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65-594: Dullin began his career as an actor in melodrama In 1908, he started his first troupe with Saturnin Fabre , the Théâtre de Foire, where they staged works by Alexandre Arnoux . Dullin was a student of Jacques Copeau , whose company he joined in 1913 for one season, before rejoining from 1917 to 1918. He also trained and worked with Jacques Rouché , André Antoine and Firmin Gémier . In June 1920, Dullin began taking on students and

130-422: A "victory over repression". Late Victorian and Edwardian melodrama combined a conscious focus on realism in stage sets and props with "anti-realism" in character and plot. Melodrama in this period strove for "credible accuracy in the depiction of incredible, extraordinary" scenes. Novelist Wilkie Collins is noted for his attention to accurate detail (e.g., of legal matters) in his works, no matter how sensational

195-591: A freer and more imaginative course regarding the plot prerogative. Within the context of the Czech National Revival , the melodrama took on a specifically nationalist meaning for Czech artists, beginning roughly in the 1870s and continuing through the First Czechoslovak Republic of the interwar period. This new understanding of the melodrama stemmed primarily from such nineteenth-century scholars and critics as Otakar Hostinský , who considered

260-947: A fusion of the Hispanic and Asian cultures) the Philippines . Expatriate communities in the diaspora of these countries give viewership a global market. Melodrama films are a subgenre of drama films characterized by plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience . Melodramatic films commonly use plots that involve crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship , strained familial situations, tragedy , illness , neuroses , or emotional and physical hardship . The stock characters present in melodrama films include victims, couples, virtuous and heroic characters, and suffering protagonists (usually heroines ). These characters are faced with tremendous social pressures, threats, repression, fears, improbable events or difficulties with friends, community , work , lovers, or family. Following

325-412: A general culture, which they so often lack; to inculcate them from the very beginning with solid principles of actors' techniques: good diction, physical training; to expand their means of expression to include dance and pantomime; in one word, to form the complete actor. The actor was to get in tune with "La Voix du Monde" (the voice of the world) by making contact with one's surroundings, which would free

390-413: A hurry, that, as part of her actress activities within our company, Pascale de Boysson has been brought to translate the texts of Schisgal, Saunders, Friel and others... She did so with both great humility and great ease, not looking for resemblance at all costs through agreed equivalences, but on the contrary imposing a difference, sometimes dissonances, by digging a groove in our language, enriching it with

455-444: A means of setting Czech declamation correctly: his melodramas Štědrý den (1874) and Vodník (1883) use rhythmic durations to specify the alignment of spoken word and accompaniment. Fibich's main achievement was Hippodamie (1888–1891), a trilogy of full-evening staged melodramas on the texts of Jaroslav Vrchlický with multiple actors and orchestra, composed in an advanced Wagnerian musical style. Josef Suk 's main contributions at

520-582: A member of Jacques Rouché's Théâtre des Arts (1910-1913) he performed in Louis Laloy's Le Chagrin dans le palais de Han (1911), an adaptation of a Chinese Yuan zaju play. He would first perform in the minor role of un seigneur before taking over the role the Emperor, one of the play's two leads, for its revival in December. In addition to starring in the revival, Rouché asked Dullin to modify some aspects of

585-432: A new sound, the tone of the song of an author from elsewhere. It's still difficult for me to talk about Pascale. I feel the clumsiness of the burglar who would be forced to force his own safe, as it says somewhere in a novel by Faulkner. I will only say that I consider this prize as a last tribute of the profession to Pascale de Boysson, to that independent, generous and gratuitous life she had given herself." On 2 July 2015

650-607: A pas de fumée sans feu (1973) and Mrs Clare in Tess (1979). She died aged 80 on 9 August 2002 in La Noue and was buried at Coux-et-Bigaroque in the Dordogne . Jean-Jacques Aillagon , the French Minister of Culture and Communication , paid homage to Pascale de Boysson on the day of her death: "With Pascale de Boysson, we lose a great actress, but also a remarkable adaptator who had

715-566: A reflection of issues brought up by the French Revolution , the Industrial Revolution and the shift to modernization. Many melodramas were about a middle-class young woman who experienced unwanted sexual advances from an aristocratic miscreant, the sexual assault being a metaphor for class conflict. The melodrama reflected post-Industrial Revolution anxieties of the middle class, who was afraid of both aristocratic power brokers and

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780-429: A scene within a play or an opera. It was only later, in the nineteenth century, that the term lost its association with music and began to be used for plays with sentimental and sensational plots typical of popular Victorian drama . The earliest known examples of melodrama are scenes in J. E. Eberlin's Latin school play Sigismundus (1753). The first full melodrama was Jean-Jacques Rousseau 's monodrama Pygmalion ,

845-403: A servant of the aged parent engaged in a sensational plot featuring themes of love and murder. Often the good but not very clever hero is duped by a scheming villain, who has eyes on the damsel in distress until fate intervenes at the end to ensure the triumph of good over evil. Two central features were the coup de théàtre, or reversal of fortune, and the claptrap: a back-to-the-wall oration by

910-413: Is a dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized and for a very strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or excessively sentimental , rather than on action. Characters are often flat and written to fulfill established character archetypes . Melodramas are typically set in the private sphere of

975-550: Is also frequently used in Spanish zarzuela , both in the 19th and 20th centuries, and continued also to be used as a "special effect" in opera, for instance Richard Strauss 's Die Frau ohne Schatten . In Paris, the 19th century saw a flourishing of melodrama in the many theatres that were located on the popular Boulevard du Crime , especially in the Gaîté . All this came to an end, however, when most of these theatres were demolished during

1040-410: Is available online, complete with several melodramas, for instance, No. 12 found here. A few operettas exhibit melodrama in the sense of music played under spoken dialogue, for instance, Gilbert and Sullivan 's Ruddigore (itself a parody of melodramas in the modern sense) has a short "melodrame" (reduced to dialogue alone in many productions) in the second act; Jacques Offenbach 's Orpheus in

1105-688: Is nearly always pejorative. The term was first used in English in 1784 (in 1782 as melo drame ) and came from the French word mélodrame ( c.  1772 ), which was itself derived from Greek μέλος ("song" or "music") and French drame ("drama"). The relationship of melodrama and realism is complex. Protagonists of melodramatic works may be ordinary (and hence realistically drawn) people who are caught up in extraordinary events or highly exaggerated and unrealistic characters. With regard to its high emotions and dramatic rhetoric, melodrama represents

1170-739: The Molière Award , winning it in 1988 and posthumously in 2003. Born as Marie Thérèse Antoinette Pascale de Boysson in April 1922 at Château de Châtillon in the commune of Chindrieux , she was one of ten children born to the aristocratic Louis de Boysson (1881-1971), a Director of the Paris Railroad Company in Orléans who married Marie Jeanne d'Anglejan-Châtillon in 1912. She was a pupil of Charles Dullin and Tania Balachova . In 1961 after meeting Laurent Terzieff she became his life partner and led

1235-746: The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and Lisle's Tennis Court in Lincoln's Inn Fields , the latter of which moved to the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in 1720 (now the Royal Opera House ). The two patent theatres closed in the summer months. To fill the gap, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket became a third patent theatre in London in 1766. Further letters patent were eventually granted to one theatre in each of several other English towns and cities. Other theatres presented dramas that were underscored with music and, borrowing

1300-399: The rebuilding of Paris by Baron Haussmann in 1862. By the end of the 19th century, the term melodrama had nearly exclusively narrowed down to a specific genre of salon entertainment: more or less rhythmically spoken words (often poetry) – not sung, sometimes more or less enacted, at least with some dramatic structure or plot – synchronized to the accompaniment of music (usually piano). It

1365-511: The 'larger, more modern Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt ', where he remained resident until 1947 when accumulating debts forced him to close down. Dullin also played many roles on the screen, and used some of the money earned in these roles to support his theater. He was one of the major French actors both on the stage and the screen during the 1930s. Dullin put a particular emphasis on mime, gymnastics, voice production, and various improvisational exercises intended to heighten one's sensory perception. In

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1430-587: The 1930s until the late 1960s, Hays Code restrictions on the inclusion of "licentious" content in films would restrict the portrayal of female desire in the American film melodrama. During the 1940s, the British Gainsborough melodramas were successful with audiences. In the 1950s, films by director Douglas Sirk , such as All That Heaven Allows (1955) and Written on the Wind (1956), are representative of

1495-450: The French term, called it melodrama to get around the restriction. The Theatres Act 1843 finally allowed all theatres to play drama. In the early 19th century, opera's influence led to musical overtures and incidental music for many plays. In 1820, Franz Schubert wrote a melodrama, Die Zauberharfe ("The Magic Harp"), setting music behind the play written by G. von Hofmann. It was unsuccessful, like all Schubert's theatre ventures, but

1560-652: The Gothic, the next popular subgenre was the nautical melodrama, pioneered by Douglas Jerrold in his Black-Eyed Susan (1829). Other nautical melodramas included Jerrold's The Mutiny at the Nore (1830) and The Red Rover (1829) by Edward Fitzball (Rowell 1953). Melodramas based on urban situations became popular in the mid-nineteenth century, including The Streets of London (1864) by Dion Boucicault ; and Lost in London (1867) by Watts Phillips, while prison melodrama, temperance melodrama, and imperialist melodrama also appeared –

1625-515: The Rise of English Melodrama.” Essays in Romanticism . 29.1 (April 2022): 1-31. Williams, Carolyn, ed. ‘’The Cambridge Companion to English Melodrama.’’ University of Cambridge Press, 2018. Pascale de Boysson Pascale de Boysson (16 April 1922 – 9 August 2002) was a French film, television and stage actress who also adapted and translated plays for the French stage. She was a two-time winner of

1690-487: The Soul (1974). The 1980s saw a resurgence in American "women's" melodramas such as Terms of Endearment (1983), Beaches (1988), and Steel Magnolias (1989). On television, the miniseries was a popular format for lavish, female-centric melodramas such as Scruples (1980), Lace (1984), and Sins (1986). Melodramas like the 1990s TV Moment of Truth movies targeted audiences of American women by portraying

1755-561: The Underworld opens with a melodrama delivered by the character of "Public Opinion"; and other pieces from operetta and musicals may be considered melodramas, such as the "Recit and Minuet" in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer . As an example from the American musical, several long speeches in Lerner and Loewe 's Brigadoon are delivered over an accompaniment of evocative music. The technique

1820-878: The Villain: Six English and American Melodramas. Benjamin Blom, 1967. Booth, Michael, ed. ‘’The Lights O’ London and Other Victorian Plays.’’ Oxford University Press, 1995. Bratton, Jacky, Jim Cook, and Christine Gledhill, eds. Melodrama: Stage, Picture, Screen. British Film Institute, 1994. Buckley, Matthew S. ‘’Tragedy Walks the Streets: The French Revolution and the Making of Modern Drama.’’ The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Hambridge, Katherine, and Jonathan Hicks, eds. ‘’The Melodramatic Moment: Music and Theatrical Culture, 1790-1820. University of Chicago Press, 2018. Robinson, Terry F. “Deaf Education and

1885-708: The Western world. However, it is still widely popular in other regions, particularly in Asia and in Hispanic countries. Melodrama is one of the main genres (along with romance, comedy and fantasy) used in Latin American television dramas (telenovelas), particularly in Venezuela , Mexico , Colombia , Argentina and Brazil , and in Asian television dramas, South Korea , Japan , Taiwan , China , Pakistan , Thailand , India , Turkey and (in

1950-399: The actor's true voice, "Voix de Soi-Même" (the voice of oneself). In his seminars, Dullin often used improvisation, which was one of his most important techniques. He emphasized that his actors must "see before describing, hear before answering...and feel before trying to express himself", often using bells, the sound of footsteps, and masks as preparation. His actors were encouraged to forget

2015-567: The characteristics of melodrama, his best-known work The Woman in White being regarded by some modern critics as "the most brilliant melodrama of the period". The villain is often the central character in melodrama, and crime was a favorite theme. This included dramatizations of the murderous careers of Burke and Hare , Sweeney Todd (first featured in The String of Pearls (1847) by George Dibdin Pitt ),

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2080-509: The company Terzieff founded in 1961. She starred in more than fifty plays and the show Le Babil des classes dangereuses , which she helped to create in January 1984. She adapted works by Murray Schisgal , Arnold Wesker and Sławomir Mrożek and in 2003 she posthumously received a Molière Award as the best adapter of a foreign work for Le Regard by Murray Schisgal . She also appeared in more than thirty films or TV movies, and lent her voice to

2145-532: The context of a private home. Its intended audience is a female spectator, but a male viewer can also enjoy its presentation of resolved tensions in a home. Melodrama generally looks back at ideal, nostalgic eras, emphasizing "forbidden longings". Melodrama was associated with the rise of capitalism in the 19th century. French romantic drama and sentimental novels were popular in both England and France. These dramas and novels focused on moral codes in regard to family life, love, and marriage, and they can be seen as

2210-440: The days of Ludwig van Beethoven ( Egmont ) and Franz Schubert ( Rosamunde ). (This type of often-lavish production is now mostly limited to film (see film score ) due to the cost of hiring an orchestra. Modern recording technology is producing a certain revival of the practice in theatre, but not on the former scale.) A particularly complete version of this form, Sullivan's incidental music to Tennyson's The Foresters ,

2275-447: The effects of alcoholism , domestic violence , rape and the like. Typical of the 90's melodrama is Anjelica Huston 's 1999 film Agnes Browne . Todd Haynes ' films Far from Heaven (2002), Carol (2015), and May December (2023) are more recent takes on the melodrama. Contemporary director Pedro Almodovar has also taken many inspirations from the melodramatic genre and directors like Sirk. Booth, Michael, ed. ‘’Hiss

2340-1000: The film L'Histoire sans fin , the French-language version of The NeverEnding Story . Her film roles include Gasparine in Lovers of Paris (1957), the bar owner in Seven Days... Seven Nights (1960), Sister Cécile in Dialogue with the Carmelites (1960), La servante des Boule in Amelie or The Time to Love (1961), Elisabeth Lapeyre in Les Abysses (1963), Simone in The Shameless Old Lady (1965), Blanche in Le Maître de pension (1973), Véronique in Il n'y

2405-432: The film melodrama: those with a female patient, a maternal figure, an "impossible love", and the paranoid melodrama. Most film melodramas from the 1930s and 1940s, at the time known as "weepies" or "tearjerkers", were adaptations of women's fiction, such as romance novels and historical romances. Drawing from a shared history with women's fiction, melodramatic films often concentrate on female perspectives and desires. From

2470-467: The first season of the Henry Wood Proms in London. It was probably also at this time when the connotation of cheap overacting first became associated with the term. As a cross-over genre-mixing narration and chamber music, it was eclipsed nearly overnight by a single composition: Schoenberg 's Pierrot Lunaire (1912), where Sprechgesang was used instead of rhythmically spoken words, and which took

2535-408: The fourth quarter of the 18th century. Georg Benda was particularly successful with his duodramas Ariadne auf Naxos (1775) and Medea (1775). The sensational success of Benda's melodramas led others to compose similar works. Mozart, for example, spoke approvingly of Benda's music and later used two long melodramatic monologues in his opera Zaide (1780). Later and better-known examples of

2600-502: The genre to be a uniquely "Czech" contribution to music history (based on the national origins of Georg Benda , whose melodramas had nevertheless been in German). Such sentiments provoked a large number of Czech composers to produce melodramas based on Czech romantic poetry, such as the Kytice of Karel Jaromír Erben . The romantic composer Zdeněk Fibich in particular championed the genre as

2665-657: The genre. Many later melodramatic filmmakers cite Sirk and his works as significant influences. In the 1970s, Rainer Werner Fassbinder , who was influenced by Sirk, contributed to the genre by engaging with issues within the cultural subconscious, addressing class in The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) and Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (1975), sexual orientation and codependency in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) and racism, xenophobia, and ageism in Fear Eats

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2730-469: The hero which forces the audience to applaud. English melodrama evolved from the tradition of populist drama established during the Middle Ages by mystery and morality plays , under influences from Italian commedia dell'arte as well as German Sturm und Drang drama and Parisian melodrama of the post-Revolutionary period. A notable French melodramatist was Pixérécourt whose La Femme à deux maris

2795-468: The home, focusing on morality, family issues, love, and marriage, often with challenges from an outside source, such as a "temptress", a scoundrel, or an aristocratic villain. A melodrama on stage, film, or television is usually accompanied by dramatic and suggestive music that offers further cues to the audience of the dramatic beats being presented. In scholarly and historical musical contexts, melodramas are Victorian dramas in which orchestral music or song

2860-468: The impoverished working class "mob". Melodrama arose in the second half of the 18th century as a genre intermediate between play and opera. It combined spoken recitation with short pieces of accompanying music. Music and spoken dialogue typically alternated in such works, although the music was sometimes also used to accompany pantomime . If there is one actor, the term monodrama may be used; if there are two— duodrama . It also sometimes appeared as

2925-479: The latter typically featuring the three categories of the 'good' native, the brave but wicked native, and the treacherous native. The sensation novels of the 1860s, and 1870s not only provided fertile material for melodramatic adaptations but are melodramatic in their own right. A notable example of this genre is Lady Audley's Secret by Elizabeth Braddon adapted, in two different versions, by George Roberts and C.H. Hazlewood. The novels of Wilkie Collins have

2990-543: The melodrama genre was at the time a popular one. In an age of underpaid musicians, many 19th-century plays in London had an orchestra in the pit. In 1826, Felix Mendelssohn wrote his well-known overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream , and later supplied the play with incidental music. In Verdi 's La Traviata , Violetta receives a letter from Alfredo's father where he writes that Alfredo now knows why she parted from him and that he forgives her ("Teneste la promessa..."). In her speaking voice, she intones

3055-711: The melodramatic style in operas are the grave-digging scene in Beethoven's Fidelio (1805) and the incantation scene in Weber's Der Freischütz (1821). After the English Restoration of Charles II in 1660 lifted the Puritan ban on theatre, most British theatres were prohibited from performing "serious" drama but were permitted to show comedy or plays with music. Charles II issued letters patent to permit only two London theatre companies to perform "serious" drama. These were

3120-469: The murder of Maria Marten in the Red Barn and the bizarre exploits of Spring Heeled Jack . The misfortunes of a discharged prisoner are the theme of the sensational The Ticket-of-Leave Man (1863) by Tom Taylor . Early silent films, such as The Perils of Pauline had similar themes. Later, after silent films were superseded by the 'talkies', stage actor Tod Slaughter , at the age of 50, transferred to

3185-404: The plot. Melodramas focus on a victim. For example, a melodrama may present a person’s struggle between good and evil choices, such as a man being encouraged to leave his family by an "evil temptress". Stock characters include the "fallen woman", the single mother, the orphan, and the male who is struggling with the impacts of the modern world. The melodrama examines family and social issues in

3250-412: The public, since this meeting was to be at the origin of a company that remains, 40 years after its foundation, one of the beautiful theatrical adventures of our time." When the Molière Award was awarded to Pascale de Boysson a few months after her death, it was Laurent Terzieff who thanked the profession and paid tribute to the one who was his partner and companion: "It is on the job, and often in

3315-428: The rare gift of translating the foreign playwrights she loved to the French public, without ever betraying its character and genius. We waited with impatience to find her on the boards, at the beginning, in her adaptation of The Gaze by Murray Schisgal, an author who was particularly dear to her. Her meeting with Laurent Terzieff, her companion in the city as on the stage, was for her determining. For her, but also for

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3380-456: The screen the Victorian melodramas in which he had played a villain in his earlier theatrical career. These films, which include Maria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn (1935), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936) and The Ticket of Leave Man (1937) are a unique record of a bygone art-form. Classic melodrama is less common than it used to be on television and in movies in

3445-517: The stage plays of the Osvobozené divadlo as melodrama (most notably the opening prologue of the anti-Fascist farce Osel a stín (1933), delivered by the character of Dionysus in bolero rhythm). Czech melodramas' practice tapered off after the Nazi Protectorate . The Victorian stage melodrama featured six stock characters : the hero, the villain, the heroine, an aged parent, a sidekick, and

3510-676: The staging, which, according to Rouché, foreshadowed his ‘future tendencies towards stylisation’ He would first witness Japanese theatre in 1930, when Tsutsui Tokujirō's troupe came to Paris. Dullin died in Paris on 11 December 1949, after falling ill while on tour as an actor in Southern France. Students of Charles Dullin included Pascale de Boysson , Antonin Artaud , Jean-Louis Barrault , Juozas Miltinis , Étienne Decroux , Juran Hisao and Marcel Marceau . Melodrama A modern melodrama

3575-613: The text of which was written in 1762; it was first staged in Lyon in 1770. Rousseau composed the overture and an Andante, but the bulk of the music was composed by Horace Coignet . A different musical setting of Rousseau's Pygmalion by Anton Schweitzer was performed in Weimar in 1772, and Goethe wrote of it approvingly in Dichtung und Wahrheit . Some 30 other monodramas were produced in Germany in

3640-409: The tradition of Copeau, Dullin emphasised respect for the text, a simplified stage décor and a poetic rather than a spectacular perspective on the mise-en-scène , placing the actor at the center of the performance. He aimed to create a total theatre in which the world of the stage was 'more expressive than reality'. The goal of Dullin's training was to create the "complete actor": to form actors with

3705-631: The turn of the century include melodramas for two-stage plays by Julius Zeyer : Radúz a Mahulena (1898) and Pod Jabloní (1901), both of which had a long performance history. Following the examples of Fibich and Suk, many other Czech composers set melodramas as stand-alone works based on the poetry of the National Revival, among them Karel Kovařovic , Otakar Ostrčil , Ladislav Vycpálek , Otakar Jeremiáš , Emil Axman, and Jan Zelinka. Vítězslav Novák included portions of melodrama in his 1923 opera Lucerna , and Jaroslav Ježek composed key scenes for

3770-401: The typical melodramatic format, the characters work through their difficulties and surmount the problems. A common point of plot tension sees characters feeling trapped by the typical melodramatic of the domestic sphere of the home or small town. Filmmakers often add flashbacks to expand the otherwise constant settings of melodramatic films. Feminists have noted four categories of themes in

3835-590: The weight of their bodies, while using them more than their faces to express themselves, often wearing a full or half mask. Dullin drew heavily on East Asian theatre techniques, and particularly Japanese theatre, His interest in Japanese theatre developed as early as 1916, when, as a soldier in World War 1 , he performed on the frontline and declared his fellow soldier's performances to be Japanese due to their integration of dance, speech and singing into their performance. As

3900-417: The words of what is written, while the orchestra recapitulates the music of their first love from Act I: this is technically melodrama. In a few moments, Violetta bursts into a passionate despairing aria ("Addio, del passato"): this is opera again. In a similar manner, Victorians often added "incidental music" under the dialogue to a pre-existing play, although this style of composition was already practiced in

3965-535: Was giving acting lessons at the Théâtre Antoine under the tutelage of Gémier. In July 1921, Dullin founded Théâtre de l'Atelier which he referred to as a "laboratory theater". He conducted auditions for the troupe in Paris , and then brought the small group of actors to Néronville, where they trained for between ten and twelve hours daily. The small group of students, among them Antonin Artaud and Marguerite Jamois ,

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4030-403: Was looked down on as a genre for authors and composers of lesser stature (probably also why virtually no realizations of the genre are still remembered) - though there are examples by Robert Schumann ( Ballads for Declaration , 1850s) and Richard Strauss for narrator and piano ( Enoch Arden (1897). The English composer Stanley Hawley made many such settings, some of which were performed at

4095-533: Was organised as a commune, with Dullin looking to create 'a different attitude toward theatre' through a 'common sharing of life and work'. In 1922, the group established itself in the Théâtre Montmartre, the 'first purpose built theatre in suburban Paris', which originally opened in 1822. In order to cover the initial cost of leasing and setting up the theatre, Dullin's mother sold some of the family's furniture and silverware at pawn shops. In 1941 he moved to

4160-426: Was used to accompany the action. The term melodrama is now also applied to stage performances without incidental music, novels, films, television, and radio broadcasts. In modern contexts, the term melodrama is generally pejorative, as it suggests that the work in question lacks subtlety, character development, or both. By extension, language or behavior that resembles melodrama is often called melodramatic; this use

4225-523: Was very popular. The first English play to be called a melodrama or 'melodrame' was A Tale of Mystery (1802) by Thomas Holcroft . This was an example of the Gothic genre, a previous theatrical example of which was The Castle Spectre (1797) by Matthew Gregory Lewis . Other Gothic melodramas include The Miller and his Men (1813) by Isaac Pocock , The Woodsman's Hut (1814) by Samuel Arnold and The Broken Sword (1816) by William Dimond . Supplanting

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