Psychological Myth as Tragedy: Nathaniel Lee's "Lucius Junius Brutus"

A reviewer of a production of Edward Young's tragedy, The Revenge, in 1815, wrote:Sound morality and good manners demand that this Play should either be greatly altered, or banished from the Stage. No character of Kotzebue is either so unnatural or so dangerous as Zanga. We may pronounce him a despicable coward by the surest test of cowardice – a vindictive spirit that knows not how to pardon…. Zanga is described as brave, heroic, and noble, yet forgiveness is not in his nature. He is more contemptibly mean – more desperately wicked than Iago. He is made more an object of esteem and pity than Othello…. Why did not the author make him the victim of his own contrivances? Why did he not exemplify in the disappointment of Zanga, the sure punishment of an indiscriminate revenge? … He is a fiend that gains our respect by forcing our admiration, and he does this when the real nature of his actions qualify him rather for the gibbit than for the honourable termination of his life.

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"All Language Then Is Vile": The Theatrical Critique of Political Rhetoric in Nathaniel Lee's Lucius Junius Brutus

Hayne¹

1996

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Psychological Myth as Tragedy: Nathaniel Lee's "Lucius Junius Brutus"

Cited by 4 publications

References 2 publications

Lee, Nathaniel

Lee, Nathaniel

The Moor's Progress: A Study of Edward Young's Tragedy, The Revenge

"All Language Then Is Vile": The Theatrical Critique of Political Rhetoric in Nathaniel Lee's Lucius Junius Brutus

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