ABSTRACT
Durfey may have been a talented lyricist but he was a poor poet. And his tragic plays, which he wrote mostly in verse, suffer as a result. But he did struggle to find a style and subject for his brand of tragic drama, which in Massaniello developed a middle-and lower-class focus, perhaps a modern focus, in place of the kingly fables of the past. These efforts make Durfey's tragic plays, though few, and not really successful, worth some critical attention.
