Subjects
The Plays of William Godwin
Editor: David O’Shaughnessy
The Pickering Masters
978 1 85196 631 8: 234x156mm: £100.00/$180.00
Best known for Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) and Caleb Williams (1794), William Godwin (1756-1836) is one of the most important figures of the Romantic period. Godwin was an avid theatre-goer, making as many as 70 theatre trips in a season. He wrote four plays; Antonio; or, The Soldier’s Return (1800) and Faulkener, A Tragedy (1807) were published in his lifetime, whilst St Dunstan (1790) and Abbas, King of Persia (1801) exist only in manuscript. The plays cover a substantial period of Godwin’s career and bracket his period of greatest fame and creativity.
Until now, the plays have not been available in a modern scholarly format. Consequentially, they have not received as much critical attention as his novels and political writings. This modern critical edition is edited to the highest standards and offers academics the chance to build a more complete picture of Godwin as a writer and political figure. It will be essential for those studying Literature, Romanticism and History of the Theatre.
- Includes two little-known plays which have never been published before and are not available electronically
Contents
St Dunstan (1790) is a five act tragedy which exists only in manuscript form in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. St Dunstan represents Godwin’s first response to the events of the French Revolution and is a fine example of the sort of historical tragedy prevalent on the London stage of the period.
Antonio; or, The Soldier’s Return (1800) is a five act tragedy which was published in 1800 by G G Robinson. Godwin spent more time on this work than any other of his literary endeavours which indicates its importance to his oeuvre. One biographer states that he considered it his most important work. The play itself is an important reaction against the garish spectacles of the London theatre which Godwin felt denigrated the function of theatre and is closely associated with the politics of his collection of essays The Enquirer (1797).
Abbas, King of Persia (1801) is a five act tragedy which exists only in manuscript form in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Acts 4 and 5 are missing although there does exist a synopsis of the entire play in Godwin’s hand. Although there are only three acts of this tragedy remaining, Abbas reveals a strong Shakespearean influence as well as being an excellent example of the London audience’s taste for Orientalism. Godwin chose the play’s topic at Coleridge’s suggestion and there exists a fascinating correspondence between the two aspiring dramatists on the subject.
Faulkener, A Tragedy (1807) is a five act tragedy which was published by Richard Phillips in 1808. Faulkener represents Godwin’s greatest success on the stage and in its conformity to the structure and themes of contemporary plays represents a growing pragmatism on Godwin’s part of what was politically and artistically possible on the Georgian stage.