Romantic Tragedies: The Dark Employments of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley

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Troubled politically and personally, Wordsworth and Coleridge turned in 1797 to the London stage. Their tragedies, The Borderers and Osorio, were set in medieval Britain and early modern Spain to avoid the Lord Chamberlain's censorship. Drury Lane rejected both, but fifteen years later Coleridge's revision, Remorse, had spectacular success there, inspiring Shelley's 1819 Roman tragedy, The Cenci, aimed for Covent Garden. Reeve Parker makes a striking case for the power of these intertwined works, written against British hostility to French republican liberties and Regency repression of home-grown agitation. Covertly, Remorse and The Cenci also turn against Wordsworth. Stressing the significance of subtly repeated imagery and resonances with Virgil, Shakespeare, Racine, Jean-François Ducis and Schiller, Parker's close readings, which are boldly imaginative and decidedly untoward, argue that at the heart of these tragedies lie powerful dramatic uncertainties driven by unstable passions - what he calls, adapting Coleridge's phrase for sorcery, 'dark employments'. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Copyright Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: “Prowling out for dark employments” PART I Wordsworth CHAPTER 1 Reading Wordsworth’s power: narrative and usurpation in The Borderers I II III CHAPTER 2 Cradling French Macbeth: managing the art of second-hand Shakespeare I II III IV CHAPTER 3 “In some sort seeing with my proper eyes”: Wordsworth and the spectacles of Paris CODA CHAPTER 4 Drinking up whole rivers: facing Wordsworth’s watery discourse I II Appendix "SONNET, ON SEEING MISS HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS WEEP AT A TALE OF DISTRESS" THE DOG – AN IDYLLIUM [NO TITLE] GEORGICS TRANSLATION IX (ADAPTATION OF ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE PASSAGES) PART II Coleridge and Shelley CHAPTER 5 Osorio’s dark employments: tricking out Coleridgean tragedy I II III IV CHAPTER 6 Listening to Remorse: assuming man’s infirmities I II III IV CODA CHAPTER 7 Reading Shelley’s delicacy I II III IV CODA Notes INTRODUCTION: "PROWLING OUT FOR DARK EMPLOYMENTS" CHAPTER 1: READING WORDSWORTH'S POWER: NARRATIVE AND USURPATION IN 'THE BORDERERS' CHAPTER 2: CRADLING FRENCH 'MACBETH': MANAGING THE ART OF SECOND-HAND SHAKESPEARE CHAPTER 3: "IN SOME SORT SEEING WITH MY PROPER EYES": WORDSWORTH AND THE SPECTACLES OF PARIS CHAPTER 4: DRINKING UP WHOLE RIVERS: FACING WORDSWORTH'S WATER DISCOURSE CHAPTER 5: 'OSORIO''S DARK EMPLOYMENTS: TRICKING OUT COLERIDGEAN TRAGEDY CHAPTER 6: LISTENING TO 'REMORSE': ASSUMING MAN'S INFIRMITIES CHAPTER 7: READING SHELLEY'S DELICACY Bibliography Index