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The Wild Gallant is a Restoration comedy written by John Dryden. It was Dryden's earliest play, and written in prose, except for the prologue, and the epilogue, which are in verse. It was premiered on the stage by the King's Company at their Vere Street theatre, formerly Gibbon's Tennis Court, on February 5, 1663. (The play's opening scene is a prologue that features a pair of astrologers drawing horoscopes on the play's fortunes for that date.) As Dryden himself stated in his Preface, it was "the first attempt I made in Dramatique Poetry."
Sources
Like the earliest works of many authors, and also like many other Restoration plays, The Wild Gallant is a derivative work: Dryden borrowed from several previous authors and plays, as far back as Ben Jonson's Every Man Out of His Humour (1599).[1] Dryden admired the versification of Sir John Suckling, and quoted and paraphrased Suckling in his play.
Revision
In his Preface to the first edition of the play, Dryden admitted that "The Plot was not Originally my own...." Critic Alfred Harbage argued that Richard Brome was the likely author of the work in its original form. (Harbage made this argument regarded two plays connected with the Dryden canon, The Wild Gallant and The Mistaken Husband.)[2] Harbage noted that in The Wild Gallant Lady Constance fakes a pregnancy with a pillow under her dress, just as Annabelle does in Brome's The Sparagus Garden. Other elements in the play's plotting and style also indicate Brome, in Harbage's view. The play's stylistic inconsistencies have been observed by other critics — one referring to the "Jonsonian" aspects of the play;[3] but Brome was a dedicated follower of Jonson, and the play's "Jonsonian" features can just as easily be considered "Bromian."
If Harbage's argument is valid, it contains a measure of irony: Dryden mixed Brome with Suckling in his potpourri of influences and borrowings, and Suckling and Brome were theatrical rivals. [See: Aglaura; The Court Beggar.]
Reception
Dryden composed a set of verses addressed to Lady Castlemaine, the mistress of King Charles II, crediting her with "encouraging" this early play. Dryden's first effort was not, however, a success with its original audience; "the greater part condemn'd it," as Dryden himself put it. Samuel Pepys saw the second Court performance on February 23, 1663, and in his Diary called it "so poor a thing as ever I saw in my life almost...." (Pepys complained that even at the end of the play he could not tell which character was the Wild Gallant.) Some commentators considered it coarse, even by the libertine standards of the era. Dryden re-wrote the comedy, and it was more successful when revived in 1667.
Publication
The play was first published in 1669, in a quarto printed by Thomas Newcomb for the bookseller Henry Herringman. That text is the revised version of 1667, not the original of 1663. Other editions followed in 1684 and 1694, both from Herringman.[4]
References
- ^ Adolphus William Ward and Alfred Rayney Waller, eds., The Cambridge History of English Literature, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1912; Vol. 8, p. 18 n. 1.
- ^ Alfred Harbage, "Elizabethan-Restoration Palimpsest," Modern Language Review Vol. 35 No. 3 (July 1940), pp. 287-319.
- ^ Harbage, p. 308 n. 2.
- ^ Hugh MacDonald, John Dryden: A Bibliography of Early Editions and of Drydeniana, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1939, reprinted Kessinger Publishing, 2006; pp. 99-101.
5 Annotations
First Reading
in Aqua Scripto • Link
Consensus: it was a flop:
The Wild Gallant (1663), was a failure
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu…
John Dryden, (1631-1700), English poet, literary critic, dramatist and leader in Restoration comedy wrote the comedic play Marriage A-la-Mode (1672), and the tragedy All for Love (1678).
"....His first play The Wild Gallant was first staged in 1662. ....: more
http://www.online-literature.com/…
Dryden's first play, a comedy called The Wild Gallant, appeared (and failed) there.
http://classiclit.about.com/libra…
pedro • Link
Dryden (Book of Days)
Dryden had many enemies; no man could write in those days without incurring hatred. Hence it arose that the following notice appeared in a London newspaper in December 1679. 'Upon the 17th instant, in the evening, Mr. Dryden, the great poet, was set upon in Rose Street, in Covent-Garden, by three persons, who called him a rogue, and other bad names, knockt him down, and dangerously wounded him, but upon his crying out "Murther!" they made their escape. It is conceived that they had their pay beforehand, and designed not to rob him, but to execute on him some cruelty, if not popish vengeance.' Soon afterwards the following advertisement was issued: 'Whereas, &c., &c., if any person shall make discovery of the said offenders, to the said Mr. Dryden, or to any justice of peace for the liberty of Westminster, he shall not only receive fifty pounds, which is deposited in the hands of Mr. Blandard, goldsmith, next door to Temple Bar, for the said purpose; but if the discoverer himself be one of the actors, he shall have the fifty pounds, without letting his name be known, or receiving the least trouble by any. prosecution.'
david ross mcirvine • Link
However bad this play was, or was not, Dryden withdrew the original version and then amended it. Samuel Johnson comments, in *Lives of the English Poets*
http://www.18thcenturyarchive.org…
"His first piece was a comedy called The Wild Gallant. He began with no happy auguries; for his performance was so much disapproved, that he was compelled to recall it, and change it from its imperfect state to the form in which it now appears, and which is yet sufficiently defective to vindicate the criticks."
in alto aqua • Link
An online ref by Spock:If you want to read the play The Wild Gallant, it's on this page.
http://www.sakoman.net/pg/html/12…
Spock on Fri 24 Feb 2006,"I don't know why Sam didn't like it. It's very logical."
from :http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/02/23/
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The wild gallant a comedy : as it was acted at the Theater-Royal by His Majesties servants / written by John Dryden, esq.
Dryden, John, 1631-1700.
[London] In the Savoy: Printed by Tho. Newcomb for H. Herringman ..., 1669.
Early English Books Online [full text]
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/…