Roscius Anglicanus, or an Historical Review of the Stage/Heroick Love
Heroick Love, Wrote by Mr. George Greenvil, Superlatively Writ; a very good Tragedy, well Acted, and mightily pleas’d the Court and City.
Note: Heroick Love. This tragedy, written by George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, was produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in the winter of 1697. The theme is borrowed from the Homeric legends, but the whole atmosphere is very far removed from the Iliad. Thus we have Agamemnon, played by Betterton, who is the ultra-romantic lover of Chruseis, Mrs. Barry. Achilles, played by Verbruggen, is a slave to the charms of Briseis, Mrs. Bracegirdle. The criticism of this play in A Comparison between the two Stages is much to the point:
“Heroic Love. That I think is Mr. Granville’s. ’Tis so, and the language is very correct: but with submission to him, his fable is not well chosen; there’s too little business in’t for so long a representation: but if Mr. G. had taken the Story at a greater length, and contriv’d the incidents to surprize, he had made it an admirable tragedy.”