Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Aureng-Zebe

One thing that struck me about Aureng-Zebe:
Despite it's direct invocation of Tamburlaine (Aureng-Zebe and Morat being described as his spiritual descendants, wanting to conquer much) the scale and focus of the production seems much different. Dryden takes as his setting the Middle East but it is only a backdrop for the political and romantic maneuvering and backstabbing that goes on within a small geographical area.
Even the majority of the best dialogue is more focused on this aim: repudiations of outspokenly loud declarations of virtue, "life is but a cheat", "bounding of wishes" etc.
The point I guess I'm making is that it seems Dryden would have this play be a spiritual descendant of the type of Middle Eastern kingmaking we see in Tamburlaine, but he is only nominally concerned with his setting, rather, his energy is more focused on the language of his drama. I like it.

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