The Rival Queens
" The Rival Queens , or the Death Of Alexander the Great" is an English tragedy from the Restoration period by Nathaniel Lee, premiered in 1677 .
Stage work
This play, written in blank verse , deals with the jealousy of Roxane , Alexander the Great's first wife , of his second wife, Stateira . The struggle for his favor ends in tragedy. The play was influenced by the ten-volume (pseudo) historical novel series Cassandre (written between 1642 and 1650) by the French playwright La Calprenède . It was set to music by Daniel Purcell and Gottfried Finger and was a great success on the English stage until the 19th century.
Its premiere was The Rival Queens on March 17, 1677 at the Theater Royal in Drury Lane (London). The executive theater company is specified as "Her Majesty Servants" ("The Servants of Her Majesty"); it is believed that this is the in-house theater company of the King's Company under Charles Killigrew . The role of Stateira was considered the greatest success of actress Elizabeth Boutell .
reception
The professor for English studies at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale David Muench Vieth writes that Lee is here presenting the social psychology of a murder - just like the protagonist Alexander or Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln, Huey Long, John and Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King learned. But the charismatic leader Alexander creates two opposing answers here: Admired by his followers in loyalty in a way that goes beyond what such people could normally achieve. On the other hand, it provokes envy in those who cannot bear the thought of this superiority. In one sense he is godlike, in another he is humanly fallible and vulnerable.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ David Muench Vieth: Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700 Volume 2, No. 2 (Fall 1978), Pages 10-13 online as a preview