Dryden's Exemplary Drama

A Study of: The Indian Queen, The Conquest of Granada, Aureng-Zebe, All for Love, Oedipus, and Don Sebastian

written as a senior thesis, as an English major at Yale, course = English 91, May 1, 1969, advisor: Eugene Waith
edited for posting on the Web in October 2001 to April 2002

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim electronic copies of this essay for non-commercial purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. This essay has not yet been published in paper form. You can contact the author directly: Richard Seltzer, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. seltzer@samizdat.com

• Preface
• Introduction
• The Indian Emperor or the Conquest of Mexico
• Almanzor and Almahide or the Conquest of Granada
• Aureng-Zebe
• The Changing Hero
• All for Love or The World Well Lost
• Oedipus
• Footnotes
• Other Critical Works Consulted

Preface

"Certain it is that Nature is the same, and Man is the same: He loves, grieves, hates, envies, has the same affections and passions in both places, and the same springs that give them motion. What mov'd pity there will here also produce the same effect." (Thomas Rymer, Tragedies of the Last Age)¹

Rymer had to explain why the plays of Fletcher, about which he was primarily writing, were extremely popular in 1678 despite the fact that they did not follow Aristotle's rules. Rymer contended that it was not the plays as Fletcher wrote them that pleased audiences, but rather that they pleased "upon account of Machines, actors, Dancers, and circumstances which are merely accidental to the Tragedy." (Spingarn, II, 184).

An over-emphasis on the rules leads to absurdities of critical judgment, leads on away from the initial assumption that a play should be judged on the basis of the effects it produces. A poor playwright strictly following the rules can produce a poor play, and a Shakespeare breaking those same rules can produce a great play. From this at least two conclusions can be drawn:

• Shakespeare wrote great plays despite the fact that he broke the rules; but they would have been even better had he followed the rules.
• The greatness of his plays is due to an organic, rather than a formal unity; their greatness would be impaired by any attempt to revise them to make them follow formal rules.

Except for that conclusion in favor of rules, many would now agree with Rhyme's assumptions. For over two hundred years, Dryden's dramas have not been popular. They fail to move audiences. The conclusion arrived at is that their ephemeral popularity, depended like many Broadway hits, on "Machines, actors, Dancers, and circumstances where are merely accidental to the Tragedy."

Dryden is quite frequently in agreement with Rymer. In his prefaces, he discusses how well he has adhered to the rules and where a rule is broken, he explains what beauty or delight has been gained at the rule's expense. His critical opinions were in continual flux: he broke the rules with greater audacity in his early plays than in his later ones. But he seems to have taken the rules into account as guidelines throughout his career. He revised The Tempest (1667) along with Davenant, and Antony and Cleopatra (1677) and Troilus and Cressida (1679) on his own, bringing them into greater accord with the rules. However, Dryden disagreed with one of Rymer's fundamental assumptions:

21) And one reason of that success [of Rollo, A King and No King, and The Maid's Tragedy in particular, and, in general, of plays which depart from the rules] is, in my opinion, this, that Shakespeare and Fletcher have written to the genius of the age and nation in which they lived; for tho' nature, as he objects, is the same in all places and reason too the same, yet the climate, the age, the dispositions of the people to whom a poet writes may be so different that what pleased the Greeks would not satisfy an English audience.
22) And if they proceeded upon a foundation of truer reason to please the Athenians than Shakespeare and Fletcher to please the English, it only shows that the Athenians were a more judicious people; but the poet's business is certainly to please the audience. ("Heads to an Answer to Rymer", 1677)²

This paper is in basic agreement with Dryden's notion of shifting tastes. Though the nature of man does not change, what man expects to find in a work of art does change. A work that does not operate in accord with the current conception of what is good literature will be considered bad literature until popular taste shifts again in its favor.

Metaphysical poetry went through a relatively recent resurrection, and it is conceivable that Dryden's drama may one day have similar good fortune.

But despite shifts in taste, the nature of man has remained constant within the range of written history. Therefore, if one can determine the contemporary assumptions on which Dryden's dramas are based, it should be possible to acquire a taste for these dramas.

We will try to identify those assumptions by considering criticisms and justifications of drama in Dryden's time, and the nature of the audience Dryden tried to please. Then we will consider in detail The Indian Emperor (1665), The Conquest of Granada (1670), Aureng-Zebe (1675), All for Love (1677), Oedipus (1678), and Don Sebastian (1689), focusing attention on their structure, trying to establish a basis for appreciating such works and judging their merit on their own terms.

Perhaps the Parson stretch'd a point too far,
when with our Theatres he wag'd a War.
-- Epilogue to Vanbrugh's The Pilgrim, 1700³

He therefore that undertakes an Heroick Poem, which is to exhibit a venerable and amiable Image of Heroick vertue, must not only be the Poet, to place and connect, but also the Philosopher, to furnish and square his matter, that is, to make both Body and Soul, colour and shadow of his Poem out of his own Store: which how well you have performed I am now considering.
-- Thomas Hobbes, "Answer to Davenant's Preface to Gondibert, 1650, in Spingarn, II, 60

Introduction

In his History of the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge (1667), Thomas Sprat outlined the purpose of the Society:
 

"... to make faithful Records, of all the Works of Nature, or Art, which can come within their reach: that so the present Age, and posterity, may be able to put a mark mark on the Errors, which have been strengthened by long prescription: to restore the Truths, that have lain neglected: to push on these, which are already known, to more various uses: and to make a way more passable, to what remains unreveal'd. This is the compass of their Design. And to accomplish this, they have indeavor'd, to separate the knowledge of Nature, from the colours of Rhetorick, the devices of Fancy, or the delightful deceit of Fables." ⁴

"But how are poetical fictions, how are hippocentaurs and chimeras, or how are angels and immaterial substances to be imaged; which, some of them, are things quite out of nature; others, such whereof we can have no notion? This is the last refuge of our adversaries; and more than any of them have yet had the wit to object against us. The answer is easy to the first part of it; the fiction of some beings which are not in nature (second notions, as the logicians call them) has been founded on the conjunction of two natures, which have a real separate being... And poets may be allowed the like liberty for describing things which really exist not, if they are founded on popular belief." (Ker, I 186-187) ⁵

"You are not obliged, as in History, to a literal belief of what the poet says; but you are pleased with the image, without being cozened by the fiction." (Ker, I, 185)

William Prynne's Histriomastrix: or the Actor's Tragedie ⁶ (1633) is a compendium of Puritan arguments on the immorality of drama. This work seems to have had a dual purpose:

• To awaken true Believers to the moral dangers of attending, or acting in plays;
• To convince those in power that it is to the benefit of the State to suppress drama, and if that should fail, to discredit a ruling power that sanctioned drama.

"As long as we know our selves to be flesh beholding those examples in Theaters which are incident to flesh, we are taught by other men's examples how to fall. And they that come honest to a Play may depart infected." (pp. 360-361)

"It is evident that by Saint Augustine's resolution: that State-playes incurably vitiate and desperately corrupt, if not subvert mens manners; and so bring ruine to the State that suffers them... (p. 475)

What are they but the very filth, the crosse, the scumme of the Societies and places where they live? the very Mothes, the Drones and Cankerwormes of the Common-weale? the shame and blemish of Religion? the most putred, scandalous, noxious, and degenerate branches both of Church and State, which should be spued out, be lopped off from both, had they their just demerits?" (p. 145)

"... it is most evident: that it hath been alwayes a most infamous thing for Kings and Emperours to act Playes or Masques either in private or publike; or to sing, or dance upon a Stage or theatre; or to delight in Playes and Actors." (p. 858)

The Puritans, enemies of both Court and Stage, closed the theaters from 1642 to 1660. In exile in Paris, Davenant, playwright and author of the last of the Caroline masques, formulated a theory of the proper relation between Court and poetry, a theory which seems in direct response to criticisms like Prynne's.

Davenant quotes Plato's Republic:

"If any Man, having ability to imitate what he pleases, imitate in his Poem both good and evil, let him be reverenc'd as a sacred and admirable, and pleasant Person; but be it likewise known, he must have no place in our Common-wealth. And yet before his banishment he allows him the honor of a Diadem, and sweet Odours to anoint his head; and afterwards says: Let us make use of more profitable, though more severe and less pleasant Poets, who can imitate that which is for the honor and benefit of the Common-wealth." (Preface to Gondibert, 1650, Spingarn, II, p. 52)

"Thus we have first observ'd the Four chief aids of Government: Religion, Armes, Policy, and Law, defectively apply'd, and then we have found them weak by an emulous war amongst themselves: it follows next we should introduce to strengthen those principal aids (still making the people our direct object) some collateral help, which I will safely presume to consist in Poesy." (Spingarn, II, p. 44)

"I may now believe I have usefully taken from the Courts and Camps the patterns of such as will be fit to be imitated by the most necessary men; and the most necessary men are those who become principall by prerogative of blood, which is seldom unassisted with education, or by greatnesse of minde which in exact definition is Vertue. The common crowd, of whom we are hopelesse, we desert, being rather to be corrected by laws, where precept is accompanied with punishment, then to be taught by Poesy; for few have arriv'd at the skill of Orpheus or at his good fortune, whom we may suppose to have met with extraordinary Grecian Beasts, when so successfully he reclaim'd them with his Harp. Nor is it needfull that Heroick Poesy should be levell'd to the reach of Common men: for if the examples it presents prevail upon their Chiefs, the delight of IMitation (which we hope we have prov'd to be as effectuall to good as to evil) will rectify, by the rules which those Chiefs establish of their own lives, the lives of all that behold them; for the example of life doth as much surpasse the force of Precept as Life doth exceed Death." (Spingarn, II, p. 14)

Hobbes, in his answer to Davenant's preface, characterizes "Court, City, and Country" in such a way that the social differences are also moral differences, with the Court as the most morally elevated section of society. He divides poetry into genres on the basis of which of these "three Regions of mankinde" serves the poet as pattern for his characters.

"As Philosophers have divided the Universe, their subject, into three Regions: Celestiall, Aeriall, and Terrestriall, so the Poets (whose worke it is, by imitating humane life in delightful and measur'd lines, to avert men from vice and incline them to vertuous and honorable actions) have lodg'd themselves in the three Regions of mankinde: Court, City, and Country, correspondent in some proportion to those three Regions of the World. For, there is in Princes and men of conspicuous power, anciently called Heroes, a lustre and influence upon the rest of men resembling that of the Heavens; and an insincereness, inconstancy, and troublesome humor of those that dwell in populous Cities, lie the mobility, blustring, and impurity of the Aire; and a plainness, and though dull, yet a nutritive faculty in rurall people, that endures a comparison wit the Earth they labour.

"From hence have proceeded three sorts of Poesy: Heroique, Scommatique, and Pastorall. Every one of these is distinguished again in the manner of Representation, which sometimes is Narrative, wherein the Poet himself relateth, and sometimes Dramatique, as when the persons are every one adorned and brought upon the Theater to speak and act their own parts. There is therefore neither more nor less than six sorts of Poesy. For the Heroique Poem narrative, such as is yours [i.e., Davenant's Gondibert] is called an Epique Poem. The Heroique Poem Dramatique is Tragedy. The Scommatique Narrative is Satyre, Dramatique is Comedy. The Pastorall narrative is called simply Pastorall, anciently Bucolique; the same Dramatique, Pastorall Comedy. The Figure therefore of an Epique Poem and of a Tragedy ought to be the same, for they differ no more but in that they are pronounced by one or many Persons." (Spingarn, II, p. 54-55)

In his dedication to the Siege of Rhodes Davenant sums up his effort, as a response to religious criticism, to ennoble drama:

Dramatic poetry meets with the same persecution now, from such who esteem themselves the most rein'd and civil, as it ever did from the barbarous. And yet whilst those virtuous enemies deny Heroic Plays to the gentry, they entertain the people with a seditious Farce of their won counterfeit gravity. But I hope you will not be unwilling to receive (in this poetical dress) neither the beieg'd nor the besiegers, since they come without their vices: for as others have purg'd the stage from corruptions of the art of the drama, so I have endeavour'd to cleanse it from corruptions of manners; nor have I wanted to care to render the ideas of greatness and virtue pleasing and familiar." ⁸

"... Poets, while they imitate, instruct. The feign'd Heroe inflames the true; and the dead vertue animates the living. Since, therefore, the world is govern'd by precept and Example; and both these can only have influence from those persons who are above us, that kind of Poesy which excites to vertue the greatest men, is of greatest use to human kind." (p. 15)

"... an Heroick Play ought to be an imitation, in little of an Heroick Poem." (p. 20)

"The first of these heroic dedications makes a noteworthy point: "The favour which heroic plays have lately found upon our theatres, has been wholly derived to them from the countenance and approbation they have received at court. The most eminent persons for wit and honour in the royal circles having so far owned them, that they have judged no way so fit as verse to entertain a noble audience, or to express a noble passion..." (Indian Emperor II, 285). There is nothing new in the idea that Dryden addressed his plays to a courtly audience, but not enough has been made of the significance of his emphasis upon the fitness of the plays for his audience... Ideally, the spectators in the theater would also possess the heroic inclinations which he ascribes to his patrons, and in fact they may often have been as nobly inclined as the actual persons to whom Dryden dedicated the plays. As to the readers, the dedication shows them clearly enough what sentiments they are expect to have, and  puts them in the position of measuring up to the author's expectations. In the dedications, then, Dryden is creating an ideal audience. The noble characters there, as we have seen, are almost as much his creations as are the heroes of this plays, and all are cut from the same cloth." ⁹

Dryden makes explicit this logic behind his idealized portraits of court figures in his poem "To His Sacred Majesty: A Panegyric on His Coronation." (1661):

"No promise can oblige a price so much
Still to be good, as long as have been such.
A noble emulation heats our breast,
And your own fame now robs you of your rest:
Good actions still must be maintain'd with good,
As bodies nourish'd with resembling food." (1. 73-78) ¹⁰

During this brief survey of the relation between science and poetry, Court and Stage in the Restoration, several assumptions have appeared that are significant in the structure of the pays we are about to consider:

• There is a moral as well as a social hierarchy of man; and, presumably, in an ideal society, these hierarchies coincide: the common crowd is relatively depraved and the Court relatively virtuous.
• Poetry is meant to instruct as well as delight.
• Man learns by the example of those higher than himself socially and/or morally.
• Only a Hero is capable of learning from the example of the sort of Hero represented in these plays.

The Indian Emperor or The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards (1665), being the Sequel of The Indian Queen

We are presented with three heroic characters: Montezuma, Cortez, and Guyomar. Montezuma was the principal hero of The Indian Queen, (1664, by Sir Robert Howard and Dryden), the play of which The Indian Emperor is the sequel. In the twenty years which Dryden tells us have intervened, Montezuma has become an old emperor, similar to the old Ynca he once opposed. Cortez in many ways resembles the Montezuma of the earlier play. Guyomar, son of Montezuma, is a virtuous admiring friend of Cortez.

The theme is first stated in the opening scene. The "pleasant Indian Country" inspires Cortez with hopes of a new life in this new world:

On what new Happy Climate are we thrown,
So long kept secret, and so lately known?
As if our old world modestly withdrew,
and here, in private, had brought forth a new!

Corn, Wine and Oyl are wanting to this Ground,
In which our Countries fruitfully abound:
... all untaught and salvage does appear.

Wild and untaught are Terms which we alone
Invent, for fashions differing from our own...

Pizarro points out that Spain is far from being Paradise:

In Spain our Springs, like Old Mens children, be
Decay'd and wither'd from their Infancy:
No kindly Showers fall on our barren earth
To hatch the seasons in a timely birth.

Cortez is disillusioned with the Old World and so seeks the New and hopes to find it, compared with Spain, a sort of Paradise:

...The Sun no Climat does so gladly see:
When forc'd from hence, to view your parts, he mourns;
Takes little journies, and makes quick returns.

Methinks we walk in dreams of fairy Land,
Where golden Ore lies mixt with common sand;
Each downfal of a flood the Mountains pour
From their rich bowels rolls a silver shower.

Cortez: Heaven from all ages wisely did provide
This wealth, and for the bravest Nation hide,
Who with four hundred foot, and forty horse,
Dare boldly go a New found World to force.

In the second scene, as in the first, hopes of a fresh start are combined with reminders of the past. It is Montezuma's birthday, and the whole court is present as he is about to crown the "Queen of all the year",

Her, among this beauteous quire,
Whose perfections you admire,
Her, who fairest does appear... (I ii, 279)

Montezuma: Since my Orazia's Death I have not seen
A beauty so deserving to be Queen
As fair Almeria.
Almeria (to her Brother and Sister aside):
--Sure he will not know
My birth I to that injur'd Princess owe,
Whom his hard heart not only love deny'd
But in her sufferings took an unmanly Pride.
Alibech (to her Sister): Since Montezuma will his choice renew,
In dead Orazia's room electing you,
'Twill please our Mothers Ghost that you succeed
To all the glories of her Rivals Bed.
Almeria: If new be carried to the shades below,
The Indian Queen will be more pleas'd to know
That I his scorns on him, that scorn'd her, pay.
Almeria (replies to Montezuma): Heaven may be kind, the Gods uninjur'd live,
And crimes below cost little to forgive.
By thee, Inhumane, both my Parents dy'd;
One by thy sword, the other by thy pride. (I ii, 279-280)

In the midst of these ceremonies, in the second scene, Cortez and Montezuma confront each other for the first time. Taxallans, allies of Cortez and traditional enemies of the Mexicans, attack the courtly party. Cortez rushes in to stop the fighting. His intention was to propose terms of peace before starting any fighting; the Taxallans had broken his explicit orders. Cortez vents his disillusionment at this "new" world which is not much different from the "old":

Where, banish'd Vertue, wilt thou shew thy face,
If treachery infects they Indian race? (I ii, 284)

While Cortez is being disillusioned, Montezuma is amazed by "the Stranger":

(Montezuma kneels to Cortez)
Montezuma: Patron of Mexico and god of Wars,
Sun of the Sun, and brother of the STars.
Cortez: Great Monarch, your devotion you misplace.
Montezuma: They actions show thee born of Heavenly Race,
If then thou art that cruel god whose eyes
Delight in Blood, and Humane Sacrifice,
They dreadful Altars I with Slaves will store,
And feed they nostrils with hot reeking gore;
Or if that mild and gentle god thou be,
Who dost mankind below with pity see,
With breath of incense we will glad they heart:
But if, like us, of mortal seed thou art,
Presents of choicest Fowls, and Fruits I'll bring,
And in my Realms thou shalt be more than King. (I ii, 284-285)

Cortez informs Montezuma that he is "Like you a Man", that he is ambassadour "From Charles the Fifth, the Worlds most Potent King." There follows a comic passage playing on Montezuma's ignorance of Charles and Spain and on the pretensions of both monarchs. It is absurd for either monarch to think that to him "Heaven thinks fit/ That all the Nations of the Earth submit..." (I ii, 285). There is a duplication of Heavens, for each monarch claims he owes his throne to a different set of gods:

Montezuma: Your gods I slight not, but will keep my own. (I ii, 287)

The scene ends with Cortez' and Cydaria's lyric mutual declaration of love. Cydaria associates Spain with the place "That souls must go to when the body dies" (I ii, 288). The expects Cortez to be a "new" man, to have no past, to have come into existence when she first saw him. She cannot understand why he cannot call off the war, why he cannot offer more reasonable conditions. He tries to explain his duty to his king.
 

Cortez: If for my self to Conquer here I came,
You might perhaps my actions justly blame:
Now I am sent, and am not to dispute
My Princes orders, but to execute. (II ii, 292)

Cydaria: Then all your care is for your Prince I see,
Your truth to him out-weighs your love to me;
You may so cruel to deny me prove,
But never after that, pretend to love.
Cortez: Command my Life, and I will soon obey,
To save my Honour I my Blood will pay.
Cydaria: What is this Honour that does Love controul?
Cortez: A raging Fit of Vertue in the Soul;
A painful burden, which great minds must bear,
Obtain'd with danger, and possess'd with fear. (II ii, 292)

Not only is Cortez tied to the past, to Spain by duty, but also he has loved before. Cydaria is shocked to learn of it. She had assumed that this was the first time for both of them, that their love was something unique, brand new.

Cydaria: Your Love! Alas! then have you Lov'd before!
Cortez: 'Tis true I lov'd, but she is Dead, she's Dead,
And I should think with her all Beauty fled,
Did not her fair resemblance live in you,
And by that Image my first Flames renew. (II ii, 297)

Cydaria: Ah happy Beauty, whosoe're thou art!
Though dead, thou keep'st possession of his Heart;
and art my Rival in his Memory;
Within his Memory, ah, more than so,
Thou liv'st and triumph'st ore Cydaria too.
Cortez: What strange disquiet has uncalm'd your breast,
In humane fair, to rob the dead of rest!
Poor Heart!
She slumbers deep, deep in her silent Tomb,
Let her possess in Peace that narrow Room.
Cydaria: Poor heart, he pities and bewails her death,
Some god, much hated soul, restore thy breath,
That I may kill thee, but some ease 'twill be,
I'll kill my self for but resembling thee.

Martin Clifford, a contemporary of Dryden, noted in an oft quoted passage the similarity of many of Dryden's characters:

But I am strangely mistake if I have not seen this very Almanzor of yours in some disguise about this town, and passing under another name. Pr'thee tell me true, was not this Huffcap once the Indian Emperor? and at another time did he not call himself Maximin? Was not Lyndaraxa once caller Almeria? I mean under Montezuma the Indian Emperor. I protest and vow they are either the same, or so alike, that I cannot, for all my heart, distinguish one from the other. You are therefore a strange unconscionable thief; thou art not content to steal from others, but dost rob thy poor wretched self too. ¹¹

Clifford suggests that the repetition of character types is a sign of Dryden's weakness as a dramatist. However, in the case of The Indian Emperor the repetition is an integral part of the theme: Cortez seeks a new world and finds an old one; the great new Conquest of Mexico follows the same pattern as the old Indian wars; Cortez and Almeria reenact much of the behavior of the young Montezuma and Zempoalla; the present reveals itself as a repetition of the past. This theme reminds one of the message of "Ecclesiastes":

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done;
and there is nothing new under the sun. (1:9, Revised Standard Version)

... ye Immortal Souls, that once were Men,
And now resolv'd to Elements agen,
Who wait for Mortal frames in depths below,
And did before what we are doom'd to do;
Once, twice, and thrice, I wave my Sacred wand,
Ascend, ascend, ascend at my command. (II i, 291)

In The Indian Emperor the focus is on action, on The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. Cortez is recognized as heroic because of his military exploits: "Thy actions show thee born of Heavenly Race..." (I ii, p. 284). The contrast between Cortez and Montezuma and between the Montezuma of this play and the younger Montezuma of The Indian Queen emphasizes the limitations to a heroism of action. There are two major limitations to such a heroism: 1) Duty 2) physical age.

At the first announcement of the arrival of Cortez, the high priest declares:

Old Prophecies foretell our fall at hand,
When bearded men in floating Castles Land,
I fear it is of dire Portent. (I ii, 282)

From some cause, not explained, Quetzalcoatl incurred the wrath of one of the principal gods and was compelled to abandon the country... When he reached the shores of the Mexican Gulf, he took leave of his followers, promising that he and his descendants would revisit them hereafter, and then, entering his wizard skiff, made of serpents' skins, embarked on the great ocean for the fabled land of Tlapallan. He was said to have been tall in stature, with a white skin, long, dark hair, and a flowing beard. The Mexicans looked confidently to the return of the benevolent deity; and this remarkable tradition, deeply cherished in their hearts, prepared the way, as we shall see hereafter, for the future success of the Spaniards. ¹²

All primitive tribes agree in recognizing this category of the outsiders, those who are not only outside the provisions of the moral code which holds within the limits of one's own people, but who are summarily denied a place anywhere in the human scheme. ¹³

But Almanzor is tax'd with changing sides: and what tye has he on him to the contrary? He is not born their Subject whom he serves: and he is injur'd by them to a very high degree. (Preface to Granada, p. 24)

In Montezuma we have the type of hero identical with Oroondates and Artaban -- invincible, matchless, of dauntless spirit and ungovernable pride. His fortunes are those of Artaban rather than of Oroondates: he has been raised obscurely, ignorant of his high birth; as a free lance he goes from one side tot he other carrying victory. (p. 64)

The type of characters are the same although of surprising descent. It is with no small astonishment that we identify our Artaban -- hero of The Indian Queen -- with the Montezuma of history. As soon as the machinery gets under way we discover the real Artaban in the character of Cortez..." (pp. 65-66)

In The Indian Emperor, neither Cortez nor Montezuma is free to switch sides or to do as he wishes. Montezuma is Emperor with all the responsibilities of a head of state. Cortez is prevented by his duty to the Spanish king from stopping the war or from offering more reasonable terms. At the end of Act I, Montezuma nd Cortez are inclined to become friends and to aid one another, but both are presented by duty.

Montezuma: -- This as a Prince,
Bound to my Peoples and the Crowns defence,
I must return, but, as a man by you
Redeem'd from death, all gratitude is due.
Cortez: It was an act my Honour bound me to,
But what I did were I again to do,
I could not do it on my Honours score,
For Love would now oblige me to do more.
Is no way left that we may yet agree?
Must I have War, yet have no Enemy? (I ii, 287)

The other limitation, that of age, is illustrated by Montezuma. In the twenty years since the events of The Indian Queen, his heroic qualities have faded. He is now capable of an unheroic blind Love for Almeria, who forces him to act contrary to his personal code of Honor. Since Cortez in his youthful heroic acts duplicates the career of Montezuma, the implication is that he too will become the corrupt old ruler of Mexico.

A quiet minor role is impossible for Montezuma. Activity is part of his very nature, and there is a point beyond which further limitation makes life impossible for him. Decisively defeated, his future dependent on the Victor's generosity, he cannot live.

Cortez: Despair not, Sir, who know but Conquering Spain
May part of what you lost restore again?
Montezuma: No, Spaniard, know, he who to Empire born,
Lives to be less, deserves the Victors scor:
Kings and their Crowns have but one Destiny:
Power is their Life, when that expires, they die (V ii, 333)

With regard to pity, which becomes more significant in the later, less active dramas, the Hero is defined as capable of pitying others, but disdaining to solicit pity for himself. Cortez addresses Montezuma after rescuing him from the Rack:

Ah, Father, Father, what do I endure,
To see these Wounds my pity cannot Cure.
Montezuma: Am I so low that you should pity bring,
And give an Infants Comfort to a King?
Ask these, if I have once unmanly groan'd;
Or ought have done deserving to be moan'd. (V ii, 330)

Guyomar is a different sort of Hero from Cortez or Montezuma, a companion Hero that was to become familiar in Dryden's drama.  He does nothing extraordinary, but is always honorable, carefully fulfilling his many duties.

Guyomar is a Court Hero involved in a courtly love situation. C.S. Lewis describes the typical courtly love situation:

The lady is allowed free choice in her acceptance or rejection of a lover in order that she may reward the merit of the best.  She must not abuse this power in order to gratify her own fancies. ¹⁵

If you oblige me suddenly to chuse,
The choice is made, for I must both refuse.
For to my self I owe this due regard,
Not to make love my gift, but my reward:
Time best will show whose services will last. (I ii, 282)

One I in secret Love, the other Loath;
But where I hate, my hate I will not show,
and he I love, my Love shall never know;
True worth shall gain me, that it may be said,
Desert, not fancy, once a Woman led. (II ii, 294)

Odmar eventually proves to be a villain and Guyomar remains true; at the end Alibech admits that it was Guyomar whom she loved all along. In the meantime, Guyomar was obliged to follow her every command. In fact, he was heroic to the extent that he fulfilled all his obligations, delicately weighing them in times of conflict. His personal ambitions are modest: after the fall of Mexico, he refuses to share the power with Cortez:

Think me not proudly rude, if I forsake
Those gifts I cannot with my Honour take:
I for my Country Fought, and would again,
Had I yet left a Country to maintain:
But since the Gods decreed ti otherwise,
I never will on its dear Ruines rise. (V ii, 336-337)

In La Calprenede "Everything is built to heroic proportions... The level is uniformly elevated." (Hill, p. 45) But in Guyomar we find a modest hero, one whose exploits are dictated only the demands of duty to State, to Father, and to Love. He is quite unlike the self-willed Cortez, who if freed from duty would be more extravagant in his sudden shifts and brave exploits. Guyomar admires Cortez' variety of heroism:

Son of the Sun, my Fetters cannot be
But Glorious for me, since put on by thee... (II iii, 298)

Guyomar: Brother, that Name my breast shall ever own...
[He embraces Cortez] (II iii, 299)

The characters in The Indian Emperor are active rather than reflective. They are involved in the situation at hand. When they are forced to recognize that that "real" situation is not the "ideal" one for which they had hoped, they briefly state what they perceive and move on to the next act. In other words, none of the characters is preoccupied with the "theme" of the play of which he is a part. The explicit statements of the cyclic or repetitive nature of events are isolated: they derive from the action, but lead to no further actions, i.e., no one changes his pattern of behavior because of disillusionment or because of an increased awareness of the "meaning" of preceding events.  The action illustrates the theme, is permeated with it, but the theme makes nothing happen: the scenes could be multiplied almost indefinitely with little change in the total effect, a series of tableaux.

That a play is ordered round a theme, (even if it be a potentially "great" theme), does not make the play "good" or "great". In some plays, the theme integrates the many strands of plot to produce a powerful unified effect. Such is not the case in The Indian Emperor. In so far as the audience is imaginatively involved in the actions on the stage, the "theme" goes by unnoticed. Only a detached observer sees the patterns as repeating patterns and the hopes of the characters as unreliable. Interest in the action works counter to interest in the theme and vice versa. Instead of action and theme dynamically developing together, the action merely provides examples of the theme.

Imagine Macbeth with no recognition of the nature of his own ambition and the pattern of events in which he has entrapped himself. Imagine the play as composed just of the events: an ambitious noble killing the king to rise to power and in turn being killed himself. Add a few parallel plots illustrating the rise and fall of violent, ambitious men. Then perhaps you will get a sense of what is missing in The Indian Emperor.

Almanzor and Almahide or The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards (1670)

I observ'd then, as I said, what was wanting to the perfection of his Siege of Rhodes: which was design and variety of characters. (p. 20)

In The Herculean Hero ¹⁶, Eugene Waith focuses on the uniqueness of Almanzor. The other characters and plot elements function as foils for Almanzor and his actions. "... the number of characters surrounding the hero only serves to emphasize his uniqueness." (p. 156) Concerning Dryden's categorization of Almahide, Ozmyn, and Benzayda as "patterns of exact virtue" (Preface to Granada, p. 24), Waith notes "... Almanzor is deliberately excluded from this category. The distinction Dryden is making brings out his love for a greatness which is irregular. This is the greatness of Antony, for whom virtue's path is too narrow (All for Love I 124-125). It is equally Almanzor's ..." (p. 154) Almahide's "love of quiet and peace are juxtaposed to Almanzor's warlike fierceness -- her love of order with his irregularity" (p. 161). "Almanzor rises to his faults; Abdalla, Abdelmelech, and Zulema stoop to theirs; and where mere restrain might make them better men, he needs only to be shown how his heroism might be put to an even better use." (p. 164) Waith's purpose is to describe a certain type of hero and his evolution. In the process, he has touched on a central structural principle of The Conquest of Granada: not only does Almanzor stand out in his heroic eccentricity, but the other characters are of two distinct types:

• Almahide, Ozmyn, and Benzayda, successors of Guyomar with his love of order and Honor
• Abdalla, Abdelmelech, Zulema, and their cohorts in machiavellian chaos.

Selin and Abenamar enter the play opposed in a bitter feud. Ozmyn, son of Abenamar, has killed Selin's son in a battle between the city's two factions. Selin seeks revenge, and Benzayda, his daughter, humanely intervenes on Ozmyn's part. She knows her brother was killed in a fair fight, and she will not be a party to the unnecessary slaughter of a brave and honorable man.

The parents' motives are those of revenge: the crudest form of social impulse, based on a mechanical, eye-for-eye notion of justice. Benzayda has a New Testament view of justice. She is motivated by Love, Honor, Mercy, and a Justice that considers not only events, but also individuals involved in events. She is quite willing (at times almost anxious) to die for Love or Honor or her variety of Justice. When making decisions, she consciously weighs her obligations to others and to her own principles:

When Parents their Commands unjustly lay,
Children are priviledg'd to disobey. (1, IV ii, 68)

This Honor, however, has its limitations. With their parents at war with each other, they are continually placed in situations in which Honor makes contradictory demands at the same time. When this occurs, they are totally helpless and indecisions:

Benzayda: My wishes contradictions must imply;
You must not go; and yet he must not die.
Your Reason may, perhaps, th'extrmes unite;
But there's a mist of Fate before my sight.
Ozmyn: The two Extremes too distant are to close;
And Humane Wit can no mid-way propose...
Benzayda: What Foe! oh wither would your vertue fall!
It is your Father whom the Foe you call...
Ozmyn: What e'er I plot, like Sisyphus in vain
I heave a stone that tumbles down again!
I have no refuge, but the arms of death;
To that dark Sanctuary I will go;
She cannot reach me when I lie so low (2, III ii, 122-124)

The world of the play as well as the world at large "is govern'd by precept and Example" (p. 15). Ozmyn and Benzayda serve as "patterns of exact vertue" not only for the edification of the audience, but also as an integral part of the stage action. It is by their example of "vertue" that their parents are reconciled to them and to each other:

Abenamar: Benzayda, 'twas your Vertue vanquish'd me:
That, could alone surmount my cruelty. (2, IV, 132)

Selin: I'le answer you, when I can speak for tears.
But, till I can --
Imagine what must needs be brought to pass: [embraces Ozmyn]
My heart's not made of Marble nor of Brass.
Did I for you a cruel death prepare
And have you -- have you, made my life your care!
There is a shame contracted by my faults,
Which hinders me to speak my secret thoughts.
And I will tell you (when that shame's remov'd)
You are not better by my Daughter lov'd.
Benzayda be yours -- I can no more. [Ozmyn embracing his knees] (2, II i, 105)

Selin: My Son!
Ozmyn: My Father! (2, II i, 105)

Ozmyn and Benzayda's dilemma can be stated in terms of the larger conflict between Moor and Christian for Granada. At first, they are natural-Christians, Christians by temperament and morality rather than by doctrine, stranded in a pagan world. The pagan and Christian values are in continual conflict. A partial resolution is brought about by the conversion of their parents to their Christian-like perspective. The final resolution is brought about by the Christian conquest of Granada bringing the religious and social forms necessary to sustain and support their natural religious inclinations. The Christian order of Ferdinand and Isabella conquers the chaos of a state in which natural moral inclinations and socially sanctioned obligations are separate and in conflict.

The kinds of characters in Granada are most clearly distinguished by their attitudes to fate or fortune. The word "fate" or "destiny" implies a preordained order, a fixed and unalterable pattern of past, present, and future events. This pattern is more or less visible to human eyes, but even apparently random events lead inexorably to the fulfillment of the individual and/or general destiny. The word "fortune" implies random, undirected chance. All apparent patterns are only accidental and the luck of today will be balanced by future misfortune. "Fortune" and "fate" are different manifestations of the same attitude toward human events: the view that the pattern of a man's life is primarily determined by factors external to him, beyond his control: an ironic perspective: man as primarily at the mercy of his environment. Lyndaraxa alternates between the world-view of "fortune" and that of "fate".

To succeed in the world of Fortune, one must watch which way the wind blows and change one's tack accordingly. In that world, principles and ideals are dead weight that make it difficult for one to change one's course. Light machiavellian craft can easily outmaneuver the heavy armada of principle-laden opponents.

Lyndaraxa: O Could I read the dark decrees of fate,
That I might once know whom to love or hate!
For I my self scarce my own thought can guess;
So much I find 'em varied by success.
As in my wether-glass my Love I hold;
Which falls and rises with the heat or cold.
I will be constant yet, if fortune can;
I love the King; let her but name the Man. (1, IV ii, 61)

She compares herself to Tamburlaine, the self-seeking warrior consistently favored by Fortune. Such a pattern of extraordinary good luck suggests the other world-view: that each man has his preordained destiny that he merely acts out. Her success was inevitable.

Lyndaraxa: You murmur now, but you shall soon obey.
I knew this Empyre to my fate was ow'd:
Heav'n held it back as long as e're it cou'd.
[to Abdelmelech] For thee, base wretch, I want a torture yet --
--I'le cage thee, thou shalt be my Bajazet.
I on no pavement but on thee will tread,
And, when I mount, my foot shall know thy had. (2, V, 160)

Lyndaraxa: Sure destiny mistakes; this death's not mine;
She dotes, and meant to cut another line.
Tell her I ama  Queen; -- but 'tis too late;
Dying, I charge REbellion on my fate:
Bow down ye slaves --
Bow quickly down, and your Submission show.
I'm pleas'ed to taste an Empire 'ere I goe. (2, V, 160-161)

Ozmyn and Benzayda are helplessly shuttled back and forth across the battlefield according to the demands of contingency and of Honor.  At times they seem just as trapped in a mechanical world as Lyndaraxa and her cohorts.

Benzayda: Blind Queen of Chance, to Lovers too severe,
Thou rulest Mankind, but art a Tyrant there!
Thy widest Empyre's in lover's brest;
Like open Seas we seldom are at rest.
Upon thy Coasts our wealth is daily cast;
And thou, like Pyrates, mak'st no peace at last. (2, II ii, 121)

In all events preserve your Honor free:
For that's your own, though not your destiny. (2, III iii, 125)

Almanzor is puzzled by the same problem of fate:

O Heaven, how dark a Riddle's thy Decree,
Which bounds our Wills, yet seems to leave 'em free!
Since thy fore-knowledge cannot be in vain,
Our choice must be what thou did'st first ordain:
Thus, like a Captive in an Isle confin'd,
Man walks at large, a Pris'ner of the Mind:
Wills all his Crimes, while Heav'n th' Indictment draws;
And, pleading guilty, justifies the laws. --
Let Fate be Fate; the Lover and the Brave
Are rank'd, at least, above the vulgar Slave:
Love makes me willing to my death to run;
And courage scorns the death it cannot shun. (2, IV iii, 141)

Almanzor expects no rewards and fears no punishments and is therefore free of any system of government, whether of God or of Boabdelin, that is based on reward and punishment. He has "an inviolable faith in his affection" (Dedication to Granada, p. 18) and will risk his life for those he admires, respects, and loves, but no God or king can hire or coerce him, no shift of Fortune can affect his will.

Almanzor: Great Souls by kindness only can be ti'd. (1, IV i, 60)

Almanzor: No, there is a necessity in Fate,
Why still the brave bold man is Fortunate:
He keeps his object ever full in sight,
And that assurance holds him firm, and right.
True, 'tis a narrow path that leads to bliss,
But right before there is no precipice:
Fear makes men look aside, and then their footing miss. (1, IV ii, 72-73)

Great Souls discern not when the leap's too wide,
Because they onely view the farther side.
Whatever you desire you think is near:
But, with more reason, the even I fear. (1, IV ii, 72)

Dryden says of Almanzor in the Dedication of Granada:

I have form'd a Heroe, I confess, not absolutely perfect, but of an excessive and overboyling courage: but Homer and Tasso are my precedents. Both the Greek and the Italian Poet had well consider'd that a tame Heroe who never transgresses the bounds of moral vertue, would shine but dimly in an Epick poem. The strictness of those Rules might well give precepts to the Reader, but would administer little occasion to the writer. But a character of an excentrique vertue is the more exact Image of humane life, because he is not wholly exempted from its frailties... I design'd in him a roughness of Character, impatient of injuries; and a confidence of himself, almost approaching to arrogance. But these errors are incident only to great spirits. They are the moles and dimples which hinder not a face from being beautiful; though that beauty be not regular. (pp. 16-17)

You see how little these great Authors did esteem the point of Honour, so much magnify'd by the French, and so ridiculously ap'd by us. They made their Heroes men of honour; but so, as not to divest them quite of humane passions and frailties. They contented themselves to show you what men of great spirits would certainly do, when they were provok'd, not what they were oblig'd to do by the strict rules of moral vertue; for my own part, I declare my self for Homer and Tasso; and am more in love with Achilles and Rinaldo than with Cyrus and Oroondates. I shall never subject my characters to the French standard; where Love and Honour are to be weigh'd by drams and scruples; yet, where I have design'd the patterns of exact vertue, such as in this Play are the Parts of Almahide, Ozmyn, and Benzayda, I may safely challenge the best of theirs. (p. 24)

Whereas Ozmyn and Benzayda remain natural-Christian and eventually convert their parents to their perspective; Almahide, Ozmyn's sister, explicitly converts to Christianity.

Almahide: Thou Pow'r unknown, if I have err'd forgive:
My infancy was taught what I believe.
But if the Christians truly worship thee,
Let me thy godhead in thy succour see:
So shall thy Justice in my safety shine,
And all my dayes, which thou salt add, be thine! (2, V, 149)

Almahide: I owe my life and hour to his sword;
But owe my love to my departed Lord. (2, V, 162)

Almahide sometimes sees her situation as a dilemma of duty and Honor. She talks of what she "owes" to both men, and she sees suicide as a solution. But for Almanzor there is no question of "duty". He is bound only by affection and if Honor should be an obstacle to that affection, he'll rise above Honor and act according to his own eccentric laws. Almanzor presents Almahide with an alternative to suicide: she can shift perspective and act like Almanzor, consider herself above duty to a husband like Boabdelin.

Almahide: But Heav'n which made me great; has chose for me:
I must th'oblation for my People be.
I'le cherish Honour, then, ad Life despise;
What is not Pure, is not for sacrifice.
Yet, for Almanzor I in secret mourn!
Can Vertue, then, admit of his return?
Yes; for my Love I will, by Vertue, square:
I'le like Almanzor act, and dare to be
As haughty, and as wretched too as he.
What will he think is in my Message meant!
I scarcely understand my own intent:
But Silk wormlike, so long within have  wrought,
That I am lost in my own Web of thought. (2, II ii, 102)

Almanzor: Hold, hold!
Such fatal proofs of love you shall not give;
Deny me; hate me; (both are just) but live!
Your Vertue I will ne'r disturb again:
Nor dare to ask, for fear I should obtain. (2, IV, 144)

Deny your own desires; for it will be
Too little now to be deni'd by me.
Will he, who does all great, all noble seem,
Be lost and forfeit to his own Esteem?
Will he, who may with Heroes claim a place,
Belye that fame, and to himself be base?
Think how August and godlike you did look
When my defence, unbrib'd you undertook.
But, when an Act so rave you disavow,
How little, and how mercenary now! (2, IV, 143)

Almanzor: ...what is Honour, but a Love well hid? (2, IV, 142)

Almahide wants a strictly Platonic love, one that she can easily reconcile to her duty to Boabdelin:

Farewell; and may our loves hereafter, be
But, Image-like, to heighten piety. (2, IV, 144)

Almahide: And would you all that secret joy of mind
Which great Souls onely in great actions find,
All that, for one tumultuous minute loose?
Almanzor: I wou'd that minute before ages choose.
Praise is the pay of Heav'n for doing good,
But Love's the best return for flesh and blood. (2, IV, 143)

Be you, like me; dull Reason hence remove;
And tedious forms; and give a loose to love.
Love eagerly; let us be gods to night;
And do not, with half yielding, dash delight. (2, IV, 142)

For Almahide, the choices are suicide or a conversion to Almanzor's perspective. Since Almanzor insists on the value of life, her wish for self-sacrifice, for suicide is ironically selfish: she would thereby break rather than affirm the tie that binds her to Almanzor. But she is afraid to leap from her world to his.

Conversion to Christianity is a temporary resolution. In Moorish Granada this would at least be a further justification fro martyrdom, or as a nun she could preserve both her Honour and her Platonic love for Almanzor. Isabella, like divine grace, finally resolves the dilemma.  Almahide is not obliged to persist in her attachment to the dead man she despised. A year of mourning will suffice. Then everyone can live happily ever after.

The Christian conquest of Granada brings the social forms necessary to sustain and support Almahide's natural moral inclinations. The old social order, headed by monarchs who would be machiavellian if they had more intelligence, was stifling and confining for Almahide, who, like Ozmyn, seemed out of place. Almanzor, in comparison to that old world, seemed a natural phenomenon, more a god than a man.

Almanzor (to Abdalla): If from thy hands alone my death can be,
I am immortal; and a God, to thee. (1, III, 58)

Almanzor: Born, as I am still to command, not sue,
Yet you shall see that I can beg for you [Almahide].
And if your Father will require a Crown,
Let him but name the Kingdom, 'tis his own.
I am, but while I please, a private man;
I have that Soul which Empires first began:
From the dull crowd which every King does lead,
I will pick out whom I will choose to head:
The best and bravest Souls I can select,
And on their Conquer'd Necks my Throne erect. (1, IV, 73)

Almanzor: I bring a heart which homage never knew;
Yet it finds something of it self in you:
Something so kingly, that my haughty mind
Is drawn to yours; because 'tis of a kind. (2, V, 161)]

The new order is headed by a king and queen of Almanzor's heroic level who by their example and their laws assist rather than stifle the heroic rise of their subjects. Almahide is renamed "Isabella of Granada", and the path is cleared for her and Almanzor to follow the pattern of their heroic monarchs and become in turn exemplars for the people of Granada. The scene is set for the moral regeneration of the kingdom.

For Almanzor, greatness is associated with a quality of the Soul, and the state of one's Soul is associated with one's world-view, with one's attitude to Justice, Fate, Love. Affection for Almanzor involves a recognition of exemplary qualities. Before he knows the Duke of Arcos is his father, even when they are on opposite sides in battle, Almanzor admires and respects the Duke of Arcos as a friend. Later, Almanzor immediately admires Ferdinand's "haughty mind".

Love sets the Soul in violent agitation, radically changes the Soul.

Almahide: Had love not shown me, I had never seen
An Excellence beyond Boabdelin.
I had not, aiming higher, lost my rest;
But with a vulgar good been dully blest. (1, V, 83)

Almanzor: Forgive that fury which my Soul does move;
'Tis the Essay of an untaught first love.
Yet rude, unfashion'd truth it does express:
'Tis love just peeping in a hasty dress.
Retire, fair Creature, to your needful rest;
There's something noble lab'ring in my brest:
This raging fire which through the Mass does move,
Shall purge my dross, ad shall refine my Love. (1, III, 56)

I'me pleas'd and pain'd since first her eyes I saw,
As I were stung with some Tarantula:
Armes, and the dusty field I less admire;
And soften strangely in some new desire.
Honour burns in me, not so fiercely bright,
But pale as fires when master'd by the light.
Ev'n while I speak and look, I change yet more;
And now am nothing that I was before.
I'm numb'd, and fix'd, and scarce my eyeballs move;
I fear it is the Lethargy of Love!
'Tis he; I feel him now in every part:
Like a new Lord he vaunts about my Heart,
Surveys in state each corner of my Brest,
While poor fierce I, that was, am dispossest.
I'm bound; but I will rowze my rage again:
And though no hope of Liberty remaine,
I'll fright the Keeper when I shake my chaine. (1, III, 54)

My Love's my Soul; and that from Fate is free:
'Tis that unchang'd; and deathless part of me. (2, III, 128)

Abdelmelech, formerly Abdalla's friend, is similarly "blinded" by Lyndaraxa. Both their Souls are pulled down to Lyndaraxa's blind perspective where no true friendship is possible.

Abdemelech: Fly, fly, before th'allurements of her face;
'Ere she return with some resistless grace,
And with new magique covers all the place.
Abdalla: I cannot, will not; nay I would not fly;
I'le love; be blind, be cousen'd till I dye.
And you, who bid me wiser Counsel take,
I'le hate, and if I can, I'le kill you for her sake.
Abdelmelech: Ev'n I that counsell'd you, that choice approve,
Prudence, that stemm'd the stream, is out of breath;
And to go down it, is the easier death. (1, III, 48)

Characters of the moral level of Lyndaraxa are practiced in deception and use Love as but one of their tools with which to gain power. By her, Abdelmelech is "Bound in the fetters of dissembled Love" (2, IV ii, 134). In contrast, Almanzor only says what he means, cannot sustain a lie:

My heart's so plain,
That men on every passing thought may look,
Like fishes gliding in a Crystal brook:
When troubled most, it does the bottom show,
'Tis weedless all above; and rockless all below. (1, IV i, 60)

Zulema: Man makes his fate according to his mind.
The weak low Spirit Fortune makes her salve... (1, II, 44)

Lyndaraxa: My Smiles shall make Abdalla more than Man (1, III, 52)

When Tamburlaine asserts himself, he uses his own name as the credentials of his power:
I hold the Fates bound fast in iron chains,
And with my hand burn Fortune's wheel about,
And sooner shall the sun fall from his sphere
Then Tamburlaine be slain or overcome. (1, I ii, 1. 173-176)

Great Souls by kindness onely can be ti'd... (1, IV i, 60)

I have that Soul which Empires first began ... (1, IV ii, 73)

The minds of Heroes their own measures are ... (2, IV ii, 133)

Great Souls discern not when the leap's too wide... (1, IV ii, 72)

At the opposite end of the heroic scale is Lyndaraxa, surrounded by a horde of opportunities like herself: her "lovers' Abdalla and Abdelmelech, her brothers Sulema and Hamet, and Abdalla's brother Boabdelin. Their only motive is their own personal gain in the form of power, wealth, or sexual satisfaction. Lyndaraxa switches her "love" and allegiance from Abdalla to Abdelmelech and back again.  THe mob led by Zulema, chief of the Zegrys, and Abdelmelech, chief of the Abencerages, shifts mechanically, opportunistically, bound by laws of economics and self-preservation. It's the world of Davenant's "common crowd" and Hobbes' "City." It's a chaotic world where the prevailing rule is the survival of the luckiest, where any victory is only momentary, where all morals are machiavellian. It's a nightmare world resembling that of Jacobean tragedy: a world of corruption, intrigue, fortuitous slaughter: an impotent, ironic world.

In Granada, individual Souls are in movement and all Souls together are bound up in a general struggle. For a moment, it seems that all could be swallowed up by the corruption of Lyndaraxa's world.

Abdelmelech: Heav'n is not Heav'n; nor are there Deities.
There is some new Rebellion in the Skies.
All that was Good and Holy, is dethron'd:
And Lust, and Rapine are for justice own'd. (2, V, 148)

Almanzor, at the top of this heroic scale, is a young Stranger with no ties of duty but his love for Almahide. He is a Hero with all limitations removed: Dryden's most complete express of the active super-Hero.

Aureng-Zebe (1675)

Aureng-Zebe gathers up many themes and characters long familiar in Dryden's rhymed plays. The Emperour is a variation upon the old Montezuma in The Indian Emperour, debasing himself and imperilling his kingdom by a love he cannot control. ¹⁷

But Aureng-Zebe, by no strong passion sway'd,
Except his Love, more temp'rate is, and weigh'd:
This Atlas must our sinking state uphold;
In Council cool, but in Performance bold:
He sums their Virtues in himself alone,
And adds the greatest, of a Loyal Son:
His Father's Cause upon his Sword he wears,
And with his ARms, we hope, his fortune bears (I i, 91)

Arimant: Oh! had he still that Character maintain'd,
Of Valour, which in blooming Youth, he gain'd!
He promis'd in this East a glorious Race;
Now, sunk from his meridian, set apace.
But as the Sun, when he from Noon declines,
And with abated heat, less fiercely shines,
Seems to grow milder as he goes away,
Pleasing himself with the remains of Day;
So he, who, in his Youth, for Glory strove,
Would recompense his Age with Ease and Love (I i, 91)

Arimant: Whate'er can urge ambitious Youth to fight,
She pompously displays before their sight... (I i, 89)

This free confession shows you long did strive:
And virtue, though oprest, is still alive. (I i, 95)

Him would I, more than all the Rebels, shun (I i, 94)

I will not, cannot, dare not, see my Son. (I i, 95)

O Aureng-Zebe! thy virtues shine too bright.
They flash too fierce: I, like the Bird of Night,
Shut my dull eyes, and sicken at the sight.
Thou hast deserv'd more love than I can show:
But 'tis thy fate to give, and mine to owe.
Thou seest me much distemper'd in my mind:
Pull'd back, and then push'd forward to be kind.
Virtue, and -- fain I wou'd my silence break,
But have not yet the confidence to speak. (I i, 97)

After successfully defending the citadel against Morat's assaults, Aureng-Zebe seems for a time reconciled with his father.

Emperor: My Son, your valour has, this day been such,
None can enough admire, or praise too much. (II i, 110)

Emperor: Age has not yet
So shrunk my Sinews, or so chill'd my Veins,
But conscious Virtue in my breast remains,
But had I now that strength, with which my boiling Youth was fraught;
When in the vale of Balasor I fought,
And from Bengale their Captive Monarch brought;
When Elephant 'gainst Elephant did rear
His Trunck, and Castles justl'd in the Air;
My Sword thy way to Victory had shown:
And ow'd the Conquest to it self alone.
Aureng-Zebe: Those fair Ideas to my aid I'll call,
And emulate my great Original;
Or, if they fail, I will invoke in Arms,
The power of Love, and Indamora's charms (II i, 110-111)

Witness, ye Pow'rs,
How much I suffer'd, and how long I strove
Against th' assaults of this imperious Love!
I represented to my self the shame
Of perjured Faith, and violated Fame.
Your great deserts, how ill they were repay'd;
All arguments in vain, I urg'd and weigh'd:
For mighty Love, who Prudence does despise,
For Reason, who'd me Indamora's Eyes.
What would you more, my crime I sadly view,
Acknowledge, am asham'd, and yet pursue. (II i, 112)

After his second confrontation with this father, it is clear to Aureng-Zebe that the Emperor will not willingly give up Indamora. For the first time, the young hero talks of death: he would rather die than renounce Indamora. At this point, Aureng-Zebe seems to become disengaged from the action, seems to step back, disillusioned, and contemplate the futility of the world about him. If the "best of kings" comes to such an end as this, if this is the result of an heroic life, Aureng-Zebe does not want to follow in his father's footsteps. He wants nothing to do with this world, this life:

How vain is Virtue which directs our ways
Through certain danger, to uncertain praise!
Barren and aery name! thee Fortune flies;
With thy lean Train, the Pious and the Wise.
Heaven takes thee at thy word, without regard;
And lets thee poorly be thy own reward.
The World is made for the bold impious man,
Who stops at nothing, seizes all he can.
Justice to merit does weak aid afford;
She trusts her Balance, and neglects her Sword.
Virtue is nice to take what's not her own;
And, while she long consults, the Prize is gone. (II i, 113)

The Emperor is disillusioned with himself and the world. He, like Aureng-Zebe, cynically, satirically comments on the nature of man.

Believe me, Son, [Morat] and needless trouble spare;
'Tis a base World, and is not worth our care.
The Vulgar, a scarce animated Clod,
Ne'er pleas'd with ought above 'em, Prince or God.
WEre I a God the drunken Globe should roul:
The little Emmets with the human Soul
Care for themselves, while at my ease I sat,
And second Causes di the work of Fate;
Or, if I would take care, that care should be
For Wit that scorn'd the world, and lived like me (III i, 119)

Of business you complain'd; now take your ease;
Enjoy what e'er decrepid Age can please:
Eat, Sleep, and tell long Tales of what you were
In flow'r of Youth, if any one will hear (IV i, 137)

Aureng-Zebe's willingness to die in act IV is unique in Dryden's drama.  Quite frequently, heroes and heroines are willing to die for each other and, especially, are willing to die together, hoping to be reunited after death. But in this case, the emphasis is on disillusionment.  Aureng-Zebe does not want to live in this deceptive, imperfect world. In what he thinks are his last moments, he considers not Indamora, but "life":

When I consider Life, 'tis all a cheat;
Yet, fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think to morrow will repay:
To morrow's falser than the former day;
Lies worse; and while it says, We shall be blest
With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.
Strange couzenage! none would live past years again,
Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;
And, from the dregs of Life, think to receive,
What the first sprightly running could not give.
I'm tired with waiting for this Chymic gold,
Which fools us young, and Beggars us when old. (IV i, 129)

Ah, Sex, invented first to damn Mankind!
Nature took care to dress you up for sin:
Adorn'd, without; unfinish'd left, within.
Hence, by no judgment you your loves direct;
Talk much, ne'r think, and still the wrong affect.
So much self-Love in your composures mixed,
That love to others still remain unfix'd;
Greatness, and Noise, and Show, are your delight;
Yet wise men love you, in their own despight;
And, finding in their native Wit no ease,
Are forc'd to put your folly on to please. (IV i, 141)

Indamora: Be no more jealous! [Giving him her hand.]
Aureng-Zebe: -- Give me cause no more:
The danger's greater after, than before.
If I relapse; to cure my jealousie
Let me (for that's the easiest parting) die. (IV i, 142)

My Father's kind; and, Madam, you forgive:
Were Heaven so pleased, I now could wish to live.
And, I shall live.
With Glory and with Love, at once, I burn:
I feel the inspiring heat, ad absent God return. ¹⁸ (IV i, 143)

After winning the battle, Aureng-Zebe returns to see Morat dying in Indamora's arms. Once again he rails against the frailty of womankind (V i, 156). She and her love are not perfect:

If you had loved, you nothing yours could call:
Giving the least of mine, you gave him all.
True love's a Miser: so tenacious grown:
He weighs to the least grain of what's his own.
More delicate than Honour's nicest sense:
Neither to give nor take the least offence.
With, or without you, I can have no rest;
What shall I do? y'are dog'd within my breast:
Your Image never will be thence displac'd;
But there it lies, stabb'd, mangl'd, and defac'd. (V i, 158)

Since perfect bliss with me you cannot prove,
I scorn to bless by halves the man I love. (V i, 158)

Aureng-Zebe: O Indamora, you would break my heart!
Could you resolve, on any terms, to part?
I thought you love eternal: was it ti'd
So loos'ly, that a quarrel could divide?
I grant that my suspicions were unjust;
But would you leave me, for a small distrust?
Forgive those foolish words --
They were the froth my raging folly mov'd,
When it boiled up: I knew not then I lov'd,
Yet then lov'd most. (V i, 159)

Urg'd by my Love, by hope of Empire fir'd;
'Tis true, I have perform'd what both requir'd:
What Fate decreed; for when great Souls are giv'n,
They bear the marks of Sov'reignty from Heaven. (V i, 144)

Indamora: Could that Decree [for Aureng-Zebe's death] from any Brother come?
Nature her self is sentenc'd in your doom.
Piety is no more, she sees her place
Usurp'd by Monsters, and a savage Race...
Think there's a Heav'n, Morat, though not for you. (III, 126)

Had Heav'n the Crown for Aureng-Zebe design'd,
Pity, for you, had pierc'd his generous mind.
Pity does with a Noble Nature suit... (III, 126)

Morat: I without guilt, would mount the Royal Seat;
But yet 'its necessary to be great.
Indamora: All Greatness is in Virtue understood:
'Tis onely necessary to be good.
Tell me, what is't at which great Spirits aim,
What most your self desire?
Morat: -- Renown, and Fame,
And Pow'r, as uncontrol'd as is my will.
Indamora: How you confound desires of good and ill!
For true renown is still with Virtue joyn'd;
But lust of Pow'r lets loose th' unbridl'd mind.
Yours is a Soul irregularly great,
Which wanting temper, yet abounds with heat:
So strong, yet so unequal pulses beat.
As Sun which does through Vapours dimly shine:
What pity 'its you are not all Divine!
New molded, thorow lighten'd, and a breast
So pure, to bear the last severest test;
Fit to command an Empire you should gain
By Virtue, and without a blush to Reign...
Dare to be great, without a guilty Crown;
View it, and lay the bright temptation down:
'Tis base to seize on all, because you may;
That's Empire, that which I can give away...
Morat: Renown, and Fame, in vain, I courted long;
And still pursu'd 'em though directed wrong. (V, 146)

-- Cease to inhanse her misery:
Pity the Queen, and show respect to me...
[to her] Your grief, in me such sympathy has bred,
I mourn; and wish I could recall the dead.
Love softens me; and blows up fires, which pass
Through my tough heart, and melt the stubborn Mass. (V, 147)

Morat: I leave you not; for my expanded mind
Grows up to Heav'n, while It to you is joyn'd:
Not quitting, but enlarg'd! A blazing Fire,
Fed from the Brand. [Dies] (V, 155)

"Pity" in this context is an unselfish sympathy, a concern for other human beings. It is similar to the unselfish kind of love which is requisite for salvation in I Corinthians 13:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (Revised Standard Version)

Whereas Aureng-Zebe and the Emperor are preoccupied with the discrepancy between the "ideal" and the "real", Morat at first has no conception of the "ideal." He takes for granted a world of self-interested opportunism. It is only through Indamora's lessons and finally through the example of her grief that Morat learns the fundamentals of the heroic "ideal."

The Changing Hero

Whether they [the Herculean legends] signify the supremacy of Dorian man in Argolis or of man in the universe, they tell of a wonderful force inherent in the human body, capable of conquering this world and even of defying the world beyond. (Waith, Hero, 18)

The feats of a muscle-man like Hercules can be extraordinary, but are not likely to be "exemplary". Hercules makes no attempt to convert others to his brand of heroism: he does not try to sell muscle-building equipment or to teach a new set of exercises. His strength is unique. It is to be marveled at, but not to be imitated.

In contrast, Almanzor's heroism is meant to be imitated. He tries to convert Almahide. He is careful to define the heroic world-view in such a way that she and others can follow his example.

Though this distinction between Almanzor and Hercules is clear, the distinction between Almanzor and Tamburlaine is blurred. Tamburlaine combines extraordinary ruthlessness and daring with extraordinary good fortune. He, like Hercules, emphasizes his own uniqueness, and his success seems to confirm his claims of almost divine power.  He considers himself in control of Fortune, but is in fact merely Fortune's favorite: he is eventually struck down by disease.

Though Almanzor's generalized form of speech distinguishes him from Tamburlaine, the two "heroes' are similar in terms of good fortune. As in the case of Tamburlaine, much of Almanzor's success in battle can be ascribed to his boldness and unwavering self-confidence. He is not concerned about reward and punishment and hence does not change his course with the winds of fortune, but rather fortune seems to change its course for him. But despite this "rational" explanation, the fact remains that the circumstances are ideal for Almanzor's exploits. Each time Almanzor changes his allegiance, there is an army waiting for him to lead them, an army sufficiently strong to win.  Throughout the play, Almanzor's ignorance of his parentage give him an extraordinary freedom of action: he is the Stranger, unbounded by duty to any family or nation. When the fighting is over, it is revealed that Arcos is his father: he is a nobel and a Christian, a fit spouse for Almahide and viceroy for Granada.  Montezuma in The Indian Queen and Cortez in The Indian Emperor are also Strangers in circumstances ideal for heroic battlefield accomplishments. In other words, while the speeches define the "hero" in terms of an inner quality, a world-view, the actions show him to be a man of extraordinary good fortune, a good fortune that is independent of the inner quality that arises by no "necessity". The Hero is a man of great Soul and great Luck.

As Dryden refined his definition of the Hero in his later dramas (All for Love, Don Sebastian, and Cleomenes), he portrayed the Hero at the ebb of his fortunes, after a major defeat. Given the opportunity, the Heroes of these later plays have the greatness of Mind to boldly and intelligently win battles. But to have won battles is not to be a Hero, and to have lost them is not to be excluded from that category. In other words, heroism is a personal quality independent of external circumstances, beyond the realm of Fate and Fortune.

Arthur Kirsch in Dryden's Heroic Drama sees a shift in emotional emphasis from admiration in the early plays to pity in the later ones.

Pity and the capacity for tears have begun to supersede the union of private and public pride as the credentials of heroism, and the focal scenes are those which occasion a display of these sentiments rather than those which demonstrate grandeur and evoke admiration. (p. 124)

This shift can be seen from another perspective which emphasizes the continuity of Dryden's drama.  Whereas the hero of the early plays was a hero of great Soul and great Luck; the hero of the later plays has the great Soul, the inner quality without the Luck. Whereas Cortez and Almanzor are primarily Active, with short spells in prison; Aureng-Zebe, Antony, Oedipus, Don Sebastian, and Cleomenes are primarily passive during the stage action. Their heroic deeds occur primarily before the play begins. During the play, they wait for events beyond their control to unfold. Frequently, they are imprisoned or trapped because their greatness of Mind rules out the opportunities for escape, rules out the possibility of action under the given circumstances. Their greatness of Soul is demonstrated by this decision not to escape and their readiness to accept death unflinchingly. In Granada, inimitable heroic feats and exemplary stances coexist. In the later plays the feats are de-emphasized: the mind and emotions of the hero, the exemplary stances predominate.

"Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start,
In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart."
-- The Circus Animal's Desertion -- Yeats

All for Love or the World Well Lost (1677)

Serapion: Portents and Prodigies are grown so frequent
That they have lost their Name. Our fruitful Nile
Flow'd ere the wonted Season with a Torrent
So unexpected and so wondrous fierce,
That the wild Deluge overtook the haste
Ev'n of the Hinds that watch'd it: Men and Beasts
Were born above the tops of Trees that grew
On th'utmost margin of the the Water-mark.
Then, with so swift an Ebb the Floud drove backward
It slipt from underneath the scaly herd;
Here monstrous Phocae panted on the Shore;
Forsaken Dolphins there with their broad tails,
Lay lashing the departing Waves; hard by 'em,
Sea-Horses, floundering in the slimy mud,
Tossed up their heads, and dashed the ooze about them. [opening speech]

Antony (to Dolabella): Thou hast what's left of me.
For I am now so sunk from what I was,
Thou find'st me at my lowest water-mark.
The Rivers that ran in and rais'd my fortunes,
Are all dry'd up, or take another course:
What I have left is from my native Spring;
I've still a heart that swells, in scorn of fate,
And lifts me to my banks. (III i, 220)

Ventidius: You laught.
Antony: I do, to see officious love
Give Cordials to the dead.
Ventidius: You would be lost then?
Antony: I am.
Ventidius: I say you are not. Try your fortune.
Antony: I have, to th' utmost. Dost thou think me desperate,
Without just cause? No, when I found all lost
Beyond repair, I hid me from the World,
And learnt to scorn it here; which now I do
So heartily, I think it is not worth
The cost of keeping (I i, 200)

The flood image used to describe Antony's ebbing fortunes recalls a tide image used by Arimant to describe the relative fortunes of Aureng-Zebe and Morat.

Arimant: Fortune seems weary grown of Aureng-Zebe,
While to her new made Favourite, Morat,
Her lavish hand is wastefully profuse:
With Fame and flowing Honour tided in,
Born on a swelling Current smooth beneath him. (III i, 118)

In his youth, Antony was favored by Fortune and gained a reputation as a Hero. Now that his fortunes have ebbed and he can no longer perform amazing "heroic" feats, he wonders what he is.

Antony: Fortune is Caesar's now; and what am I (III i, 221)

Antony: O Hercules! why should a Man like this,
Who dares not trust his fate for one great action,
Be all the care of Heav'n? Why should he Lord it
O're Fourscore thousand me, of whom each one is braver than himself? (II i, 207)

Antony: Octavius is the Minion of blind Chance,
But holds from Virtue nothing. (II i, 207)

Antony: Oh, he's the coolest Murder, so stanch,
He kills, and keeps his temper. (III i, 218)

Antony combines Almanzor's eccentric virtue, his irregular greatness, with Aureng-Zebe's reflectiveness and scorn of the world.

Gentleman: He eats not, drinks, not, sleeps not, has no use
Of any thing, but thought; or if he talks,
'Tis to himself, and then 'tis perfect raving:
Then he defies the World, and bids it pass;
Sometimes he gnawes his Lip, and curses loud
The Boy Octavius; then he draws his mouth
Into a scornful smile, and cries, Take all,
The World's not worth my care.
Ventidius: Just, just his nature.
Virtues his path; but sometimes 'tis too narrow
For his vast Soul; and then he starts out wide,
And bounds into a Vice that bears him far
From his first course, and plunges him in ills:
But when his danger makes him find his fault,
Quick to observe and full of sharp remorse,
He censures eagerly his own misdeeds,
Judging himself with malice to himself,
And not forgiving what as Man he did,
Because his other parts are more than Man. --

In All for Love, the theme may be stated: in what sense can a man abandoned by Fortune be a Hero? In so far as Antony is a Hero, but at first does not understand in what sense he is still a Hero, his self-consciousness, his reflections on his own character are reflections on the theme of the play: character, theme, and action interact.

In general, the characterization of All for Love is more rounded, less monolithic than that of Granada. There are vestiges of the levels of the heroic hierarchy (which we shall examine later), but the characters are individuals rather than types An interesting example of this is Ventidius, who seems for most of the play to be a pattern of exact virtue.

Antony (to Alexas about Ventidius): Now, on my soul, he loves me, truly loves me;
He never flattered me in any vice,
But awes me with his virtue: ev'n this minute
Methinks he has a right of chiding me.
Lead to the Temple: I'll avoid his chiding presence;
It checks too strong upon me. (III i, 217)

Ventidius considers himself in the role of Antony's physician, trying to bring him back to his old self.

Ventidius: You are too sensible already
Of what y'have done, too conscious of your failings,
And, like a Scorpion, whipt by others first
To fury, sting yourself in mad revenge.
I would bring Balm and pour it in your wounds,
Cure your distempered mind, and heal your fortunes. (I i, 199-200)

But he who came to "bring balm" ends up stinging Antony with jealousy "like a Scorpion". Despite himself, Ventidius too lusts for Cleopatra.

Ventidius: ... Even I who hate her,
With a malignant joy behold such beauty;
And while I curse, desire it. (IV i, 237)

His virtues lie so mingled with his crimes,
As would confound their [the gods'] choice to punish one,
And not reward the other. (III i, 218)

Antony and Cleopatra are both transparent, like Almanzor, incapable of sustained deception (IV i, 235-236; IV i, 242). Ventidius frequently acts like the hero of exact virtue who admires the irregular greatness of the super-hero. ²¹ He always advises in terms of Honor. Alexas always advises in terms of self-interest. He says what he thinks will produce the effect he desires, regardless of what he may know or believe. Thus we are presented with the vestiges of the heroic hierarchy: the super-hero, the honor-hero, and the villain. However, whereas in Granada it ws possible to move from one level of the hierarchy to another, in All for Love this does not occur. The levels are shown in their separateness, as levels of meaning or of language, or of perspective. Characters of different levels think differently and misunderstand one another, and these misunderstandings precipitate the final catastrophe. This is particularly evident in the scene in which Alexas lies to Antony, telling him that Cleopatra has committed suicide. Ventidius greets the news with "heav'n be prais'd." Then after a lament from Antony and another expression of joy from Ventidius, Antony turns to Alexas:

Antony: (to Alexas): Why stayst thou here?
Is it for thee to spy upon my Soul,
And see its inward mourning. Get thee hence;
Thou art not worthy to behold, what now
Becomes a Roman Emperor to perform.
Alexas (aside): He loves her still:
His grief betrays it. Good! The joy to find
She's yet alive, compleats the reconcilement.
I've sav'd my self, and her. But, Oh! the Romans!
Fate comes too fast upon my Wit,
Hunts me too hard, and meets me at each double. EXIT (V, 254)

Ventidius: O Women! Women! Women! all the gods
Have not the pow'r of doing good to Man,
As you of doing harm. EXIT (II i, 216)