Reviews

R370500A.  Strafford.

The Court Magazine, May 1837, p. 294.

As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 386.

Covent Garden.—Another new tragedy has been produced at this theatre, under the name of Strafford, for the benefit of Mr. Macready; and though with much in it for praise, it has not been, nor perhaps has it deserved to be, particularly successful. The author, Mr. Browning, is no doubt a man of talent, but it is very possible to have fairly earned that praise without being able to write a first-rate, or even a good tragedy. In the present case the difficulties naturally incident to this species of composition, were not a little enhanced by the subject, which was about as intractable a material as ever dramatist coped withal. The story of the unfortunate Strafford is too simple for five long acts, and much too familiar for any author to add largely to it from the stores of his own invention. There are, however, some striking scenes and situations in this piece, and the language, if too often abrupt and broken, is not unfrequently full of poetry and passion. At the fall of the curtain a few murmurs were heard amidst very general approbation.

Reviewed:

Strafford (RB), London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, 1837.

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