Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T21:31:57.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1.9 - In Their Blood: The Eighteenth-Century Gothic Stage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2020

Angela Wright
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Dale Townshend
Affiliation:
Manchester Metropolitan University
Get access

Summary

After 1780, the Gothic became an established dramatic kind in its own right. The decade of the 1790s has received a preponderance of attention; in contrast, this chapter begins with formative productions including John Home’s Douglas (1756), Robert Jephson’s The Count of Narbonne (1781), adapted from Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otronto (1764), and the plays of the 1780s. Gothic drama changed decade by decade more than has been recognised, and this essay demonstrates the playwrights’ increasing development of innovative, sophisticated uses of music, lighting, sets, sound and spectacular effects, both adapted and created. Drawing upon dramatic forms as diverse as she-tragedy and farce, early Gothic plays could be operas, melodramas or pantomimes. The 1780s set the mixed genre pattern that became distinctively Gothic and led to plays such as George Colman’s Blue-Beard (1798), with its sixty-four-night initial run. In conclusion, the chapter argues that Gothic drama is an important, even formative, part of the rise of modern popular culture with its ability to be sharply political, highly entertaining and an addictive fad.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Gothic
Volume 1: Gothic in the Long Eighteenth Century
, pp. 198 - 221
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×