Heroic drama is a type of play that was popular during the Restoration era in England. It is known for both its use of verse and its subject matter. This type of drama developed through several plays in the 1660s. Key examples include John Dryden's The Indian Emperour (1665) and Roger Boyle's The Black Prince (1667).
Dryden in 1670
The term "heroic drama" was created by John Dryden for his play, The Conquest of Granada (1670). In the Preface to the printed version of the play, Dryden explained that heroic drama was a type of epic poetry meant for the stage. He compared it to how epic poetry relates to other forms of poetry, saying that heroic drama had a similar role in relation to other plays. As a result, Dryden established a set of rules for this kind of play.
First, the play should be written in heroic verse, which uses closed couplets in iambic pentameter. Second, the story must focus on a subject related to national history, mythological events, or important and grand matters. Third, the hero in a heroic drama must be strong, decisive, and, like Achilles, powerful even when making mistakes. The Conquest of Granada followed all these rules. The play’s story was about the founding of Spain (King Charles II was known to enjoy Spanish plays), and the hero, Almanzor, was a man with great military skill and strong character.
Dryden’s The Conquest of Granada is often seen as one of the better examples of heroic tragedy. However, his most successful work was his adaptation (which he named All for Love, 1678) of Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra to fit the heroic drama style. Other writers who created heroic dramas included Nathaniel Lee (The Rival Queens) and Thomas Otway, whose play Venice Preserv’d is a notable tragedy that goes beyond the usual limits of the form.
Other dramatists
People who connect "heroic drama" mainly with the use of "heroic couplet" often say this style was most fully developed between 1664 and 1678. This was the time when it had the greatest influence and strength. Others who focus more on the meaning of the word "heroic" rather than the strict rhyming pattern of the verse are willing to include a longer time period. Plays from the Restoration era by Sir William Davenant, Thomas Otway, Nathaniel Lee, John Crowne, Elkanah Settle, and John Banks, as well as later works by Nicholas Rowe and Joseph Addison, have been included in different definitions of heroic drama, either more narrowly or more broadly.
Heroic drama in literary criticism
Today, drama is divided into many types. However, Dryden based his work on ideas from ancient critics. At the time, there were few rules about drama for him to use. New rules from France, especially those by Corneille and Boileau, did not fit English theatre traditions. The focus on strict rules and only using forms from ancient times came from Thomas Rymer, who criticized the mix of different styles on stage. Aristotle only wrote about satire, epic, and tragedy, while Horace wrote about comedy, tragedy, and satire. Dryden tried to make real theatre practices match these old literary rules.
Satirical response
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and others mocked heroic drama in The Rehearsal. This satire was so effective that heroic drama became much less common after it was written. Buckingham criticized the foolishness of loud, boastful military heroes and the idea of making serious plays about important topics like military and national history.
Buckingham's criticism of Dryden in The Rehearsal includes Dryden's overly dramatic writing style. However, it also focuses more on Dryden's desire to create a "pure" form of drama. The character Bayes is seen as ridiculous not only because he is a poor poet but also because he shows overconfidence by rejecting real plays in favor of imaginary ones.