George H. Boker

• Born: October 6, 1823
• Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Died: January 2, 1890
• Place of death: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Other Literary Forms

Although George H. Boker is remembered primarily as a dramatist, he wanted to be remembered as a poet. To this end, he wrote hundreds of poems. The Book of the Dead, written in 1859 and 1860 and published in 1882, is his vindication of his father’s name. After his father, a banker, died, the Girard Bank tried unsuccessfully to sue his estate for more than a half million dollars. The emotion in these 107 poems is sincere, and the events prompting the collection are interesting, but the poems are less well crafted than those in Boker’s other volumes of poetry.

After Boker ceased to write about the problems of his father’s estate, he wrote many poems about the Civil War. Nearly every poem of this type is precisely dated, offering a narrative of a particular battle. Published soon after they were written in periodicals and leaflets, these poems, sentimental yet sincere and richly detailed, inspired patriotism in Northern readers. In 1864, Boker collected his Civil War verse in Poems of the War.

Boker’s third important collection of poetry, Sonnets: A Sequence on Profane Love, consists of poems written between 1857 and 1887, but the work was published posthumously in 1929. Of the 313 sonnets in the sequence, the first 282 seem to be about one woman, the next thirteen about another, and the last eighteen about a third woman. Written in the Italian form, these sonnets are generally well constructed and evoke intense images. The classical allusions are forced, but the descriptions of nature are powerful. Writing in 1927, Edward Sculley Bradley, the eminent critic who served as Boker’s biographer and as editor of the sequence, argued that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the only American to equal Boker as a sonneteer.

Achievements

Important American literary figures of the nineteenth century respected George H. Boker as both a dramatist and a poet. He received praise from William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was also elected to the Authors’ Club of New York and the American Philosophical Society. Boker failed, however, to achieve comparable recognition from the American public: Francesca da Rimini and The Betrothal were his only popular plays.

Although fame eluded him, Boker was a master of the romantic tragedy. Romantic tragedy , like classical tragedy, depicts a hero or heroine, usually an admirable aristocrat, who suffers defeat or death because of fate or a fatal character flaw. For example, Leonor, the noble mistress of a king in Leonor de Guzman, dies a victim of circumstances and her own determination to see her son crowned king. In Francesca da Rimini, Paolo and Francesca, both of royal birth, die because of their predestined love for each other and their inability to assert reason over emotion.

The conventions of romantic tragedy are less rigid than those governing classical tragedy; also, in contrast to classical tragedy, romantic tragedy emphasizes the emotions and personalities of the characters rather than the plot. In Francesca da Rimini, the personality of Lanciotto, Francesca’s deformed and savage husband, is more interesting than the play’s inevitable end. Similarly, Leonor’s passionate and forceful personality is more interesting than the palace intrigue.

Other characteristics of romantic tragedy include blank verse and remote, exotic settings. Boker’s two best tragedies, Francesca da Rimini and Leonor de Guzman, are both written in blank verse and take place during the fourteenth century, the former in Italy and the latter in Spain.

William Shakespeare was the finest playwright in the tradition of romantic tragedy. If Boker’s works clearly do not belong in such company, he nevertheless wrote romantic tragedies superior to those of any of his contemporaries. The only other American to approach Boker’s success with romantic drama was Robert Montgomery Bird, an earlier nineteenth century novelist and playwright. Francesca da Rimini marks the end of romantic tragedy as a viable form in the United States and stands as the best play written by an American before the twentieth century.

Biography

George Henry Boker, a lifelong citizen of Philadelphia, was born in 1823. He attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he developed a keen admiration for Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists. He was still at college when he published his first poems. When Boker was graduated in 1842, his father wanted him to be a businessman or diplomat. He tried to study law, but he could not commit himself to a business career and did not pursue law. In 1844, he married Julia Riggs, a woman he had courted for some years. They had three children, but only the first, George, survived into adulthood. This son married but did not have children.

Boker had a literary group of friends, all poets, including Charles Godfrey Leland, Bayard Taylor, Thomas Bailey Aldrich (also editor of the Atlantic Monthly), Edmund Clarence Stedman, and Richard H. Stoddard. Boker generously used his wealth and literary influence to help his friends become published writers.

From 1847 to 1853, Boker wrote the bulk of his work. The Lesson of Life and Other Poems (1848), containing several sonnets, anticipates his later sequence of sonnets. Calaynos, his first play, is a romantic tragedy about a man whose Moorish ancestry is not apparent. It was produced in London in 1849, apparently without the author’s permission, and then produced with his permission in the United States in 1851. Angered by a playwright’s lack of rights, Boker supported the Dramatic Authors’ Bill, which Congress passed in 1856.

Anne Boleyn, Boker’s second play, was never produced. His next two plays, which were produced, were The Betrothal, a comedy in blank verse, and The World a Mask, a social satire written largely in prose. In 1852, he published The Podesta’s Daughter, a dramatic dialogue. That year he also wrote two more plays, The Widow’s Marriage, a comedy that was never produced, and Leonor de Guzman, a romantic tragedy about two women trying to secure the Castilian throne for their sons. Boker began a sequel to this latter play but never finished it.

In nineteen intense days in March of 1853, Boker wrote his masterpiece, Francesca da Rimini, a reworking of Dante’s account of Paolo and Francesca. It was first produced with moderate success in 1855. After writing his best play, he wrote one of his worst, The Bankrupt. Like The World a Mask, it is poorly written and shows Boker’s inability to handle a contemporary setting well. Boker had it produced anonymously.

After The Bankrupt, Boker’s dramatic production slowed down. He published Plays and Poems in 1856, a popular collection in two volumes that contained no new works. He labored longer than usual on Königsmark, a dramatic sketch never produced. Boker’s dramatic career was impeded by a series of events—what appears to have been a long affair with a woman from Philadelphia, a lawsuit against his father’s estate, his involvement in the Civil War, and his work as a diplomat.

From 1857 until 1871, Boker apparently carried on a love affair, and during this time, he wrote almost three hundred sonnets in celebration of his love. These sonnets, along with two other short sequences probably inspired by subsequent affairs, were discovered in his daughter-in-law’s house after his death and were published in 1929 with the help of his biographer, Edward Sculley Bradley. Boker was also preoccupied by a suit against his father’s estate that lasted fifteen years. Soon after Boker’s father died, representatives of the bank he had managed initiated a suit against his estate. Although Boker did not share his father’s interest in business, he admired his father’s business acumen and respected his integrity. Depressed and fearful of bankruptcy, Boker spent 1859 and 1860 writing vindictive poems against his father’s enemies.

From 1861 to the end of the Civil War, Boker vigorously supported the Northern position. He wrote many poems in support of the war effort; they were published individually and were instantly successful. Boker had them published as a collection, Poems of the War, and they became his most widely read publication. He also helped to organize the Union League, a Philadelphia club in support of the Northern stance. Boker was its first secretary and served in that capacity until he began his diplomatic career. In 1871, Boker began an appointment in Turkey, and in 1875, he became a diplomat in Russia. He and his wife returned to the United States permanently in 1878.

Upon returning home, Boker finally achieved some of the recognition he had sought. He became president of the Union League and was elected to both the Authors’ Club of New York and the American Philosophical Society. He also published previously written works—The Book of the Dead, comprising his poems in support of his father, and a reprint of Plays and Poems, in 1883. Most important, however, in 1883, Lawrence Barrett, a famous nineteenth century actor, successfully revived Francesca da Rimini.

Boker wrote only two more plays after his return to the United States, Nydia, a tragedy, and Glaucus, apparently a revision of Nydia. Neither version was produced. Ill for the last three years of his life, Boker died of a heart attack in 1890.

Analysis

George H. Boker is little remembered today partly because he excelled at romantic drama, a form that modern readers, with their love of realism, seldom appreciate. Leonor de Guzman, with its emphasis on palace intrigue, and The Betrothal, with its assumption that aristocrats are better than others, understandably have little appeal for the modern American reader. Francesca da Rimini, however, deserves the attention of modern readers: The play’s complex characterization and democratic theme can sustain interest even today.

Francesca da Rimini

Francesca da Rimini, in spite of its imitative blank verse, is the best dramatic rendering of the love story recorded both by Giovanni Boccaccio and by Dante. The first version of Boker’s masterpiece, written in 1853, was never published; the final version was published in 1856. There are important differences between these two versions. In the published version, the participants in the love triangle—Lanciotto, Francesca, and Paolo—are emphasized more or less equally. In the 1853 version, in contrast, Lanciotto is the central figure. Further, the love scenes involving Francesca and Paolo, including the one immediately preceding the consummation of their love, are largely absent in the 1853 version. These changes served not only to decrease Lanciotto’s importance but also to increase the audience’s sympathy for the two young lovers.

Because it is shorter, the 1853 version moves more briskly to the conclusion. For example, in the 1853 version, Boker immediately prepares the audience for the climax by having Francesca, the inadvertent cause of Lanciotto and Paolo’s strife, appear in the first scene. In the 1856 version, however, Francesca does not appear until act 2, and Boker uses the first act to reveal the personalities of the two brothers and their relationship to each other. On the other hand, the published play is generally superior to the earlier version because it allows for richer characterizations. Both versions, though, to Boker’s credit, emphasize character rather than plot.

Paolo loves his brother, but, an idler, he has not the discipline necessary to ignore his feelings for his brother’s wife. Francesca, while she has the audience’s sympathy, is too much a victim to have their unreserved admiration. Forced to become engaged to a man she has never met, she is deceived about Lanciotto’s hideous appearance by the three most important people in her life—her father, Guido; her servant and confidante, Ritta; and the man with whom she has just fallen in love, Paolo. She recognizes that Lanciotto has a more noble character than Paolo, but she is nevertheless repelled by his deformities. She displays free will in a single scene only, one not present in the 1853 version, in which she, more than Paolo, seeks consummation of their love. Francesca becomes a victim again in the last scene when Lanciotto, in an effort to force Paolo to kill him, kills her.

Lanciotto, a more complex figure than the young lovers, both repels and attracts the audience. He first appears as a hideously deformed and vicious, almost barbaric, warrior. Although his father pities the defeated citizens of Ravenna, Lanciotto wants to see the city burn and its women crying. An uncivilized man, he is also deeply superstitious. He believes a warning by his nurse that his blood will be mixed with Guido’s, and later he fears doom when he thinks he sees blood on his sword. Paolo and Maletesta, the brothers’ father, are more civilized than he and chide him for his superstitions, but he remains convinced that evil awaits him.

Juxtaposed to Lanciotto’s savagery and superstition are his deeply felt emotions, which gain the audience’s sympathy. The audience understands his desire to destroy Ravenna when he reveals the reason for such rage: His first memory is of the death of his nurse’s husband at the hands of a citizen of Ravenna. Lanciotto ironically evokes the most sympathy from the audience when he discloses how much he hates his deformed body for creating fear and pity in others. He also wins the audience over when he says he will not force Francesca, who so obviously loathes his appearance, to touch him.

The last act shows Lanciotto at war with himself, fighting both his savagery and his love for his brother. When Lanciotto learns that his brother and wife have betrayed him, he, the savage soldier, feels that he cannot live with such dishonor unavenged. He races to the lovers, only to find he cannot attack his beloved brother. He asks the lovers to lie about their adultery. When they refuse, he tries to goad Paolo into killing him, but Paolo, never a fighter, remains passive. Even when Lanciotto stabs Francesca, Paolo refuses to act. Finally, Lanciotto kills his brother, too. Momentarily, he is relieved to have avenged his honor, but as the play concludes, he falls on Paolo, declaring that he “loved him more than honor—more than life.” Paolo, paralyzed by his love for Lanciotto, cannot save himself or Francesca. Lanciotto, wrongly believing that his honor is more important than his love for Paolo, forces himself into violence. Thus, the play ends with two brothers—one passively, one actively—led into destruction.

Pepe, Maletesta’s jester, is one reason that critics admire Francesca da Rimini. As Boker’s own addition to the story of Francesca and Paolo, Pepe hastens the inevitable tragedy. Pepe frequently suggests to Lanciotto that Paolo and Francesca love each other, and he tells Lanciotto when their love is consummated. To assure that Lanciotto seeks vengeance, he also lies, telling Lanciotto that Paolo has hired him to kill his brother. As Pepe expects, in anger, Lanciotto kills him, but he dies glad that the two brothers will also be destroyed.

Pepe would be a completely malevolent figure except for the motivation behind his hatred for Paolo and Lanciotto. A proponent of democracy, he hates the brothers because they represent royalty. He tells Lanciotto that he would like to see marriage abolished so that everyone would be born equal. Later, in a scene not present in the 1853 version, Paolo reports that he overheard Pepe ranting about being treated as a toy. Both brothers indeed treat him like that; generally unconcerned about his desires, they expect him to do their bidding, and they fatally underestimate his anger. Pepe is a modern antihero, supporting the cause of democracy.

Critics agree that two other plays by Boker approach the excellence of Francesca da Rimini: Leonor de Guzman, another romantic tragedy, and The Betrothal, a romantic comedy.

Leonor de Guzman

In Leonor de Guzman, the King of Castile and Leon dies, leaving three rivals competing for power: his wife Maria, who wants the throne to remain with her son; his mistress Leonor, who wants her son to become king; and Alburquerque, the prime minister, who wants the power for himself. The play is effective particularly because of the struggle between Leonor, the spiritually pure mistress who unwaveringly manipulates events to ensure that her son will be king, and Maria, the betrayed wife whose bitterness leads her to murder Leonor. The play ends with Leonor dead and Maria’s son ill and successfully manipulated by Alburquerque. It seems that the prime minister will be victorious, but Leonor, before her death, has prophesied her son’s triumph and Alburquerque’s downfall so convincingly that, even as he watches her die, the prime minister already feels the sting of defeat.

Centering as it does on three strong characters, each with his or her distinctive personality, the play sustains the audience’s interest. Nevertheless, it is inferior to Francesca da Rimini. In Leonor de Guzman, too many humorous scenes inappropriately distract the audience from the ensuing tragedy, and too many characters participating in palace intrigue blur the development of the three principal characters.

The Betrothal

The Betrothal is a comedy about Costanza, who unhappily agrees to marry the evil Marsio to save her aristocratic father from poverty and possibly from prison. When she falls in love with Count Juranio, the count’s kinsman Salvatore manipulates events so that Costanza may marry the man she loves without ruining her father. Like Francesca da Rimini and Leonor de Guzman, The Betrothal is written in blank verse and centers on characters of aristocratic birth, but in addition to the expected difference in tone, the differences in plot, character, and theme distinctly set this comedy apart from Boker’s tragedies. Murder is plotted in The Betrothal, but, as is consistent with its comic tone, no death occurs. Furthermore, the romance between Costanza’s cousin and Juranio’s kinsman is developed into a subplot, something Boker avoids in the two tragedies.

The characters of The Betrothal are interesting figures, but unlike the prominent characters in the two tragedies, they are merely types—Costanza and Juranio as the virtuous lovers, Filippia and Salvatore as the loyal confidants, and Marsio as the evil suitor. Little exists in their portrayal to make them other than hero, heroine, or villain.

All three plays have a major character who is not a proper aristocrat. Pepe is a mere jester in Francesca da Rimini; Leonor, by becoming a mistress, has relinquished the status with which she was born; Marsio represents the nouveau riche. An important theme of the two tragedies is that those set apart from elite society may defeat the aristocracy. Pepe dies victorious, knowing that he has made royalty suffer. Leonor also dies victorious, knowing that her son, a bastard, will be king. In The Betrothal, however, Marsio, who is despicable partly because he lacks aristocratic graces, suffers ignominious defeat so that two aristocrats may appropriately marry each other. Boker’s admiration for democracy is not apparent in this comedy.

Biliography

Bradley, Edward Scully. George Henry Boker: Poet and Patriot. 1927. Reprint. New York: B. Blom, 1972. A classic literary biography, examining Boker’s works in conjunction with his life. Bradley concludes that Boker was the victim of nineteenth century provincials who were reluctant to praise anything American and attempts to kindle interest in Boker among early twentieth century readers. Illustrations, bibliography of Boker’s writings, general bibliography, and index.

Evans, Oliver H. George Henry Boker. Boston: Twayne, 1984. A basic biography of Boker, with criticism of his drama and poetry. Includes bibliography and index.

Kitts, Thomas M. The Theatrical Life of George Henry Boker. Vol. 3 in Artists and Issues in the Theatre. New York: P. Lang, 1994. Kitts examines Boker’s life and his dramatic works. Includes bibliography and index.