The Sea Voyage

Last updated

The Sea Voyage is a late Jacobean comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. The play is notable for its imitation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Contents

Performance and publication

The Sea Voyage was licensed for performance by the Master of the Revels on 22 June 1622. The Sea Voyage was acted by the King's Men; the second Beaumont/Fletcher folio of 1679 provides a partial cast list of the original production, which includes Joseph Taylor, William Ecclestone, Nicholas Tooley, John Lowin, and John Underwood, all members of the troupe.

The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 4 September 1646, and received its initial publication in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.

Authorship

The shares of the two collaborators, Massinger and Fletcher, are relatively easy to distinguish, due to Fletcher's distinctive pattern of linguistic usages. Cyrus Hoy observed that Fletcher's hand dominates in Acts I and IV, as Massinger's does in Acts II, III, and V. There is some crossover in the portions, though scholars are divided as to whether the play was revised into its final form by Fletcher (as Hoy thought), or by Massinger. [1]

Sources

The play begins with a storm, and features a desert island and castaways at a banquet, just as in The Tempest. [2] In addition to Shakespeare's play, the collaborators consulted recent accounts of actual explorations, including those of William Strachey and John Nicholl.

After 1660

In the Restoration era, The Sea Voyage was revived by the King's Company in an adaptation called The Storm. The adapted version premiered on 25 September 1667, with both King Charles II and Samuel Pepys in the audience, as Pepys records in his Diary. Pepys liked the play so much – especially the added songs and dances – that he saw it again the next evening. The King's Company staged the play to beat the competition: William Davenant's and John Dryden's adaptation, The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island, would premier on 7 November the same year. Another adaptation of The Sea Voyage, titled The Commonwealth of Women, was produced by Thomas d'Urfey in 1685. [3] D'Urfey's version proved even more popular after the turn of the eighteenth century, being performed in 1702, 1707, 1708, and 1710. D'urfey made the hero an Englishman instead of a Frenchman, and an honest pirate to boot, [4] anticipating Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance by nearly two centuries.

Synopsis

The play opens on a ship at sea, caught in a storm; the ship's Master and sailors struggle to cope, while the vessel's commander and passengers make their way on deck. Albert, a French pirate, is the captain; he is accompanied by a heterogeneous group of compatriots, including Lamur, a "usuring Merchant," Franville, "a vain-glorious gallant," and Morillat, "a shallow-brain'd Gentleman." Also present are the captain's friend Tibalt, and his love interest, Aminta. Aminta was captured by Albert, but he has since fallen in love with her, and respects her virtue and chastity. He also set out in search of her missing brother Raimond, before the storm struck.

The ship struggles to reach a nearby island; the crew toss overboard cargo, belongings, even treasure, in an attempt to lighten the load. The second scene shifts perspective to two men stranded on the same island. Two Portuguese castaways, Sebastian and his nephew Nicusa, have long suffered privation on this barren rocky island; they watch as the ship endures the storm, and they see the survivors make their way to the beach. Their conversation reveals that they were victims of a pirate attack, which divided them from another Portuguese ship that carried Sebastian's wife and other members of their family.

The Frenchmen meet Sebatian and Nicusa, but behave with hostility and menace; while the French fall to fighting over treasure the two Portuguese have salvaged, Sebastian and Nicusa escape in the Frenchmen's ship, leaving the new arrivals behind. The French crew find that the island is as bleak and inhospitable as Sebastian and Nicusa had indicated; they are soon suffering severely from hunger and thirst. There is abundant material concerning this privation, perhaps intended as comedy; at one point, Lamure, Franville and Morillat (brawling, cowardly, greedy, selfish, etc. represent man's base instincts) are ready to kill Aminta and eat her, before she is rescued by Tibalt and Albert.

Sebastian and Nicusa had informed the French that they sometimes heard sounds of other people, but were never able to locate and reach these mysterious individuals. Albert and Aminta also hear these sounds, and Albert swims across a "hellish river" to find them, though he is suffering from wounds sustained in brawls with Franville and company. (The geography of the play's fictional location is confused at best; the islands are separated by a river, or else a "black lake".) The people Albert finds are a community of women, living without men like Amazons. Led by a fifty-year-old woman named Rosilla and her daughter Clarinda, the women have developed a strongly anti-male ideology under their leader's tutelage; but they also realize that they need men to propagate a new generation, and the younger women are curious about, and eager for contact with, the new arrivals. Rosilla bows to the popular will enough to allow some contact: the women can meet the men, choose partners from among them if they will; of any children born from such contact, the girls will be kept and the boys returned to their fathers. Clarinda is excited about this arrangement, since she has fallen in love with Albert—which creates a conflict with Albert's commitment to Aminta. And there is much flirting and chivalric-style courtship among the men and women.

The plan quickly falls through when the Frenchmen try to court the women with jewels taken from Sebastian's treasure – and the women recognize their own possessions. The Amazons imprison the men, and appear to be planning their execution. But a new ship arrives to change the situation. Aminta's brother Raimond has captured/rescued Sebastian and Nicusa while searching the seas for Aminta. Sebastian and Rosilla are husband and wife, and the two branches of their family are happily re-united. It is revealed that the Portuguese colonists in the New World have been oppressed by French pirates, which generated the initial conflict situation. Along with the reunion of Sebastian and Rosilla, Raimond and Clarinda form a couple, which helps to palliate the resentments of the two groups, French and Portuguese; and Albert and Aminta are free to marry as well.

The Sea Voyage is one of the shortest plays in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators; [5] The Tempest, concomitantly, is the second-shortest play in Shakespeare's collected works. [6] The reason may be that both plays devote a greater-than-usual proportion of their theatrical space and time to their special effects.

Critical responses

Along with Fletcher's The Island Princess , The Sea Voyage has attracted the attention of some late twentieth century critics and scholars as part of the literature of colonialism and anti-colonialism. [7] [8]

Notes

  1. Logan and Smith, p. 76.
  2. In The Tempest, Shakespeare strands his castaways on a magic island, and can magically keep their clothing dry — "On their sustaining garments not a blemish" (I,ii, 218). To some modern critics, this is pure theatrical pragmatism: soaking the characters would have been inconvenient for the actors, and probably ruinous for their expensive costumes. In The Sea Voyage, in contrast, Fletcher lands his people on a prosaically non-magical island, and makes them appropriately damp: "Wet come ashore, my mates...how weak she is, and wet!" (I,iii,1–6); "I'll dance till I'm dry" (I,iii,22). This raises questions about the staging of the original production; were the actors drenched in fact, or did they just pretend to be wet?
  3. Scheil, pp. 57–9.
  4. Sprague, p. 232.
  5. Though not absolutely the shortest; that distinction belongs to The Nice Valour.
  6. With a length of 2064 lines, only The Comedy of Errors, at 1776 lines, is shorter.
  7. Jowitt, Claire (2003). Voyage Drama and Gender Politics, 1589-1642: Real and Imagined Worlds. Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 192–94. ISBN   0719054516.
  8. McMullan, Gordon (1994). The Politics of Unease in the Plays of John Fletcher. Amherst: Univ of Massachusetts Press. pp.  240–45. ISBN   0870238922. the sea voyage .

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Massinger</span> English playwright (1583–1640)

Philip Massinger was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The City Madam, and The Roman Actor, are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and social themes.

The King's Men was the acting company to which William Shakespeare (1564–1616) belonged for most of his career. Formerly known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, they became the King's Men in 1603 when King James I ascended the throne and became the company's patron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Fletcher (playwright)</span> English playwright (1579–1625)

John Fletcher was an English playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; during his lifetime and in the Stuart Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's. Fletcher collaborated in writing plays, chiefly with Francis Beaumont or Philip Massinger, but also with Shakespeare and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Somers</span> English admiral

Sir George Somers was an English privateer and naval hero, knighted for his achievements and the Admiral of the Virginia Company of London. He achieved renown as part of an expedition led by Sir Amyas Preston that plundered Caracas and Santa Ana de Coro in 1595, during the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War. He is remembered today as the founder of the English colony of Bermuda, also known as the Somers Isles.

The Beaumont and Fletcher folios are two large folio collections of the stage plays of John Fletcher and his collaborators. The first was issued in 1647, and the second in 1679. The two collections were important in preserving many works of English Renaissance drama.

The Parliament of Love is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by Philip Massinger. The play was never printed in the seventeenth century, and survived only in a defective manuscript – making it arguably the most problematical work in the Massinger canon.

The Little French Lawyer is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.

<i>The False One</i> Jacobean stage play by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger

The False One is a late Jacobean stage play by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, though formerly placed in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon. It was first published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.

The Lovers' Progress is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. As its multiple titles indicate, the play has a complex history and has been a focus of controversy among scholars and critics.

The Elder Brother is an early seventeenth-century English stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. Apparently dating from 1625, it may have been the last play Fletcher worked on before his August 1625 death.

The Spanish Curate is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It premiered on the stage in 1622, and was first published in 1647.

The Double Marriage is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, and initially printed in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.

<i>The Maid in the Mill</i>

The Maid in the Mill is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and William Rowley. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.

Beggars' Bush is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that is a focus of dispute among scholars and critics.

<i>The Scornful Lady</i>

The Scornful Lady is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, and first published in 1616, the year of Beaumont's death. It was one of the pair's most popular, often revived, and frequently reprinted works.

Mary Knep, also Knepp, Nepp, Knip, or Knipp, was an English actress and one of the first generation of female performers to appear on the public stage during the Restoration era.

Rebecca Marshall was a noted English actress of the Restoration era, one of the first generation of women performers on the public stage in Britain. She was the younger sister of Anne Marshall, another prominent actress of the period.

<i>The Tempest</i> Play by William Shakespeare

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on a remote island, where Prospero, a complex and contradictory character, lives with his daughter Miranda, and his two servants: Caliban, a savage monster figure, and Ariel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In Act IV, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-a-play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language.

A Commonwealth of Women is a 1685 comedy play by the English writer Thomas D'Urfey. Originally performed by the United Company as the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, the cast included Joseph Williams as Captain Marine, Philip Griffin as Du Pier, Thomas Percival as Boldsprite, Thomas Jevon as Franvil, Anthony Leigh as Frugal, Joseph Haines as Hazard, Thomas Gillow as Don Sebastian, John Bowman as Nicusa, Henry Norris as La Mure, Joseph Harris as Bourcher, Katherine Corey as Roselia, Mary Lee as Clarinda, Margaret Osborne as Ariadne, Sarah Cooke as Aminta, Emily Price as Hippolita and Frances Maria Knight as Aglaura.

References