Politian (1835) is the only play known to have been written by Edgar Allan Poe, composed in 1835, but never completed.
The play is a fictionalized version of a true event in Kentucky: the murder of Solomon P. Sharp by Jereboam O. Beauchamp in 1825. The so-called "Kentucky Tragedy" became a national headline and attracted several fictional representations. Poe, however, chose to set his version in 16th-century Rome. Poe wrote the play during his time with the Southern Literary Messenger and during some personal crises. The first installment of Politian was published in that journal in December 1835 as "Scenes from an Unpublished Drama". A second installment was issued in January 1836, but the play was never completed.
Politian did not receive good reviews. Its failure prompted Poe to stop writing longer works and instead focus on short stories.
Characters
Lalage, an orphan ward of Di Broglio. Alessandra, niece of Di Broglio and betrothed to Castiglione. Jacinta, servant maid to Lalage. Duke Di Broglio. Castiglione, his son. San Ozzo, companion of Castiglione. Politian, Earl of Leicester. Baldazzar, his friend; an imaginary figure. A Monk. Ugo, Benito and Rupert, servants of Di Broglio.
Plot summary
The play takes place in 16th-century Rome. Castiglione, the son of a duke, becomes engaged to his cousin Alessandra, inciting the jealousy of his father's ward, the orphan Lalage. Lalage meets Politian, the Earl of Leicester, and, after some flirtation, convinces him to take revenge on Castiglione. In the drama, Politian recites the poem "The Coliseum", which Poe had previously published in 1833.
Analysis
Politian was written in blank verse and styled after Jacobean-era tragedies. Like many of Poe's tales, Politian questions the finality of death or what happens when life is over. Politian proposes a suicide pact to an orphan named Lalage so that they can meet in the afterlife.
The title character is named after a 15th-century Italian poet, scholar and teacher named Poliziano.
Inspiration
Poe was dramatizing a murder which occurred on November 7, 1825, in Kentucky. Anna Cooke of Frankfort, Kentucky gave birth to the child of the state solicitor general Solomon P. Sharp but married Jereboam O. Beauchamp in 1824. Cooke asked Beauchamp to murder Sharp as part of the agreement for marriage. He kept his promise, stabbing Sharp to death on November 5, 1825. He pleaded not guilty during his murder trial but was sentenced to be executed. Cooke attempted suicide by overdosing on laudanum on the eve of Beauchamp's execution by hanging on July 7, 1826. The story was widely reported in the newspapers. Poe's story also utilized other real-life historical figures; the Earl of Leicester stands in as Beauchamp and the character Baldassare Castiglione represents Sharp.
The true event, labeled "The Kentucky Tragedy", was fictionalized in many other works, including Conrad and Eudora (1834) by Thomas Holley Chivers, Beauchampe (1842) by William Gilmore Simms, and World Enough and Time (1950) by Robert Penn Warren. Poe would later fictionalize another murder story that became a national headline in his short story "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt".
Publication and performance history
Poe met John P. Kennedy, an author himself, very early in his writing career. Kennedy admired Poe's writing and encouraged him and promoted his work to publishers. In 1835, Kennedy wrote to the owner of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Virginia: "He is at work upon a tragedy", and he suggested that Poe be allowed to contribute something to the magazine. The publisher, Thomas Willis White, agreed, and Poe's first contribution to the Messenger was "Berenice" in April. Poe was then hired as a staff writer and critic beginning in August. Between March and November of that year, Poe contributed six new tales as well as the tragedy that Kennedy mentioned, Politian.
As Politian and other works were being prepared for print, Poe had difficulty in wooing his future wife Virginia Clemm. Emotionally distressed, he turned to drinking and White fired him in late September 1835. White wrote to his friend Lucian Minor, an advocate of temperance: "[Poe] is unfortunately rather dissipated... He is in addition the victim of melancholy. I should not be at all astonished to hear that he has been guilty of suicide". White's exaggeration may have started the rumor amongst literary figures that Poe was not sane. After his dismissal, Poe went to Baltimore, Maryland with the Clemm family.