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Revision as of 17:03, 27 July 2005 by Geogre (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Heroic drama is a type of play popular during the 1670s in England, distinguished by both its verse structure and its subject-matter. The term was invented by John Dryden for his play, The Conquest of Granada (1670). For the Preface to the printed version of the play, Dryden argued that the drama was a species of epic poetry for the stage, that, as the epic was to other poetry, so the heroic drama was to other plays. Consequently, Dryden derived a series of rules for this type of play.
First, the play was composed in heroic verse (closed couplets in iambic pentameter). Second, the play must focus on a subject that pertains to national foundations, mythological events, or important and grand matters. Third, the hero of the heroic drama must be powerful, decisive, and, like Achilles, dominating even when wrong.
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and others satirized heroic drama in The Rehearsal. The satire was successful enough that heroic drama largely disappeared afterward.
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