R370500C. Strafford.
The New Monthly Belle Assemblée, June 1837, pp. 324–325.
Reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 387 (as May 1837).
Covent Garden. On Monday Evening, May 1, a new tragedy was produced at this theatre, on the occasion of Mr. Macready’s benefit, entitled “Strafford.” It is the production of Mr. Robert Browning, author of “Paracelsus.”
The subject chosen by the dramatist is the impeachment and death of Wentworth Earl of Strafford; and the tragedy is of a nature so entirely historical, that the author must have given his audience credit for the most minute acquaintance with the events immediately prior to the great Rebellion. With some skill in many portions of the dialogue, the piece exhibits startling defects. Not only does the principal part seem to have been written to suit the peculiarities of Mr. Macready’s style of acting, but the whole play is penned in a series of abrupt, broken sentences, expressly suited to that style of delivery for which our eminent tragedian is so famous. Too much is left for the performers to fill up by their action and expression; and, of course, except in the character of Wentworth, embodied by the superior talents of Macready, the other parts were heavy and purposeless. The frequent interruptions and breaks in the speeches gave them a degree of mystery that the most vivid imagination could not clear up, or the quickest apprehension understand. The plot is by no means coherent, and consequently most of the characters become heavy. The great fanatic Pym was robbed of his fervour and enthusiasm, and degenerated, in the hands of Vandenhoff, into a prosy, preaching hypocrite. The fatal indecision and want of firmness of the unfortunate Charles is considerably overdrawn by the author, but was rendered quite ridiculous by the tame performance of his representative, Mr. Dale. The most natural and vigorously drawn scene in the drama is that in the second act, between Charles I, and Wentworth; but even this contains many of the faults we have enumerated. Some portions of it are spirited and poetical, while [p. 325→] others are so overburthened with breaks and pauses, that we defy the most vivid comprehension to fathom them.
Reviewed:
Strafford (RB), London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, 1837.
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