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Christopher Fry attempted verse dramas in the twentieth century. His verse dramas were successful on the stage. In 1950, four of his plays appeared simultaneously on the London stage. The dramas of Christopher Fry are slender in plots and simple in themes. Their dominant note is an affirmation of youth and life over age and death.
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| A Phoenix too Frequent |
A Phoenix too Frequent "was got from Jeremy Taylor who had it from Petronius". The title is taken from "Robert Burton quoting Martial". Dynamene,; widow of Vigilius goes to his tomb at Ephesus, determined to die of grief. The lamp in the tomb during her vigils attracts Tegeus-Chromis, a soldier guarding the corpse of a gibbeted felon. When the felon's body is stealthily removed and the soldier's life is tortured. Dynamene practically suggests the substitution of his husband's corpse. As the title jestingly implies Dynamene quickly soars from the ashes of her dead life in a smiling assertion that life must be lived and must triumph over death. The dramatist probes romantic love. The soldier loved the matron because of her faithfulness to her husband's memory, but no sooner does he love her than he wants her to be the opposite of what he loved her for. (Adapted from History of English Literature - 1837 to the Present)
The play records moods rather than characters and situations. The merit of the play lies in its dazzling imaginative poetry. Its dramatic qualities are not very great. Poetry overrides the drama.