The Constant Maid

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The Constant Maid, or Love Will Find Out the Way is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by James Shirley and first published in 1640. [1] [2]

Comedy genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous

In a modern sense, comedy refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, stand-up comedy, or any other medium of entertainment. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old." A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse in ruses which engender very dramatic irony which provokes laughter.

James Shirley 17th-century English poet and playwright

James Shirley was an English dramatist.

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1640.

The play is associated with the Irish phase of Shirley's dramatic career (1637–40), and was likely performed in Dublin at the Werburgh Street Theatre. One scholar, however, has produced evidence that The Constant Maid was originally composed in the early 1630s. [3]

Dublin capital and largest city in Ireland

Dublin is the capital of, and largest city in, Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the Wicklow mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region, as of 2016, was 1,347,359, and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.

The Werburgh Street Theatre, also the Saint Werbrugh Street Theatre or the New Theatre, was a seventeenth-century theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Scholars and historians of the subject generally identify it as the "first custom-built theatre in the city," "the only pre-Restoration playhouse outside London," and the first Dublin theatre.

The Constant Maid was never licensed for performance by the Master of the Revels, as it normally would have been, if staged in London. The play could hardly have been performed in London in its existing form, since the scene of the mock-king (see below) would never have made it past the censorship of the Master, Sir Henry Herbert.

The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberlain. Originally he was responsible for overseeing royal festivities, known as revels, and he later also became responsible for stage censorship, until this function was transferred to the Lord Chamberlain in 1624. However, Henry Herbert, the deputy Master of the Revels and later the Master, continued to perform the function on behalf of the Lord Chamberlain until the English Civil War in 1642, when stage plays were prohibited. The office continued almost until the end of the 18th century, although with rather reduced status.

Censorship The practice of suppressing information

Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information, on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by a government private institutions, and corporations.

Sir Henry Herbert (1595–1673) was Master of the Revels to both King Charles I and King Charles II.

The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 28 April 1640, along with Shirley's St. Patrick for Ireland , and was published later that year in a quarto printed by J. Raworth for the bookseller Robert Whitaker. In 1657 the play was reissued, in a quarto along with the St. Patrick play, by the bookseller Joshua Kirton. And in 1661 The Constant Maid was reprinted, under its subtitle, and attributed to "T. B."; the title page states that the play was performed by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre —though the inaccuracy of the attribution renders all the assertions of the title page questionable. A fourth edition appeared in 1667 as the work of "J. S." The 1667 title page maintains that the play was "Acted at the new playhouse called the Nursery, in Hatton Garden," reflecting a Restoration revival.

The Stationers’ Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England. The Register itself allowed publishers to document their right to produce a particular printed work, and constituted an early form of copyright law. The Company's charter gave it the right to seize illicit editions and bar the publication of unlicensed books.

Book size size of a book

The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from folio, to quarto (smaller) and octavo. Historically, these terms referred to the format of the book, a technical term used by printers and bibliographers to indicate the size of a leaf in terms of the size of the original sheet. For example, a quarto historically was a book printed on a sheet of paper folded twice to produce four leaves, each leaf one fourth the size of the original sheet printed. Because the actual format of many modern books cannot be determined from examination of the books, bibliographers may not use these terms in scholarly descriptions.

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1657.

Synopsis

Hartwell is a gentleman who is suffering financial reverses; he is forced to dismiss his servants and shut up his house. Hartwell loves Frances; Frances's mother Bellamy, in order to test her prospective son-in-law's fidelity, pretends to be in love with him herself. Hartwell's friend Playfair advises him to accept the mother's advances — but their conversation is overheard by Frances's Nurse. The Nurse, who wishes Frances to marry a clownish suitor called Startup, arranges for Frances and Startup to eavesdrop on the conversation between Hartwell and Bellamy. The Nurse conspires with Close, a dismissed servant of Hartwell's who now works for Startup, to smuggle Startup into Frances's bedroom that night; but Close, loyal to his former employer, divulges the plan to Hartwell.

Hartwell disguises himself as Startup, and the Nurse unknowingly leads him to Frances's room. Frances recognizes him, but pretends to believe that Hartwell is Startup, and pretends likewise to be receptive to his suit. Bellamy interrupts their conversation and Hartwell leaves, with the mistaken impression that Frances loves Startup. Bellamy, testing her daughter's affections, tells Frances to surrender Hartwell to her.

While Hartwell has taken Startup's place, Close has scared away the real Startup by claiming that Hartwell is pursuing him. Close and Startup and Hartwell are all apprehended by the constables of the watch; Hartwell is suspected of doing away with Startup, until Startup appears. The muddle is eventually straightened out, as is Hartwell's understanding with Frances.

In the subplot, Playfair is in love with the niece of Hornet the usurer. She feigns madness and is treated by a doctor who is Playfair's cousin. Hornet is tricked into going to Court, where he is granted an audience with a pretended King; meanwhile the niece is spirited away from her uncle's custody and is married to Playfair.

Like many plays of its era (including several of Shirley's), the final act of The Constant Maid features a masque — in this case a representation of the Judgement of Paris. (Shirley would write an entire independent masque on the same subject, in his The Triumph of Beauty.)

Masque courtly entertainment with music and dance

The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio. A masque involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Often the masquers, who did not speak or sing, were courtiers: the English queen Anne of Denmark frequently danced with her ladies in masques between 1603 and 1611, and Henry VIII and Charles I of England performed in the masques at their courts. In the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully.

Judgement of Paris story from Greek mythology

The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War and to the foundation of Rome.

The Triumph of Beauty is a Caroline era masque, written by James Shirley and first published in 1646. The masque shows a strong influence of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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References

  1. ↑ Arthur Huntington Nason, James Shirley, Dramatist: A Biographical and Critical Study, New York, 1915; reprinted New York, Benjamin Blom, 1967.
  2. ↑ Robert Stanley Forsythe, The Relations of Shirley's Plays With the Elizabethan Drama, New York, Columbia University Press, 1914.
  3. ↑ A. P. Riemer, "Shirley's Revisions and the Date of The Constant Maid," Review of English Studies 17 (1966), pp. 141-8.
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