''The Doom of Devorgoil'' is a
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
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* P ...
by Sir
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...
, initially written in 1817 and 1818,
[Ian Brown, ''The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature: Enlightenment, Britain and Empire (1707-1918)'' (2007), p. 186.] and then reworked in 1829 and 1830 for publication in the spring of 1830, together with another work titled ''Auchindrane'' in an
octavo
Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...
volume.
[Walter Scott, ''The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott'' (1855), p. 753.] The play was one of Scott's few critical failures.
History
On April 26, 1829, after Scott had spent several days working on ''
Anne of Geierstein
''Anne of Geierstein, or The Maiden of the Mist'' (1829) is one of the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott. It is set in Central Europe, mainly in Switzerland, shortly after the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471). It covers the p ...
'', he sought to distract himself with something else. According to Scott's account:
The play was written "for the purpose of obliging the late Mr. Terry, then Manager of the
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiv ...
, for whom the Author had a particular regard".
However, it was not performed, because "
e manner in which the mimic goblins of Devorgoil are intermixed with the supernatural machinery, was found to be objectionable, and the production had other faults, which rendered it unfit for representation".
In April 1830, Scott further wrote of the play:
Plot
The ''Edinburgh Literary Journal'', in its review of the play, summarized the plot as follows:
Reception
The play was poorly received, with the ''Edinburgh Literary Journal'' suggesting that Scott should have thrown both ''Doom of Devorgoil'' and ''Auchindrane'' into the fire rather than publishing them.
The ''Journal'' reported that for both plays the plot was "exceedingly bare and meagre", and that ''Doom of Devorgoil'' was "in particular wofully deficient in interest", with a catastrophic event central to the plot "clumsily and abruptly brought about".
The ''Journal'' further stated that "
ne of the characters are well, or fully, drawn. The three females are positively disagreeable, for they are made to talk in a petulant and unbecoming manner, quite foreign to the gentleness usually belonging to their sex, and consequently effectually checking our interest in them".
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doom of Devorgoil, The
Works by Walter Scott
1830 plays