Documenting Terror in Elizabeth Inchbald's The Massacre

This article examines Elizabeth Inchbald's closet drama The Massacre (1792). It argues that in refusing to stage the events of its nominal subject, the Terror, before an audience, the play conspicuously foregrounds moments of forced removal or silencing of dissenting voices, especially those of women. In the process, the drama offers a critique of the inability of Inchbald's contemporary theater to express adequately the emotional suffering caused by traumatic events such as war. The Massacre also proposes documenting these events, placing them within broader narrative structures—especially narratives that emphasize women—as a path to ameliorate their effects.