Protestant Tragedy

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George Lillo is justly recognized for popularizing the concept of middle class tragedy with the stunning success of his 1731 play The London Merchant, which set the direction for much of serious modern drama. It is the thesis of this book that the novelty of a middle class setting for tragedy is not sufficient to account for the popular and critical success of Lillo's drama, and that his achievement was due to his second great innovation, the development of a distinctively Protestant form of dramatic tragedy, one that reflects the modern theological, ethical, and imaginative vision of the Reformation. In his three middle class tragedies - The London Merchant, Fatal Curiosity, and Arden of Feversham - Lillo makes a radical break with the Classical past by developing a wholly new theory of tragedy based on Calvinist theology and Puritan/Dissenter homiletic theory which sought to achieve an affective moral conversion experience in its auditors.