Plans of three tragedies viz the Viceroy, Edwy & Elgiva, the Siege of Palmyra, [19th century].

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Hayley, William, 1745-1820. Plans of three tragedies viz the Viceroy, Edwy & Elgiva, the Siege of Palmyra, [19th century].

Plans of three tragedies viz the Viceroy, Edwy & Elgiva, the Siege of Palmyra, [19th century].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/702176861

Manuscript, in a single hand, with some corrections, of outlines of two of the three plays in the title, The Viceroy and Edwy & Elgiva. Each play consists of a list of dramatis personae; scene divisions; and summaries of each scene, without dialogue. The Viceroy, set in Goa, India, concerns both the political and military efforts of the Viceroy against the Indian population, as well as the romantic competition for the hand of Zelinda, daughter of "the Bramin," between the Viceroy and Sylveira, who is, unwittingly, the Viceroy's son. The play ends with the Viceroy's repentance and death. The Viceroy is followed by Edwy & Elgiva, set in England, which concerns the marriage of Edwy, King of England, and his queen, Elgiva, who is supposed by Odo, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to be an "impious sorceress." Odo's insistence on their divorce, and his instigation of the populace against her, is part of his plan to install Edwy's brother Edgar on the throne; however, having tortured her to death, he learns that she is his long-lost sister. The play ends with Edwy's entreaty to his brother "to retain always a just remembrance of the artifice & the crimes of Priestly ambition." The outline of Edwy & Elgiva is annotated with a comment that John Milton marked this subject for tragedies.

1 v. (59 p.) ; 20 x 17 cm.

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library