The tragedy of Jane Shore

by Nicholas Rowe

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Genres: Plays, Drama

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1713

About the author

(Several authors on Goodreads share the name Nicholas Rowe. The following is the most prolific and best known.)

English writer who was the first to attempt a critical edition of the works of Shakespeare. Rowe succeeded Nahum Tate as poet laureate in 1715 and was also the foremost 18th-century English tragic dramatist, doing much to assist the rise of domestic tragedy.

See also https://www.britannica.com/biography/...

Reviews

[bambie]

this guy’s not like shakespeare at all

[Ann]

1714 The Tragedy of Jane Shore

Found in "Eighteenth-Century Plays paperback

[Pádraic]

'Written in imitation of Shakespeare's style' but oh boy does it do a bad job of it, with flat lines, wince-inducing rhymes, and a great deal of imagery just directly paraphrased from Shakespeare himself. It's an odd thing, existing sort of inbetween scenes in Richard III and fleshing out a figure who's barely there in that play, but none of it ever advances beyond the level of a very minor curiosity.

[Becca]

Sadness after sadness after sadness for Jane!
Alicia doesn’t know the meaning of female friendships.
Lord Hastings is disgusting.
Gloucester is the future Richard III of Shakespeare’s tragedy.

[Daniel]

This 1714 play by Nicholas Rowe takes place at the English court and tells the tragic story of Edward IV's former mistress Jane Shore. Her property has been confiscated from her at the beginning of the play; nothing worse happens because the Duke of Glouster feels bad for her and is touched by her beauty. Lord Hastings speaks on her behalf to the Duke. We soon find out that he does this only so that he can have sex with her, but she vehemently refuses. He nearly rapes her, but Dumont intervenes. Jane's best friend, Alicia, is in love with Hastings and grows jealous when she finds out that he tried to rape Jane. Everyone turns against each other. In the end, Jane is re-united with her husband, who is discovered to be alive, but too late. He is taken away by officers for tyranny. Almost everyone's execution is scheduled by the end. The story is presented as a parable: "Let those who view this sad example, know, What fate attends the broken marriage vow... no common vengeance waits upon these crimes" (V.i.436-39).

[Julian Munds]

Although there is moments of fairly good poetry, and the moment where Gloster rises and becomes the deformed king we know him from in the Shakespeare, I feel like very little happens in this play. I found myself quite board in the reading of it. However, Act II would be a great scene study. It reads as a good attempted rape scene and if this were a play by Middleton that scene would have been thrilling. But ultimately this is a tame nothing of a play.

[Lisa]

Interesting play, very loosely based on the actual Jane Shore