The pre-commonwealth tragicomedies of Sir William D'Avenant Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Myers, James P., 1941- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 21:21:12 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/317874 THE PEE-COMMONWEALTH TRAGICOMEDIES OF SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT' by James Phares Myers, Jr. A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: RICHARD HOSLEY Date Professor of English ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to thank Professors Harry F* Robins and Drew B» Pallette for reading this essay and making several suggestions which later led to its improvemento To Professor Richard Eosley I am especially grate­ ful, for without his patience, encouragement, and valuable criticism the inelegancies and inaccuracies would have been more numerous than they are. iii CONTENTS Page Chapter I. TRAGICOMEDY: THE PROBLEM OF A DEFINITION........... 1 II. TRAGICOMEDY: AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION ........... 12 (1) TRAGICOMEDY IN RENAISSANCE CRITICISM (2) THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRAGICOMEDY IN ENGLAND III. DAVENANT’S PRE-COMMONEEALTH PLAYS .................. 31 (1) THE PROPER TRAGICOMEDIES (2) THE PROBLEMATICAL TRAGICOMEDIES (3) THE TRAGEDY BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................... - 59 iv ABSTRACT Between the years c* 1626 and 16393 Sir William Davenant, often cited as a transitional figure in the development of seventeenth- century English drama9 wrote ten, or possibly eleven, plays, six of which reveal his predilection for the /tragicomic mode0 It is the assertion of the essay that, inasmuch as he directed into the mainstream of seventeenth-century English drama a number of continental dramatic innovations which adumbrated the Restoration heroic drama, Davenant was, indeed, a transitional figure» In order to demonstrate his importance as an informing influence upon the development of English tragicomedy, I have provided first a brief discussion of the critical background of English Renaissance tragicomedy and secondly a careful examination, in the light of this background, of the six of Davenant1s plays which partake of the tragicomic tradition-- The Just Italians Love and Honour, The Platonic Lovers? The Fair Favourite, The Unfortunate Lovers, and The Distresses— showing, where possible, the manner in which Davenant^modified the tradition and anticipated the Restoration heroic drama» v CHAPTER I TRAGICOMEDY: THE PROBLEM OF A DEFINITION The term tragicomedy is generally used in two ways: on the one hand to denote any mixture of tragic and comic elements, and on the other to signify a specific admixture of tragic and comic ingredi­ ents. Since, in their Renaissance contexts, both references imply an understanding of Renaissance tragedy and comedy, a brief summary of the distinctive features of the two genres may prove helpful in apprehending the nature of the tragicomedy. In general a tragedy is a dignified and serious kind of play in which at least the protagonist encounters death, though more usually other characters also die, and in which the phenomenon of human suffering and the problem of evil (moral or metaphysical) are given prominent treatment. Concerning the tragedy of the English Renaissance, Madeleine Doran has recognized three general manifesta­ tions: De casibus tragedy, Italianate tragedy of intrigue, and domestic 1 tragedy. Because the sentimental domestic tragedy was a short-lived phenomenon, which exerted almost no influence upon the drama of the Endeavors of Art: A Study of Form in Elizabethan Drama (Madison, 1963), p. 115= The following discussion of De casibus tragedy and the Italianate tragedy of intrigue draws heavily upon Doran's observations; see pp. 116-28 and 128-42, respectively. 1 period and, in fact, is represented only by a handfal of extant plays, it may conveniently be excluded from this examination of Renaissance tragedy. Be casibus tragedy has the palace for its main setting; it deals with people of high estate who through some fault of their own or through the operation of a metaphysical force, fall from their high estate and undergo suffering and eventual death; and it is con­ cerned with evil. The fall from greatness, moreover, is often causally related to both the political instability rampant in the protagonist's country and to the personal ambition and quest for power of one or more of the characters. Shakespeare's Macbeth (1606) is an excellent example of Be casibus tragedy, for in this play a noble and heroic general repudiates his honor by murdering his king, usurps the letter's crown, and subsequently falls from his high estate, endures suffering, and is finally killed by the legitimate heir to the kingdom. With the usurper's death and the crowning of the rightful prince, political stability is restored. Italianate tragedy of intrigue, like Be casibus tragedy, emphasizes evil and involves people of high degree who fall from their high position and undergo suffering and death. An example of this type, Othello (1604?), reveals the way in which Italianate tragedy of intrigue differs from Be casibus tragedy; a heroic general is led by a slighted and jealous subordinate to doubt his wife's fidelity, kills his wife, and, on learning that he had been deceived, takes his own life. Italianate tragedy of intrigue, it will be noticed, depends more upon the sensational and melodramatic for its dramatic impact than does De casibus tragedy and, more importantly, dramatizes not so much ambition and the quest for political power as personal revenge and crimes of passion. Both Macbeth and Othello reveal admixtures of the comic, the former in its famous Porter scene, the latter chiefly in lago’s gulling of Boderigo. In this admixture the two plays are rather typical of English Renaissance tragedy. Daniel's Cleopatra (1593), on the other hand, examplifies a tragedy devoid of any comic element. In this play, a queen, having lost her lover and her kingdom because of her own emotional shortsightedness and her involvement in political machina­ tions too complicated for her to cope with, commits suicide in order to prevent the victorious general1s final triumph. Although the two themes are rather closely wedded in Cleopatra, the political theme characteristic of De casibus tragedy is given prominence over the emotional entanglements proper to Italianate tragedy of intrigue. As compared with tragedy, comedy is a kind of dramatic repre­ sentation ending happily and exposing through laughter the follies and vices found in human nature. The characters of comedy are of low and middle degree, and the setting is domestic (that is, of the street and/or the household). Since love is usually the most prominent part of the action, this type of play will conclude with either a marriage or the promise of one. Needless to say, deaths and even threats of death are absent from comedy. Gascoigne's Supposes (1566), a transla­ tion of Ariosto's Gli Suppositi (1508), is a convenient example of comedy. In The Supposes, the action is directed in part by such low­ life figures as a parasite and servants; and aside from working towards 4 a happy and "domestic" conclusion in which the lovers receive parental consent to marry and in which a father is reunited with his long-lost son, the action accomplishes its satiric end primarily by subjecting an amorous old man to comic criticism, thus compelling him to realize his follies and pretensions. In general, tragicomedy combines the features of the other two 2 dramatic genres. Its characters represent different social classes, and persons of low degree often figure as prominently in the plot as kings and dukes. Similarly, the action is usually serious or tragic in tone, involving threats of death and even occasionally the deaths of minor characters. In some cases, villainous characters, figuring prominently in the action, meet with death (see, for example. James IV below, p. 24): this feature characterizes a type of tragicomedy known as "tragedy with a happy ending" (tragedia de felice fine). Tragicomedy is frequently set in both the palace and the country, and therefore it often combines a political motif with a pastoral theme. The pastoral convention, moreover, provides a medium in which the playwright can mingle kings and shepherds without violating decorum and into which he can easily introduce that Renaissance embodiment of the satiric spirit, the "satyr." Finally, the language of tragicomedy is usually O For a more detailed and yet brief description of tragicomedy, see ibid., pp. 190-203. something between the high, rhetorical diction of tragedy and the low o idiom of comedy. These generalizations were usually employed by Renaissance literary critics in evaluating or discussing tragicomedies, and as such they can be said to describe tragicomedy "proper." In common usage, however, tragicomedy frequently referred (and refers) to any loose combination of tragic and comic qualities.