THE QUESTION OF PRECEDENCE BETWEEN DRYDEN AND THE EARL OF ORRERY WITH REGARD TO THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY

Abstract

IN viewing from a distance of two and a half centuries the progress of the English Heroic Play of the Restoration Period, the figure of Dryden looms so large during the early stages, and all other writers have dwindled to such pygmies beside him, that until now there has been excuse for those who assumed without careful investigation that he was the originator as well as the most capable exponent of the type. But in these latter days all things have to stand or fall by evidence, and it will be found on examination of the facts that he will be a bold man indeed who shall assert confidently that Dryden was as early in this particular field as Roger Boyle, Lord Broghil, first Earl of Orrery. This lord had become known as a writer before the Restoration, for he was the author of Parthenissa, the longest of all the English romances modelled on those of the Scudery school. Between I66o and 1679, when he died, Orrery wrote a succession of plays. Two of these, Mr. Anthony and Don Guzman, were prose comedies and do not concern us here; the others were Heroic Tragedies, and all but one of them are written entirely in rhyme. They present many interesting features when examined in detail, but all that can be touched on here is their chronology. The following list gives the names of the plays with the date of their earliest recorded performance: The History of Henry V. (August 1664), The Tragedy of Mustapha (April 1665), The Black Prince (October 1667), Tryphon (December 1668), Herod the Great (unacted), Altemira (altered from The General, September 1664), I702. Dryden, in collaboration with Howard, had The Indian Queen acted in January 1663/4, six months earlier than the first recorded performance of a play of Orrery, and it has been generally assumed I73