낭만주의 시대 극장과 불법 드라마

Abstract

Compared to poetry or even novels, drama in the Romantic period has been neglected domestically as well as internationally, despite the fact that more people in London went to theater than in any other time of history. One of the main reasons for this is that Romantic drama does not deal with the universal truth as Shakespeare's drama did, but only with the topical issues. According to George Steiner, the audience did not treat drama as a festive ritual but just as an entertainment. Second, the Licensing Act of 1737 prohibited theaters from performing legitimate drama, except the two patent theaters, Covent Garden and Drury Lane. Third, theaters started to use stage effects by using animals, water or various devices to make it real for the audience. For these reasons, English scholars have not studied Romantic drama. The aim of paper is to reevaluate and validate the Romantic illegitimate plays. First of all, it is not fair to downplay Romantic drama by comparing it with Shakespeare's because every drama has its own value in each literary period as that of the modern period does in our time. The audience in the Romantic era enjoyed drama as an entertainment and did not see it as a festive ritual and accordingly they were actively involved in the performance by shouting and even protesting. It was a significant part of their daily lives, in which they expressed their views on what was going on stage. Second, even though the Licensing Act allowed only two theaters to perform legitimate plays, there were decades of illegitimate theaters around London. Third, those illegitimate theaters developed tricky and brilliant devices to perform illegitimate plays successfully without being caught for the violation of the Licensing Act. Thus, this situation eventually resulted in progress, not regression, of theatrical effects on stage. Fourth, in addition to The Factory Lad written by John Walker, which deals with the politically sensitive issues like the Luddite movement, there were a lot of illegitimate plays on topical issues written by various playwrights such as Richard Sheridan, Joanna Baillie, Elizabeth Inchbald, and Hannah Cowley. They definitely deserve the attention from English scholars.