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Kirkman's the Wits Or Sport Upon Sport As Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Klára Škrobánková Kirkman’s The Wits or Sport Upon Sport as a Testimony of the Theatre Life during the Civil Wars and the Interregnum Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Filip Krajník, Ph. D. 2017 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank Mgr. Filip Krajník, Ph.D. and prof. Pavel Drábek, Ph.D. for their kind help and for providing me with useful literature, which crucially influenced this thesis. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 1. THE SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE OF 1642 CLOSURE 7 2. THE THREE PREFACES TO THE WITS 14 3. THE HEART OF THE WITS – ADAPTING BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER 23 4. ENTER THE CLOWNS 31 5. BUMPKINS, SIMPKINS, SIMPLETONS – DROLLS AND POPULAR CULTURE 45 CONCLUSION 64 WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED 67 LIST OF PRIMARY SOURCES 67 LIST OF SECONDARY SOURCES 69 SUMMARY 72 RESUMÉ 74 APPENDIX 76 INTRODUCTION In 1662, two years after the reopening of public theatres in England, Henry Marsh, a London-based bookseller, published a collection of drolls called The Wits, or Sport for Sport that contained twenty-seven drolls and farces. Ten years later, Marsh’s co-worker Francis Kirkman reissued this volume of drolls, which was in a year’s time (1773) followed by the second volume of the Wits. The collection contains many adaptations of plays by famous and popular authors of the pre-War period – mainly William Shakespeare, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. The Wits are often mentioned by scholars in books and chapters discussing the state of theatres during the Civil War and Interregnum, noting that there indeed was some kind, some restricted scope of theatrical life despite the proclaimed closure of 1642. Kirkman’s and Marsh’s collection was however never thoroughly analysed and the form of droll, a short comic piece of writing, was never described with the aim to derive its key features and qualities. This master thesis’s goal is to examine the droll as it is presented in the Wits. It is often depicted as a problematic genre, which cannot be described as it crosses artistic forms and categories. One of the key objectives of this work should be an attempt to find and potentially name the methods and tendencies that the authors responsible for the adaptations employed. Among the number of research questions that this thesis would like to answer is a question of general taste of the audience – even though the public productions were forbidden, it was impossible to abolish everything theatrical. The spectators must shift their attention from the number of public theatres (both outdoors and indoor) to very free productions held on various fairs, in many inns and pubs and even to the illegal spaces. If one was to undergo such dangerous methods before seeing a play, it is understandable that the dramatic work performed had to be something extraordinary - 5 something that was simply “worth it”. When looking at the list of the drolls and plays it worked with, one can suspect the audience from favouring the comedies over tragedies, which seems understandable - if the country is at a civil war, people simply do not want to see a revenge tragedy on stage. This is connected to an issue of potential favourite characters, situations and plots, which the audience might have preferred. Another question is “what method of adaptation did the creators use”. It is crucial to see whether the texts performed were simply shortened versions of original renaissance plays, if the authors chose specific scene, or if the anonymous “playwrights” changed the context or even added some ideas or speeches of their own. To rephrase it – whether one can take the droll as an original creation or if it is only a retelling of something already well- known. These research topics should be elaborated in three main chapters, each of them dealing with a group of drolls, which share the same author of the parent-play. In the first of these chapters I should focus on the adaptations of Beaumont and Fletcher’s plays, in the second on the drolls inspired by work of William Shakespeare and in the third on the drolls working with popular and folk themes. In addition to these chapters, there will be introductory sections discussing the socio-political and cultural background of the analysed period and the circumstances of the creation of the Wits. 6 1. THE SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE OF 1642 CLOSURE “Affrighted with the shadows of their Rage, They broke the Mirror of the times, the Stage…” Prologue to His Majesty at the First Play…November 19 (1660) The year 1642 became generally known as the year when the English public theatres were closed, leading to the period of eighteen years of theatrical hiatus. When scanning the history of English-speaking drama, one usually encounters long chapters about Renaissance theatre, followed by studies about Restoration playwrights. As if the eighteen years of English Civil War and subsequent Interregnum did not produce anything of theatrical value. During the politically unstable era, theatre changed drastically. It had to accustom to the new conditions, but it never disappeared completely. On the contrary, many new genres and artistic forms emerged during that time, some of them influencing the scope of English literature significantly. The aim of this Master’s thesis is to analyse one of the theatrical forms which gained in popularity during the Interregnum – the droll (or drollery). Among many, sometimes semi-legal, forms of the entertainment stands the droll, a short comical sketch, which was using many themes, motifs and characters from the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries or successors. In 1662 Henry Marsh published a collection of drolls entitled The Wits, or Sport for Sport that contained twenty-seven drolls and farces. Eleven years later, Francis Kirkman not only reissued the book, but also published a second volume of the Wits, adding ten new drolls. The anthology includes scenes from plays such as Hamlet, Cupid’s Revenge or A Midsummer Night´s Dream and draws upon characters like Falstaff, Simpkin and others. These scenes and sketches are said to have been illegally performed on the stage of Red Bull Theatre. Under the cover of rope dances, short and comical drolls were performed, employing 7 the form that was known to be popular even in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period – the jig. But the obvious inspiration by jigs does not mean that the drolls were simply new variations of the old genre. What was previously only a short afterplay, became the main focus of the audience. By analysing these dramatic pieces, I would like to draw one’s attention to the phenomenon of drollery that is almost unknown to the history of English speaking drama. Although some of the then theatrical forms were researched, the drolls, in the context of their source material, have hardly ever been investigated. As the source plays of the adaptations are mostly written by authors who are nowadays seen as the classics of English playwriting (Shakespeare, Beaumont, Fletcher), a comparison with the Wits, which aimed to present the “best of” edition published for the 1650s audience, offers an interesting reflection of the seventeenth century dramatic taste. It is, however, not possible to compare and contrast every droll, so in the present study, I suggest the division of the drolls into three major groups according to their original author (Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, anonymous folk drolls). By applying this partition, one can observe the tendencies of the “adapters” and see which parts of the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramas they found interesting and worth reworking. On September 2, 1642, the London Parliament issued an order which closed the playhouses – the public was encouraged to repent and seek reconciliation instead of visiting theatres.1 The civil war was just beginning, riots in Ireland were already in full 1 The unabridged version of the order follows: “Whereas the distressed Estate of Ireland, steeped in her own Blood, and the distracted Estate of England, threatened with a Cloud of Blood by a Civil War, call for all possible Means to appease and avert the Wrath of God, appearing in these Judgements; among which, Fasting and Prayer, having been often tried to be very effectual, having been lately and are still enjoined; and whereas Public Sports do not well agree with Public Calamities, nor Public Stage-plays with the Seasons of Humiliation, this being an Exercise of sad and pious Solemnity, and the other being Spectacles of Pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious Mirth and Levity: It is therefore thought fit, and Ordained, by the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled, That, while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease, and be forborn, instead of which are recommended to the People of this Land the profitable and seasonable considerations of Repentance, 8 swing; on August 22, Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham, and London was in the hands of parliamentarians (Randall 41). The country was in both political and social crisis. But this closure of theatres did not practically mean that the theatres closed overnight and reopened only in 1660: Antitheatrical measures imposed during the 1640s and continued during the 1650s were not as absolute as they may have appeared. Plays were performed surreptitiously as part of an oppositional culture in a variety of venues. Moreover, dramatic works produced between the two “monoliths” of Renaissance and Restoration represent far more that the survival of drama in attenuated form.
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