There has never been a full-length, in-depth study of Shelley’s dramatic work as a whole, nor one which places it fully in the context of the theatre of the late Georgian, or Romantic, period, 1780-1830. It has long been considered that Shelley rarely attended the theatre, disliked it when he did and was therefore unable to write successfully for the stage. This, however, is not a description of Shelley’s views and abilities and is based on assumptions about both Shelley and the Georgian theatre which are gradually being shown to be misunderstandings. Shelley not only had a knowledge of practical...

When Shelley’s play,The Cenci,received its first professional performance in 1922, the theatre for which he wrote it no longer existed. Critical assessment of Shelley’s writing as theatre writing rather than poetry, therefore, has been based on staging and acting styles which were not what he could have had in mind. Stage effects designed for theatres of one period do not necessarily transfer to another since a theatre director presenting a play of an earlier era must adapt and set the text to suit a contemporary understanding if it is not to be the ‘dry exhibition’ Shelley dreaded.⁷⁹ So,...

The classification of Shelley’s plays as closet drama, which has been so often repeated, depends in part on the idea that he only rarely attended the theatre and did not like it or the audience when he did. His alleged lack of understanding of the theatre thus led to an inability to write performable drama. Shelley’s friend, Peacock, said he ‘had a prejudice against theatres’ and his cousin Medwin said he ‘rarely went to the play’.²²⁷ However, Medwin was not with Shelley in London and not for long in Italy, while Peacock wrote his memoir over forty years after Shelley’s...

Since 1922, when it was produced by the leading British theatrical couple of the first half of the twentieth century, Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson, it has been difficult to deny thatThe Cenciis a performable play, yet the idea that it is a ‘closet drama’ has been extraordinarily persistent. Moody’s excellentIllegitimate Theatre in Londondescribes it so, and it is included in two recent studies of closet drama, although Alan Richardson’s claim thatThe Cenci‘resemblesPrometheusin its thematic development’ seems a dubious reason, since thematic development does not define a genre, and Michael Simpson’s that...

Shelley began writingCharles the Firstin January 1822, but at his death he had completed only scenes for a first act, an outline sketch for a second and many notes, jottings and stray lines.⁴⁶² As he had not worked on it in the months preceding his death, there is a view that he would not have completed it even had he lived. This view undermines the importance of this project, which he had been researching since 1818, and his competence as a dramatist is challenged by the idea that it may have been laid aside because of difficulties with...

Critics rarely discussPrometheus Unboundfrom the point of view of performability, although theatre directors such as Paul Fort and, more recently, Madge Darlington, have seen its performance possibilities.⁵⁷⁴ Shelley would have realised that it would have been unlikely to have reached the stage in 1818 because its style was based on Greek drama, which would not have been acceptable to the commercial London theatre. Although he published it as a poem for reading, there are signs that he initially conceived it as a performable drama, and he may have hoped that it would be performed in a future theatre....

LikePrometheus Unbound, Hellashas a chorus and is modelled on a drama by Aeschylus, in this case very closely. Shelley described it, too, as a ‘lyrical drama’ and, once again, it has been thought of as a poem rather than a drama. Edward Williams so described it, remarking that it would never be popular as it was ‘above common apprehension’.⁶⁵¹ If this is so, it would rule out one of Schlegel’s requirements for a successful drama but, likePrometheus, it may well have been more accessible to an audience than is generally thought when the visual and performable elements...

It was Athenian drama once again that gave Shelley his starting point forSwellfoot the Tyrantbut this time it was the Old Comedy and the satyr-play. He introduced elements from modern comedy into this too:commedia dell’arte, and its deformed but lively descendants, British pantomime, Punch and the eighteenth-century burlesque.

AsSwellfoot the Tyrantis a satirical response to Queen Caroline’s return to England in 1820 to contest George IV’s divorce case against her, the play was of course influenced by the popular, political and satirical prints which drew enthusiastic crowds on their publication and exhibition in shop windows,...

While Shelley’s plays have some unchanging aspects, such as the consistent theme of opposition to tyranny, there is also a process of significant development in his dramatic writing. By considering each play individually and in thematic order it has been possible to reveal more clearly the influences on his writing, such as the theatrical practice of his time and the dramatic theory in the work of Schlegel and others. On the other hand, this should not obscure the development of Shelley’s dramatic technique or his capabilities as a dramatist, since he never developed his full potential.

The stories and the...