The Birth of Galahad

by Richard Hovey

Born in Illinois in 1864 and educated at Dartmouth (where many of the songs he wrote as class poet are still sung), Richard Hovey next studied art in Washington and then theology in New York City before becoming a newspaper reporter in Boston -- where he met the Canadian poet Bliss Carman, with whom so much of his poetry would be written. Issuing his first volume of verse at 16, Dartmouth benefitted of his presence by the many tributary verses, fraternity songs and odes, that he wrote in their honor. Choosing to do a little acting in order to become a better playwright, he soon thereafter wrote the first of his dramatic poems Lancelot and Guenevere which contained The Quest of Merlin and The Marriage of Guenevere. Moving to France the following year, he befriended the French Symbolists Verlaine, Mallarme and Maeterlinck, by whom he was greatly influenced. Translating Maeterlinck's works, he went on to publish Songs of Vagabondia, co-written with Bliss Carmen, in 1894. The poems inspired collegians who took to chanting his words. Ultimately a professor of literature at Barnard College, Hovey died during a minor operation (at age 35) at the very beginning of the new century, February 24, 1900, with his fame assured.

Genres: Plays, 19th Century

132 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[simone · Rating 4 out of 5]

(writing out this whole review so chill and everything as if act 4 didn't have me actually screaming silently and mouthing out the words to myself and affecting me so bad i had to stop reading for an hour) act 4 ohhh my god. perfect latter half. tbh i don't really like the idea of guinevere being able to have a child, i feel that it ruins quite a bit of the legend's themes etc BUT i liked this play and what it did with it. i wish there'd been more about galahad though, funnily enough? there were times that it felt like the author forgot about his existence lol which to me was a little weird!

i really like how this author just puts lancelot and guinevere in Situations. i wish he wrote 123878 more plays like this & the marriage of guenevere. dagonet was a pretty satisfying chekhov's gun. minus points for not recognizing and writing out galehaut's gay love for lancelot though 👎

[Mariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️

The Birth of Galahad tells the events that happened after the events of The Marriage of Guinevere. In here, we see the birth of Galahad, who in this book is the son of Lancelot and Guinevere and not the son of Lancelot and Elaine. We still see the forbidden love between Lancelot and Guinevere and how conflicted they are, especially Lancelot. We also see the consequences of the war between Britain and Rome.

Again, the characters were good. If you love Arthurian Legend, I think you will like this play.