Love, Honour, and Duty in James Thomson's "Tancred and Sigismunda" (1745)

Abstract

James Thomson's Tancred and Sigismunda juxtaposes notions of heroic drama with the mid-eighteenth-century sentimentalism of individuality and self-determination. The tragedy centres on the conflict between Siffredi, the late King's adviser, and Tancred, the heir to the throne, who are guided by differing notions of love, honour, and duty. The catastrophe unfolds as Tancred defends his choice of a lover, and it culminates in the death of Sigismunda, Siffredi's daughter, who is torn between filial duty and her love for Tancred. This article aims to contextualize the divergent public and private notions of love, honour, and duty against the background of an emerging bourgeois sense of individuality, on the one hand, and attempts at preserving outdated modes of aristocratic domination on the other.