Mirandola: a Tragedy

Last updated
Mirandola: a Tragedy
Written by Barry Cornwall
Characters
  • John, duke of Mirandola
  • Guido, son of Giovanni
  • Isidora, duchess of Mirandola
  • Isabella, sister of Giovanni
  • Hypolito, son of Isabella
  • Casti and Julio, friends of Guido
  • Gheraldi, monk
  • Curio
  • Marco, innkeeper
  • Beatrice, wife of Marco
  • Pesaro, Andrea, Piero, nobles and servants
Date premieredJanuary 9, 1821 (1821-01-09)
Place premiered Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London
Original languageenglish
Genretragedy
Setting Mirandola, Italy

Mirandola: a Tragedy is a tragedy written by Barry Cornwall. It was staged in January 1821 at Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, London [1] played by William Charles Macready, Charles Kemble, and Miss Foote in the leading parts.

Contents

Even though it was crushed by critics to be too similar to other tragedies, including Filippo by Vittorio Alfieri, [2] the play achieved a great success among the audience, [3] so much so that it was repeated sixteen times. [4]

Plot

In the preamble of the tragedy, John, Duke of Mirandola, marries a lady named Isidora, who was initially betrothed to Guido, the Duke's son. According to the deception of the monk Gheraldi (one of the main conspirators of the conspiracy), who had reported Guido's death in battle, Isidora is induced to consent to the marriage with Duke John.

The first act therefore opens with Guido's unexpected return to Mirandola, impatient to claim the love of his betrothed and unaware of the plot that took place in his absence, since all the letters between father and son had been intercepted by the monk's machinations. Once the deception was discovered, feelings of jealousy and mistrust arose between the Duke and Guido, accentuated by the attitude of Isabella, the Duke's sister, who hoped to ensure her son's succession to the Duchy of Mirandola. With his arts and the help of the notorious monk, the Duke's passions are driven to madness: he discovers Isidora together with his son Guido, and in his jealous frenzy orders the young man to be put to death. Guido's friend, who breaks in with the intercepted letters he had accidentally recovered from Gheraldi, arrives too late to save him. Duke John then dies in an agony of repentance and passion, with Isabella's diabolical schemes crowned with success. Isidora's destiny is instead left to the imagination of the spectator.

Editions

Related Research Articles

Paul the Deacon

Paul the Deacon, also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefridus, Barnefridus, or Winfridus, and sometimes suffixed Cassinensis, was a Benedictine monk, scribe, and historian of the Lombards.

Italian unification Creation of the politically and administratively integrated nation of Italy

Italian unification, also known as the Risorgimento, was the 19th century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single state, the Kingdom of Italy. Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna, the unification process was precipitated by the revolutions of 1848, and reached completion in 1871, when Rome was officially designated the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

Cornwall is a county in the south west of England, UK.

Bryan Procter

Bryan Waller Procter was an English poet who served as a Commissioner in Lunacy.

John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath English Royalist soldier and statesman

John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath PC, of Stowe in the parish of Kilkhampton in Cornwall, was an English Royalist soldier and statesman during the Civil War who played a major role in the 1660 Restoration of the Monarchy and was later appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was the first in his family to adopt the modernised spelling as Granville of their ancient surname Grenville, which emphasised their supposed ancient 11th-century origin from the Normandy manor of Granville, Manche.

Virginia de Medici Duchess of Modena and Reggio

Virginia de' Medici was an Italian princess, a member of the House of Medici and by marriage Duchess of Modena and Reggio.

John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall 14th-century English prince and nobleman

John of Eltham, 1st Earl of Cornwall was the second son of Edward II of England and Isabella of France. He was heir presumptive to the English throne until the birth of his nephew Edward, the Black Prince.

Beatrice of Portugal, Duchess of Savoy Duchess consort of Savoy

Infanta Beatrice of Portugal was Duchess of Savoy by marriage to Charles III, Duke of Savoy. She was the Sovereign Countess of Asti from 1531 to 1538.

Kingdom of the Lombards

The Kingdom of the Lombards also known as the Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy, was an early medieval state established by the Lombards, a Germanic people, on the Italian Peninsula in the latter part of the 6th century. The king was traditionally elected by the highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes, which were in turn subdivided into gastaldates at the municipal level. The capital of the kingdom and the center of its political life was Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of Lombardy.

<i>The Duchess of Padua</i>

The Duchess of Padua is a play by Oscar Wilde. It is a five-act melodramatic tragedy set in Padua and written in blank verse. It was written for the actress Mary Anderson in early 1883 while in Paris. After she turned it down, it was abandoned until its first performance at the Broadway Theatre in New York City under the title Guido Ferranti on 26 January 1891, where it ran for three weeks. It has been rarely revived or studied.

Gundoin was the first Duke of Alsace in the middle of the seventh century. He was a Frankish nobleman from the Meuse-Moselle basin. He was, according to the author of the Vita Sadalbergae, an "illustrious man, opulent in wealth and fame according to the highest secular dignity and skilled in courtly affairs."

These are the films directed by the pioneering American filmmaker D. W. Griffith (1875–1948). According to the Internet Movie Database, he directed 518 films between 1908 and 1931.

Archduchess Isabella Clara of Austria Duchess of Mantua and Montferrat

Isabella Clara of Austria, was a Duchess consort of Mantua, Montferrat, Nevers, Mayenne and Rethel by marriage to Charles II, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat.

Maria Foote

Maria Stanhope, Countess of Harrington (1797?-1867), better known as Maria Foote, was a British actress and peeress in the nineteenth century.

Pomponio Torelli

Pomponio Torelli was Count of Montechiarugolo and a writer of prose, poetry and plays. He is principally remembered for his five tragedies.

Francesco Fiorentino was an Italian philosopher and historiographer.

Rosario Romeo was a leading historian of the Italian Risorgimento and of Italian modern history more generally. His best-known work is probably the wide-ranging and substantial biography of Cavour, of which the third volume appeared only in 1984, following a gestation period, according to at least one source, of nearly thirty years.

Edoardo Matania

Edoardo or Eduardo Matania was an Italian painter and illustrator, depicting detailed penciled portraits; and genre, patriotic and historic scenes.

Castle of the Pico Historic building in Mirandola, Italy

The Castle of the Pico is a castle in the city center of Mirandola, in the province of Modena, Italy.

Santa Maria Bianca Hospital Hospital in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Santa Maria Bianca Hospital is a community hospital located in Mirandola, in the province of Modena, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

References

  1. John Ford (2002). "Appendix 4: Love's Sacrifice and Mirandola". In A.T. Moore (ed.). Love's Sacrifice. Manchester University Press. p. 300. ISBN   9780719015571.
  2. Atti del Congresso di storia del Risorgimento italiano (in Italian). 47. Regio Istituto per la storia del Risorgimento italiano. 1976. p. 351.
  3. "Mr Bryan Waller Procter – "Barry Cornwall"". The Athenaeum (245 0). British Periodicals Limited. 1874-10-10. p. 481.
  4. "Barry Cornwall". The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art. Vol. 26-89. Leavitt, Trow, & Company. July 1877. p. 62.

See also