The Fall of the Earl of Essex

The Fall of the Earl of Essex
Written byJames Ralph
Date premiered1 February 1731[1]
Place premieredGoodman's Fields Theatre
Original languageEnglish
GenreTragedy

The Fall of the Earl of Essex is a 1731 tragedy by James Ralph. It adapts John Banks’s Restoration play The Unhappy Favourite, which dramatizes the downfall of the Earl of Essex, a former favourite of Elizabeth I.[2]

Background and production

The play opened at Goodman's Fields Theatre in Whitechapel on 1 February 1731.[1] Banks’s The Unhappy Favourite (1681) had already fixed the Essex–Elizabeth story for later dramatists, and standard histories discuss Ralph’s reliance on that model.[2] The venue—one of London’s “little” theatres rather than a patent theatre—showed a mixed but sometimes oppositional repertoire in the early 1730s.[3]

Performance history

It was performed at Goodman's Fields on 1, 2, 3, and 4 February 1731.[4]

Nicoll lists further performances on 16 April 1734 and on 2 January, 29 January, and 13 December 1745;[2] however, the London Stage Database records those Goodman's Fields dates under Banks’s The Unhappy Favourite (styled The Earl of Essex) rather than Ralph’s adaptation.[5]

Cast

Men

  • Earl of Essex — Mr. Giffard[6]
  • Earl of Southampton — Mr. Rosco[6][7]
  • Lord Burleigh — Mr. Wm. Giffard[6]
  • Sir Walter Raleigh — Mr. Barden[6]

Women

Other

  • Prologue — Spoken by Mr. Giffard[10]
  • Epilogue — Spoken by Mrs. Giffard[11]

Publication

The play was printed in octavo in 1731, issued anonymously, under the title The Fall of the Earl of Essex… Alter’d from the Unhappy Favourite of Mr. Banks.[2] Ralph did not attach his name to the edition; the preface adopts a self-deprecating tone, hoping that Banks’s “Genius” might elevate his own “Tinsel.”[12]

Adaptation

The adaptation retains Banks’s plot but pares back episodes judged melodramatic.[13] It drops the “box on the ear” scene between Elizabeth and Essex,[13] has the Queen address Essex on his first entrance, shows the scaffold in Act V, and brings on Essex’s body in a coffin; much of the dialogue is newly written.[14]

In technique and style, asides are replaced with direct exchanges; brisk repartee yields to longer, measured speeches.[15] The verse is regularised and more reflective, with set pieces on ambition, court life, and withdrawal from the world (e.g., Essex’s wish to “leave all Courts … [and] herd with milder Monsters”).[15] Acts often close with an extended simile in rhymed couplets; Act II ends with a seafaring conceit.[16]

The printed paratexts state the adapter’s aims: the prologue praises Banks for having “sketch’d the bold Design … [and] mark’d the Passions strong,” yet says the colours were “rudely laid,”[13] and adds that the adapter “lays his own imperfect Schemes aside” and “invokes the Genius of the Bards of Old.”[17] The title page quotes Richard Steele’s 1709 estimate of Banks.[13]

Themes and political interpretation

Although the play’s text does not name contemporary figures, modern scholarship reads it within the opposition-leaning theatrical climate of the early 1730s. Goodman's Fields showed no fixed partisan line, yet it staged opposition pieces in this period.[3]

On The Fall of the Earl of Essex specifically, Loftis argues that identifying its courtiers with Walpole “requires imagination,” but notes clear analogies (Essex as a queen’s favourite; Walpole and Queen Caroline) and lines that in 1731 would have sounded like an arraignment of Walpole’s peace policy—for example Burleigh’s charge that Essex “betray’d his Charge … commens’d a Truce against [the Queen’s] absolute Command.”[18]

In this context, McKinsey characterizes Ralph’s adaptation as “opaquely anti-Walpole.”[19]

Reception

In 1832, John Genest described the alteration as “very dull,” though “on the whole … better than the original piece.”[14] In 1962, J. M. Bastian judged the adaptation “not successful.”[12]

Ralph’s adaptation was performed on four consecutive nights at Goodman's Fields (1–4 February 1731).[4] When the Essex story returned to the theatre in 1734, listings styled the mainpiece as The Unhappy Favourite; in 1745 they styled it as The Earl of Essex, rather than Ralph’s adaptation.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Burling 1992, p. 139.
  2. ^ a b c d Nicoll 1929, p. 350.
  3. ^ a b Loftis 1963, p. 106.
  4. ^ a b London Stage Database n.d., Events 13943 (1 Feb), 13946 (2 Feb), 13950 (3 Feb), 13954 (4 Feb).
  5. ^ a b London Stage Database n.d., 16 April 1734, Goodman's Fields (The Unhappy Favourite); 2 January 1745, Goodman's Fields (The Earl of Essex); 29 January 1745, Goodman's Fields (The Earl of Essex); 13 December 1745, Goodman's Fields (The Earl of Essex).
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Ralph 1731, Dramatis Personæ.
  7. ^ Highfill, Burnim & Langhans 1973–1993, s.v. "Rosco, James".
  8. ^ Highfill, Burnim & Langhans 1973–1993, s.v. "Giffard, Anna Marcella".
  9. ^ Highfill, Burnim & Langhans 1973–1993, s.v. "Morgan, Henrietta".
  10. ^ Ralph 1731, Prologue.
  11. ^ Ralph 1731, Epilogue.
  12. ^ a b Bastian 1962, p. 181.
  13. ^ a b c d Bastian 1962, p. 183.
  14. ^ a b Genest 1832, pp. 318–319.
  15. ^ a b Bastian 1962, p. 184.
  16. ^ Bastian 1962, pp. 185–186.
  17. ^ Bastian 1962, p. 187.
  18. ^ Loftis 1963, p. 107.
  19. ^ McKinsey 1973, p. 69.

Bibliography

  • London Stage Database. "01 February 1731 @ Goodman's Fields: The Fall of the Earl of Essex". London Stage Database. University of Oregon. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  • Highfill, Philip H.; Kalman A. Burnim; Edward A. Langhans (1973–1993). A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.