Resumen de John Bancroft's "Henry II" and the humanization of Restoration tragedy
It is a critical commonplace that the tragedy of the late Restoration period represents the transitional step towards the bourgeois drama of the eighteenth century: self-reliance gradually displaces the pathetic passivity of earlier works. An analysis of John Bancroft's "Henry II, King of England; with the Death of Rosamond" (1693) can illustrate the strategies at work in this change, and the way they affected characterization and plot. The male heroes of traditional heroic drama and the courageous martyrs of Restoration "she-tragedies" stand for totally opposed views on human nature and socio-political realities alike; however, they share a fundamental idealization at their core. Conversely, Bancroft's work is a fine example of the way in which drama during the nineties evolved towards a more humanized presentation of the characters. Although the protagonists in Henry II seem to respond to archetypes in characterization traditional since the Popish Plot at least, they are portrayed as individuals, not as political allegories. Bancroft¿s characters are more credible and complex than their theatrical forerunners since the motives of their actions are a fundamental part of the intricacies of the plot. This change, which would shape eighteenth-century drama, is linked to a wave of scepticism in an age when old ideals were being discarded in order to forge a new political consciousness.
