SOURCE: Hume, Robert. “Ideas of Greatness: The ‘Heroic’ Play.” In The Development of English Drama in the Late Seventeenth Century, pp. 192-99. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.

In this excerpt, Hume suggests that while many plays designated as “heroic” share important features, there is no single quality or trait shared by all of them.

How cohesive is ‘heroic drama’? Plainly this depends on your definition. Is a prosperous ending necessary? If so, what is Orrery's Mustapha? Is a villain-centred play truly heroic? I would say no—not unless a character of virtue figures prominently in contrast, as in Tyrannick Love. Does opera count?—and if not, do we ignore The Siege of Rhodes? Is rhyme a sine qua non? A play like The Mourning Bride, in blank verse, falls somewhere between prosperous-ending tragicomedy and the full-blown heroic. Such questions seem to me paramount. A great deal of critical attention has...