ABSTRACT
In November 1822 Godwin re ected on dramatic tragedy, a literary form that had a special status for him. ‘Every man’, he wrote, ‘who can invent a story, & develop the passion of the human mind may [write a novel]’. e composition of tragic blank verse was not to be compared to that of novel writing:
In such an undertaking I have the whole man at my disposal, & can shew him in every light, & under every modi cation. I can listen to him through all the windings of the
story, & take down his words. I can paint his looks, & exhibit his gestures. I can give to my reader his features, his complexion, his stature, the form of his limbs, their carriage, the habitual body of his voice, & its incidental modulations. But what is most of all, I can anatomise his thoughts, & delineate that anatomy. I can surround him with scenery suitable to every variety of thought, act, or event, full of hilarity, vivacity & exuberance, or so solemn that hell itself is made darker by its adjuncts. Oh, it is comparatively an easy thing indeed, to write a tale!3
