''The Conquest of Granada'' is a English Restoration, Restoration era stage play, a two-part tragedy written by John Dryden that was first acted in 1670 in literature, 1670 and 1671 in literature, 1671 and published in 1672 in literature, 1672. It is notable both as a defining example of the "heroic drama" pioneered by Dryden, and as the subject of later satire. The plot deals with the Spanish conquest of Granada in 1492 and the fall of Muhammad XII of Granada, the last Islamic ruler on the Iberian Peninsula.

Performance

The original 1670 production by the King's Company featured Edward Kynaston (actor), Edward Kynaston as "Mahomet Boabdelin, last King of Granada," Charles Hart (17th-century actor), Charles Hart as Almanzor, Nell Gwyn as Alimahide, Rebecca Marshall as Lyndaraxa, Elizabeth Boutell as Bezayda, Edward Lydall as Prince Abdalla, William Beeston as Ozmyn, Richard Bell (actor), Richard Bell as Duke of Arcos, Michael Mohun as Abdemelech, Martin Powell (actor), Martin Powell as Gomel, Marmaduke Watson as Hamet, William Cartwright (actor), William Cartwright as Abenamar, Elizabeth James as Isabella and William Wintershall as Selin. The Prologue to Part 1 was spoken in the theatre by Nell Gwyn. The play was revived in the early 1690s.

Genre

Dryden wrote the play in closed couplets of iambic pentameter. He proposed, in the ''Preface'' to the printed play, a new type of drama that celebrated heroic figures and actions in a metre and rhyme that emphasised the dignity of the action. Dryden's innovation is a notable turn in poetic diction in England, as he was attempting to find an English metre and vocabulary that could correspond to the ancient Latin heroic verse structure. The closed iambic couplet is, indeed, referred to as the "heroic couplet" (although couplets had certainly been used before, and with a heroic connotation, as Samuel Butler (1612-1680), Samuel Butler's parody in tetrameter couplets, ''Hudibras'' shows). As for subject matter, the hero of a heroic drama must demonstrate, Dryden said, the Classical virtues of strength and decisiveness. Inasmuch as the British Restoration stage was already under attack for the licentiousness of its comedies and the example set by its lewd actresses, Dryden was attempting to turn the tide to admirable subjects.

Plot

The play concerns the Battle of Granada, fought between the Moors and the Spanish people, Spanish, which led to the historic fall of Granada. The Spanish are kept generally in the background, and the action mainly concerns two factions of Moors, the Abencerrages and the Zegrys. The hero is Almanzor, who fights for the Moors. He falls in love with Almahide, who is engaged to Boabdil, Boabdelin, king of the Moors. She loves him, too, but she will not betray her vows to Boabdelin, and Boabdelin is torn between his jealousy and need for Almanzor. Almanzor and Almahide remain separated until the death of Boabdelin in the last act, when impediments are removed and the forbearing lovers can be united. There are two other crossed love plots in the play as well. Abdalla, brother of king Boabdelin, and Abdelmelich, the head of the Abencerrage faction, vie in love for the hand of Lyndaraxa, the sister of the leader of the Zegrys. Also, Ozmyn, a young Abencerrage man, loves Benzayda, a Zegry. It turns out during the play that Almanzor is the lost son of the Duke of Arcos, a Spaniard, but he fights for the Moors out of duty.

Satire

The fame of the play, the exceptional tangle of the plot, and especially the bombast of the speeches Almanzor makes, invited satire of ''The Conquest of Granada'' by other playwrights. One example is ''The Rehearsal (play), The Rehearsal'', written by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Henry Fielding, in ''Tragedy of Tragedies, or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great'' (1730 in literature, 1730) also takes aim at the silliness of some of ''The Conquest of Granada.'' For example, the lofty aims expressed in the "Preface" to Fielding's play seem mismatched to the material.

A modern assessment

"No one, not even Alexander Pope, is better than Dryden at driving narrative through rhyme, but the aural effect is like that of being pelted with a succession of pellets. When, as in ''The Conquest of Granada'', the pelting continues for ten acts, the impact is deafening."Peter Thomson, ''The Cambridge Introduction to English Theatre, 1660–1900'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006; p. 43.

References

External links

Cambridge Companion Discussion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conquest of Granada, The English Restoration plays 1670 plays Plays by John Dryden Tragedy plays West End plays Plays based on actual events Plays set in Spain Plays set in the 15th century