The Dynasts

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

Mr Hardy’s work is written in dramatic form but with a good deal of narrative introduced in the form of stage directions. It was not intended and cannot be regarded as a play and it is expressly stated by the author that it is 'not for the stage' (preface px). No doubt, however, there are parts of it which can be represented on the stage. It would be more convenient, for the purposes of licensing, if such extracts or arrangements were sent in separately. This is not an occasion for an attempt at an appreciation, on artistic lines, of Mr Hardy's great work, and even a description, in any detail, would run to many thousands words. It is, in effect, a panorama of the Napoleonic war designed to exhibit the strife as essentially a great duel between Napoleon and England. The scene changes rapidly from one part of Europe to another, depicting sometimes - this most frequently - a battlefield, sometimes a court scene in one country or another, sometimes the House of Commons, sometimes an English countryside, with rustic comments on affairs. The work is divided into three parts, which briefly are occupied as follows. Part I starts with Napoleon's camp at Boulogne for the invasion of England, gives us glimpses of Pitt and George III; shows us the battle of Trafalgar on both sides; Austerlitz and the death of Pitt. Part II takes us to the peninsula and Coruna, and shows us the great achievement and death of Sir John Moore. It also deals with the progress of Josephine's divorce and the marriage with Marie Louise. Part III also deals with the peninsula war and concurrently with it the Russian campaign, the scene going to and fro, so that we have Salamanca and Vittoria on the one hand, Borodino and Moscow on the other. Leipsic follows and we later on see the Allied Sovereigns in London. Then the hundred days, the ball at Brussels, and Waterloo in detail. Added to these human events is a super-human element. Mr Hardy creates certain spirits - 'the spirit of the years’, the 'spirits sinister’, the 'chorus of the pities', who comment on the events and occasionally intervene, rather like the gods in Homer. The only passages to which any general objections can be taken are those I have mentioned in a recent memorandum as dealing with the English royal family 100 years ago. I give the references again. [...] I believe it is a rule that such references should not be made. On the other hand they are matters of history and common knowledge and date 100 years back. Perhaps it might be possible to find out if they still give offence. The speech of Mr Hardy’s rustic and private soldiers is sometimes coarse, and that of the great Duke strong, but I do not think there is anything we need quarrel with; no doubt such an expression as p-s b-d (p407) would not be used, but it might be cut out as a precaution. One scene, part II, act VI, scene 3, pages 2293 seq k, which depicts the accouchement of Marie Louise, with very realistic remarks from the room where it happens, must certainly not be played. And pages 371 & 2 an English sergeant taking a woman in a conquered town - are not desirable. With these reservations 'The Dynasts' is Recommended for license. G. S Street