Edward Filmer
{{Short description|English dramatist}}
{{For|Sir Edward Filmer, 3rd Baronet (1683–1755)|Filmer baronets}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
Edward Filmer (c.1654–1703) was an English dramatist.{{cite ODNB|id=9423|first=William E.|last=Burns|title=Filmer, Edward}}
Life
He was the second son of Sir Robert Filmer, 1st Baronet, of East Sutton, Kent, who died 22 March 1676, and his wife, Dorothy, daughter of Maurice Tuke of Layer Marney, Essex.Berry, County Genealogies, Kent, p. 187 In 1672 he was admitted as founder's kin fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, and took the degree of B.A. on 17 December of that year, proceeding B.C.L. 21 February 1675, D.C.L. 27 October 1681. He was buried at East Sutton.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Filmer, Edward|volume=18}}
Works
Filmer wrote a lengthy blank verse tragedy, The Unnatural Brother (published London, 1697), adapted from an episode in Cassandre, a romance by Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède. In terms of plot, it is considered derivative of Othello, and The Villain by Thomas Porter in the same tradition.{{cite book|author=Derek Hughes|title=English Drama, 1660–1700|year=1996|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-811974-6|page=438}} It was acted at the theatre in Little Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was received coldly. Part of this drama was reproduced by Pierre Antoine Motteux as The Unfortunate Couple; a short Tragedy, in The Novelty (1697). The Novelty was then used as the basis for a 1704 play, The Unnatural Couple.{{cite book|author=William J. Burling|title=A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700–1737|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HMQJxeNpHR0C&pg=PA37|year=1993|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press|isbn=978-0-8386-3451-6|page=37}}
Filmer in his tragedy was swimming against the tide of recent fashion–for the music of John Eccles, the productions of The Indian Queen as semi-opera and George Powell's Brutus of Alba—in excluding music from his tragedy, a position he defended in the introduction to the published text.{{cite book|author=Kathryn Lowerre|title=Music and Musicians on the London Stage, 1695–1705|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4En_P7xKjHcC&pg=PA85|year=2009|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-6614-1|page=85}} He pointed to features that he considered important (restriction of the number of characters on the stage at one time, in particular) as belonging to a classical tradition in drama he valued; the later 17th century London audience never favoured them.{{cite book|title=A History of Restoration Drama 1660–1700|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fXs3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA132|publisher=CUP Archive|page=132|id=GGKEY:7PJ8436C4JF}}
In a later work, Filmer defended the stage itself against the attacks of Jeremy Collier in a treatise A Defence of Plays (posthumous publication in 1707).A Defence of Plays, or the Stage Vindicated, from several Passages in Mr. Collier's Short View, &c. Wherein is offer'd the most probable method of Reforming our Plays. With a Consideration how far Vicious Characters may be allow'd on the Stage, London, 1707. He brought to bear the argument that Collier failed to understand "Stage-Discipline" (i.e. poetic justice).{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/colliercontrover00pops#page/39/mode/1up|title=Collier Controversy: a critical basis for understanding drama of the restoration period|last=Popson|first=Joseph John|year=1974|work=Internet Archive|publisher=PhD dissertation|accessdate=24 February 2016}} Collier replied in A Farther Vindication of the Short View (London, 1708).
Family
References
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;Attribution
{{DNB|wstitle=Filmer, Edward|volume=18}}
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Category:18th-century English people
Category:17th-century English writers
Category:17th-century English male writers
Category:18th-century English writers
Category:18th-century English male writers
Category:English dramatists and playwrights
Category:People from the Borough of Maidstone