A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader. The earliest use of the term recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary dates to 1813. The literary historian Henry A. Beers, writing in 1907, considered closet drama a quite legitimate product of literary art in its own right.
Facts
Place of OriginTraced to the philosophical dialogues of ancient Greek and Roman writers such as Plato; the English term itself was first recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary in 1813. 1 Notable ExampleJohn Milton's Samson Agonistes (1671) and Goethe's Faust, Part One and Part Two are cited as closet dramas, along with plays by Byron, Shelley and Pushkin. 1 Defining TraitA play written primarily to be read by a solitary reader rather than staged, historically used to write around performance restrictions or lack of access to the commercial playhouse. 1 Connections
Sources
1. Closet Drama (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)s.v. Closet Drama, lede
A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader.
s.v. Closet Drama, Definition
A closet drama (or closet play) is defined as a play created primarily for reading, rather than production.
s.v. Closet Drama, Elizabethan and Stuart
John Milton's play Samson Agonistes, written in 1671, is an example of early modern drama never intended for the stage.
s.v. Closet Drama, lede (OED first use, 1813)
The earliest use of the term recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1813.
In Group: Closet and Verse Drama, Lead section
A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader.
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