The Relation of the Heroic Play to the Romances of Beaumont and Fletcher

Extract

In the study of the heroic play it has been rather generally assumed that Dryden and his fellow-playwrights went direct to France for their models and established in England a form of drama distinct from anything that had preceded them. The French romance and the French drama, because they had an influence on the Restoration drama, have been regarded as its sole progenitors. The position of D'Avenant as the connecting link between the earlier and the later drama has been recognized; Dryden himself acknowledges his indebtedness to the author of The Siege of Rhodes. But very little has been done to show that a stream of influence percolates from the Jacobean drama through D'Avenant to the heroic play. Of course, it is easy to exaggerate resemblances, to imagine similarities of capital importance, and to proclaim a paramount influence; but, nevertheless, a prion reasons are in favor of an influence, and a comparison of the two types of drama will, it seems to me, undoubtedly show a connection between them which is more than casual.