Notes
1 Thomas Dixon
has traced the evolution of and emphasis on the "psychology
of the emotions" to what he calls the "newer and more
secular network" of meaning that began to emerge in the
early nineteenth century (289). Both Sheriff and Bredvold
have analyzed aspects of the the debate over
sentimentality's indebtedness to Latitudinarianism, arguing
that a tension exists between traditional Christian
emphases on a system of active virtue and the sentimental
self-absorption in one's own "good nature" as an end in
itself.
2 Markley
reviews the literary and critical controversies surrounding
Shaftesbury's role in defining Sentimentality as "the
affective spectacle of benign generosity" (211), as well as
its contested religious origins in latitudinarianism and
Deism. Another useful summary of the major debates about
sentimentality as a cultural practice can be found in
Howard, although her focus is largely on American
literature, while Solomon has traced the European and
philosophical roots of the concept. There are a number of
major book-length studies of the genre, but those most
relevant to the focus of this essay are by Barker-Benfield,
Mullan, and Marshall.
3 See Bartlet,
who very usefully distinguishes between the
Théâtre-Italien, the one founded to
perform Italian opera buffa and opera
semiseria and directed at one point by Paër, and
the earlier Théâtre-Italien or
Comédie Italienne (the name of the
Opéra-Comique until 1793), whose repertoire
included Italian plays in Italian, French plays, and
opéras-comiques, but not Italian opera
(123).
4 The basis of
Sentimentality's physical appeal has been variously
analyzed. Branfman attempts a psychoanalytical analysis of
sentimentality as a "magic gesture in reverse," a "wistful
observation [in which the audience] passively views" the
sufferings and "sadness without pleasure" of the opera's
participants (624-25). Ellis reviews the terms
sentimental, comedy, and sentimental
comedy in a morphological attempt to discern the
specific qualities of the genre, while Sherbo defines
sentimental drama by examining a number of specific
examples.
5 I have
explored elsewhere and at much greater length the role that
Thomas Holcroft's A Tale of Mystery played in the
evolution of British melodrama in relation to his own
earlier sentimental comedies (i.e., The Deserted
Daughter, a work that bears some similarities to the
two operas under discussion here).
6 See the
biographical background provided for the Broadview edition
of Opie's Father and Daughter. All quotations from
the novella will be from this edition, with page numbers in
parentheses in the text. This edition also very usefully
reprints an excerpt from Paër's Agnese, along
with contemporary reviews, as well as excerpts from both
Kemble's Smiles and Tears and Moncrieff's The
Lear of Private Life.
|
