The Prince of Parthia: A Tragedy

In Short

The Prince of Parthia is a formal verse tragedy set in the ancient East, tracing the downfall of the noble Prince Arsaces amidst the machinations of his jealous brother and his father’s vengeful, power-hungry Queen. Through a sequence of betrayals, murders, and tragic misunderstandings, the play explores the fragility of political order and the volatility of human emotion. While the language reflects the elevated, stylized conventions of eighteenth-century drama, the work persists as a vital historical artifact of early American literary ambition, showcasing a young author’s mastery of the classical tragic structure.

The Story

The narrative unfolds in the court of Parthia, where King Artabanus and his sons, Arsaces and Vardanes, navigate a landscape of shifting loyalties. Arsaces, the valiant eldest son and a celebrated military hero, returns in triumph from a campaign against the Arabs, having secured the kingdom and captured the enemy leader, Bethas. His arrival, however, triggers a web of resentment. Vardanes, consumed by professional envy and a desperate, unrequited love for Evanthe—Bethas’s daughter, whom Arsaces loves in return—seeks to undermine his brother’s standing. Simultaneously, the Queen, Thermusa, harbors a burning hatred for Arsaces because he killed her son, Vonones, in a previous conflict.

The King, initially proud of his son, finds his own judgment clouded by his obsession with Evanthe. When Arsaces asks for her hand as his reward, the King’s internal struggle between paternal affection and his own illicit desire for the captive woman leads him to a state of agonizing, wavering instability. Meanwhile, Vardanes and his co-conspirator, Lysias, exploit the King’s weakness, manipulating him into suspecting Arsaces of treason. The royal court descends into chaos as the King, spurred by the Queen’s venomous influence, orders the imprisonment of both Arsaces and the captive Bethas.

The tragedy accelerates as the King is murdered in his sleep by the vengeful Queen and Lysias. Vardanes, seeing an opportunity to seize the throne and force his will upon Evanthe, orchestrates a series of deceptions that leave Arsaces framed for his father’s death. As the political situation collapses into civil war, the Queen is driven to absolute madness, haunted by visions of those she has wronged until she loses all grip on reality.

In the final act, the conflict culminates in a decisive clash between the brothers’ forces. Vardanes is killed in battle, but the victory is pyrrhic. Arsaces, having escaped his imprisonment only to discover the carnage, learns that Evanthe has consumed a fatal draught to escape the tyrant’s grasp. Broken by the loss of his beloved and the weight of the surrounding destruction, Arsaces takes his own life. The play ends with the surviving brother, Gotarzes, left to ascend the throne, burdened by the heavy realization that the crown offers no protection against the caprice of fate or the devastating consequences of human malice.

How It Unfolds

The hero’s return Arsaces arrives in triumph, welcomed by his father as the savior of Parthia. His success, however, immediately isolates him from his resentful brother, Vardanes, and the vengeful Queen.

The shift to discord The King’s sudden desire for Evanthe, the captive beloved of his son, fractures the loyalty of the court. Vardanes and the scheming Lysias exploit this instability to turn the King against his own heir.

The descent into chaos Following the King's murder, the palace becomes a theater of conspiracy and madness. The Queen, tormented by the vengeful ghost of a former victim, collapses into a deranged state, while Vardanes attempts to secure both the throne and Evanthe through force.

The tragic culmination Civil war breaks out between the brothers, leading to the death of Vardanes. The resolution arrives with the deaths of both Evanthe and Arsaces, leaving the kingdom in the hands of the grieving Gotarzes.

The People

Arsaces is the quintessential hero, possessing both military prowess and a deeply empathetic nature. His desire for Evanthe and his loyalty to his father drive his actions, but his inability to navigate the duplicity of his family leads to his tragic end.

Vardanes stands in stark contrast to his brother. Motivated by an "ambitious soul" and a gnawing envy, he is willing to manipulate anyone to achieve power. He serves as the primary architect of the political chaos, eventually meeting his end in the very conflict he ignited.

The Queen (Thermusa) is the embodiment of volatile, destructive grief. Her hatred for Arsaces, stemming from the death of her son Vonones, blinds her to everything but revenge. Her journey from calculated malice to total psychological fragmentation underscores the play's bleak view of unchecked passion.

Evanthe acts as the emotional anchor of the tragedy. Her love for Arsaces is pure, yet she is treated as a prize to be won or a pawn to be sacrificed. Her eventual suicide is a desperate act of agency in a world that has stripped her of all other choices.

King Artabanus serves as the tragic center of the court. Caught between the demands of kingship, the love of a hero-son, and a late-life obsession that destroys his moral compass, he represents the fragility of authority when it is unmoored from virtue.

In Its Own Voice

"Ingratitude, / Thou hell-born fiend, how horrid is thy form! / The Gods sure let thee loose to scourge mankind, / And save them from an endless waste of thunder."

A commentary on the treachery within the royal court, highlighting the moral decay that threatens to bring the kingdom to ruin.

"I'll in, and give him orders to arrest / My traitor Son and Bethas--Now Vardanes / Indulge thy Father in this one request-- / Seize, with some horse, Evanthe, and bear her / To your command."

The King, having finally succumbed to his jealousy and obsession, commands a betrayal that sets the final, fatal sequence of events into motion.

What It's Really About

The Prince of Parthia grapples with the corrosive nature of unchecked ambition and the instability of absolute power. At its core, the play asks whether virtue can survive in a world governed by the "many-headed monster" of popular opinion and the "giddy wheel" of fortune. It examines the conflict between filial duty and romantic love, suggesting that when rulers prioritize their private desires over the stability of the state, the result is an inevitable, cascading ruin. The play posits that the "shining honours" of the crown are essentially hollow, offering no true protection against the internal torment of guilt or the external shocks of political violence. It is a meditation on how easily justice can be subverted by envy.

Why Read It Today

Readers interested in the history of the American literary imagination will find this a fascinating, if challenging, experience. As a product of the mid-eighteenth century, the play employs a formal, highly stylized blank verse that may feel alien to modern sensibilities. The characters often speak in extended, rhetorical monologues that prioritize grand gestures and classical allusions over naturalistic dialogue.

The primary difficulty for a contemporary reader lies in its relentless, almost suffocating, sense of tragedy. There is very little reprieve from the cycle of revenge, and the period-typical attitudes—particularly the objectification of the female characters—are starkly present. However, for those who enjoy the heightened stakes of Elizabethan or Restoration drama, there is much to appreciate in the young author’s rhythmic language and his willingness to tackle the "hell-born horrors" of the human condition. It feels like a precursor to the epic, melodramatic styles that would dominate the stage for decades to come. Reading this play is an act of historical discovery; it offers a glimpse into a time when American writers were first testing their voices against the weight of the classical tradition, attempting to craft a drama as serious and enduring as those of the Old World.