Politian (play)
Politian is the title of a play begun by Edgar Allan Poe in 1835 , which he never finished. It was his only attempt in the dramatic field. At that time he was still looking for the literary genre that suited him most. He later made significant contributions in the field of theater criticism .
material
Inspired to Politian has Poe the Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy , ten years previously in Frankfort in the US state of Kentucky had played. Following the fashion of the time (and the influence of Lord Byron ), he moved the plot, as in the stories The Appointment and The Barrel Amontillado, to a timeless Italy , there to Venice , here to Rome , and transformed the Kentucky citizens involved into nobles :
- Jereboam O. Beauchamp becomes Politian, Earl of Leicester
- Anne Beauchamp-Cook becomes Lalage (a woman's name that appears in Horace )
- Solomon P. Sharp becomes Castiglione, son of Duke Ferrante von Broglio
Names
Poe may not have chosen the name Politian without reference to his own, but at the same time he takes it from the history of the Renaissance : Angelo Poliziano was one of its most important intellectual representatives. The same goes for Castiglione: Baldassare Castiglione was the author of the famous Cortegiano .
action
Lalage, the foster daughter of the Duke of Broglio, has been deeply humiliated and disappointed; no one learns from whom. Castiglione, the Duke's son, receives a visit from England: the snobbish and capricious politian, Earl of Leicester, comes to Rome on a secret mission and falls in love with Lalage's voice, who sings her woes out into the courtyard of Palazzo Broglio. He also meets her very soon, seems to already know everything and asks her to flee to America with him. But she sets the condition for him: not as long as her seducer lives. Politian confronts his former friend and current enemy in a street in Rome and challenges him to a duel. Castiglione makes fun of him and leaves. Here the piece breaks off, and it remains open how Poe imagined the continuation.
Remarks
In spite of the spatiotemporal alienation of the plot, Poe ultimately stuck to the sources, but only evaluated the prehistory and did not implement the actual murder, the trial, the days before the execution or the actual execution, although he is genuine Poe- Could find material in abundance.
Five scenes from the drama fragment were published by Poe on Southern Literary Messenger between 1835 and 1836 , probably to fill the magazine Poe was employed at at the time. As a letter from Poe dated September 1845 to the writer, critic and editor Evert Augustus Duyckinck shows, he reluctantly agreed to reprinting in The Raven and Other Poems in order to “ fill the book” . He categorically rejected any further publication in 1846.
Although the work was about to be completed, Poe never attempted to complete it, as the work apparently did not meet the high artistic standards he had set himself. Some scenes found in the estate also give no clue as to how he might have imagined the continuation. In the almost simultaneous story The Appointment , two lovers commit suicide at a distance, that is, they kill each other at the same hour without being together - this, too, may be an echo of the Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy and perhaps an indication that how Poe could have completed the piece.
His attempt to loosen up the serious strand of the play by adding a servant level where people are busy drinking cups, joking and mocking - a device that is reminiscent of the Commedia dell'arte and Shakespeare and that of Jean Renoir in his film La règle du jeu was used in 1939.
German edition
- Kuno Schuhmann, Hans Dieter Müller (ed.): Edgar Allan Poe. Works. Volume IV. Insel, Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-458-17416-5 , pp. 195-234. (Translation by Hans Wollschläger )
Web links
- Examining the Relationship Between Politian and the Kentucky Tragedy
- Lyrics from "Politian"
- German text by Hedda Eulenberg