Verse drama is any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general term is poetic drama. Drama is the specific mode of Fiction represented in Performance. For a very long period verse drama was the dominant form of drama in Europe (and was also important in non-European cultures). Greek tragedy and Racine's plays are written in verse, as is almost all of Shakespeare's drama, and Goethe's Faust. Jean Racine ( ( December 22, 1639 &ndash April 21, 1699) was a French Dramatist, one of the "big three" of William Shakespeare ( baptised ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer Faust or Faustus ( Latin for "auspicious" or "lucky" is the protagonist of a classic German Legend in which he makes
Verse drama is particularly associated with the seriousness of tragedy, providing an artistic reason to write in this form, as well as the practical one that verse lines are easier for the actors to memorize exactly. In the second half of the twentieth century verse drama fell almost completely out of fashion with dramatists writing in English (the plays of Christopher Fry and T. S. Eliot being possibly the end of a long tradition). Christopher Fry ( 18 December 1907 &ndash 30 June 2005) was a English Playwright. Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26 1888 – January 4 1965 was a poet Dramatist, and Literary critic.
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Dramatic verse
Dramatic verse occurs in a dramatic work, such as a play, composed in poetic form. A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters The tradition of dramatic verse extends at least as far back as ancient Greece. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca It was probably used by Greek playwrights such as Euripides for incantatory effect and to make long passages easier to memorize. Euripides ( Ancient Greek:) (ca 480 BC–406 BC was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus An incantation or incantations are the words spoken during a Ritual, either a Hymn or Prayer invoking or praising a Deity, or in magic
The English Renaissance saw the height of dramatic verse in the English-speaking world, with playwrights such as Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare developing new techniques, both for dramatic structure and poetic form. The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century Benjamin Jonson ( c 11 June 1572 &ndash 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance Dramatist William Shakespeare ( baptised Though a few plays, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, feature extended passages of rhymed verse, the majority of dramatic verse is composed as blank verse; there are also passages of prose. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, suggested by " The Knight's Tale " from Blank verse is a type of Poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no Rhyme.
Dramatic verse began to decline in popularity in the nineteenth century, when the prosaic and conversational styles of playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen became more prevalent, and were adapted in English by George Bernard Shaw. "Ibsen" redirects here For other people named Ibsen see Ibsen (disambiguation. George Bernard Shaw ( (26 July 1856 &ndash 2 November 1950 was an Irish Playwright. Verse drama did have a role in the development of Irish theatre. The history of Irish theatre begins with the Gaelic Irish tradition
Closet drama
An important trend from around 1800 was the closet drama: a verse drama intended to be read from the page, rather than performed. A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage but read by a solitary reader or sometimes out loud in a small group perhaps in a small room called A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage but read by a solitary reader or sometimes out loud in a small group perhaps in a small room called Lord Byron and Shelley, as well as a host of lesser figures, devoted much time to the closet drama, in a signal that the verse tragedy was already in a state of obsolescence. Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4 1792 – July 8 1822 ˈpɝːsɪ ˈbɪʃ ˈʃɛlɪ was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among That is, while poets of the eighteenth century could write poetic dramas sincerely, the public taste for new examples was already moving away by the start of the nineteenth century, and there was little commercial appeal in staging them. Instead, opera would take up verse drama, as something to be sung: it is still the case that a verse libretto can be successful. Opera is an art form in which Singers and Musicians perform a Dramatic work (called an opera which combines a text (called a Libretto A libretto is the text used in an extended Musical work such as an Opera, Operetta, Masque, sacred or secular Oratorio and Verse drama as such, however, in becoming closet drama, became simply a longer poetic form, without the connection to practical theatre and performance.
According to Robertson Davies in A Voice From the Attic, closet drama is "Dreariest of literature, most second hand and fusty of experience!". William Robertson Davies, CC, FRSC, FRSL (born August 28, 1913, at Thamesville, Ontario, and died December A Voice From the Attic is a collection of Robertson Davies ' essays about reading aimed at intelligent and thoughtful readers whom he calls the " But indeed a great deal of it was written in Victorian times, and afterwards, to the extent that it became a more popular long form at least than the faded epic. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation Prolific in the form were, for example, Michael Field and Gordon Bottomley. Michael Field was a Pseudonym used for the Poetry and Verse drama of Katherine Harris Bradley (1846 - 1914 and her niece and ward Edith Gordon Bottomley (1874 – 1948 was an English poet known particularly for his Verse dramas He was partly disabled by illness
Dramatic poetry in general
Dramatic poetry is any poetry that uses the discourse of the characters involved to tell a story or portray a situation.
The major types of dramatic poetry are those already discussed, to be found in plays written for the theatre, and libretti. A libretto is the text used in an extended Musical work such as an Opera, Operetta, Masque, sacred or secular Oratorio and There are further dramatic verse forms: these include dramatic monologues, such as those written by Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson. A dramatic monologue is a type of Poem, favoured by many poets in the Victorian period in which a character in Fiction or in History delivers Robert Browning (7 May 1812 - 12 December 1889 was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of Dramatic verse, especially Dramatic monologues made him one of Alfred Tennyson 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892 was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and remains one of the most popular English poets
See also
An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation Narrative poetry is Poetry that tells a story The poems may be short or long and the story it relates to may be simple or complex Lyric poetry refers to a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings which may or may not be set to musicDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic