Notes on Jacobean Dramatists

Francis Beaumont (c. 1584-1616) & John Flethcher (1579-1625) were responsible for a vogue in tragicomedy and romantic tragedy. These forms are similar: essentially serious, but tragicomedy ends happily and romantic tragedy unhappily;

• Subject matter was usually sensational
• Skillful dramatic construction with complications building to startling climaxes
• Alternating quiet and tumultuous episodes
• Very few scenes needed to present complex plot lines

Beaumont and Fletcher emphasized the shocking at the expense of the significant, and so were very popular. Egs.The Maid's Tragedy, Philaster, A King and No King, and in possible, if not probable collaboration with Shakespeare himself, the Two Noble Kinsmen. The also left a popular comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Fletcher succeeded Shakespeare as company playwright of the King's Men at The Globe.

On the death of Fletcher, the position of company playwright passed to his sometime collaborator, Oxford educated Philip Massinger (1583-1640) . Author of forty some plays, Massinger is now known primarily for A New Way to Pay Old Debts, which centers on the archvillian, Sir Giles Overreach. Sir Giles was modeled on a friend of the Duke of Buckingham, one Sir Girls Mompesson, a notorious extortioner. This character, described by one critic as a Stuart version of Al Capone, was very popular through the nineteenth century as a star vehicle, notably for Edmund Kean. Massinger was noted also for plays with religious themes, a surprising thing in a time of such political/religious unrest. It is also assumed that he was a Roman Catholic, a supposition based on three of his plays, The Virgin Martyr (licensed 1620), The Renegado (licensed 1624) and The Maid of Honour (c. 1621). The religious sentiment in all three would certainly appeal to an audience sympathetic to Roman Catholic doctrine. The Virgin Martyr, a surprisingly popular play (it went to three editions--1622, 1631 and 1661) dealing with Christian persecutions and the martyrdom of Dorothea under the Emperor Diocletian, is really a miracle play. The Renegado (1624) has as a protagonist Francisco, a Jesuit priest (!) in Protestant England. In this play, the Roman doctrine of baptismal regeneration is underscored. In The Maid of Honour a complicated situation is solved by the decision of the heroine, Camiola, to become a nun. For this she is held up "to all posterity a fair example for noble maids to imitate."

John Webster (?-c. 1630) best known for The White Devil (Staged 1612-1614) and The Duchess of Malfi, he began his career as early as 1602. One of the most popular writers from the period in our own day, a considerable body of scholarship has accrued itself to his name, usually lamenting his apparent lack of coherent structure. In fact, his characters are very thorough psychological portraits whose very real inconsistencies confuse and confound some merely literal critics. His stuff plays…

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627) best known work: The Changeling (1622). Educated at Queens College, MIddleton did not take a degree; he began writing satire, and after 1613 he designed many annual pageants in honor of the Lord Mayor of London, became the City Chronicler in 1620. A prolific writer/collaborator

Cyril Tourneur (1575-1626) wrote The Revengers' Tragedy and The Atheist's Tragedy little is known, but he had a brief career in theatre, was in diplomatic service…

John Ford (1586-1639) best known for 'Tis Pity She's A Whore which is cited frequently as proof of the decadence of English Drama since an incestuous relationship between a brother and a sister is treated sympathetically. I has nonetheless been revived frequently of late to some critical success.

Thomas Dekker (ca. 1572-ca. 1632) is best known for the watershed comedy The Shoemaker's Holiday. An active collaborator, he had a hand in many successful plays of the day from The Honest Whore (with Middleton) and The Virgin Martyr (with Massinger). He also left a number of pamphlets including The Gull's Handbook (1609), a lively satire on the fops and gallants of contemporary London. It includes some very useful information about the theatre of the day.

John Marston (ca. 1575-1634) wrote mostly for the Children's companies, The Children of St. Paul's and The Children of Blackfriars that enjoyed a vogue in London for a while. His involvement in Eastward Ho!, (written with Chapman and Jonson) which satirized Scots, and angered the new Scottish King James, nearly landed him in prison. His best play is probably the tragi-comedy, The Malcontent, in which a prince, usurped, returns to his court

George Chapman (c.1560-1634) is best known for the noisy tragedy Bussy d'Ambois, but he wrote many other fine plays including All Fools, a comedy based on Terence and May Day. Apart from his part in the infamous Eastward Ho!, he offended the French Ambassador with his tragedy Charles, Duke of Byron (1608). All but fifteen of his forty plays are lost.