This is compared to her presentation in Richard Glover’s new play of 1753. Aside from questions of patriotism, Glover’s play brings to the fore drama’s relationship to history, and especially the fidelity to human nature that was demanded of both genres. Glover’s inability to accurately capture the spectrum of human emotions attracted extensive criticism, demonstrating another measure of ‘accuracy’ contemporaries applied to historical writing. With regards to Boudica herself, this chapter begins to consolidate the argument that Boudica’s reputation was rather more durable and positive than previous scholars have allowed.Less
This chapter focuses on the boundaries between historical and political argument. It discusses the different ways that British antiquity could be politicized by historical writers of the eighteenth century. However, despite this, Boudica maintained a patriotic detachment from party fracases in prose literature. This is compared to her presentation in Richard Glover’s new play of 1753. Aside from questions of patriotism, Glover’s play brings to the fore drama’s relationship to history, and especially the fidelity to human nature that was demanded of both genres. Glover’s inability to accurately capture the spectrum of human emotions attracted extensive criticism, demonstrating another measure of ‘accuracy’ contemporaries applied to historical writing. With regards to Boudica herself, this chapter begins to consolidate the argument that Boudica’s reputation was rather more durable and positive than previous scholars have allowed.
Helen Slaney
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198736769
- eISBN:
- 9780191800412
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198736769.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The English theatrical repertoire in the eighteenth century was dominated by plays that appealed to the audience’s sympathies, showing characters experiencing everyday dilemmas rather than debating ...
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The English theatrical repertoire in the eighteenth century was dominated by plays that appealed to the audience’s sympathies, showing characters experiencing everyday dilemmas rather than debating the fate of mythical kingdoms. Seneca was therefore a less popular choice for translators, and those playwrights who did make use of his works transformed them into sentimental dramas. The increasing prevalence of stage naturalism in combination with the philhellenic movement ultimately led A. W. Schlegel to denounce Seneca as untheatrical: ‘frigid and bombastic’, his characters ‘colossal, misshapen marionettes’. For Schlegel’s contemporary Heinrich von Kleist, however, the marionette represented artistic perfection. Kleist’s hyper-tragedy Penthesilea challenged prevailing views of both classical antiquity and dramaturgical propriety.Less
The English theatrical repertoire in the eighteenth century was dominated by plays that appealed to the audience’s sympathies, showing characters experiencing everyday dilemmas rather than debating the fate of mythical kingdoms. Seneca was therefore a less popular choice for translators, and those playwrights who did make use of his works transformed them into sentimental dramas. The increasing prevalence of stage naturalism in combination with the philhellenic movement ultimately led A. W. Schlegel to denounce Seneca as untheatrical: ‘frigid and bombastic’, his characters ‘colossal, misshapen marionettes’. For Schlegel’s contemporary Heinrich von Kleist, however, the marionette represented artistic perfection. Kleist’s hyper-tragedy Penthesilea challenged prevailing views of both classical antiquity and dramaturgical propriety.
