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''The Indian Emperour, or the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, being the Sequel of The Indian Queen'' is an English Restoration era stage play, a heroic drama written by John Dryden that was first performed in the Spring of 1665. The play has been considered a defining work in the subgenre of heroic drama, in which "rhymed heroic tragedy comes into full being."〔George Henry Nettleton, ''English Drama of the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, 1642–1780'', New York, Macmillan, 1914; p. 55〕 As its subtitle indicates, the play deals with the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire under Hernán Cortés. ==Performance== The premiere production was staged by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; it featured Michael Mohun as the Emperor, Charles Hart as Cortez, Edward Kynaston as Guyomar, Nicholas Burt as Vasquez, William Wintershall as Odmar, William Cartwright as the Priest, and Anne Marshall as Almeria. The original production employed a "gorgeously feathered cloak" that Aphra Behn had brought back from Surinam,〔John Gillies, ''Shakespeare and the Geography of Distance'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994; p. 28.〕 along with "glorious wreaths for...heads, necks, arms, legs."〔Aphra Behn, ''The Plays, Histories, and Novels of Mrs. Aphra Behn'', 6 Volumes, Eighth Edition, London, 1735; Vol. 5, p. 77.〕 Dryden spiced his play with crowd-pleasing features, including incantations and conjured spirits, and an elaborate grotto scene with "a Fountain spouting." On opening night, Dryden had a program distributed to the audience, on the connection between this play and his earlier ''The Indian Queen'' (a collaboration with his brother-in-law Sir Robert Howard). When the Duke of Buckingham and his collaborators satirised Dryden in ''The Rehearsal'' (1671), they had their Dryden-substitute Bayes say "that he had printed many reams to instill into the audience some conception of his plot."〔George Saintsbury and Sir Walter Scott, eds., ''The Works of John Dryden'', Vol. 2, Edinburgh, William Paterson, 1882; p. 321.〕 The play was a major popular success, and was revived in 1667, with Nell Gwyn as Cydaria and Mary Knep in the role of Alibech. Samuel Pepys saw a performance; though he was an admirer of Gwyn, he condemned her performance in the role of the Emperour's daughter, calling it "a great and serious part, which she do most basely."〔Pepys' Diary entry for 22 August 1667.〕 The play was also given an amateur performance at Court in 1668, which included James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and his Duchess in the cast. Pepys criticised the elite cast as mostly "fools and stocks"〔Pepys' Diary entry for 14 January 1668.〕—though he did not actually see the production in question. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Indian Emperour」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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