The Dynasts is an English-language closet drama in verse and prose by Thomas Hardy. Hardy himself described this work as "an epic-drama of the war with Napoleon, in three parts, nineteen acts and one hundred and thirty scenes". Not counting the Forescene and the Afterscene, the exact total number of scenes is 131. The verse is primarily iambic pentameter, occasionally tetrameter, and often with rhymes.[1] The three parts were published in 1904, 1906 and 1908.
Because of the ambition and scale of the work, Hardy acknowledged that The Dynasts was not a work that could be conventionally staged in the theatre, and described the work as "the longest English drama in existence". Scholars have noted that Hardy remembered war stories of the veterans of the Napoleonic wars in his youth, and used them as partial inspiration for writing The Dynasts many years later in his own old age. In addition, Hardy was a distant relative of Captain Thomas Hardy, who had served with Admiral Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar.[1][2] Hardy consulted a number of histories and also visited Waterloo, Belgium, as part of his research.[3]
George Orwell wrote that Hardy had "set free his genius" by writing this drama and thought its main appeal was "in the grandiose and rather evil vision of armies marching and counter-marching through the mists, and men dying by hundreds of thousands in the Russian snows, and all for absolutely nothing."[4]
Synopsis
In addition to the various historical figures, The Dynasts also contains an extensive tragic chorus of metaphysical figures ("Spirits" and "Ancient Spirits") who observe and discuss the events.
Part First contains a Forescene and six Acts with 35 Scenes. The time period of the events in Part First covers 10 months, from March 1805, the time when Napoleon repeated his coronation ceremony at Milan and took up the crown of Lombardy, through January 1806, the time of the death of William Pitt the Younger. The principal historical events entail Napoleon's invasion plans for England, which are abandoned when French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve sails for the south, the Battle of Trafalgar, and subsequently the Battle of Ulm and the Battle of Austerlitz. The division of the Acts and its Scenes is as follows:
Fore Scene. The Overworld
Act First:
Scene I. England – A Ridge in Wessex
Scene II. Paris – Office of the Minister of Marine
Scene III. London – The Old House of Commons
Scene IV. The Harbour of Boulogne
Scene V. London – The House of a Lady of Quality
Scene VI. Milan. The Cathedral
Act Second:
Scene I. The Dockyard, Gibraltar
Scene II. Off Ferrol
Scene III. The Camp and Harbour of Boulogne
Scene IV. South Wessex – A Ridge-like Down near the Coast
Scene V. The Same – Rainbarrows' Beacon, Egdon Heath
Act Third:
Scene I. The Chateau at Pont-de-Briques
Scene II. The Frontiers of Upper Austria and Bavaria
Scene III. Boulogne – The St Omer Road
Act Fourth:
Scene I. King George's Watering-place, South Wessex
Scene II. Before the City of Ulm
Scene III. Ulm – Within the City
Scene IV. Before Ulm – The Same Day
Scene V. The Same – The Michaelsberg
Scene VI. London – Spring Gardens
Act Fifth:
Scene I. Off Cape Trafalgar
Scene II. The Same – The Quarter-deck of the "Victory"
Scene III. The Same – On Board the "Bucentaure"
Scene IV. The Same – The Cockpit of the "Victory"
Scene V. London – The Guildhall
Scene VI. An Inn at Rennes
Scene VII. King George's Watering-place, South Wessex
Act Sixth:
Scene I. The Field of Austerlitz – The French Position
Scene II. The Same – The Russian Position
Scene III. The Same – The French Position
Scene IV. The Same – The Russian Position
Scene V. The Same – Near the Windmill of Paleny
Scene VI. Shockerwick House, near Bath
Scene VII. Paris – A Street leading to the Tuileries
Scene VIII. Putney – Bowling Green House
Part Second contains six Acts with 43 Scenes. The time period of the events of Part Second ranges over 7 years, from 1806 to just before the French invasion of Russia in 1812. The listing of the Acts and Scenes is as follows:
Act First:
Scene I. London – Fox's Lodgings, Arlington Street
Scene II. The Route between London and Paris
Scene III. The Streets of Berlin
Scene IV. The Field of Jena
Scene V. Berlin – A Room overlooking a Public Place
Scene VI. The Same
Scene VII. Tilsit and the River Niemen
Scene VIII. The Same
Act Second:
Scene I. The Pyrenees and Valleys adjoining
Scene II. Aranjuez, near Madrid – A Room in the Palace of Godoy, the "Prince of Peace"
Scene III. London – The Marchioness of Salisbury's
Scene IV. Madrid and its Environs
Scene V. The Open Sea between the English Coasts and the Spanish Peninsula
Scene VI. St Cloud – The Boudoir of Josephine
Scene VII. Vimiero
Act Third:
Scene I. Spain – A Road near Astorga
Scene II. The Same
Scene III. Before Coruna
Scene IV. Coruna – Near the Ramparts
Scene V. Vienna – A Cafe in the Stephans-Platz
Act Fourth:
Scene I. A Road out of Vienna
Scene II. The Island of Lobau, with Wagram beyond
Scene III. The Field of Wagram
Scene IV. The Field of Talavera
Scene V. The Same
Scene VI. Brighton – The Royal Pavilion
Scene VII. The Same
Scene VIII. Walcheren
Act Fifth:
Scene I. Paris – A Ballroom in the House of Cambaceres
Scene II. Paris – The Tuileries
Scene III. Vienna – A Private Apartment in the Imperial Palace
Scene IV. London – A Club in St. James's Street
Scene V. The old West Highway out of Vienna
Scene VI. Courcelles
Scene VII. Petersburg – The Palace of the Empress-Mother
Scene VIII. Paris – The Grand Gallery of the Louvre and the Salon-Carre adjoining
Act Sixth:
Scene I. The Lines of Torres Vedras
Scene II. The Same – Outside the Lines
Scene III. Paris – The Tuileries
Scene IV. Spain – Albuera
Scene V. Windsor Castle – A Room in the King's Apartments
Scene VI. London – Carlton House and the Streets adjoining
Scene VII. The Same – The Interior of Carlton House
Part Third contains seven Acts with 53 Scenes, and an After Scene. The historical time period of Part Third covers Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 through his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The division of the Acts and Scenes is as follows:
Act First:
Scene I. The Banks of the Niemen, near Kowno
Scene II. The Ford of Santa Marta, Salamanca
Scene III. The Field of Salamanca
Scene IV. The Field of Borodino
Scene V. The Same
Scene VI. Moscow
Scene VII. The Same – Outside the City
Scene VIII. The Same – The Interior of the Kremlin
Scene IX. The Road from Smolensko into Lithuania
Scene X. The Bridge of the Beresina
Scene XI. The Open Country between Smorgoni and Wilna
Scene XII. Paris – The Tuileries
Act Second:
Scene I. The Plain of Vitoria
Scene II. The Same, from the Puebla Heights
Scene III. The Same – The Road from the Town
Scene IV. A Fete at Vauxhall Gardens
Act Third:
Scene I. Leipzig – Napoleon's Quarters in the Reudnitz Suburb
Scene II. The Same – The City and the Battlefield
Scene III. The Same – from the Tower of the Pleissenburg
Scene III. The Same – The Apartments of the Empress
Scene IV. Fontainebleau – A Room in the Palace
Scene V. Bayonne – The British Camp
Scene VI. A Highway in the Outskirts of Avignon
Scene VII. Malmaison – The Empress Josephine's Bedchamber
Scene VIII. London – The Opera-House
Act Fifth:
Scene I. Elba – The Quay, Porto Ferrajo
Scene II. Vienna – The Imperial Palace
Scene III. La Mure, near Grenoble
Scene IV. Schonbrunn
Scene V. London – The Old House of Commons
Scene VI. Wessex – Durnover Green, Casterbridge
Act Sixth:
Scene I. The Belgian Frontier
Scene II. A Ballroom in Brussels
Scene III. Charleroi – Napoleon's Quarters
Scene IV. A Chamber overlooking a Main Street in Brussels
Scene V. The Field of Ligny
Scene VI. The Field of Quatre-Bras
Scene VII. Brussels – The Place Royale
Scene VIII. The Road to Waterloo
Act Seventh:
Scene I. The Field of Waterloo
Scene II. The Same – The French Position
Scene III. Saint Lambert's Chapel Hill
Scene IV. The Field of Waterloo – The English Position
Scene V. The Same – The Women's Camp near Mont Saint-Jean
Scene VI. The Same – The French Position
Scene VII. The Same – The English Position
Scene VIII. The Same – Later
Scene IX. The Wood of Bossu
After Scene. The Overworld
Analysis
The design of The Dynasts is extremely ambitious, and because of its coverage of historical events of the same era, has received comparison to Tolstoy's War and Peace. Emma Clifford has written that Hardy used Tolstoy's novel as one of many sources of inspiration for the work, and in fact owned an early translation. However, it was not necessarily as a primary source, as Hardy also drew on the History of Europe by Archibald Alison, among others.[5]
Hardy juxtaposes scenes of ordinary life with scenes involving the principal historical figures of the age, and concentrating on their desire to found dynasties to preserve their power. There are extensive descriptions of landscape and battle scenes that are characterised by shifts of visual perspective that, in the opinion of John Wain,[6] anticipate cinematic techniques. George Witter Sherman has postulated on Hardy's observations of life in London as influences on elements of The Dynasts.[7] Elna Sherman has discussed Hardy's references to music and songs in the work.[8] Anna Henchman has written about Hardy's use of imagery in the manner of astronomical observation at great distances from the earth in this work.[9] Lawrence Jones has analysed Hardy's idiosyncrasies in his manner of narrative in The Dynasts.[10] J.O. Bailey has postulated an analogy of the Spirits in The Dynasts with other Mephistopheles-like figures in literature, and in relation to the Book of Job.[11]
References
^ abHynes, Samuel (Spring 1994). "Mr. Hardy's Monster: Reflections on The Dynasts". The Sewanee Review. 102 (2): 213–232. JSTOR27546849.
^Dickinson, Thomas H (April 1912). "Thomas Hardy's The Dynasts". The North American Review. 195 (677): 526–542. JSTOR25119738.
