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The Fatal Curiosity An Affecting Narrative, Founded on Facts. To Which Is Annex'D, a Letter, from the Unfortunate and Famous Sir Walter Ralegh to His Lady, While Under Sentence 1767 Leather Bound
Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden leaf printing on spine. This book is printed in black & white, Sewing binding for longer life, where the book block is actually sewn (smythe sewn/section sewn) with thread before binding which results in a more durable type of binding. Reprinted in 2022 with the help of original edition published long back 1767. As this book is reprinted from a very old book, there could be some missing or flawed pages. If it is multi vo Resized as per current standards. We expect that you will understand our compulsion with such books. 45 The Fatal Curiosity An Affecting Narrative, Founded on Facts. To which is Annex'd, a Letter, from the Unfortunate and Famous Sir Walter Ralegh to His Lady, While Under Sentence of Death at Winchester.. 1767 George Lillo
- GenresPlays
45 pages, Leather Bound
First published January 1, 1810
9 people want to read
About the author
George Lillo
22 books6 followersGeorge Lillo (3 February 1691 – 4 September 1739)[1] was an English playwright and tragedian. He was a jeweller in London as well as a dramatist. He produced his first stage work, Silvia, or The Country Burial, in 1730. A year later, he produced his most famous play, The London Merchant. He wrote at least six more plays before his death in 1739, including The Christian Hero (1735), Fatal Curiosity (1737) and Marina (1738).[2]
Contents
Life
George Lillo was born in Moorfields, or Moorgate, in the City of London.[3] He became a partner in his father’s goldsmith-jewellery business.[2]
Early stage works
Lillo wrote at least eight plays between 1730 and his death in 1739. His first work in the theatre was the ballad opera Silvia, or The Country Burial in 1730. He wrote it in order to reproduce the success of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, but Lillo's play received mixed reviews and only showed for three nights at Lincoln's Inn Fields, in November 1730, and for a one-night revival at Covent Garden in March 1738, reduced to two acts.[3]
Contents page of Lillo's The Works of Mr. George Lillo with Some Account of His Life, 1775
The following year, Lillo wrote his most famous play, The London Merchant, or The History of George Barnwell (1731), which is considered one of the most popular and frequently produced plays of the 18th century.[3] In October 1831 it was presented by royal command in the presence of George II and Queen Caroline.[3] It was in the genre that came to be called melodrama.[4] In The London Merchant, the subject is an apprentice who struggles with his conscience. He makes an imprudent choice and repents of his vice to attain only the hand of a worthy girl.[5] Lillo redefined the subject of dramatic tragedy and demonstrated that middle and lower class citizens were worthy of tragic downfalls.[6][7] The 17th century ballad about a murder in Shropshire was the historical foundation for the play. Lillo dedicates the play to Sir John Eyles, a prominent member of the merchant class in London, in a letter before the text and plot begins. Lillo's domestic tragedy reflects a turning of the theatre away from the court and toward the town.[8] Dickens introduced "the affecting tragedy of George Barnwell" into his novel Great Expectations.[9]
Lillo revived the genre of play referred to as domestic tragedy (or bourgeois tragedy).[10] Even though the Jacobean stage had flirted with merchant and artisan plays in the past (with, for example, Thomas Dekker and Thomas Heywood), The London Merchant was a significant change in theatre, and in tragedy in particular.[6] Instead of dealing with heroes from classical literature or the Bible, presented with spectacle and grand stage effects, his subjects concerned everyday people, such as his audience, the theater-going middle classes, and his tragedies were conducted on the intimate scale of households, rather than kingdoms.[11][6][7]
Lillo was concerned that plays be morally correct and in keeping with Christian values.[12][13] His next play was The Christian Hero (1735), a retelling of the story of Skanderbeg.[3]
Later years
Later in the decade, Lillo wrote Fatal Curiosity (1737) and Marina (1738).[14] He based Marina on the play Pericles by William Shakespeare.[3] His next play was Elmerick, or Justice Triumphant in 1740, followed the same year by Britannia and Batavia.[14] Lillo adapted the anonymous Elizabethan play Arden of Feversham, which was posthumously performed, first in 1759. It was based on the life of Alice Arden.[14]
In his own day, his later plays, other than Merchant, were only moderate successes, and after his death old style tragedies and comedies continued to dominate the stage.[citation needed] All of Lillo's plays were produced in London, and only three of them produced any profit.
Lillo died at age 48, in 1739, in Rotherhithe, London.
Contents
Life
George Lillo was born in Moorfields, or Moorgate, in the City of London.[3] He became a partner in his father’s goldsmith-jewellery business.[2]
Early stage works
Lillo wrote at least eight plays between 1730 and his death in 1739. His first work in the theatre was the ballad opera Silvia, or The Country Burial in 1730. He wrote it in order to reproduce the success of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, but Lillo's play received mixed reviews and only showed for three nights at Lincoln's Inn Fields, in November 1730, and for a one-night revival at Covent Garden in March 1738, reduced to two acts.[3]
Contents page of Lillo's The Works of Mr. George Lillo with Some Account of His Life, 1775
The following year, Lillo wrote his most famous play, The London Merchant, or The History of George Barnwell (1731), which is considered one of the most popular and frequently produced plays of the 18th century.[3] In October 1831 it was presented by royal command in the presence of George II and Queen Caroline.[3] It was in the genre that came to be called melodrama.[4] In The London Merchant, the subject is an apprentice who struggles with his conscience. He makes an imprudent choice and repents of his vice to attain only the hand of a worthy girl.[5] Lillo redefined the subject of dramatic tragedy and demonstrated that middle and lower class citizens were worthy of tragic downfalls.[6][7] The 17th century ballad about a murder in Shropshire was the historical foundation for the play. Lillo dedicates the play to Sir John Eyles, a prominent member of the merchant class in London, in a letter before the text and plot begins. Lillo's domestic tragedy reflects a turning of the theatre away from the court and toward the town.[8] Dickens introduced "the affecting tragedy of George Barnwell" into his novel Great Expectations.[9]
Lillo revived the genre of play referred to as domestic tragedy (or bourgeois tragedy).[10] Even though the Jacobean stage had flirted with merchant and artisan plays in the past (with, for example, Thomas Dekker and Thomas Heywood), The London Merchant was a significant change in theatre, and in tragedy in particular.[6] Instead of dealing with heroes from classical literature or the Bible, presented with spectacle and grand stage effects, his subjects concerned everyday people, such as his audience, the theater-going middle classes, and his tragedies were conducted on the intimate scale of households, rather than kingdoms.[11][6][7]
Lillo was concerned that plays be morally correct and in keeping with Christian values.[12][13] His next play was The Christian Hero (1735), a retelling of the story of Skanderbeg.[3]
Later years
Later in the decade, Lillo wrote Fatal Curiosity (1737) and Marina (1738).[14] He based Marina on the play Pericles by William Shakespeare.[3] His next play was Elmerick, or Justice Triumphant in 1740, followed the same year by Britannia and Batavia.[14] Lillo adapted the anonymous Elizabethan play Arden of Feversham, which was posthumously performed, first in 1759. It was based on the life of Alice Arden.[14]
In his own day, his later plays, other than Merchant, were only moderate successes, and after his death old style tragedies and comedies continued to dominate the stage.[citation needed] All of Lillo's plays were produced in London, and only three of them produced any profit.
Lillo died at age 48, in 1739, in Rotherhithe, London.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 2, 2024
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS because I am going to recap the ENTIRE plot of this hilarious play. It's clean and straightforward, because 18th century. Oh 18th century, the sentimentality gets me every time, and combined with Georgian licentiousness, "Age of Enlightenment" and early Gothic? Fascinating.
Ok, so Fatal Curiosity requires the *dumbest* actions from its characters so that it can orchestrate its Greek-horror level tragedy. Goes like this: Old Wilmot and wife Agnes have descended into deepest poverty in the 10 years since their only child "Young Wilmot" (yup) went to sea to try to save the family fortunes. Randal is some kind of ward/servant of the Wilmots who gets let go by Old W in scene 1 because the WImots are too poor to support him anymore. Young Wilmot (YW hereafter) was also engaged to his next door neighbor Charlot. Charlot is SO virtuous that it's hilarious as she complacently ages away under the expectation that her fiancé is dead.
Okay, only of course YW ISN'T dead, he's just been shipwrecked 2 or 3 times and so anyone who writes letters has lost track of him. Why he didn't write a damn letter isn't clear, but don't worry, that's not the dumbest thing he'll do. Okay, so he and his friend Eustace have been shipwrecked one more time RIGHT by the Wilmot estate in Cornwall, but luckily YW managed to escape with his casket of precious jewels, which he did somehow make good on over these last ten years in the Orient. So they're in foreign dress and have just their jewels and their sun-tanned skins due to Sea, and head over to Charlot's. She doesn't recognize YW and he says everything weird so that it seems more like he's telling her he knows YW is dead, and then mis-reads her despair for faithlessness for awhile, then once her grief and faithfulness gets properly established as faithfulness, he discloses and yay, happy.
Okay, so why didn't he go directly to his parents? Dunno, but get ready he's going to do something even dumber. He decides since no one recognizes him, that it will be MORE fun if he visits his parents pretending to be a stranger and then afterward disclosing himself. Eustace notes this stupid prank is related to YW's natural, and pretty dumb, "curiosity" and so now we know what a TERRIBLE idea this is (see play title). But this is what he does: he notes that his family home is utterly poverty stricken, has a nice chat with his dad, then hands him the casket and asks to take a nap. So then Fatal Curiosity #2 happens: Agness looks in the casket and sees that it is a fortune in jewels, so she convinces OW that they need to murder the stranger to save their estate. OW, who had been advocating suicide to solve their problem at the beginning of the play, and Agnes, who prefers murder, have a bit of back and forth before they agree to murder. So they do that, and Eustace and Charlot show up exactly too late to stop the stabbing, so instead explain what they've done so that OW can murder Agnes and then stab himself, the end.
Four stars for being RIDICULOUS and full of sentimental and stilted moral speechery, far fewer stars for actual literary value and contrivedness of getting to the shocking actions Lillo wanted to hit us with.
Ok, so Fatal Curiosity requires the *dumbest* actions from its characters so that it can orchestrate its Greek-horror level tragedy. Goes like this: Old Wilmot and wife Agnes have descended into deepest poverty in the 10 years since their only child "Young Wilmot" (yup) went to sea to try to save the family fortunes. Randal is some kind of ward/servant of the Wilmots who gets let go by Old W in scene 1 because the WImots are too poor to support him anymore. Young Wilmot (YW hereafter) was also engaged to his next door neighbor Charlot. Charlot is SO virtuous that it's hilarious as she complacently ages away under the expectation that her fiancé is dead.
Okay, only of course YW ISN'T dead, he's just been shipwrecked 2 or 3 times and so anyone who writes letters has lost track of him. Why he didn't write a damn letter isn't clear, but don't worry, that's not the dumbest thing he'll do. Okay, so he and his friend Eustace have been shipwrecked one more time RIGHT by the Wilmot estate in Cornwall, but luckily YW managed to escape with his casket of precious jewels, which he did somehow make good on over these last ten years in the Orient. So they're in foreign dress and have just their jewels and their sun-tanned skins due to Sea, and head over to Charlot's. She doesn't recognize YW and he says everything weird so that it seems more like he's telling her he knows YW is dead, and then mis-reads her despair for faithlessness for awhile, then once her grief and faithfulness gets properly established as faithfulness, he discloses and yay, happy.
Okay, so why didn't he go directly to his parents? Dunno, but get ready he's going to do something even dumber. He decides since no one recognizes him, that it will be MORE fun if he visits his parents pretending to be a stranger and then afterward disclosing himself. Eustace notes this stupid prank is related to YW's natural, and pretty dumb, "curiosity" and so now we know what a TERRIBLE idea this is (see play title). But this is what he does: he notes that his family home is utterly poverty stricken, has a nice chat with his dad, then hands him the casket and asks to take a nap. So then Fatal Curiosity #2 happens: Agness looks in the casket and sees that it is a fortune in jewels, so she convinces OW that they need to murder the stranger to save their estate. OW, who had been advocating suicide to solve their problem at the beginning of the play, and Agnes, who prefers murder, have a bit of back and forth before they agree to murder. So they do that, and Eustace and Charlot show up exactly too late to stop the stabbing, so instead explain what they've done so that OW can murder Agnes and then stab himself, the end.
Four stars for being RIDICULOUS and full of sentimental and stilted moral speechery, far fewer stars for actual literary value and contrivedness of getting to the shocking actions Lillo wanted to hit us with.
October 30, 2024
That was… a horrendous ending, but it IS a tragedy after all. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming, since the author of the introduction literally spoiled the ending 😒, but it was still an interesting journey getting to that point. This is the first Restoration/18th-century play that I felt I could really connect with the characters, and I thought the language was pretty accessible. I enjoyed this play a lot, even with that crazy ending.
December 23, 2017
Painful, pristine plotting.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews