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gillothen's review
3.0
One of Beaumont and Fletcher's earlier collaborations and it shows - Fletcher is not yet quite into his stride. The tone is a little odd too - everyone dies, which makes it a tragedy, but it's full of comic moments and feels more like the tragicomedies they were to become so well-known for.
The play seems to have been remarkably popular during the first half of its century, published several times and performed at Court on numerous occasions, even as late as the reign of Charles I. The central female character, Bacha, starts as apparently a wronged widow, seduced by the Prince who has no plan to marry her, but develops into a powerful, albeit evil, woman, who manipulates everyone around her in order to secure the throne (or duchy - it's not at all clear) for her daughter, who rejects it and forms one of the impressive corpse count by the end.
Read as part of the REP online readathon of the repertoire of the Jacobean Children's Companies.
The play seems to have been remarkably popular during the first half of its century, published several times and performed at Court on numerous occasions, even as late as the reign of Charles I. The central female character, Bacha, starts as apparently a wronged widow, seduced by the Prince who has no plan to marry her, but develops into a powerful, albeit evil, woman, who manipulates everyone around her in order to secure the throne (or duchy - it's not at all clear) for her daughter, who rejects it and forms one of the impressive corpse count by the end.
Read as part of the REP online readathon of the repertoire of the Jacobean Children's Companies.
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