(C) The Melodrama
The melodrama is a debased tragedy in which sensational scenes of violence, cruelty, murders, bloodshed and physical atrocities predominate. The whole play appears unnatural and repulsive. The
villain largely controls the plot in a melodrama. The hero or the heroine is more puppets in the hands of the villains. These plays came in the post - Elizabethan era in the hands of such dramatists as Webster, Ford, Fletcher, Massinger, Heywood and such others. There are sometimes the famous of the villain. These plays came from melodramatic tragedies of famous dramatists like Marlowe and Shakespeare.
SOME IMPORTANT MELODRAMAS
| sn.n2o | Titles of Melodramas | Dramatists |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Maid's Tragedy | John Fletcher |
| 2 | The White Devils; The Devils' Law Case; The Duchess of Malfi | John Webster |
| 3 | The Broken Heart; The Lover's Melancholy; Love's Sacrifice | John Ford |
| 4 | The City Madam; The Duke of Milan | Philip Massinger |
| 5 | A Woman Killed with Kindness; The English Traveller; The Captives | Thomas Heywood |
| 6 | A King and No King; The Night of the Burning Pestle | Francis Beaumont |
(D) The Tragi-Comedy
A Tragi-Comedy is a distinct form of drama. It is an artistic combination of both the tragedy and the comedy. It begins with a tragedy and develops as a tragedy to the point of climax, Thereafter a happy turn takes place and the play ends in a happy denouement. However, the mingling of the two in the form of a tragic-comedy was not acceptable by some critics. They called it a mongrel breed of tragedy and comedy. 'Philip Sidney' who was the leader of these critics, says that tragi-comedies are "neither right tragedies nor right comedies but mongrel breed of the two." Addison called it "One of the most monstrous inventions that ever entered into a poet's thought."
SOME IMPORTANT TRAGI-COMEDIES
| Sn. No | Title of Tragi-Comedies | Authors |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Merchant of Venice; The Tempest; The Winter's Tale; Cymbeline. | William Shakespeare |
| 2 | A King And No King | Beaumont & Fletcher |
| 3 | The Faithful Shepherdess Philaster | John Fletcher |
| 4 | A New Way to Pay Old Debt | Philip Massinger |
OBJECTIVE TYPE OF QUESTIONS
1.Which of the following plays is not written by Thomas Heywood :
(a) The Broken Heart
(b) The English Traveller
(c) A Woman Killed with Kindness
(d) The Captives
2.In which of the following plays does Lysippus appear as a leading character?
(a) The White Devil
(b) Tispity She's a work
(c) The English Traveller
(d) The Maid's Tragedy
3.Which of the following plays of Marlowe has the maximum number of melodramatic:
(a) Edward II
(b) Dr Faustus
(c) The Jew of Malta
(d) Tamburlaine the Great
4.A melodrama is a :
(a) A play which evokes ludicrous situations
(b) A play which has a predominance of
violence and heinous crimes
(c) Ripe drama with a predominance of pity
(d) A play which has a predominance of irony
5.Which one of the following is not written by John Ford?
(a) The Broken Heart
(b) The White Devil
(c) Love's Sacrifice
(d) The Lover's Melancholy
6.The hero and heroine in a melodrama are the puppets in the hands of the :
(a) All of these
(b) Fate
(c) Villain
(d) Director
7.Which of the following plays is not written by Webster?
(a) The Duke of Milan
(b) The Duchess of Malfi
(c) The White Devil
(d) The Devil's Law Case
8.Which one of the following is a melodrama ?
(a) She Would If She Could
(b) The Way of the World
(c) The Broken Heart
(d) Loyalties
9."Never was a war did cease, Ere bloody hands were washed with such a peace." These are the concluding lines of tragi-comedy of Shakespeare. Which of these :
(a) As You Like It
(b) Cymbeline
(c) The Winter's Tale
(d) The Merchant of Venice
10.The author of the Faithful Shepherdess is :
(a) Shakespeare
(b) Beaumont
(c)John Fletcher
(d) Philip Massinger
11.Which of the following Shakespearean plays is a tragicomedy :
(a) Coriolanus
(b) Much Ado About Nothing
(c) Timons of Athens
(d) Cymbeline
12.Name the hèro in "The Tempest" :
(a) Ariel
(b) Prospero
(c) Ferdinand
(d) None of these
13.Who has written A King or No King' ?
(a) Philip Massinger
(b) Beaumont and Fletcher
(c) John Fletcher
(d) John Ford
14.A tragi-comedy is:
(a) A romantic play which ends in a tragedy
(b) A play in which tragic and comic scenes are evenly distributed
(c) A comic play which ends in a tragedy
(d) A tragic play which ends in a comedy
15....................turns the Merchant of Venice' into a comedy ?
(a) Bassanio
(b) Portia
(c) Antonio
(d) Jessica
16.Ariel' turns one of the tragic plays into a comedy. Identify that play from the following:
(a) The Merchant of Venice
(b) The Tempest
(c) The Winter's Tale
(d) Cymbeline
17.A tragi-comedy ends into a :
(a) Peripeteia
(b) Climax
(c) Denouement
(d) Epilogue
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