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Overview
Beatrice Chancy is set in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia in the year 1801. Beatrice is the daughter of a black slave woman who was raped by her white master. Raised in the master's household, Beatrice is beautiful, clever, kind and cultured—her father's prize possesion. As her story opens, Beatrice is sixteen and freshly returned from a convent school where she was sent "to copy white ladies' ways." Her declaration of love for a slave sparks tension that culminates in a monstrous act: the rape of Beatrice by her own father, Francis Chancy. From here, violence begets violence until Chancy is killed and Beatrice is hanged for his death.Synopsis
The legend of Beatrice Cenci has intrigued writers such as Antonin Artaud, Stendhal, Mary Shelley, Alexandre Dumas, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Browning, and Kathy Acker. In Beatrice Chancy, a verse play set in Nova Scotia in 1819, Clarke boldly reimagines Beatrice as the daughter of a white master and a black slave.
Library Journal
This verse play by the award-winning black Nova Scotian poet George Elliott Clarke presents a poignant picture of slavery in colonial Canada. Set in 1801 at a Nova Scotia plantation owned by Francis Chancy, the drama centers on Beatrice Chancy, his black, beautiful, and cultivated 16-year-old daughter, born after the rape of a household slave. Beatrice's passionate love of a young black plantation slave results in her being raped by her own father. Pregnant, she plots parricide with her barren, long-suffering stepmother; both are hanged. The beauty of the lyric is a stark contrast to the drama entailed. Illustrations include prints of an antique Italian map of Nova Scotia, and background materials comprise an essay "On Slavery in Nova Scotia," early notices from the Halfax Gazette, the playwright's visions of the many altered sources of the story of Beatrice, and the casts of various stage and operatic productions. A powerful literary work; recommended for academic and larger public libraries.--Ming-ming Shen Kuo, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, IN Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.