THE FAITHFUL WIFE MOTIF IN

ELIZABETHAN DRAMA

THESIS

Presented to the Graduate Council of the

North Texas State College in Partial

Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

by

Elizabeth Miller Sayles

Meridian, Texas

August, 1953

2235G7

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter PageI. BACKGROUND AND ORIGIN OF THE FAITHFUL

WIFE MOTIF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Origin in the Folk TaleBoccaccio's Adaptation in the

DecameronPetrarch's Treatment of the MotifFrench and Latin Variations on the

ThemeEvolution of Plot ElementsThomas Dekker's Patient Grissil

II. THE FAITHFUL WIFE MOTIF IN THE WORKS OFROBERT GREENE ..0.... . .*.*. . . . 32

Margaret in Friar Bacon and FriarBungayv

Dorothea and Ida in James IVSimilarities among theCharacterizations

Possible Sources of James IVThe Faithful Wife in Greene's ProseWorks

Influence of Greene's Marital StatusGreene's Indebtedness to Chaucer

III. SHAKESPEARE'S USE OF THE MOTIF OF THEFAITHFUL WIFE . ..... .0.. . . .. 57

Repeated Use of the MotifHis Variations of the ThemeSources and InfluencesInterrelations of His Faithful Women

and Their SourcesThe Two Gentlemen of VeronaAll's Well That Ends WellMeasure for MeasureOthelloThe Winter's Tale

iii

Chapter PageIV. REALISM IN ELIZABETHAN DRAMA, AND ITS

INFLUENCE ON THE MOTIF OF THEFAITHFUL WIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Woman as the Prime Factor in the DramaDevelopment of the Domestic Problem

PlayDramatization of Life in the Lower

ClassesThomas Dekker as the Foremost Realist

of the PeriodStudy of Bellafront in The Honest WhoreReversal of the Motif in the Portrayal

of CandidoDekker's Indebtedness to Shakespeare

V. THE FAITHFUL WIFE AS INTERPRETED BY THEMINOR WRITERS OF THE PERIOD . . . . . . . 122

The Faithful Wife-Prodigal CombinationThe Jealous Husband-Patient Wife

ConflictSignificance of ChronologyAnalogues and Interrelationships of

the PlaysThe Wisdome of Doctor DodypollHow a Man May Choose a Good Wife from

a BadThe Nuch CourtesanThe Faire Maide of Bristoweli London Prodiga.'~_ eWise Woman of HogsdonThe Miseries of Inforst MariageA Yorkshire Tragedy

VI. CONCLUSION . . . .......&...*. 158

Widespread Appeal of the MotifVariety of Dramatic Forms in Which it

AppearedOutstanding CharacterizationsChange in Popular Taste and its Effect

on the ThemeReasons for Decline in Popularity in

the Stuart Period

iv

CHAPTER I

BACKGROUND AND ORIGIN OF THE

FAITHFUL WIFE MOTIF

The major purpose of this thesis is to present a dis-

cussion of the motif of the faithful wife as it appears in

the domestic drama of the Elizabethan Age; in addition, an

account of the literary history of the theme will be given,

in order that the use made of the story in Elizabethan

drama may be correctly evaluated. This theme was one which

was very familiar to the people of the late sixteenth and

early seventeenth centuries, especially to those who at-

tended the theater during the interval from 1600 to 1610,

for it was at that period that the story climbed to its

zenith in popularity. During that decade, with its tradi-

tion of literary borrowing and plagiarism, probably few of

the many playwrights who utilized the theme knew in any

detail the ultimate origin of the story or anything about

its literary history; the audiences enjoyed hearing the

story of the patient, long-suffering wife, or some one of

the variations which grew out of the story, and plays writ-

ten on the subject had what would today be termed "box-

office appeal." Then the theme apparently underwent a

2

sharp decline in popularity, and its subsequent appearances

have been very infrequent in comparison with the plethora

of variations which appeared prior to 1610.

One of scholarship's most perplexing and yet most

interesting questions is that of the primary origin of the

Griselda story. Moreover, it is doubtful whether any other

short narrative in the history of literature has appeared

in forms more distinguished or varied.1 The story of the

faithful wife has received singular acclaim because it

occupied the attention of three of the chief literary fig-

ures of the fourteenth century--Boccaccio, Petrarch, and

Chaucer. Several lesser-known writers presented their

individual versions of the theme, and there were at least

six or seven extant variations when Chaucer included the

story of Griselda in the Cantebu Tales.

Boccaccio first told the narrative in his native

Italian and put it at the conclusion of his famous collec-

tion of tales, the Decameron, in 1353. Then Petrarch took

it twenty years later (1373), retelling the story in Latin

and elaborating upon the relatively bare outline which he

had adapted from Boccaccio. Almost simultaneously with

Petrarch's redaction, Giovanni Sercambi, likewise relying

upon Boccaccio, related the story once again (ca. 1374),

retaining the Italian language and condensing rather than

lWirt Armistead Cate, "The Problem of the Origin ofthe Griselda Story," Studies in Philology, XXIX (1932), 389.

3

expanding the novella. After these versions, all emanating

from Italy in the third quarter of the fourteenth century,

and all based upon Boccaccio's version in Italian, the next

variations came from France during the last quarter of the

century. Then the model became Petrarch's Latin rather

than Boccaccio's Italian. There appeared two prose French

translations of Petrarch, one by Philippe de Mezieres

(1384-89), the version which, with some changes, found its

way into Le Menagier de Paris (ca. 1393), and an anonymous

prose translation. Only one other version can, with any

certainty, be dated before the end of the fourteenth cen-

tury; it is a French play, L'Estoire de la MgArquise de

Saluce Miz par Personnages et. Ri * (1395), based upon

de Me'zihres' translation. There may have been one other

version in existence before Chaucer died; it is in Latin

verse, based upon Petrarch, and "Metrificata per P. de

Haille s. "

In its ultimate origin the story of Griselda and her

patience is a folk tale. The main characters, the chief

plot elements, and the narrative sequence may all be used

to link the versions to a special class of folk tales known

as the Patience Group of the Cupid and Psyche genre.

These folk tales tell of the love of a mortal for an

2J. Burke Severs, The Lite Relationships ofChaucer's 'Clerke's Tale 7 po73

3Ibid., p. 4.

4

immortal, and the conflicts which ensue. Many of the char-

acteristics which distinguish this highly specialized form

are repeated in the Griselda story; most of them are

explained by the fact that the immortal lover places severe

restraints upon his mortal wife. For example, no matter

what may happen, she must be obedient, make no protests, and

show no emotion. Another characteristic of this genre is

that the children of the couple are taken away, ostensibly

to their death but in reality to be raised and educated by

relatives; another point in the plot is that the old wife is

brought back to make arrangements for the wedding feast to

celebrate the coming of the ne wife, and it is at this time

that the old wife is restored to her position and the chil-

dren are returned. As a rule, the Cupid and Psyche folk

tales include the espousal, marriage, separation, and, some-

times, reunion. The two live together for a time and then

are separated because of some difference in nature between

the other-world being and the mortal. In all the tales

there are certain common elements of characterization. The

other-world beings have limitless power and they often

influence the lives of mortals; the unwavering fidelity of

the wife can withstand the trials of the two worlds. 4

In addition to the parallels which link the Griselda

story with the Cupid and Psyche folk tales, there are

41bid., pp. 4-5.

5

present in the story certain relics of the pre-literary

form; these are traces left by the primitive folk tale. An

example is Griselda's pre-nuptial vow of implicit, unques-

tioning obedience, regardless of what may happen in the

future. This is merely the rationalization of what in folk

tales is a tabu; as a condition of his marriage with a mor-

tal, the other-world being exacts a promise from his wife

that she will never question his apparently inexplicable

behavior. Another element to be explained by the folk-tale

origin is the marquis' cruel and apparently motiveless test-

ing of his wife's promise of subjection. The marquis'

actions are illogical and past understanding if they are

viewed as the actions of a human man who loves his wife;

however, if the marouis himself is seen as a being whose

actions are controlled by an other-world code of laws beyond

his power to abrogate, his actions become more comprehensi-

ble. Certain other elements of folk tales are present in the

Griselda story, such as the stress laid uoon her clothing--

her undressing prior to donning the marriage-clothes, and her

undressing when the marquis requests her to return to her

home. There are still other incidents common to the folk

tale: the meeting of the marquis and his bride by a body

of water, which was often the entrance serving the other-

world being of the folk tale; the marquis' fondness for

hunting; Griselda's loving obedience to her father; the

6

father's reluctance toward the marriage; the primitiveness

of the wedding--all these hark back to the pre-literary

form of the story.5

Out of the material presented by some one or more ver-

sions of the Patience Group of the Cupid and Psyche folk

tales, the story-teller Boccaccio wrote the tale of

Griselda, which is the last novella of the last book of the

Decameron. Just how much of the story is Boccaccio's own

is difficult to determine. He did add realism to the story

by giving its location as Saluzzo; the names of the charac-

ters, as they are known to us, may unquestionably be

ascribed to him. It must be kept in mind that the Italian

was an artisan in perfecting the realistic, condensed nar-

rative technique of the literary form of the novella, and

he used his skill to good advantage when he told the story

of faithful Griselda. He had a sense of the dramatic and

was a master of scene arrangement and emphasis, all of

which he utilized in writing the novella. He seems to have

had little understanding of the supernatural, other-world

elements; perhaps the story came to him already emended by

some humanizing force. At any rate, he merits praise for

recording the story in his Decameron, for it is the source

from which all versions, no matter in what language, are

descended.6 Pamfilo, the king of the day, had assigned as

6 lbid., pp. 6-7.5Ibjid. , p. 6.

7

the theme, "those who in love or other matters had done

something with liberality and magnificence." The recog-

nized leader of the group, Dineo, told the Griselda story.

He explains the story in the following way:

It is truly.nothing magnificent, but a monstrousfolly from which however he received good in the end.I advise none to imitate it, for it was a great pitythat it turned out well for him.7

Thus it is apparent that he told the story in condemnation

of Griselda's submission and Gualtieri's cruelty, not in

praise of Griselda.

The story related in the novella is that of a love

affair between a man and woman whose backgrounds and social

status were very different. Gualtieri, the Marquis of

Saluzzo, who loved to hunt and fish, yielded at last to the

persuasion of his subjects and agreed to take a wife, but

only upon one condition; his lords must honor whomever he

chose. Remembering how the appearance and character of

Griselda, the daughter of a herdsman, had long pleased him,

he went to her father Giannucolo, who agreed to the mar-

riage of his daughter to the marquis. On the day desig-

nated as the wedding-day, Gualtieri rode to the village and

met Griselda returning hastily from the spring in the hope

that she might see the lucky girl who would be his wife.

Gualtieri dismounted, went into the hut, and there Griselda,

7Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron, translated by JohnPayne, p. 517.

8

in the presence of her father, promised that she would ever

try to please him, that she would never become disturbed at

his actions, and that-she would obey him at all times.

Gualtieri had had wedding clothes made for Griselda by

having them tailored after the measure of a young woman at

court. After her promise, he brought Griselda forth, had

her stripped naked, and then dressed her in the ceremonial

gowns with a crown on her head. The young wife was dili-

gent, obedient, and gracious to all the subjects; so the

marquis was thought to be a very fortunate man for having

made such a wise choice.

After a daughter was born to the couple, Gualtieri

decided to make a trial of his wife's patience by subject-

ing her to tribulations. He instructed a servant to go to

her and take her child, telling Griselda that the child

would be killed. (In reality, Gualtieri sent the girl to

his kinswoman at Bologna, but this was a carefully guarded

secret.) Griselda did not change countenance, but took the

child from the cradle and only asked the servant not to let

the birds and beasts devour the baby unless that was

Gualtieri's wish.

After a time Griselda bore a son, and Gualtieri, not

content with what he had done, ordered this child to be

taken away from Griselda. He knew of her deep love for her

children; thus he was aware that she was acting through

patience, not from a lack of understanding. He told her

9

that his subjects were afraid that they would some day be

ruled by a grandson of Giannucolo, and that he must there-

fore take a new wife. He secured counterfeit letters from

the Pope and informed his subjects, who blamed him severely,

that he intended to marry again. He then told Griselda that

she must return to her father with the dowry with which she

had come, which was, of course, nothing. She restrained

her tears, returned her wedding ring, and asked that in

place of her virginity she might have a shift to cover her

nakedness. She returned home barefoot and clad only in the

shift; her father gave her the old clothes she had cast off

on her wedding day, and she went about doing the work of

the house.

Gualtieri announced that he was marrying a daughter of

the Count of Panago, and he summoned Griselda to prepare

the castle for the wedding. The two children were returned

from Bologna, and it was reported that the young lady was

to be his second bride. Seeing that Griselda retained her

cheerful countenance, and convinced at last that her atti-

tude was from patience and not from a lack of understanding,

Gualtieri revealed to her that the young lady was her own

daughter, that he had been testing her patience and faith-

fulness. She was restored to her high position, Giannucolo

was given a good job, and the two lived long in happiness

and honor.8

8Ibid.,pp. 517-525.

10

Many scholars have puzzled over the motive which

prompted Boccaccio to write the story. There are three

main schools of thought on the subject: the first group

interprets the story on purely historical grounds; the sec-

ond group believes that Boccaccio's novella was written as

an exemplum of patience; the third believes that the

Griselda story goes back ultimately to folk tradition.9

There is little reason to believe that the events of

the Griselda story actually happened; there are no histori-

cal documents to support the authenticity of the story. It

has been suggested that the story dates back to the time

when a wife was the absolute property of her husband and

when the father could destroy any children whom he did not

wish to rear. It would be difficult to believe, however,

that feudalism was ever so terrible and gruesome and far-

removed from the influence of the Church as to make the

incidents of the story possible. Griselda never exhibits

the attitude of an abused wife, and she apparently feels

herself to be under no stringent compulsion.10

Boccaccio probably did not write his novella as an

exemplum, to bring a moral to the people. He wrote rather

to please and to entertain, and the novella with its excess

9Dudley David Griffith, "The Origin of the GriseldaStory," University of Washington Publications in WLa eand Literature, VIII(September, 191), 14.

1 0 Ibid., pp. 13-14.

11

of patience would have been too extravagant. It is there-

fore unlikely that Boccaccio created any of the incidents

to form a background for the presentation of a moral les-

son.

One noticeable characteristic is the perfect poise

between the possible and the impossible. The story lies

between the world of realism and the world of romance. The

localization of the tale in Saluzzo, emphasis on the happi-

ness of the two marriage feasts, Gualtieri's pretense that

the lords are displeased with Griselda's low birth--all

these are easily related to actual experience. Some inci-

dents are difficult to relate to reality, such as the serv-

ant's taking the children away and Griselda's returning to

her father in her shift. The character of Gualtieri is

lacking to some degree in realism, and Griselda's super-

human patience is not explained. 1 2

It is very interesting to note the manner in which

some of the other authors regarded the story. Petrarch

believed that Griselda's patience was far beyond that which

any woman could hope to attain, but he told the story in an

effort to incite all readers to constancy and firmness

under trials. A consideration of the dramatic import of

Chaucer's Clerke's Tale in relation to other stories in the

Canteu Tales which deal with the subject of marriage

12Ibid., pp. 10-11.llIbid., p. 15.

12

can leave little doubt that his purpose was to present an

exemplum and an answer to the other rather coarse tales

about women. In the Menagier de Paris, which was a book of

instruction to a young wife, the author-compiler holds up

for his wife's emulation those qualities of patience, obedi-

ence, and submission which Griselda exemplifies and which

were so highly regarded as wifely qualities in medieval

Europe.13

Some twenty years after Boccaccio wrote his Decameron,

the story fell into the hands of his friend, Petrarch, now

growing quite old. The man was captivated by the tale and

memorized parts of it for recitation to his friends. He

began his translation of it on a spring day in late March

or early April, 1373, during a visit to Padua. He com-

pleted his translation in April and wrote his friend

Boccaccio telling him of his work.14 For some reason,

Boccaccio never received Petrarch's letters telling of his

handling of the story; the old man died very soon, not

knowing that the manuscript of his story had never reached

his young friend. He had made more than a mere translation

of the story; he was liberal with his re-working. In most

instances he expanded the rather economical version in the

Decameron; however, on occasion, he changed or omitted

1 3 Cate, .. cit., p. 396.

1 4 Severs, op. cit., pp. 7-8.

13

completely certain elements which he believed were not in

keeping with the novella. He changed the focus of the

story in that he substituted for Boccaccio's secular, some-

times licentious attitude a higher, more saintly view.15

In additional ways the two authors wrote from divergent

points of view. Boccaccio seemed to feel that when she had

been spurned by Gualtieri, Griselda should immediately have

begun to look for another man on whom to bestow her favors.

Petrarch, on the other hand, concludes his version with

passages full of admiration for the patient heroine, and

sees in her constancy an example for all humanity to

follow.16

This difference in methods of approach results in dif-

ferences in characterization in the two versions.

Petrarch's Valterius is a kinder man than is Boccaccio's

harsh Gualtieri; Petrarch has Valterius prepare Griseldis

with soft words for the loss of her children. Another

indication of Boccaccio's attitude toward his heroine may

be seen in one of the very last passages of the novella in

which he writes, "What can we say then, but that divine

spirits may descend from heaven into the meanest cottages;

whilst royal palaces shall produce such as seem rather

adapted to have the care of hogs, rather than the care of

men."l7

15IBicd.I, pp. 11-12i, 6Ibipd2pp512-13.17Boocaeoio, _p. cit. , p. 525.

14

Petrarch retains the first half of the sentence which

praises Griselda, but he omits the last half which gives

unqualified disapproval of the marquis. He certainly does

not approve of all of Valterius' actions, but he allows his

disapproval to be implied rather than flatly stated.18

Petrarch paints a more complex portrait of Griseldis

by telling more about her childhood as a herd-girl, and

about the loving care and attendance which she gave to her

aged father. He permits her to talk more, and thus is he

able to give a more complete picture of her submission to

Valterius. On the whole, Griseldis exhibits many more

characteristics of both wifely and motherly love than does

Griselda.19

There is another important difference between the two,

that of the style of writing. Petrarch's version is full

of rhetoric; he gives long, geographical descriptions. He

is interested in the characters themselves; therefore all

their thoughts and emotions are set forth in great detail.

On the other hand, Boccaccio wrote with his characteristic

direct style, marked by an economy of words. This trait

tends to make the action of his story move more swiftly

than does Petrarch's. 2 0

At almost exactly the same time that Petrarch was

engaged in rewriting Boccaccio, another Italian,

188evers pR. . bip1p1.

19Ibidj ,P. 14. 201bid. , P. 18.

15

Ser Giovanni Sercambi, was employed in retelling the

novella, not in Latin but in Italian. He maintains in his

introduction that whereas he does allude to Boccaccio, his

is an entirely different version. This literary device is

quite weak and unconvincing, however, because Sercambi

includes passages in which he employs identical phraseology.

He does introduce a few superficial differences: he renames

Gualtieri as Artu, Griselda becomes Costantina, and Gian-

nucolo becomes a member of the opposite sex named Satina.

He compresses slightly the action of the novella, but this

condensation of time and renaming of characters constitute

the major factors differentiating Sercambi's work from

Boccaccio's.21

Another version of the story appeared some ten or fif-

teen years later; it was a retelling of the Latin narrative

by Philippe de Mezieres. During the early part of his life

de Mezieres had been Chancellor to the King of Cyprus; dur-

ing his later years he entered the monastery of the

Celestine Brothers at Paris. The story of Griselda came to

his attention at a time when he was writing a book entitled

Livrede eVer u du Secrement de Mariage (1384-89); he

felt that Griseldis might be a good example for all wives

to follow, so he included the story in the last book of his

work. He elaborated to a great degree upon his source,

_b~id. , p. 20.

16

adding several lengthy rhetorical passages, but the narra-

tive sequence was changed very little. He did omit

Petraroh's long geographical proem, but he states clearly

in his own introduction that it is Petrarch to whom he is

indebted for the story.2 2

A few years later, about 1393, the author-compiler of

Le Mednagierde Paris, gathering material for the instruc-

tion and improvement of his young wife, took the story from

de Mezieres and included it in his own work. In his con-

clusion to his work, the compiler was quick to assure his

wife that he did not expect such obedience from her; he

also wrote that he did not believe that the story ever hap-

pened, but that he had felt compelled not to change or cor-

rect it in any way. The major differences between this

version and its source are the omission of words and

phrases and occasional alterations of meaning from that

found in de Mezieres' version.

There are other French translations in addition to the

one done by de Mezieres. One translation of the story was

made by an anonymous person very late in the fourteenth

century; it is not known conclusively whether this version

preceded de Me'zieres', although it is believed by most

22Ibid., p. 22 as quoted from Golenietcheff-Koutouzoll,L'Histoire de Griseldis en France au XVe et au XV Siecle,p. 156.

23Ibid., pp. 22-23.

17

scholars to have followed it. The unknown translator does

not include Petrarch's lengthy geographical prom, just as

de Me'zieres omits it. There are other equally outstanding

differences between the two versions. De Mzieres wrote

with almost a superfluity of words; he embellished the

story with fancy, elaborate words and phrases, and he added

a certain few plot elements of his own design. The anony-

mous work is not characterized by this verbosity of expres-

sion; rather, the translator made his work a paradigm of

brevity and clarity. He followed closely his original

source, its construction and word order, and when he did

add an extra detail, it was done with the same economy of

words which marks the remainder of the work. The result is

that his version, with its paramount emphasis upon the. plot

and not upon minute incidents, moves swiftly to its

climax.

In 1395 an anonymous French playwright wrote a play

based on the Griseldis story. There is one extant manu-

script in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris; in the

introduction, the author explains that he has followed a

prose source in constructing his work. Verbal comparison

quickly proved conclusively that he had dramatized

de Mezieres' translation. The requirements for stage pro-duction necessitated some major changes in structure; in

24 Ibid. , pp. 25-27.

18

the play are characters who were mentioned only briefly in

the source.25

Still another version of the story appeared sometime

late in the fourteenth century; this was a poetic version

in Latin, based on Petrarch. The work was done by Petrus

de Hailles, according to the manuscript in the Biblioth'eque

de Poitiers; this man is identified with the Peter

de Hailles "who was secretary to Guy II, last count of

Blois, between 1385 and 1390.026 De Haille did not include

the geographical description given by Petrarch, but in

other respects the two versions are rather close

parallels.2

The general popularity of the Griseldis story among

the French people in the fourteenth century is indicated by

the large number of versions of the story which appeared.

The common people knew it in the two versions and the play,

all of which were written in the vulgar tongue; the edu-

cated people read it in the Latin verse. In all proba-

bility, all of these versions were in existence at the time

when Chaucer wrote his Cante Tales. Scholars have

long debated as to which of the variations was Chaucer's

25Ibid. , pp. 29-30.26 Ibid., p. 31 as quoted from Golenistcheff-Koutouzoll,

... cit. , pp. 116-117.

27 Severs, p. .it., p. 31.

19

source for the Clerke's Tale; it would seem that the Clerke

himself provides the answer:

I wol yow tell a tale which that ILerned at Padowe, of a worthy clerk,As preved by his wordes and his werk.He is now ded and nailed in his cheste,I pray to God so yeve his soule reste,Frauncis Petrark, the laureate poete,Highte this clerk, whos rethorike swete28Enlumined all Itaille of poetrie, . ..*

Further along in the Prologue is a reference to the

"prohemye"--the geographical proem which only Petrarch's

version contains. Additional evidence that Chaucer made

use of Petrarch's version is found in the phrasing and dic-

tion which are common to both.29 It is quite probable that

Chaucer used at least one other source; it is the opinion

of J. Burke Severs, a Chaucerian scholar, that the anony-

mous French prose translation was utilized by Chaucer in

the Clerke's Tale. 3 0

This brief account of the Griselda story, from its

origin in folk tales to its presentation by Chaucer, may

serve in some small degree to explain how the motif became

firmly embedded in literature; for many years it was a

favorite among story-tellers. It is not to be inferred

from the foregoing discussion that the Griselda story was

28Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, edited byT. Tyrwhitt, II, 193.

2 9Severs, op. cit., p. 34.

3 01bid.,p. 37.

20

known only to the French people. The novella in Boccaccio's

Decameron made the story familiar in the author's native

Italy; it is strange, however, that no additional versions

of the story were done by Italian.authors, with the excep-

tion of Sercambi, until the seventeenth century. In 1620

an operatic version of the theme was done by Apostolo Zeno.

The story appeared first in dramatic form in Germany, when

Hans Saachs adapted it to the stage about the year 1550.31

Perhaps of greatest importance was its appearance in the

C bnte Tales, for it is the Clerke's Tale which became

by far the best-known version of the story.

After the English readers became acquainted with the

story of Griselda told by Chaucer, the theme grew in popu-

larity; several variations of the theme, nearly all of

which are now lost, appeared. William Forrest, chaplain to

Queen Mary, wrote a poem which compared Katherine, the

first wife of Henry VIII, to Griselda; the Stationers'

Register bears evidence of the influx of ballads on the

subject which appeared about the middle of the sixteenth

century. Very soon after Elizabeth came to the throne,

there was a popular song entitled "Pacyente Grissell."5 2

There was also a prose tract entitled "The antient true and

admirable History of Patient Grisel, a poore man's daughter

31Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton,Patient Grissil, edited by J. Payne Collier, p. vi.

32Ibid., p. vii.

21

in France: shewing how Maides, by her example in their good

behavior, may marry rich husbands; and likewise Wives, by

their patience and obedience, may gaine much glorie.933

Just as any story will be changed by frequent retell-

ing, so did the Griselda motif undergo a change. Up to

Chaucer's version, the story retained some of the charac-

teristics and meanings of the folk tale; the husband was a

creature of the other-world, and his cruel, inhuman demands

upon Griselda were resultant from his supernatural charac-

ter. Furthermore, the husband was motivated solely by a

desire to test Griselda's patience, although even the ear-

liest versions do not give any concrete explanation why he

should doubt his wife's love for him. In the years follow-

ing the writing of the Canteb Tales, more and more peo-

ple became familiar with the story of Griselda; the fact

that the husband was immortal was lost, and the name

Griselda came to stand for a wife who was very patient and

faithful to her husband. As modern narrative becomes

thematic, it is only natural that a medieval story having a

patient heroine should be interpreted as a story created to

present patience as a theme. Then the name Griselda became

the term for a wife who remained true to her husband, even

when he exhibits some very human faults, such as excessive

22

drinking and gambling, or even when he is unfaithful to her

and falls completely out of love with her.

It was a peculiar accident of literature that the

Griselda motif was particularly adaptable to a literary

type which became very popular during the Elizabethan

period--the domestic drama. The vernacular element in

English drama had served to produce a kind of play which

was merely a picture of simple, ordinary life. Throughout

the development of the drama, those scenes and episodes

have been most popular which have depicted contemporary,

everyday life. In this manner was evolved the domestic

drama. In describing two plays, Felix Schelling lists as

their characteristics, which are equally applicable to the

domestic drama in general, "their homely realism, their

coarse humor, their freedom from the least tinge of senti-

ment, and their absolute English contemporaneousness."34

Many characters in the domestic dramas were patterned

after those of Plautus--the braggart, the hungry parasite,

the contriving servant, and others. 3 5 The old religious

drama had accustomed Englishmen to the scenes of family

life and some of its more serious problems; the parable of

the prodigal son was familiar to them. 3 6 However, it was

the realistic portrayal of the men and women that gave

34Felix Schelling, Elizabethan Drama, I, 310.

351bid. 36Ibid., p. 311.

23

significance and power to the drama. It is characteristic

of these early plays that they consist almost entirely of

farce and comedy. For a time the simple domestic comedy

was surpassed by the more artistic foreign dramas, but near

the end of Elizabeth's reign the domestic drama began to

take its place among other literary forms.37

All domestic dramas present commoners as their heroes

instead of men of royal or high estate. There is an even

more important similarity; nearly all of them illustrate

some current moral problem. It was the primary purpose of

the author to teach the people by means of examples couched

in terms of their own experience. When setting their

action in a domestic milieu, the authors naturally desired

to appeal to a sense of self-recognition in members of

their audiences. Therefore they made a great effort to

catch the speech of the people, even to the point of making

some of the characters talk in familiar dialects, The

authors had a definite reason for writing in this deliber-

ately realistic manner; they hoped to make the action of

the play seem as though it had been a page torn from the

lives of the audience. Domestic drama, as it was written

between 1576 and 1642, was more than a haphazard form which

chanced to employ a hero taken from the lower classes of

Society. It was a vehicle for teaching commonplace moral

3 7Ibid., p. 312.

24

lessons to naive audiences.38 Virtually all the authors of

this period tried their hand at writing domestic drama,

which in turn came to be divided into several classifica-

tions. Shakespeare wrote only one play which could be

termed an English domestic drama; Ben Jonson, too, wrote

only a solitary example of the realistic domestic drama.

However, it is not to be expected that a drama so far

removed from the classic should find its best expression in

the works of these two writers. It was the lesser-known

writers of the period who excelled in the domestic drama,

for they themselves had experienced the realistic events

portrayed in their writings; some of these minor writers

were Thomas Dekker, Thomas Heywod, John Marston, John

Webster, Thomas Middleton.3 9

In 1598 three playwrights, Thomas Dekker, Henry

Chettle, and William Haughton, wrote one of the earliest

examples of the popular domestic comedy; they decided to

put the medieval story of the faithful but ill-treated wife

into dramatic form. It is understandable why the Griselda

theme adapted itself so easily to the domestic comedy,

because it lost none of its beauty when it was placed in

contemporary surroundings, it introduced many possibilities

for humor, and it glorified a commendable quality, that of

38 Henry Hitch Adams, English Domestic or, HomileticTragedy, pp. 184-191.

3 9 Schelling, _p. cit. , p. 526.

25

patience. Their play, Patient Grissil, retains the Italian

setting of the source, but it preserves the vernacular

spirit by adding the character of Sir Owen, a Welsh knight,

and the widow Gwenthyan. Because of its very close rela-

tionship to the novella in Boccaccio's Decameron, the play

will be considered here in some detail; it is very impor-

tant in this study, because its popularity caused it to be

a source of influence upon many plays to come.

In all probability, the principal source of the play

was the prose tract already mentioned, "The antient true

and admirable History of Patient Grisel," although all ver-

sions were more or less founded on the Decameron. On the

19th of December, 1599, Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton sold

the play for L3 to Mr. Robert Shaw, who was a temporary

manager of the Earl of Nottingham's players.40

The authors made some few changes in the story; partly

for a comic element and partly as contrast to the hero and

heroine, they added the characters of Sir Owen and

Gwenthyan. It rather taxes the imagination to picture a

Welsh couple in Lombardy, the setting of the play, but the

levity which the two add to the drama compensates for their

questionable location. Two new characters appear in this

play--Laureo, Grissil's brother, and Babulo, the garrulous

old servant. Both characterizations merit praise, because

40Dekker, R. cit., pp. ix-x.

26

they are exceptionally well drawn. Laureo, the earnest

scholar who has to give up his studies at the University

because his quest for knowledge has led him into debt, pro-

vides a needed touch of realism; Babulo, with his long

harangues and frequent puns, contributes humor.

The authors bring another incident into their plot,

the willingness of certain people to do anything to please

those in power. This is brought out in the characters of

Mario and Lepido, two courtiers, who agree to torment

Grissil, whom they both like and admire, in an attempt to

gain favor with the Marquis. Another difference in this

plot is seen in Grissil's giving birth to twins, whereas in

Boccaccio she has two children at different intervals.

Possibly Boccaccio's version is more effective in this

respect, because his heroine is forced to undergo two sep-

arations at two different times; in the play, the agony is

perhaps not so great because both children are taken at the

same time.

A brief summary of the plot and action of Patient

Grissil will prove at once the multitudinous parallels

between it and Boccaccio's novella. As the play opens, the

Marquess Gwalter, his brother Pavia, and two courtiers

named Mario and Lepido have just returned from a hunting

trip; the men have just convinced Gwalter that he should

marry and leave an heir to rule after him. He has agreed

to wed that day, and he exacts a promise that all of his

27

subjects will love and honor his future wife, no matter who

she may be.

Grissil, her father Janiculo, and Babulo are out in

the woods making baskets. They are surprised when Laureo,

Janiculo's son, returns unexpectedly from the University.

The group of huntsmen come upon the basket-makers, and

after some discussion, Grissil agrees to marry the Marquess.

In the second act, Farneze and Urcenze, both of whom

are suitors for the hand of Julia, sister of Gwalter, talk

with Rise, a servant to Sir Owen; the topic of conversation

is the quarrel between Sir Owen and Emulo, a man whose high-

flown language far surpasses his deeds. Sir Owen, in his

thick Welsh brogue, tells the group that he is in love with

the widow Gwenthyan and intends to marry her.

In the last part of the act the Marquess tells Furio,

a trusted servant, that he intends to test his new wife's

love for him; therefore, when she enters, Gwalter pretends

to be angry with her. He taunts her humble ancestry, makes

her pick up his glove, forces her to tie Furio's shoe, and

then orders her to bring him a glass of wine and then leave.

After she departs, Gwalter calls in Mario and Lepido and

tells them to taunt Grissil and make her unhappy; if they

will do this, he will remove Laureo and Janiculo from the

court positions which they were given after Grissil's mar-

riage.

The third act opens with the removal of Janiculo and

28

Laureo, and Grissil's farewell to them. Gwalter is amazed

that although Mario and Lepido admire Grissil, they follow

his suggestion to torment her.

The comic element in this act is provided by Emulo's

account of a fight between Sir Owen and him; all the people

of the court--Julia, Ureenze, Onophrio, and Farneze--pretend

to be interested in the quarrel, but in reality they are

teasing Emulo and laughing at him behind his back. Sir Owen

is having troubles of his own, and he asks advice from

Gwalter about the taming of a shrewish woman. Mario brings

to Gwalter the news that Grissil has given birth to twins.

The unstable relations between Gwenthyan and Sir Owen

develop into an open quarrel, which is made comic by the

Welsh brogues of the pair.

In the third act the Marquess takes the children away

from Grissil and tells her that she must go back to her

father's house. Grissil thinks that the children are to be

killed, but in reality Gwalter commands Furio to take them

to his brother Pavia, where they will be raised and

educated.

Janiculo welcomes Grissil and her children; he has

always feared that Gwalter would renounce his wife. Then

Furio arrives and takes the children; the Marquess is dis-

guised and overhears the conversation. He is amazed at

Grissil's calm acceptance of his decree, because he knows

that she loves her children very deeply. At a feast given

29

by Sir Owen, the Marquess announces that he is taking

another wife.

The denouement comes in the last act, when Grissil,

Babulo, and Laureo are summoned to the court to witness the

wedding. The Marquess takes his ring from Grissil's finger

and then sends her in to help his bride to dress. Finally

he reveals that he has been testing her love and patience,

and that the supposed bride is none other than her own

daughter. Thus, the long-lost children are returned, and

Mario and Lepido are discredited. The play ends with a

note of happiness in regard to Grissil and Gwalter, but

doubt is injected into Sir Owen's final speech as to

whether or not he will ever succeed in taming the widow

Gwenthyan.

In the play there are many beautiful, poetic passages,

and the blank verse, combined in places with the rhymed,

flows with ease and harmony. The character of Grissil is

drawn with grace, delicacy, and truth. She is shy and

modest, and just as her predecessor in Boccaccio's version,

she shrinks from the everyday world, as is shown in the

following speech:

Jan. . . . all thy portionIs but an honest name; that gone,

thou art deadThough dead thou liv'st, that being

unblemished.Gri. If to die free from shame be ne'er to die,

Then I'll be crown'd with immortality.41

4Ibid., p. 7.

The character of Gwalter is parallel to that in the

earlier versions; he is cruel in his testing of Grissil,

and he carries his trying of her patience to great extremes.

In this play, however, he makes it very clear that he is

acting purposefully when he makes her undergo all her trib-

ulations:

Mar. Yonder she comes: on goes this maskof frowns.

Tell her I am angry--Men, men, tryyour wives;

Love that abides sharp tempestssweetly thrives.42

This play contains several allusions to other works

and to proverbs and sayings which were popular at that time.

One of the most outstanding allusions is made in the last

part of the play to Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew:

Mar. Reserve these wands: these three I'llbear away.

When I require them back, then willI show

How easily a man may tame a shrew. 4 3

A term of reproach, which was used also by Shakespeare

in Romeo and Juliet, is found in a reference made to a

practice in the contemporary society when Babulo expresses

doubt that Gwalter will be faithful and constant to Grissil:

Bab. . . . for I'll be hanged ifhe do not, as many rich cogging merchantsnow-a-days do, when they have got whatthey4 ould, give her the bells, let herfly.

4 2 Ibid., p. 28. 4 3 Ibid., p. 45.

"Ibid., p. 16.

31

One of the most interesting proverbs of the Elizabethan

period, which tells of the fate of unwed maidens when they

die, is referred to by one of Julia's suitors:

Jul. . . . of all the saints I lovenot to serve Mistress Venus.

Far. Then, I pgrceive you mean to lead apesin hell,

There can be little doubt that this play was liked and

enjoyed by the Elizabethan audiences. Parts of it retain

even today their fresh humor; certain well-written passages

merit praise for their poetical beauty and rhythm. With

one exception, this play marks the first appearance of the

Griselda motif in Elizabethan domestic comedy, and after

the publication of this work, Griselda is well on her way

to becoming a stock character in the Elizabethan theater.

None of the concatenation of plays containing the faithful

wife motif which follow this one tell in as much detail the

original Griselda story; after the appearance of this work,

the name Griselda becomes truly synonymous with "a faithful

wife."

451bid.*,p. 26.

CHAPTER II

THE FAITHFUL WIFE MOTIF IN THE WORKS OF

ROBERT GREENE

In a discussion of the several authors who have han-

dled successfully the "faithful wife" motif in the English

drama, the name of Robert Greene must necessarily appear in

the foremost ranks. He is accorded this position for sev-

eral reasons--his outstandingly graceful characterization

of womankind in two of his plays, his probable source and

inspiration for these portrayals, and his tremendous influ-

ence upon later writers. To most students of literature,

Greene is depicted as being important only for his feud

with Shakespeare; his jibe at the "Shake-scene," the

"Johannes fac totum," is often quoted from his The

Groatsworth of Wit, Bought with a Million of Repentance,

because it constitutes an important link in the dating of

Shakespeare's writing career. Perhaps more credit should

be given to Greene, because he made many valuable contribu-

tions to the growth of romantic comedy. Greene took the

dramatic form of comedy as it was handed down to him,

filled with barbarisms, burdened with encumbering rhymes

and poor blank verse, hampered by buffoonery, and devoid of

32

35

romance and poetry, and he filled it with freshness, charm,

and spontaneity. Some of the serious scenes in his plays,

as well as some of the lighter, merit much more admiration

than they usually receive.1 To be sure, his dramatic work

is not without fault; in truth, the bad frequently over-

powers the good, because "Greene's plots are too loosely

constructed, hisodharacters as a rule are too sketchy, and

his range too limited to entitle him to a high place among2

dramatists. But a study of Greene's works illustrates

clearly that he is a forerunner and teacher of Shakespeare

and that many authors owe a debt of gratitude to Greene's

skill in diction and verse.

Greene is particularly adept at characterization; "he

has a sympathetic insight into certain types of characters

and certain phases of life." He is able to picture the

actions of men in a manner which is at once sympathetic and

realistic; his style of writing contributes immeasurably to

the success of his work. For reasons which will be dis-

cussed later, Greene was especially successful in his por-

trayal of women.

Three such characterizations are particularly well

done--Margaret in Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, and

Dorothea and Ida in James IV. Whereas Dorothea is the only

1J, Churton Collins, editor, The Plays and Poems ofRobert Greene, I, 57-58.

2Ib.d., p. 58. 3Ibid., p. 56.

34

representative of the "patient Griselda" type, Ida and

Margaret belong to the broader classification of the

"faithful woman"--a derivative of the same theme.

The character of Margaret seems to have been solely a

result of Greene's creative ability and skill in writing;

only a brief mention of her is made in The Famous Historie

of F Bacon, an old romance written probably near the

end of the sixteenth century and the source of Friar Bacon

and Friar Bungay. It is briefly mentioned in the romance

that a young girl named Mellisant had two suitors and that

she preferred the gentleman to the knight.4 Greene took

this slight reference and developed it to a point that the

story of Margaret and her suitors became one of the most

important plots in the drama.

The part of the play which concerns Margaret is the

account of her love affair with Lacy, Earl of Lincoln.

Edward, the Prince of Wales, while hunting near Framlingham,

falls in love with the beautiful Margaret, daughter of the

keeper of Fressingfield. He realizes that in marriage with

her lies his only hope of furthering his romance, because

the girl is much too virtuous and chaste to engage in a

common affair with him. Edward decides to solicit the aid

of Friar Bacon, who is skilled in the art of black magic;

he sends Lacy, his close friend, in disguise to St. James's

4 1bid., II, 5.

35

Fair at Harleston to court Margaret in behalf of "the cour-

tier tired all in green" (whom Margaret has noticed but not

recognized), buy her trinkets to amuse and please her, and

to report to Edward her reactions.

At the fair, however, Margaret falls in love with Lacy,

rather than with the man whose suit he has come to plead; by

means of Friar Bacon's magic mirror or telescope, Edward sees

Lacy confess to Margaret both his true identity and his love

for her, and he is then betrothed to the girl. As the lovers

kiss and the marriage ceremony is about to be performed by

Friar Bungay, Bacon exercises his necromantic skill and sends

a devil to fetch Bungay. Prince Edward swears to avenge him-

self and then hurries off to Fressingfield to settle the

score with Lacy.

When he arrives there, Edward admonishes Lacy for his

duplicity, but Margaret begs to be given full responsi-

bility for what has occurred. When Edward vows that Lacy

shall die as a traitor, Margaret again intercedes and

swears that she too shall die if her lover's life is taken.

Edward is shamed by the girl's pleadings, because he real-

izes that his own intentions toward Margaret are unworthy

and that Lacy is truly in love with her; he decides to

give his approval to their marriage. Then he hurries back

to Oxford to greet his father and Elinor, the Princess

of Castile, whom his father has chosen as a wife for

him.

36

Margaret is living in eager anticipation of her

approaching marriage to Lacy when a letter arrives from him,

saying that their love affair has been a mistake and that he

is marrying a lady-in-waiting to Elinor of Castile. In an

effort to assuage the pangs of conscience which plague him

after his unkind treatment of Margaret, he sends her L100 to

use for a future dowry. Margaret returns the money and

decides to enter a nunnery.

Back at court, however, because Lacy has been so enthu-

siastic in his praise of Margaret he is commanded by the King

to bring the beauty to court. He arrives in Fressingfield

just as she is about to enter the convent; he expresses great

surprise at her contemplated action and explains the letter

as being merely a test to try her constancy. She is so much

in love with him that she accepts this explanation and for-

gives him; the two couples--Lacy and Margaret and Edward and

Elinor--are united in marriage in a ceremonious double

wedding.

Greene's portrayal of Margaret is done with great skill

and sympathetic insight; from the first description of her

given by Edward, her physical attractiveness is apparent:

Edw. Tell me, Ned Lacie, didst thou marke the mayd,How liuely in her country weedes she lookt?A bonier wench all Suffolke cannot yeeld,All Suffolke, nay all England, holds none such.5

5Robert Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, I, i,38-41.

I tell the, Lacie, that her sparkling eyesDoe lighten forth sweet Loues alluring fire:And in her tresses she doth fold the lookesOf such as gaze vpon her golden haire:

Tush, Lacie, she is beauties ouermatch.6

Margaret is skilled in the housewifely chores, but her

beauty and grace transcend the lowliness of her tasks;

Prince Edward describes her in the following manner:

Into the Milkhouse went I with the maid,And there amongst the cream-boles she did

shine,As Pallace mongst her Princely huswiferie:She turnd her smocke ouer her Lilly armes,And diued them into milke to run her cheese:But, whiter than the milke, her christall

skin,Checked with lines of Azur, made her blush,That art or nature durst bring for compare.?

The maid of Fressingfield is of good and strong char-

acter; she is virtuous and upright in her actions, as is

pointed out in the following lines:

Edw. For why our countrie Margret is so coy,And standes so much vpon her honest points,That marriage or no market with the mayd.

Margaret has several young friends, and when they go

together to the fair, her discourse with them is spirited

and gay. When Lacy, in a farmers disguise, approaches her

and tells her of his mission to plead the suit of another

man, she is modest and blushes at the fact that a man has

taken such notice of her. She is not too embarrassed,

6Ibid., I, i, 52-62. 7lbid., I, i, 76-83.8Ibid., I, i, 122-124.

37

38

however, to note the courtly bearing, pleasant manners, and

witty conversation of the strange man; she decides to con-

ceal the fact that she feels she is falling in love with

him.

When Friar Bungay reveals to Margaret the true iden-

tity of her suitor, she realizes that she must choose

between Lacy and the one whom he represents:

Mar. Be what he will his lure is but for lust:But did lord Lacie like poore Margret,Or would he daine to wed a countries lasse,Frier, I would his humble handmayd be,And for great wealth quite him with courtesie.9

Margaret exhibits a particularly appealing side of her

sweet nature when she pleads with Edward to spare Lacy's

life:

Twas I, my Lord, not Lacie, stept awry,For oft he sued and courted for your selfe,And still woode for the courtier all in

greene.But I whome fancy made but ouer fond,Pleaded my selfe with looks as if I loud.10

Nor all the wealth heauens treasurie affoord fShould make me league lord Laoie or his loue.

Spare Lacie, gentle Edward, let me die,For so both you and he doe cease your loues.12

No, stab the earle, and fore the morning sunShall vaunt him thrice ouer the loftie east13Margret will meet her Lacie in the heauens.

9 _bid., II, i, 640-644. 10Ibid., III, i, 959-963.

llIbid., III, 1, 995-996.

12Ibid., III, i, 1010-1011.13Ibid., III, 1, 1019-1021.

39

Banish thou fancie, and imbrace reuenge,And in one toombe knit both our carkases,Whose heats were linked in one perfect

loue.

Greene's story of Margaret reaches its climax when she

receives the letter from Lacy which revokes his promise of

marriage; surprisingly enough, however, it is this incident

which tends to make unbelievable the character of the girl.

It is difficult to believe that Margaret should accept so

calmly her lover's actions; she exhibits signs of pain, but

not of anger. It should be remembered, however, that the

earlier writers offered no explanation for Griselda's great

store of patience or reason for her calm, stoical accept-

ance of her trials. Margaret's placid nature and evenness

of temper are illustrated in the following passages:

If Lacie had but lovd, heauens, hell, and allCould not haue wrongd the patience of my

minde.19

The wealth combinde within the Englishshelues,

Europes commaunder, nor the English king,Should not haue mggde the loue of Peggie

from her Lord.'

As Margaret talks with her father just before entering

the nunnery, she exhibits the patient, forgiving spirit

which was characteristic of Griselda:

14Ibid.tIII, i, 1032-1034.

15Ibid., III, 111, 1503-1504.

16Ibid., III, iii, 1507-1509.

40

I loued once, Lord Lacie was my loue;And now I hate my selfe for that I lovdAnd doated more on him than on my God.l?

Farewell, oh Loue, and with fond Louefarewell,

Sweet Lacie, whom loued once so deere!Euer be well ...

When Lacy arrives and explains that his letter was

*but to try sweet Peggy's constancy," she decides to marry

him; she is motivated by a very human desire to be wed to

the one whom she loves.

Mar. The flesh is frayle; my Lord doth knowit well,

That when he comes with his inchantingface,

What so ere betyde I cannot say him nay.Off goes the habite of a maidens heart,And, seeing Fortune will, faire Fremingham,And all the shew of holy Nuns, farewell,Lacie for me, if he wilbe my lord.19

As Margaret prepares for the wedding, she makes a vow

very similar to the one which Griselda made before her mar-

riage to Gualtieri:

Tis I, my Lords, who humbly, on my knee,Must yeeld her horisons to mighty Ioue,For lifting vp his handmaide to this state;* .09 0 0 0 0 * 0 * * 0 0 0 * * &0 0 * *0 0 *

I vow obedience, and such humble loueAs may a handmaid to such mighty men.2 0

There can be little doubt that Greene had as his pri-

mary objective a portrayal of a woman of the same type as

17Ibid., V, i, 1864-1866. 18 Ibid., V, 1, 1885-1887.

19Ibid.V, s, 1937-1943.

20Ibid. V, i, 2043-2050.

41

Margaret when he constructed his characterization of

Dorothea in James IV. The two possess many similar

attributes and qualities, and both are representative of

the "faithful woman" theme. Dorothea plays a much more

important and detailed role in James IV than Margaret does

in Friar Bacon and Friar Bun in fact, the entire plot

is devised upon Dorothea's marriage to James.

The King of England gives his beloved daughter

Dorothea in marriage to James IV, King of Scotland. But in

the chapel even at the very time that the marriage is being

performed, James falls in love with a very beautiful

Scottish girl, Ida, the daughter of the Countess of Arran.

He exerts all his powers of persuasion in an attempt to

have her remain at court, but he meets with no success; the

girl is not pleased by the pomp and ceremony of the court

because she prefers the simple, modest life. Ateukin, a

parasitical creature, guesses the cause of his king's

unhappiness, and he volunteers his services to win the maid

for James; if he is successful, he is promised a rich

reward. Meanwhile, an English gentleman, Eustace, arrives

at the manor of a Scottish friend, Sir Bartram; he brings

with him a portrait of the lovely Ida, and it is evident

that he is falling in love with the subject of the painting.

After Ida and her mother return to Arran, they are

visited by Eustace, who finds the girl even lovelier than

he had believed. They are interrupted by a visit from

42

Ateukin, who has come to present Ida with gifts and mes-

sages of love from the King, Ida rejects all of these

things, and Ateukin meets with no success.

About this same time, James is having some difficulty

at court with his ministers and lords, who object to his

actions; they feel that the kingdom is being ruled unwisely

because of the influence exerted upon the King by flat-

terers. Queen Dorothea intercedes in her husband's behalf;

she points out that he is young and susceptible. James is

not possessed with the same spirit, however, and when his

nobles attempt to reason with him, he becomes angry and

bids them leave.

With the lords gone, James is free to devise a dia-

bolical scheme; Ateukin assures the King that Ida would

return his affection were it not for Dorothea. Then

Ateukin suggests that the Queen be murdered, and he volun-

teers to hire an assassin, a Frenchman named Jacques. He

asks that James protect the murderer with a warrant to save

his life.

By an odd stroke of fate, the warrant falls into the

hands of Sir Bartram; the kindly, solicitous old man takes

it to Queen Dorothea and persuades her to fly for her life,

disguised in men's clothes. At the same time, Ross, one of

the nobles, sends letters to the King of England advising

him of the fate which has befallen his daughter.

43

Then Ateukin is beset with the first of the many dif-

ficulties which are to plague and perplex him. When he

learns of Dorothea's escape, he dispatches Jacques after

her to perform the evil deed. Jacques catches up with her

and gives her what he believes to be a mortal wound, but in

reality she does not die. She is taken to the home of

Sir Cuthbert and Lady Anderson, who do not penetrate her

disguise; the kindly couple nurse their visitor back to

health. The Queen is forced to reveal her identity when

she learns that her father has invaded Scotland; she is

motivated by an earnest desire to prevent any harm to

James.

In the meanwhile, James expresses but little sorrow

when he learns of his wife's supposed death, and he orders

Ateukin to go to Ida and plight his troth to her. By an

ironic twist of fate, Ateukin and Jacques arrive in Arran

just after Ida's marriage to Eustace; filled with the fear

of being hanged in a strange country, Jacques flees to

France. Ateukin experiences regret at having brought about

the death of the innocent Queen, but he is not repentant.

The wrath of the King of England provides the impetus

for a rapid, relentless advance of his soldiers into the

Scottish strongholds; James is powerless to stop them.

When he offers a reward of one thousand marks for the

return of his queen, Dorothea interprets this as a sign of

his love for her, and after bidding farewell to the

44

Andersons, she sets out for court. Upon learning of Ida's

marriage, James resolves to rid the court of his flatterers

and orders a search for Ateukin. The King of England,

hoping to avenge his daughter's death, challenges James to

a duel; just as the combat is about to begin, Dorothea

arrives and explanations are made. There is a reconcilia-

tion among husband, wife, and father, James is given for-

giveness, and the nobles are recalled to court.

Much could be said about the weak, spineless James or

the flattering Ateukin, but that is not the primary purpose

of this discussion; rather, an attempt will be made to dis-

cover the things which make Dorothea such an intensely

warm, appealing, life-like character.

Greene shows clearly the tender regard in which the

King of England holds his fair and beloved daughter; the

passage in which he bids her goodbye, entrusts her to the

care of her new husband, and then prepares to return to

England is poignant and tender:

I leaue my Dorithea to enjoyThy whole compact 5o6l loues and plighted vowes.Brother of Scotland, this is my ioy, my life,Her fathers honour, and her Countries hope,Her mothers comfort, and her husbands blisse:I tell thee, King, in louing of my Doll,Thou bindat her fathers heart, and all his

friends,In bands of loue that death cannot dissolue. 2 1

2Robert Greene, James IV, I, i, 125-132.

45

Long shine the sun of Scotland in her pride,Her fatheE comfort, and faire Scotlands

Bride'

The father-daughter relationship is further illustrated by

the fact that the King takes out time from the preparations

for his return trip to advise Dorothea as to the conduct

which will befit her new position and bring her happiness

in the life which she is about to begin.

In this manner Greene draws a portrait of a lovely

girl, fair of face and disposition, who has grown up under

the influence exerted by a father's love and a mother's

tender care. She enters hopefully and gladly into mar-

riage, not realizing that James sees in his marriage to her

a golden opportunity to unite the kingdoms of France and

England in peace and friendship. It is this deep trust of

Dorothea's and her ungrounded faith in James which add

great pathos to her situation.

Her ardent love for her husband compels Dorothea to

plead eloquently and earnestly with the nobles in his

behalf:

Ah father, are you so estranged from loue,From due alleageance to your Prince and land,To leaue -our King when most he needs your

help?

The King is young; and if he step awrie,He may amend, and I will loue him still.

22 Ibid I, i, 147-148.

2 3 bid., II, 11, 938-940.

46

Should we disdaine our vines because theysprout

Before their time? or young men, if theystraine

Beyond their reach? no; vines that bloomeand spread

Do promise fruites, and young men that arewilde

In age growe wise. 2 4

Even when the lords reveal to Dorothea that James is being

unfaithful, her unswerving faith enables her to find an

excuse for his actions:

Ah, Douglas, thou misconstrest his intent!He doth but tempt his wife, he tryes my loue.25

Only when she learns that James plans to haveher mur-

dered is Dorothea persuaded to leave the court; even then

she does not interpret his actions as being indicative of

any dislike for her, but rather the result of his youth

and his susceptibility to flattery:

The King is young; and if he step awrie,He may amend, and I will loue him still.26

Tho you forsake your King, the heauens, Ihope,

Will fauour him through mine incessant prayer.27

It is this type of rationalization, expressed here and

later in the play, which detracts to some extent from the

plausibility of Dorothea's character; it is scarcely con-

ceivable that she should be able to accept and forgive her

husband's action, for such a forgiving nature would almost

24Ibid., II, 11, 969-975. 25Ibid., II, ii, 966-967.

26Ibid.II, i, 969-970. 27Ibid., II, ii, 984-985.

47

transcend the realm of possibility. It may have been

Greene's intention to portray a woman who remains saint-

like, patient, and faithful during the most profound tribu-

lations; however, if Greene desired to do this, it cer-

tainly must be said that such a nature would be most

exceptional, indeed, extraordinary.

A certain peculiarity in the reconciliation scenes in

both Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay and James IV is notice-

able--the unquestioning acceptance by both Margaret and

Dorothea of their respective lovers' explanations of their

actions. Margaret believes at once Lacy's words thathe

has merely been testing her faith. However, two factors

would lend doubt to the truth of his statement. First,

Lacy has certainly been given no possible grounds for

doubting Margaret's love for him; she, being a virtuous

maid, would not logically be unfaithful to him. Second, it

is very easy to picture Lacy being persuaded, perhaps by

monetary rewards or by promise of favor from Edward, his

close friend and heir to the throne, into a marriage with

one of Elinor's ladies-in-waiting--a marriage which could

easily be given the praise of the court. But Margaret is

too lost in love for Lacy to raise any challenge as to the

veracity of his explanation.

The problem of Dorothea's attitude is very similar,

although in her case, James does not necessarily need to

make any explanations; Dorothea consistently makes them for

48

him. She interprets his offering of a reward for her

return as a sign that he has repented and earnestly wants

her back. In reality, James is grasping at his only chance

to appease the wrath of her father and stop the English

invasions. It may be said in favor of James that he appar-

ently does later regret his mistakes--his poor treatment of

Dorothea, his fruitless infatuation with Ida, and his blind

acceptance of the vicious suggestions and schemes advanced

by Ateukin in a desire to ingratiate himself with the King.

A discussion of Greene's portrayal of women cannot be

termed complete without a consideration of the character of

Ida. Although she does not fall into the category of the

"faithful wife," she may be placed correctly in the broader

classification of the "faithful woman"; she possesses many

of the qualities attributed to the true "faithful wife."

Ida adheres closely to the pattern of Greene's other

very appealing heroines; for example, she possesses out-

standing beauty. She is unpretentious and therefore finds

the superficiality of life at court very distasteful. She

is modest and virtuous; she is endowed with a strong sense

of right and wrong; she is appalled at the prospect of

entering an illicit love affair with the King. She

endeavors earnestly to remove herself from the frightening

triangle with the royal family.

An interesting parallel may be noted between Ida's and

Margaret's respective choices of husband; each girl prefers

49

the honest, sincere youth, rather than the more powerful

prince or king whose suit is motivated by dishonorable lust

and desire.

An interesting literary problem evolved from the ques-

tion of Greene's primary source for James IV, which in all

probability was written in 1590. This date has been

assigned to the play because of the appearance on the title-

page of the motto omne tulit punctum; Greene employed this

particular motto only from August, 1589, to October, 1590.28

At only a casual glance, it would appear to be a historical

play based on incidents in the life of King James IV; the

full title of the work reads, "The Scottish History of

James the Fourth Slain at Flodden, Intermixed with a

Pleasant Comedy, Presented by Oberon, King of Fairies." In

reality the events of the play are impossible, because

Greene states that James was killed in 1520 and the battle

of Flodden was fought in 1513. Greene could scarcely have

been not cognizant of this inaccuracy, which led one liter-

ary critic to complain that "beyond the fact that James IV

was famous for his gallantries and married, not Dorothea,

but Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII, the play has abso-

lutely no relation at all to that king, or to the events of

his reign." 2 9

2Collins, 2. cit., II, 79.

29Ibid., p. 80.

50

Many scholars have pointed out the similarities in

plot and structure between this dramatic work and a novel

of the Hecatommithi, written by G. B. Giraldi Cinthio.30

Churton Collins, one of the foremost critics of Greene,

considers James IV to be "one of the first examples of the

fruitful practice of adapting the Italian novel to the pop-

ular English stage"31 --a practice which was to achieve

great popularity with later writers. Collins lists several

changes made by Greene when he put Cinthio's work into dra-

matic form; he changed the King of Ireland and the daughter

of the King of Scotland into the King of Scotland and the

daughter of the King of England, and he substituted for

Cinthio's cruel and harsh villain a man in whom the high

and lower nature is in conflict. Collins believes Dorothea

to be the soul of drama; her presence and character redeem

all faults of the play.32

A school of thought which has not gained many fol-

lowers is represented by the Russian critic, Nicholas

Storojenko, who believes that Greene was attempting to

write an authentic historical play; therefore, his criti-

cism deals in the most part with the multitude of historical

inaccuracies found in the drama. Storojenko points out that

Greene is defying history when he makes James attempt to

ZIbi~d. 31Ibid. p. 84.321bid.

51

murder his wife and when he makes the latter fly to save

her life; further, Greene mixes up two reigns by making

Henry VII (who ought to have been dead) make war against

James.33

A most interesting andengrossing comment on the sub-

ject of Greene's inspiration for this play and his purpose

in writing it is given by Ruth Hudson in an article enti-

tled "Greene's James IV and Contemporary Allusions to

Scotland."34 The author believes that strong parallels

exist between the play and the reign of James VI, great-

grandson of James IV, and that Greene merely catered to

popular taste by writing a pseudo-historical play about the

reign of the contemporary Scottish monarch. In 1590 the

English people were deeply interested in James VI, his mar-

riage to Anne of Denmark, and his difficulties with his

ministers; this interest could easily have provided inspi-

ration for the play.35 Another incident which could be

interpreted as a contemporary allusion is the role given to

Jacques, the Frenchman whom Ateukin hires to murder

Dorothea. He embodies many undesirable characteristics and

33 Nicholas Storojenko, Robert Greene: His Life andWorks, translated by E. A. Brayley Hodgetts~in The LifeinnIomplete Works in Prose and Verse of Robert Greene,1I,186-187.

34Ruth Hudson, "Greene's James IV and ContemporaryAllusions to Scotland," Publications of Modern LanguageAssociation, XLVII (September, 193S),j652.

35Ibid., pp. 653-656.

52

is a completely despicable person. Relations between

France and England were always on an insecure basis at

best; at about the time this play was written, they were

made even more precarious because of disagreement over the

question of religion. Consequently, Jacques may have been

the personification of a Frenchman as seen through the eyes

of an Englishman.

Therefore, in his writing of James IV, Greene may have

attempted unsuccessfully to present a truly historical

play; he may have wanted only to retell a charming story

and saw no reason to change it to meet the exigencies of

history; he may have desired to present a contemporary hap-

pening in historical disguise. Whatever his purpose may

have been, the play merits careful consideration if only on

the basis of its blank verse, its smoothness and flexibility,

and its dramatic composition. Of all of Greene's plays, it

has the most thought and reflection in it.36 It is perhaps

the only play in which Greene does himself justice as a

dramatic artist. 3 7

No matter what the inspiration for James IV may have

been, it is safe to surmise that the outstandingly beautiful

characters of Ida and Dorothea, as well as that of Margaret,

were not found in the original sources but came directly

36Collins, o. cit., II, 85.

37 Ibid., p. 56.

53

from Greene's mind. Several interesting theories may be

considered in connection with this question.

The fact that Greene- was first and foremost a writer

of pamphlets and novels should not be disregarded; in some

of these works appears the same beautiful and long-

suffering, but uncomplaining, figure found in his plays.

For example, in Never Too Late, the hero, a gentleman

and scholar named Francesco, is married to the beautiful

Isabel. After seven prosperous and happy years, Francesco

is called to Troynovant on business. There he becomes

infatuated with Infida, anddespite Isabel's pleas for his

return, he lives with Infida for three years. When she has

spent all of his money, she laughingly bids him return to

his wife; the story concludes happily with a reconciliation

between Francesco and Isabel, a very patient, forgiving

woman.

In The Groatsworth of Wit B With a Million of

Repentance the faithful wife tries repeatedly but vainly to

persuade her husband to forsake his evil pursuits.

In The Repentance of Robert Greene the author unfolds

the story of his marriage to a gentleman's daughter arid how

he left her after seven years and fell in with questionable

company.

Since it has generally been conceded that a large part

of his prose work is autobiographical, it would be only

natural and logical to turn to the story of Greene's life

54

to seek the prototype for his women. At the end of 1584 or

the beginning of 1585 Greene married a girl from a good,

middle-class family; because she endeavored earnestly to

persuade him to repent for the wickedness in his life, he

left her soon after the birth of their child. Very little

is known about this woman other than that she was virtuous

and religious; even the exact place and date of their mar-

riage are unknown. It would be impossible to explain with

any certainty the reasons for the failure of their mar-

riage; Greene exhibited early in life a number of vices

which would tend to obviate his chances for a happy, sound

marriage.3 8 When Greene was dying, he regretted very

deeply his conduct toward his wife, and he wrote a letter

to her in which he told of the mental punishment he was

suffering and begged her forgiveness. When his life is

considered in this light, it seems entirely plausible that

his own wife served as a model for the chaste, forgiving

women of his literary works.

Even though it is likely that his wife was the

inspiration to some undetermined extent for Greene's

heroines, the question arises as to whether or not he was

familiar with the story of Griselda; certain factors, such

as similarities between actual plot elements as well as

parallels in characterization, which may be discovered in a

38d., tI, 14-23.

55

comparison of some of his works and the accounts of patient

Griselda, would seem to indicate conclusively that Greene

did know the story. At some time between 1586 and 1590 he

wrote Pandosto; the same type of pure, uncomplaining woman,

Bellaria, appears in this work. In an article entitled

"The Clerke's Tale as a Possible Source for Pandosto,"

Thomas H. McNeal presents strong evidence that Greene was

indebted to Chaucer for his plot. The two works show

striking similarities in both characterization and plot

structure; it is evident that Greene took one set of char-

acters and used them twice. He includes all of the charac-

ters found in the Clerke's Tale except the sister to whom

the children are sent. There are too many parallels

between the two to assume it to be mere coincidence; Greene

may have relied on some intermediate story which embodied

the elements of the Griselda story, or he may have employed

directly Chaucer's story.39 The possibility of the Clerke's

Tale as the source of Pandosto is important because of the

influence which it would have exerted on Greene's charac-

terization of women and because of the fact that Pandosto

was later to become Shakespeare's primary source for The

Winter's Tale.

3 9 Thomas H. McNeal, "The Clerke's Tale as a PossibleSource for Pandosto," Publications of Moern LanguageAssociation, XLVI (June, 1930), 45T-460.

56

Because of his influence upon later writers, especially

Shakespeare, Greene's artistic portrayal of women consti-

tutes a particularly important problem. It would apparently

be a safe conclusion that he was in all likelihood

acquainted with the Griselda theme in some form, quite

possibly in Chaucer's story; therefore, the story of

Griselda combined with the image of his own wife could

easily have given Greene the inspiration for the women in

his literary works.

CHAPTER III

SHAKESPEARE'S USE OF THE MOTIF OF

THE FAITHFUL WIFE

The motif of the faithful wife reached a decisive

point in the last decade of the sixteenth century; it had

been incorporated into two different dramatic works by

Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay and James IV, and it

was the theme itself which was responsible in no small part

for the success of the plays. These works were not of

enough literary import themselves to keep the theme extant

down through the history of literature, but their value, as

it is considered in relation to this study of the motif,

lies in the fact that the two plays were included in a

larger group which exerted an influence upon later writers.

At this particular time, however, the theme had appeared in

only a few works, and it could now either be neglected and

forgotten or it could be used by later writers and given

new life.

Needless to say, the theme caught the dramatic interest

of numerous authors; extremely important in the history of

the theme is the fact that it was utilized and adapted by

the greatest dramatist in all literature, William

58

Shakespeare. Not only did he include in his works both

versions of the theme already mentioned--the patient wife

and the faithful woman--but he himself created several

variations which in themselves were to become models for

his followers. If the author who singlehandedly made the

greatest contributions to the development of the motif were

to be named, in all probability Shakespeare would be chosen.

His importance is twofold: the wide following accorded his

plays by contemporary audiences caused the theme to receive

wide-spread recognition, and the fact that all aspects of

his works--characterizations, plots, style of writing--were

used as models by his contemporaries led the theme to be

embodied in many dramatic works, especially following the

turn of the seventeenth century.

Shakespeare's first use of the motif was in the char-

acterization of Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona, a play

written in the formative years of his literary career when

he was especially under the influence of Robert Greene;

Julia is clearly a forerunner of the type of woman which

was to appear rather frequently in Shakespeare's works. It

is an interesting note, which is revealed in a study of the

chronology of his plays, that this theme was not one with

which he experimented, used once or twice, and then die-

carded as his literary powers developed and led to new

fields of interest; rather, it was one which he used time

and time again, because it appears in one of his very

59

earliest works and in one of his latest. After its initial

appearance in Two Gentlemen of Verona, written in 1593, in

which it plays an interesting but relatively minor part in

the plot, it was not until 1602, with the writing of All's

Wll ThatEndsWe ll, that Shakespeare used the theme again.

During the interval Shakespeare had written a sizable part

of both his total output of romantic comedies and histori-

cal plays, and it was a more skilled and practiced writer

who turned to the theme a second time. This play contains

a rather different plot; in place of the husband's mis-

treating his wife because he loves another woman, as in

James IV, Shakespeare portrays his hero as being neglectful

and disinterested towards his wife simply because he does

not love her. In 1604 he returned once again to the motif,

and this time he added to the faithful wife the character

of the jealous husband, and the result was Othello, whose

tragedy and superb poetry elevated the theme to the pin-

nacle of dramatic merit. In that same year, 1604, the

dramatist wrote Measure for Measure and in this work also

the theme was used. If Othello is to be awarded first

place among the plays in which Shakespeare used the motif,

then The Winter's Tale, written in 1610, must be given

second place; in it the character of the faithful wife is

combined once again with that of the jealous, tyrannical

husband.

60

The chronology of the appearance of the motif in

Shakespeare's works must be studied, not only for the

information which such a study reveals about this particu-

lar literary motif, but also for the customs and common

practices of the Elizabethan playwrights which it illumines.

It will be remembered that it was in 1590 that James IV was

written, and 1600 when Patient Grissil, the most thorough

and complete treatment of the entire Griselda story,

appeared. In the decade which intervened between these two

presentations, there appeared only one other work which

embodied the motif of the faithful and long-suffering wife,

and that was an anonymous play, T Wisdome of Doctor

Dodypoll, which will be discussed in a later chapter. Then

in 1602 two plays dealing with this same theme appeared,

and one was by Shakespeare. In 1604 there appeared seven

plays dealing with this subject, two of which were written

by Shakespeare. Thus it may be seen that when the literary

talents and genius of Shakespeare brought popularity and

renown to the character of the faithful wife, his contempo-

raries were not at all hesitant about borrowing the motif

and using it in their own works. When it is remembered how

so many authors were influenced by Shakespeare, even to the

extent of copying his plots and characterizations, then it

may be seen why a study of his works is of utmost impor-

tance in the discussion of the theme of the faithful wife.

61

As in the case of Robert Greene, it is interesting to

speculate about the sources for the characterizations of

the faithful, appealing women in Shakespeare's plays. It

is not impossible that his own life was an influence upon

his portrayal of womankind. Interesting parallels may be

drawn between the marriages of Robert Greene and William

Shakespeare. In both cases, the two men married and lived

with their wives only a short time; both became dissatis-

fied and left their wives to go to London in pursuit of a

literary career. As it has been pointed out earlier,

Greene repented on his death-bed of his actions toward his

wife and begged her forgiveness; there is little evidence

to support a theory that Shakespeare was struck by any

similar remorse or pangs of conscience. It is possible,

however, that in the portrayal of his heroines he was

idealizing his own marriage and describing his wife, not as

she actually was, but rather as he wished she might have

been.

It may be concluded with certainty that the works of

Robert Greene were known to Shakespeare, and it is very

possible that some of the latter's heroines were modeled

after those of Greene. Thus, the factors which guided

Greene when he depicted the loyal wife or faithful woman

would therefore have been an influence on Shakespeare's

works.

62

Shakespeare may have been familiar with the Griselda

story in some even more direct manner. Numerous literary

scholars have gone to great lengths in an attempt to ascer-

tain the books which were known to Shakespeare and the

literature which seems to have been the direct sources for

his dramas. It is interesting to determine which of the

literary works that contain some version of the Griselda

story were utilized by him in other plays; for example, one

scholar points out the similarities between a novella in

Boccaccio's Decameron and Cymbeline, and he indicates that

the story of Helena and Bertram in All's Well That Ends

Well is based upon a novella in the same work by Boccaccio,

which Shakespeare may have known directly or in William

Painter's translation.1 The same writer believes that

Shakespeare must have known The Knight's Tale and The

Merchant's Tale from The Cante Tales by Chaucer, as

well as the poems The House of Fame and Troilus and

Criseyde.2 There are other examples of instances in which

Shakespeare drew upon an author who in some other work told

his version of the story of Griselda. It can at best be

only a supposition, but it does appear plausible that

because Shakespeare was familiar with Chaucer and Boccaccio,

as proved by his use of other of their works, he may have

1H. R. D. Anders, Shakespeare's Books, pp. 60-65.

2 lbid., pp. 77-79.

63

read in one or both the tale of patient Griselda. Perhaps

at some future date literary research will uncover some

evidence in support of this theory, and even today it is an

intriguing question.

Even though Shakespeare must have been influenced by

earlier writers and their works, it must not be forgotten

that this theme was an extremely popular one with the

Elizabethan audiences, especially after the beginning of

the seventeenth century. Thus in no small part was the

great dramatist meeting the demands of the people when he

characterized the women in some of his plays as possessing

the characteristics of patience, faithfulness, and enduring

love, and he was describing the type of woman whom the,

Elizabethans enjoyed watching on the stage.

In order to determine the importance and extent of

influence exerted by these various factors, an examination

must be made of the heroines as they appeared in the works

which were the immediate sources for the five of

Shakespeare's plays which have already been named. A com-

parison of the woman as she appears in the source with her

counterpart in the play will reveal any differences in

characterization which were original with Shakespeare, and

this in turn will give a complete picture of his interpre-

tation of the faithful wife.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is based upon a Spanish

pastoral romance by Jorge de Montemayor entitled Diana

64

Enamorada; from the work Shakespeare took the story of

Felix and Felismena. The story was probably accessible to

him in some form other than Spanish; Bartholomew Yonge made

a translation into English which, however, was not pub-

lished until 1598, but Shakespeare may have had access to

the printer's copy. There were two other English versions

extant, as well as a French translation. It is possible

that the lost play, Felix and Philiomena, acted in 1584,

embodied the elements of Montemayor's romance.3

So far as actions are considered, Shakespeare's Julia

behaves similarly to Montemayor's Felismena. In both works

the girl is coy and modest when she receives the letter

from her lover; in each version she follows him after she

has disguised herself as a page. Other notable similari-

ties between the play and the prose work are the disguised

Julia's being used as an intermediary between Proteus

(Felix) and Silvia (Celia), the conversation between Silvia

and Julia, and the final reunion of Julia and Proteus.

Shakespeare made the story of Julia far more appealing,

and he gave it an added note of pathos by developing the

story of the friendship between Valentine and Proteus;

because of Proteus' deceitful actions toward his friend,

Julia's deep faith in him is both poignant and lamentable.

He made other changes in Julia which are more subtle but

3William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona(Yale Shakespeare Series), edited by Karl Young, p. 90.

65

very important; the changes can be attributed in a large

part to the superiority of Shakespeare the dramatist to

Montemayor the prose writer. The prowess of Shakespeare's

skill in writing poetry gives to the speeches of Julia, as

well as those of other characters, a rhythm, a delicacy,

and a soft beauty which Montemayor does not equal. A com-

parison of the following speeches, both dealing with the

same topic will illustrate this point; in the narrative

Felismena converses with Celia in the following flat,

stilted manner:

Doest thou then know Felismena (saide Celia) thelady whom thy Master did once loue and serue in hisowne countrey? I know her (saide I) although not sowell as it was needfull for me. . . . For my fathershouse was neere to hers, but seeing your great beautieadorned with such perfections and wisedome, Don Felixcan not be blamed, rhe hath forgotten his first loue,onely to embrace and honour yours. . . . Celia beganin good earnest to aske me what manner of womanFelismena was; whom I answered, that touching herbeautie, Some thought her to be very faire, but I wasneuer of that opinion, bicause she hath many daiessince wanted the chiefest hing that is requisite forit . . . content of minde.f'

Jul. I thank you, madam, that you tender her.Poor gentlewoman! My master wrongs her much.

Sil. Dost thou know her?Jul. Almost as well as I do know myself:

To think upon her woes, I do protestThat I have wept a hundred several times.

Sil. Belike she thinks that Proteus hath forsook her.Jul. I think she doth, and that's her cause of

sorrow.Sil. Is she not passing fair?Jul. She hath been fairer, madam, than she is.

4Jorge de Montemayor, Diana Enamorada, quoted in Lhe TwoGentlemen of Verona, p. cit., pp. 91-92.

66

When she did think my master lov'd her wg11,She, in my judgment, was as fair as you.

Shakespeare gives details in his characterization of

Julia which make it easier to understand both her relation

to Proteus and the trials which her love for him is forced

to undergo. For example, it may be surmised that she is

very attractive, interesting, and admirable in order to

bring about the changes in Proteus which he describes as

follows:

I leave myself, my friends, and all, for'love.

Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me;Made me neglect my studies, lose my time,War with good counsel, set the world at

nought;Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with

thought.6

When Proteus tells Julia that he is leaving to join

Valentine, she accepts the news with an outward show of

calm, just as Griselda did when she was told that her chil-

dren were to be taken away; however, she cannot trust her-

self to.speak, and she leaves without uttering a word.

Because Julia is so deeply in love with Proteus, she

is made very unhappy by his departure, and she resolves to

follow him. She feels assured that he will welcome her,

and her naivete is appealing and tender:

5Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, IV, iv,147-158.

6Ibid., I, i, 65-69.

67

A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,And instances of infinite of loveWarrant me welcome to my Proteus.7

Even when Julia discovers that Proteus is paying court

to Silvia, she does not stop loving him:

Why do I pity himThat with his very heart despiseth me?Because he loves her, he despiseth me;Because I love him, I must pity him. 8

In the final scene of the play, when both Julia's true

identity and Proteus' duplicity are revealed, Proteus

becomes contrite and seeks to win Julia back; she forgives

him for his malicious deeds, and the two are reunited. The

similarity between the story of Proteus and Julia and that

of James and Dorothea is immediately apparent, and because

of this and other parallels between the two plots, it is

obvious that Shakespeare was drawing upon Greene when he

constructed the character of Julia.

For the source of the story which he used in All's

Well That Ends ,ell, Shakespeare was indebted to Giovanni

Boccaccio, for the tale is one of the many included in the

Decameron. To be more specific, he used the ninth novella

of the third day, a story told by the Queen. The theme of

the narrative cannot be stated more succinctly and clearly

than is done in the brief introduction that precedes the

novella, which relates that "Gillette de Narbonne cures the

7lbid., II, vii, 69-71.8lbid., IV, iv, 100-105.

68

King of France of a complaint, and demands the Count de

Roussillon in marriage, as her reward; he marries her

against his will, and goes in a pet to Florence, where he

falls in love with a young lady, and lies with his own

wife, thinking himself with his mistress. She has two sons

by him, and, by that means, matters are accommodated at

last between them."9

In the novella Gillette is neither an entirely likable

nor an admirable person; she possesses some qualities which

are good, such as determination and ambition, unless, as in

her case, they exist in the extreme. She is a very realis-

tic person who sees in the King's illness an opportunity to

attain her goal; it is most probable that she would have

withheld her help to him and allowed him to die had he not

promised to force a marriage with her upon whomever she

chose. She appears entirely oblivious of the very evident

fact that the Count doesn't love her; this implies that

either she is so desperately in love with him that she has

lost all self-respect, or else she is supremely confident

in her ability to make him love her after he has been com-

pelled to marry her. Upon numerous occasions she is

scheming and calculating, and her cunning is surpassed only

by her tenacity. Upon one occasion does she exhibit the

better side of her character; when she goes to her

9Boccaccio, op. cit., p. 179.

69

husband's house and finds it disordered and untidy, she

becomes a prudent manager and handles skillfully the

affairs of the household. However, when her other actions

are remembered, it appears quite possible that she did this

in order to have a clean, orderly place in which she her-

self could live, or that she wanted to line up her hus-

band's servants on her side.

If Boccaccio wrote this story with the intention of

depicting a woman with Griselda's characteristics, then he

was not successful, because Gillette bears too many marks

of the cunning, determined huntress to be classed as a

truly patient, suffering woman.

In pleasant contrast, All's Well That Ends Well pre-

sents a tender and appealing picture of a girl who has long

been in love with a man who remains indifferent to her--the

same situation as that in the novella, but depicted with

more adroitness and finesse. Helena knows double sorrow,

for not only is she unhappy about Bertram, the Count of

Rousillon, who does not return her affection, but she also

mourns the death of her father. Her actions are affected

by her deep emotions, and her tender sympathetic nature is

evident in the following passage:

Count. The remembrance of her father never approachesher heart but the tyranny of he sorrows takesall livelihood from her cheeks.0

1 0Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, I, i, 57-60.

70

Helena experiences a feeling of futility because she

realizes that even if Bertram should come to love her, the

gap between their respective stations in life would prove a

barrier to marriage:

Hel. . . . 'Twere all oneThat I should love a bright particular

starAnd think to wed it, he is so above me:

The hind that would be mated by the lionMust die for love. 1 1

Rather than being moved, as Gillette was, to cure the

King's disease by a desire to put him in her debt and thus

make him promise to marry the Count to her, Helena desires

to prove herself worthy of Bertram's love by performing

this service:

Hel. . . . Who ever stroveTo show her merit, that did miss her love?12 .

When the Countess, Bertram's mother asks Helena out-

right if she is in love with her son, the girl's humility,

honesty, and upright character are evident in her reply:

My friends were poor, but honest; so'smy love:

Be not offended, for it hurts not himThat he is lov'd of me: I follow him notBy any token of presumptious suit;Nor would I have him till I do deserve

him.

I know I love in vain, strive against hope.. . . Oi then give pityTo her, whose state is such that cannot choose

Ibid.,I, i, 97-104.

12Ibid., I, i, 245-246.

71

But lend and give where she is sure to lose,That seeks not to find that her search

implies,But, ridd e-like, lives sweetly where she

dies.1

Lafeu, one of the King's nobles, tells the ailing mon-

arch about the girl who has come to cure him, and in doing

so he describes other outstanding features in Helena's

character:

Now, by my faith and honour,If seriously I may convey my thoughtsIn this my light deliverance, I have spokeWith one, that in her sex, her years, pro-

fession,Wisdom, and constancy, hath am 'd me moreThan I dare blame my weakness.

Helena is particularly charming when she persuades the

gruftf old King, now convinced that he will surely die, to

permit her to try to cure him; after she speaks to him so

earnestly and unselfishly and offers her good name and her

life to be forfeited if she is unsuccessful, it is not pre-

posterous nor unpleasant when she asks the King to give her

the husband whom she chooses. This proves that her love

for Bertram is strong and pure, if she is willing to risk

her life in order to prove herself worthy of him.

When the King is cured and Helena is told to choose

her husband, her words are in keeping with her nature;

rather than being bold and brash and overbearing, now that

1 3 Ibid., I, iii, 203-225.14Ibid., II, 1, 83-88.

72

her desire is to be fulfilled, she is submissive and

tender:

I dare not say I take you; but I giveMe and my service, ever whilst I liveInto your guiding power. This is the man.15

The King sees in Helena her good qualities rather than

her humble birth:

King. From lowest place when virtuous things pro-ceed,

The place is dignified by the doer's deed.. . She is young, wise, fair; 16In these to nature she's immediate heir.

Immediately following the marriage ceremony, Helena is

unquestioning and faithful when Bertram bids her to leave

for home:

Hel. Sir, I can nothing sayBut that I am your most obedient servant.1 7

When she receives from Bertram the letter in which he

says he will not return to her until she has the ring from

his finger and has borne his child, she is not angry with

him but rather blames herself because she unwittingly has

forced him to leave his home and country:

Hel. Poor lord! isn't IThat chase thee from this country, and

exposeThese tender limbs of thine to the eventOf the none-sparing war?

My being here it is that holds thee hence:0 . . I will be gone.

1 5 1bid., II, 111, 109-111.

1 6Ibid., II, 111, 132-139. 17Ibid., II, v, 77-78.

... Come, night; end, daylFor with he dark, poor thief, I'll steal

away.A

Helena's sympathetic nature and her tender regard for

her husband lend pathos to the following passage:

Bless him at home in peace, whilst I fromfar

His name with zealous fervor sanctify.19

Helena's sincerity of purpose and honest desire to be

reunited with her husband prove valuable to her in that

they are the two main factors which persuade the girl who

is being courted by Bertram to help her. In the final part

of the play, when Helena asks hopefully but fearfully

whether Bertram will not accept her as his wife, "now that

you are doubly won," 20 it is evident in his answer that her

faithfulness and constant love have won his heart:

If she, my liege, can make me know thisclearly,

I'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.21

Thus, the seemingly hopeless problem is solved, and,

in truth, all does end very well.

Shakespeare's heroine is superior to Boccaccio's for

several reasons. First, the former was more adept at suo-

cessful delineation of character; Helena is more appealing

18Ibid. ,III, 11, 105-132.

19Ibid. , III, iv, 10-11,

20Ibid., V, iii, 318-319.

21Ibid., V, 111, 320-321.

74

and admirable than is Gillette, and the pathos of Helena's

situation is further heightened by Shakespeare's careful

portrayal of Bertram as a boy of noble birth but haughty,

proud, self-centered, and undeserving of Helena's pure

love. Second, Shakespeare's superior style of writing con-

tributes much to the success and beauty of his work.

Boccaccio seems to relate the story merely for the action

it describes; Shakespeare tells a story of people, not

merely events. His passages of poetry add rhythm and deli-

cacy to the play as a whole. Once again Shakespeare gives

proof in this play of his sympathetic insight into the

character of man and woman, and it is no wonder that Helena

is one of his best-known and most beloved heroines.

The probable source of one of Shakespeare's most

appealing women, Desdemona, was an Italian novella included

in a collection of tales, the Hecatommithi, which was com-

piled by Cinthio. Although there exists a sharp diversity

of opinion as to whether Shakespeare had read Cinthio's

Hecatommithi in its original Italian, or whether some

translation, probably an English one, was his guide, it is

generally agreed by notable Shakespearean scholars that

Cinthio's work was his source for Othello. It is highly

probable that the dramatist was acquainted with Italian to

such a degree that he would have had little trouble in

reading it in the original.22

22William Shakespeare, Othello, New Variorum Edition,edited by Horace Howard Furness, VI, 372.

75

It would be most difficult to ascertain conclusively

the source of Cinthio's work; the story may have been based

upon an incident in the life of a real person or it may

have had as its basis some popular romance. Cinthio seems

to have believed that young girls should not marry those

whose color, race, or mode of living differed greatly from

their own, and he wrote this story in support of his

theory; Shakespeare, however, seems to have believed that

true love will overcome all such obstacles, and his work

shows this influence.23

In the second sentence of the first part of Cinthio's

novella is found the first description of Disdemona, the

heroine, and her physical beauty and character. The sen-

tence, translated from the Italian, reads as follows: "It

happened that a virtuous lady of marvellous beauty, named

Disdemona, fell in love with the Moor, moved thereto by his

valour; and he, vanquished by the beauty and the noble

character of Disdemona, returned her love; and their affec-

tion was so mutual that, although the parents of the lady

strove all they could to induce her to take another hus-

band, she consented to marry the Moor; and they lived in

such harmony and peace in Venice that no word ever passed

between them that was not affectionate and kind." 24

23Ibid., p. 372.

24Giouanbattista Giraldi Cinthio, Hecatommithi, quotedin Shakespeare, Othello, p. 377.

76

Throughout the novella, which embraces a wider period

of time than does the play, Disdemona exhibits all of these

qualities; an important point made very early in the prose

form is that her love and faithfulness are almost bound-

less. When she learns that the Moor has been offered a

post in Cyprus, she decides immediately to follow him; she

is undaunted by the prospect of a dangerous ocean voyage,

because she would "pass through fire" in order to be with

her husband.

The depth of Disdemona's love for the Moor renders her

oblivious to either the passion or intrigue of the Ensign.

It is significant that he, too, attests to her faithfulness

and chastity; he tries in many ways to reveal to her his

love, but "she, whose every wish was centered in the Moor,

had no thought for this Ensign more than for any other man;

and all the means he tried to gain her love had no more

effect than if he had not tried them. "25 .

Disdemona's deep grief for the Captain whom the Moor

removed from rank is easy to accept and believe, because

she is represented upon other occasions as possessing great

pity and sympathy; she works diligently to effect a recon-

ciliation between the Captain and her husband, and it is

this effort on her part which offers the Ensign an oppor-

tunity to begin his insidious campaign against her. When

25Ibid., p. 379.

77

the Moor begins to doubt her faithfulness, she tries to

pacify him, and she doubles her efforts to be humble, gen-

tle, and tender. The earnestness with which she pleads

with her husband for the Ensign serves only to strengthen

his suspicion of her, and he falls deeply into the Ensign's

trap. It is apparent to Diedemona that something is wrong,

that in some small way she has displeased the Moor or that

he has grown tired of her, and she tries even harder to

prove to him her fidelity and love. She also draws the

conclusion that she was perhaps unwise to marry a man who

differed from her in so many respects. The Moor decides

that both Disdemona and the Captain must be killed; how-

ever, in an attempt on his life the latter is only wounded,

and Diedemona's kind-hearted grief over the incident serves

merely to confirm the Moor's suspicions. He and the Ensign

decide to kill her with a bag of sand and contrive to make

her death appear to be the result of the caving-in of the

ceiling; all goes according to plan, and as Disdemona

appeals to Heaven to give testimony to her faithfulness and

chastity, the Ensign gives her a third and fatal blow.

Cinthio then goes on to tell of the Moor's banishment and

eventual death at the hands of Disdemona's kinspeople and

of the Ensign's death by torture. The author then closes

his novella with a statement that he has related the events

exactly as the wife of the Ensign narrated them, a

78

literary device to lend added authenticity to the

story.26

In all probability Othello is the best-liked and most

well-known of the plays written by Shakespeare which con-

tain the motif of the faithful wife; Desdemona presents

what is almost an incomparable study of a woman who is

sorely troubled by the extreme jealousy of her husband.

Even on the basis of this play alone, Shakespeare could be

credited with having done much to popularize the motif,

because this play, with its lasting appeal, is considered

to be one of his very greatest works.

Desdemona is a gentle girl of good breeding; she has

led a sheltered life, growing up under the careful eye of

her solicitous father, Brabantio. His care and concern for

his daughter are revealed in the following speech:

A maiden never bold;Of spirit so still and quiet, that her

motionBlush'd at herself ! And she, in spite of

nature,Of years, of country, credit, everything,To fall in hve with what she feared to

look on i

Othello, too, is cognizant of his wife's gentle

upbringing and good breeding:

I crave fit disposition for my wife,Due reference of place and exhibition,

2 6 Ibid., pp. 377-389.

2 7 Shakespeare, Othello, I, iii, 94-98.

79

With such accommodation and sortAs levels with her breeding.

The girl is enchanted by Othello's narratives of his

adventures, even though some of the more terrible ones "did

beguile her of her tears." 29 Her love for him may have

been mostly infatuation, caused by hero-worship of the

strange, fascinating Moor. Her father finds it difficult

to believe that his daughter should have married Othello;

Desdemona explains her reasoning as follows:

Des. My noble father,I do perceive here a divided duty.To you I am bound for life and education;

But here's my husband;And so much duty as my mother showedTo you, preferring you before her father,So much I challenge that-I may professDue to the Moor my lord.

Desdemona seems to have undergone a complete meta-

morphosis when she, who formerly was always shy and gentle,

decides to accompany her husband when he goes to war, be-

cause, as she explains, she has consecrated her soul and

fortunes to him.

lago sees in Desdemona a means to hurt Othello; he

hates the Moor, he wants to take Cassio's place in the

army, and he wants to satisfy his own desires. Therefore,

from his mind evolves the plot which is to cause much

28Ibid., I, ii, 235-238.

29Ibid., I, 111, 156.

30Ibid., I, iii, 180-189.

80

grief, the scheme to plant the thought in Othello's mind

that his wife and Cassio are having an affair. It is the

resulting actions on Othello's part, his distrust of

Deademona, and his unjust accusations of her which reveal

his true nature.

When his suspicion of her begins to grow, Othello's

behavior towards Desdemona begins to undergo a change; he

becomes quarrelsome and demanding. His wife is unable to

account for his metamorphosis in nature and character, and

her inability to explain this change perplexes her.

Des. My advocation is not now in tune.My lord is not my lord, nor should I

know himWere he in favor as in humor altered.31

Emil. Pray heaven it be state matters, as youthink,

And no conception nor no jealous toyConcerning you.

Des. Alas the days I never gave him cause. 3 2

As Othello becomes more and more possessed with the

thought that his wife is being untrue to him, he begins to

undergo certain psychological changes; he loses his self-

control and weeps in self-pity. The degeneration of his

character is indicated by his striking Desdemona in public.

He launches into impassioned tirades and becomes so aroused

that he falls into a trance. Desdemona is puzzled by his

behavior, and she feels that she does not deserve such

31Ibid., III, iv, 120-122.

32Ibid., III, iv, 152-154.

81

treatment as she is receiving from him. He disregards

Emilia's plea that his wife is "honest, chaste, and true,"33

and he abuses her with ever more bitter vituperation.

One of the most pathetic incidents in the plot occurs

when Desdemona, gentle and trusting, begs Iago to help her

win Othello back:

0 good Iago,What shall I do to win my lord again?Good friend, go to him; for by this light

of heavenI know not how I lost him. Here I kneel.If e'er my will did trespass againstt his

love,Either in discourse of thought or actual

deed,Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any senseDelighted them in any other form;Or that I do not .0. love him dearly,Comfort forswear me.N

It is completely ironical that she should turn to Iago

for help, for it is he who of all persons will not help her.

When the Moor enters Desdemona's bedroom, and she

realizes that he has come to kill her, she accepts the fact

with a surprising strength; she once again swears her

innocence:

And have you mercy, too! I never didOffend you in my life, never loved CassioBut with such general warranty of heavenAs I might love.05

Desdemona possesses a forgiving spirit which exists in

her to a degree that is not surpassed in any of the other

33_bid., IV, ii, 16. %Ibid., IV, 11, 150-160.

82

women who are patterned after the ideal of the faithful

wife. After refusing to grant her wish to pray one final

time, Othello smothers her but is interrupted in doing so

by the entrance of Emilia. Desdemona regains consciousness

for a few seconds, and when Emilia asks who has murdered

her friend, Desdemona says once again that she is innocent

of Othello's accusations, that she has done the deed her-

self, and that she wishes "to be commended to my kind

lord.N36 She is bound to have known that it would be very

difficult, well-nigh impossible, for Emilia to believe that

she had smothered herself, especially since Othello was

standing beside her bed; she tried to take the blame her-

self to prove her love for Othello had not decreased, that

she forgave him, and that she wished to shield him from the

consequences of his crime. In all probability, because of

actions such as this Desdemona will ever stand as one of

the outstanding examples of the long-suffering and for-

giving wife. Although more stress is laid upon Othello's

character than Desdemona's it is his actions toward her

which render the play tragic and somber.

A comparison of Cinthio's Disdemona and Shakespeare's

treatment of the same character illustrates the latter's

sympathetic understanding of human nature, because his

Desdemona is infinitely more real and appealing. In

3 6 Ibid.., V, ii, 128.

83

Cinthio's work she marries the Moor, if for no other reason,

to bring to fruition her infatuation for him; in

Shakespeare's work, however, she truly believes that her

love for her husband will be powerful enough to preclude

all of the various factors, such as the differences in

their backgrounds and birth, which may jeopardize their

marriage. In Cinthio's work the Ensign falls in love with

Disdemona, whereas in Othello, she is regarded by Iago as a

means to achieve his own selfish desires and to usurp the

Moor's position in the army; the effect of this small dif-

ference in plot structure is that the novella is more of a

story of lust and passion in which Disdemona is directly

involved, than is Othello, which, by virtue of Desdemona's

unsuspecting nature and innocent trust in Iago, becomes a

deep tragedy. In all respects Shakespeare's character of

Desdemona is a more carefully drawn delineation than is

Cinthio's, and in his hands she becomes a woman who is

graceful, tender, and warm; when she lies dying and for-

gives Othello for his cruel treatment of her, she epitomizes

all of the admirable, virtuous qualities which are asso-

ciated with the faithful wife.

The immediate source of Measure for Measure was a play

by an Englishman, George Whetstone, entitled Promos and

Cassandra; the story was retold by the same author in a

prose account, and Shakespeare may have been familiar with

both presentations. Whetstone was indebted to Cinthio for

84

the plot, because it appeared in his Hecatommithi, a col-

lection of tales on the order of Boccaccio's Decameron.

Whetstone wrote his play in 1578,37 and its chief impor-

tance lies in the fact that it provided inspiration for

Measure for Measure; the work is tediously long and poorly

written. It is twice the length of an ordinary play, being

in reality two plays in one; it is frequently dull and

repetitious, and is filled with long discourses on various

moral issues.

The story told in Promos and Cassandra agrees very

closely with that in Measure for Measure; it is about

Cassandra, who goes to Promos to plead for her brother's

life, his lewd proposal to her, her unwilling acceptance of

it, and the results of the affair.

Cassandra is an unconvincing heroine in that she is

loquacious and mournful; she makes long, repetitious

speeches which are sorrowful laments about her wretched

unhappiness. She does not present a realistic picture of a

wronged maiden; rather, her continuous and always dolorous

speeches make her appear weak and vacillating and almost

sniveling and servile. If Cassandra ever appeared in any

mood beside that of deepest, blackest gloom, she would be

more interesting and likable.

37George Whetstone, Promos and Cassandra, inShakespeare's Library, edited by John Payne Collier, VI,205.

85

When Promos tells her that he will free her brother if

she will yield herself to him, he gives Cassandra oppor-

tunity for several speeches, most of which are small ser-

mons which deal with the current state of the English law

courts, a sister's duty to her brother, and the injustice

of justice; a few lines of hers border upon, but do not

quite reach, a feeling of righteous indignation. She is

dumbfounded and nonplused when her brother, Andrugio, does

not bristle up at Promos and revile his name, but instead

urges her rather unheroically to accept the offer; from

this point on in theplay Cassandra becomes even more limp

and saccharine, especially when she tries to exert her

feminine wiles and shame Promos into disregarding her part

of the bargain. Throughout several of her more melodra-

matic scenes Cassandra cherishes the idea that Promos will

want to marry her, now that he has robbed her of her vir-

ginity; however, when Cassandra is shown the head in the

charger and is told that her brother is dead, she resolves

at once to tell her woeful story to the judge in order that

Promos may be punished. Upon several occasions, when she

has repeated her same dolorous lament some five or six

times, she adds variety by setting it to music, and the

resultant dirges are salient among the many bad points of

the play.

The second part of the play shows but little improve-

ment, especially in regard to Cassandra's mournful attitude

86

and gloomy moods. She makes known her pitiful plight to

the King, and he promises to help.right the wrong which

Promos has done to her. She chooses to wear the blue gown

of the convicted harlot out of a martyr-like desire to have

all the world know that her honor has been defiled; she

decides to enter a nunnery, where she may brood in peace

about her brother's death and her own shame.

Her plans are changed, however, when the King decides

that Promos shall marry Cassandra in retribution for the

wrong he has done her; after their marriage, she undergoes

an abrupt change of heart; she decides that her husband,

who only shortly before was a wicked and lustful villain,

is now worth saving. She has yet another great weeping

scene, in which she begs one of Promos' best friends to

plead for his life; she then launches into a song, in

reality a sermon set to music, in which she advises all

women to heed her example and to join her in bewailing her

grief. Her gloomy disposition does not permit her to

express much joy when she learns that Andrugio is still

alive and that Promos has been pardoned of his charge.

Thus it may be seen that Whetstone's play, and the

characterization of Cassandra in particular, is far from

being a literary masterpiece. This is due in part to the

play itself, which is overly long and repetitious, in part

to Whetstone's style of writing, which is hampered by awk-

wardness and verbosity, and in a large part to Whetstone's

87

overemphasis upon particular phases of Cassandra's character.

He probably intended to portray a woman who was penitent

and forgiving, but instead she appears weak and spineless.

The point has been made before, and perhaps it should be

repeated at this time, that there is very little about the

play which merits its reading except for the one fact that

it is the source of Measure for Measure.

Shakespeare seems to have borrowed from Whetstone's

play the main outline of the story, as well as the idea for

the subplot. He made several important changes in the

plot, however; for example, he added the character of

Mariana, who has no counterpart in Promos and Cassandra,

and consequently Isabella does not have to submit to Angelo

as Cassandra does to Promos. He makes the King a much more

active and powerful person than does Whetstone. It is

Angelo who is deceived by the head on the charger, rather

than Isabella; this is in contrast to Whetstone's play, in

which it is Cassandra who is deceived.

It is interesting to note that this play has in it two

women whose characterizations classify them as being exem-

plary of the patient Griselda type; Shakespeare took the

role played by Cassandra and divided it into two parts and

developed two different roles, that of Mariana, who remains

in love with Angelo after their engagement is broken, and

Isabella, who undergoes much suffering because of Angelo

but still forgives him for his transgressions.

88

Isabella is a serious, intent girl who has entered a

nunnery and who is deeply religious; even so, her beauty

and demeanor are not concealed. That she is liked and

admired by those who know her is thekeynote of the fol-

lowing passages:

Luc. Hail, virgin, if you be, those cheek-rosesProclaim you are no less!08

Prov. A very virtuous maidAnd to be shortly of a sisterhood.36

Isab. Hark how I'll bribe you. ,.with true prayers

That shall be up at heaven and enter thereEre sunrise: prayers from preserved souls,From fasting maids whQse minds are dedicateTo nothing temporal. 4 8

She is upright and moral, and Angelo's lewdness and

his proposal are very distasteful to her; she places a high

value on morality and chastity:

Isab. Were I under the terms of death,Th' impression of keen whips I'd wear as

rubies,And strip myself to death, as to a bedThat, longing, have been sick for ere I'd

yieldMy body up to shame. 4 1

But Claudio fears death so much that he argues very

convincingly and Isabella decides to tell Angelo that she

will accept his offer. However, she and Mariana have

38William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, I, iv,16-17.

39Ibid., II, Ii, 20-21. 40 Ibid., II, ii, 145-155.

4lIbid.., II, iv, 101-105.

89

worked out a plan whereby Angelo will be united with

Mariana, to whom he was betrothed, and Isabella will be

spared the shame of losing her virginity.

Isabella presents a striking picture as she pleads

with the Duke to punish Angelo, after he has had Claudio

killed; her inner purity gives her entreaty a heightened

effectiveness:

In brief, to set the needless process by,How I persuaded, how I prayed and kneelld,How he ref ell'd me, and how I replied--

* . the vile conclusionI now begin with grief and shame to utter.He would not, but by gift of my chaste bodyTo his concupiscible intemperate lust,Release my brother; and, after much debate-

ment,My sisterly remorse confutes my honor.And I did yield to him. But the next morn-

ing betimes,His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrantFor my poor brother's head. 4 2

When Mariana asks Isabella to help her plead for

Angelo's life, which is to be taken in recompense for

Claudio's, Isabella forgives his evil actions and asks that

his life be spared:

Most bounteous sir,Look, if it please you, on this man

condemned,As if my brother liv'd. I partly thinkA due sincerity govern'd his deedsTill he did look sn me: since it is so,Let him not die.4

As a result, Angelo is set free, and it is revealed to

Isabella that her brother still lives; therefore she is

4 Ibid., V, i, 93-104. 43Iifd., V, i, 444-449.

90

immediately rewarded for her forgiveness of Angelo and her

own personal suffering.

Mariana had been betrothed to Angelo, but when her

dowry money was lost, he spurned her, pretending to have

discovered some dishonor in her. Her love for Angelo has

remained strong and pure, and it withstands the trial. The

Duke is amazed at her patience and constancy:

This fornamed maid, hath yet in her the continuance ofher first affection: his unjust unkindness, that inall reason should have quenched her love, hath, likean impediment in the current, made it more violent andunruly.44

Her faithful love is rewarded when, after Isabella

intercedes with the Duke for Angelo's life, he and Mariana

are reunited and reconciled.

Despite the fact that Mariana and Isabella have char-

acteristics in common, such as an infallible patience and

the ability to forgive those who have done injury to them,

the play does not suffer because of these similarities;

Shakespeare had such a vast insight into the human charac-

ter and was able to make plain the more subtle, less

obvious differences between the two. The repetition of the

theme is not dull or boring, but rather the two similar

characterizations complement each other; the two versions

of the motif provide an interesting contrast which heightens

the dramatic intensity of the play.

"Ibid., III, 1, 249-253.

91

The Winter's Tale is one of the simplest of

Shakespeare's plays to identify as to source; the striking

parallels between it and Greene's Pandosto can leave very

little doubt that the prose work was the basis for the

play. As it has been pointed out in an earlier chapter,

Greene wrote the story in 1588; whether it was original

with him or whether he adapted it from some other work can-

not be ascertained conclusively. The story was reprinted

several times, and an impression of it appeared in 1609,

the year before Shakespeare probably began the writing of

his drama.45 Although the play is vastly superior to the

prose in innumerable ways, the novel itself is not without

its good points. In this case, however, as in many others,

when Shakespeare and another author utilized the same

story, it was to the detriment of the literary reputation

of the other author.

The plot of Pandosto does not require discussion by

virtue of the fact that it is very similar to that of the

better-known The Winter's Tale. Greene gives a rather good

presentation of a woman of the faithful wife type in his

characterization of Bellaria, the wife of King Pandosto.

She "is a good and admirable woman; she is by birth royall,

learned by education, faire by nature, by vertues famous,

so that it was hard to judge whether her beautie, fortune,

4 5William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, New VariorumEdition, edited by Horace Howard Furness, p. 321.

92

or vertue, wanne the greatest commendations."46 When

Pandosto is visited by his boyhood friend Egistus, Bellaria,

"who in her time was the flower of curtesie,"47 welcomes her

husband's guest and strives very hard to make him comfort-

able at all times. It is at this point, when Pandosto

begins to suspect that his wife is being unfaithful, that

his jealousy commences to grow, the over-powering jealousy

which culminates with Bellaria's being cast into prison.

Greene discusses at some length Bellaria's patient accept-

ance of her husband's cruel actions; it is plain that

Greene felt that his heroine was admirable in her behavior,

because he says, "patience is a shield against Fortune, and

a guiltless mind yeeldest not to sorrow." 4 8 After she is

declared innocent by the Oracle of Apollo, she is released

by death from her suffering and sorrow.

The Winter's Tale is exemplary of a practice which was

very popular in the days of Shakespeare, that of turning a

story or novel into a play. Whereas Greene's novel was a

"best-seller" for many years, it was Shakespeare who pre-

sented a far superior version. He adhered rather closely

to the plot in Pandosto; a few additions and changes which

he made may be noted, such as Hermione's pretended death,

the omission of the incestuous love which Pandosto feels for

46Robert Greene, Pandosto, quoted in Shakespeare, The

Winter's Tale, p. 325.471bid. 48Ibid., p. 330.

Fawnia, his own daughter whom he does not recognize, which

appears in Greene's work, Pandosto's suicide, and

Shakespeare's creation of the statue scene at the close of

the play. As is generally true, the action of the play is

much swifter than that of the novel. Probably the most

important improvement which Shakespeare made was due to his

conception of character, which is far superior to Greene's.

Bellaria is innocent and accused falsely, but she acts

imprudently; often she seems to do deliberately that which

will evoke her husband's wrath and further his suspicions.

In this fact lies one of the major differences between

Bellaria and Hermione. The latter is equally as innocent,

but her accusations are the more unjust because she does

nothing intentionally to merit them. Hermione has come to

stand for a typical and well-known example of the faithful

wife; she is unjustly accused by a jealous, tyrannical hus-

band, she suffers uncomplainingly all of his mistreatment

of her, and she remains faithful and forgiving throughout

her trials.

In the play the action is telescoped so that the

events occur with the rapidity of lightning. Leontes asks

his wife Hermione to join with him in persuading his friend

Polixenes to stay another week with them; when she does so,

he becomes suspicious. He then tells her to take a walk

with their guest, and when she obeys him, he is overcome by

wrathful jealousy. His twisted and warped mind works with

94

feverish haste to punish his friend, whom he in his mind

has already examined and found guilty and must therefore

punish. Then, when Polixenes leaves very hurriedly, after

having been told by Camillo, Leontes' cup-bearer, that the

King intends to have him poisoned, Leontes sees in this a

confirmation of his suspicions.

When Leontes signifies his intention to take Mamillius,

their son, away from Hermione, and then accuses her of

carrying Polixenes' child, she does not show wrath at the

injustice of the accusation, but rather begs Leontes in a

penitent tone to believe in her innocence:

Her. And I'll be sworn you would believe mysaying,

However you lean to the wayward.Leon. . . . She's an adulteress.Her. Should a villain say so,

The most replenished villain in the world,He were as much more villain: you, my lord,Do but mistake.49

Hermione is sincere in her belief that Leontes will be

convinced some day of her innocence:

Her. But thus: if powers divineBehold our human actions as they do,I doubt not then but innocence shall makeFalse accusation blu h, and tyrannyTremble at patience.

Hermione's character is such that when Leontes calls

her an adulteress, even though she herself knows she is

innocent, the false charge does an irreparable injury to

4 9 Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, II, i, 62-80.

5 0 Ibid., III, 11, 29-33.

95

her soul. Her consolation is that some day, in heaven if

not on earth, he will know that his charge is false:

Her. How will this grieve you,When you shall come to clearer knowledge

thatYou thus have published me.51

Hermione makes one speech concerning herself which

points out many parallels between patient Griselda and

herself:

There's some ill planet reigns:I must be patient till the heavens lookWith an aspect more favorable. Good my

lords,I am not prone to weeping, as our sexCommonly are; . . . but I haveThat honourable grief lodged here which

burnsWorse than tears drown.52

After Leontes has accused her, Hermione tries to

explain her actions toward Polixenes and once again reit-

erates her innocence; she sheds additional light.on her

character, which places a definite emphasis upon complete

obedience to her husband's wishes:

For Polixenes,--With whom I am accus'd,--I do confessI lov'd him as in honour he required,With such a kind of love as might becomeA lady like me; with a love even such,So and no other, as yourself commanded:Which not to have done I think had been

in meBoth disobedience and ingratitudeTo you and toward your friend.

5lIb~id.,II, i, 95-97. 52Ibid., II, I1, 104-111.

53Ibid., III, ii, 62-70.

96

She is never accusing nor condemning, but rather more

detached and calm. When Leontes threatens her with death,

she is resigned; she feels that death would be blessed,

because she has lost the three things dearest in her life--

Leontes' favor, her' son Mamillius, from whom she is barred,

and her new-born baby. When the oracle is read and her

innocence is upheld, Leontes refuses at first to accept it,

which is entirely congruent with this characterization of

an illogical, insane man. Then, when in rapid succession

the report that his son has died reaches him, and Hermione

falls into a supposedly mortal swoon, he fears that these

are indications that he has erred; he then decides to

attempt to right his wrong-doing. He vows to visit daily

the graves of his wife and son and to reconcile himself

with Camillo and Polixenes. After the passing of sixteen

years, when the statue is supposedly brought to life and it

is revealed that Hermione has been alive all these years,

Leontes and she are reunited.

The Winter's Tale is first and foremost a psychologi-

cal study of a man driven by jealousy almost to complete

insanity, and enough cannot be said in praise of

Shakespeare's skillful characterization of Leontes. The

King's treatment of Hermione is but a means to show the

depths of moral degradation to which his extremely sus-

picious nature has sent him. The story would not be nearly

so effective, however, had Shakespeare not patterned

97

Hermione after the faithful Griselda type of woman, because

it is her undeserved and patient suffering and piety of

nature which lend pathos to the play and make it truly a

successful and meritorious work. The portrayal of any type

of woman other than that of whom Hermione is a noble repre-

sentative would have detracted from and weakened the story

and in turn destroyed the effective presentation of Leontes'

character. The character of Hermione evokes sympathy and

compassion; the story of her unhappiness is aptly named

because, as Mamillius says, "A sad tale's best for

winter. "54

From the foregoing discussion it may be seen how

Shakespeare was responsible in a large part for the initia-

tion of trends and changes which the motif of the faithful

wife was to undergo during the remaining years of the

Elizabethan period of English drama. The fact that the

motif rose to its highest peak of popularity after the turn

of the seventeenth century may be credited to Shakespeare's

use of the theme. Not only did he popularize the theme,

but he also added polish and sophistication to it. He

demonstrated that the motif could be used in limitless ways,

that its application was not confined to the depicting of

any one particular class or rank of people; he placed such

women in many widely varying situations. He perfected the

54Ibid., II, 1, 24.

98

combination of the faithful wife with the jealous husband

and of the faithful wife and the prodigal who, truly

repentant, finally returns to her and recognizes her true

value.

Shakespeare also proved that the motif could be

incorporated into more than one type of drama; for example,

he used it in one of his lightest romantic comedies and one

of his deepest tragedies. He originated another variation

of the theme when he constructed some of his plays so that

the death of the patient woman made impossible a reconcilia-

tion between the woman and the man who had tried her faith.

He used originality when he devised a number of explanations

for the husband's actions, inventions which were to be

copied by his contemporaries. By analogy with a song which

becomes a popular success when it is recorded by an out-w

standing musical artist, the motif, when it was adapted and

used so frequently by the greatest of all dramatists, was

virtually assured of receiving the popularity and acclaim

which gave it a permanent position in the list of out-

standing motifs in the world of literature.

CHAPTER IV

REALISM IN ELIZABETHAN DRAMA, AND

ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE MOTIF

OF THE FAITHFUL WIFE

In a study of the growth and development of the motif

of the faithful wife, some attention must be given to the

question of the composite position of the woman in

Elizabethan drama, for as the part played by the woman

increased in importance, the motif experienced a similar

upsurge. With the exception of some of Shakespeare's plays,

the woman as a human individual played a very minor role in

the earlier part of the Elizabethan period of drama. But

in the first few years after the turn of the seventeenth

century, a change began to make itself felt in dramatic

circles; the woman had become the prime factor, the moti-

vating force in the drama, the person around whom the action

revolved. Consequently the drama took new trends, and love

and lust and their circumstances and outcome came to be the

most popular subject matter. To be sure, the woman was

usually portrayed as she was seen through masculine eyes,

and consequently she was depicted as being responsible for

all disruption and disturbance in the life of man. The

99

100

dramatists of this period never tired of portraying woman,

whether she was the unfortunate and suffering victim of

man's emotions and passionate rages or the cheap, worldly

creature who dragged down to degradation all who knew her.1

With the rise in importance of, and the new emphasis

on, the role of the woman, a new type of drama appeared,

one that was allied with tragedy, which came into a great

period during the first decade of the seventeenth century;

it was the domestic problem play which dealt with personal

experience. This type of play is distinguished from others

by the fact that in it the attention is centered upon some

problem of individual and social import., rather than of

historical and national concern. The play may consider any

of several types of domestic problems, but it "characteris-

tically dwells upon the relations of man and woman, as

maid, wife, and mistress." 2 The most important problems

included in it are "adultery and prostitution, to which

avarice, envy, profligacy, folly, hypocrisy, and dishonor

supply a chorus."3

Another outstanding trend which manifested itself at

the beginning of the seventeenth century was the turning

away from romantic themes and imaginative settings to the

unadorned realities of everyday life; as a result, the

lHarold R. Walley and John Harold Wilson, editors,E Seventeenth Century , pp. 17-18.

21bid., p. 17. 3Ibid.

101

dramatist was compelled to draw upon commonplace actuali-

ties, and he began to scrutinize, to interpret, and to

evaluate life. The outcome of this was an awakening to the

problems of the ordinary people and the growth of social

consciousness.4

One of the first playwrights who followed this trend

was Thomas Dekker, a writer whose principal attributes were

versatility and a superior ability to portray life as it

existed in all classes of society in London. His works

lack the polish and perfection which mark Shakespeare's,

but he and some of his contemporaries were more successful

in writing the domestic drama which dealt with the problems

native to the common class of people.5

Thomas Dekker was born at some time between 1567 and

1570 in London: his name would indicate that he was of

Dutch extraction, and his plays contain snatches from the

Dutch language and show a knowledge of the Dutch way of

life. Henslowe first mentioned him in 1598, but this does

not preclude the possibility that his writing career began

at an earlier date. His works may be traced into the

1630's, but the exact date of his death is unknown. He did

not attend any university, but his dramas prove that he was

not lacking in knowledge or culture. Unlike many of his

41bid., p. 29.

5 Felix Schelling, Enlish Drama, p. 107.

102

contemporaries, he was not connected with the theater in

any capacity other than that of writer. 6 He did not limit

himself to any one particular literary form but engaged in

writing religious, moral, and satirical pamphlets, rewrit-

ing his own plays as well as those of others, and writing

plays both by himself and in collaboration with others. It

was very seldom that Dekker was not in some financial

trouble; he was unable to manage his business affairs, and

his frequent periods of poverty led to his being sent to

debtors' prison on more than one occasion.7

He was first connected with the Admiral's men at the

Rose and Fortune Theaters, and he later joined Worcester's

men at the Rose. He collaborated with Ben Jonson in the

writing of some pageants which welcomed the accession of

James to the throne.

Dekker was first and foremost a realist, and his plays

contain a wealth of information concerning contemporary

London. Felix Schelling, one of the foremost authorities

on Elizabethan drama, says that "a humane and democratic

spirit is characteristic of Dekker, and, despite his talent

for somewhat boisterous comedy, a cleanness and ideality of

thought, until the demands of a declining popular taste

6Felix Schelling, Elizabethan Playwrights, p. 131.

7Schelling, English Drama, p. 109.

103

partially corrupted him."A Dekker was able upon occasion to

write passages of pure poetry, and he was adept at drawing

accurate, realistic characterizations.

One of Dekker's most outstanding plays is The Honest

Whore, a play in two parts, the first of which was written

in 1604 and the second in 1604-1605; the work presents an

excellent example of the domestic problem play, because it

deals with the age-old struggle of man and woman. Despite

its straightforward and unabashed title, the play is a

clean one and ethically sound; it is definite in its pre-

cepts of right and wrong, and its lack of reticence is not

9detrimental. Without a distasteful amount of vulgarity the

two plays tell of the life of a courtesan, her attempts to

win to her evil life a man whom she loves, her regeneration

which results from her sincere desire to lead an honest

life, and her later triumph over the advances of the very

man who led her to reform. The story of the harlot

Bellafront is told very well, and she possesses a charm and

appeal which make her admirable, whether in her original

state or her reclaimed one. Dekker gives the problem a

straightforward, serious, and realistic treatment; his

writing is filled with a moral earnestness and almost an

8 Schelling, Elizabethan Playwrights, p. 131.

9 Schelling, English Drama, p. 113.

104

evangelistic fervor, and towards his heroine he is gentle

and charitable. 1 0

The cruel treatment which Bellafront receives from her

wretched husband Matheo, her submissiveness to him, her

enduring faith in him, and her forgiving nature classify

her as a woman of the patient Griselda type; it should not

be forgotten that Dekker on an earlier occasion collaborated

in the writing of Patient Grissil, which is the most thor-

ough treatment of the story in Elizabethan drama. An

interesting feature of The Honest Whore is that the subplot

presents a new and original variation of the motif in the

story of the shrewish Viola and her patient husband Candido,

well known for his endurance and placidity of disposition.

This clever reversal provides an interesting contrast to

the main plot, and this take-off on the patient Griselda

theme contributes much humor to the play, but without any

loss of dignity.11

Although the setting of the play is supposedly Milan,

it is filled with references to contemporary London, its

social life, its customs, and its local problems. It is

not a dramatization of the life of the upper classes or the

nobility, as Shakespeare was skilled in making, but rather

of the common lower classes, which Dekker knew and could

loWalley and Wilson, op. cit., p. 29.

llSchelling, Elizabethan Playwrights, p. 148.

105

depict realistically; in it appear harlots and bawds,

laborers and linen-drapers, merchants and apprentices, por-

ters and sweepers--clearly a slice of ordinary, lower-level

life in London.

Bellafront's first appearance in the play depicts her

as being engaged cheerfully and realistically in the

world's oldest profession; as she readies herself with her

curling iron, creams, and cosmetics for the evening's pas-

time, her banter with Roger, her servant, is cheerful and

frank:

Rog. Troth, mistress, then leave the trade, ifyou shall never rise.

Bell. What trade, Goodman Abram?Rog. Why, that of down and arise, or the falling

trade.Bell. I'll fall with you by and by.Rog. If you do I know who shall smart for 't.

Troth, mistress, what do I look like now?Bell. Like as you are, a panderly, sixpenny rascal.Rog. I may thank you for that: in faith, I look

like an old proverb, "Hold the candlebefore the devil."

Bell. Ud's life, I'll stick my rife in your gutsan you prate to me so.

Her occupation, as seen through Bellafront's eyes,

should not be scorned, because it provides her with food

and lodging:

Bell. Ay, ay, knock, and be damned, whosoever yoube!--So: give the fresh salmon line now: lethim come ashore. He shall serve for mrbreak-fast, though he go against my stomach. -

1 2Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore, Part I, II, i,36-50.

1 3 Ibid.s, II, i, 73-77.

106

Bellafront possesses a pleasant personality, a quick

wit, and an above-average personality; she is vivacious and

pert and charming. She may be a harlot, but she does not

give herself freely to any and every man. She has little

to complain about in her life, because her attractive good

looks bring her many eager and ardent men, and she enjoys

being the center of their attentions. She sees in

Hippolito, a count of Milan, only an unknown but handsome

man whom one of her admirers has brought with him to her

house; however, he is not light-hearted and untroubled like

her other friends. He had been in love with Infelice,

daughter of the Duke; her father opposed the match and had

administered to Infelice a potion which made her appear to

be dead, and Hippolito was one of the mourners at her mock

funeral. Because of his grief at her supposed death, he

has renounced all women, and he comes to Bellafront's only

at the insistence of his close friend Matheo.

Bellafront is amazed when she is told that his discon-

tent results from the death of a woman; she finds it strange

that a man should care so deeply for one girl. Pretending

to have more than a passing interest in her, he tries

deliberately to test her:

Hip. Say I did like ;what welcome should I find?Bell. Such as my present fortunes can afford.Hip. But would you let me play Matheo's part?Bell. What part?Hip. Why, embrace you, dally with you, kiss.

Faith, tell me, will you leave him andlove me?

107

But I must tell you, lady, were you mine,You should be all mine; I could brook no

sharers,I should be covetous, and sweep up all.14

Hippolito does not realize that Bellafront is falling

in love with him or that the assurance of one man's love

would be incentive enough for her to forsake her present

life:

Bell. 'T has never been my fortune yet to singleOut that one man, whose love could fellow

mine.*

9 090.0969&909&.0909 9 99 09 0 -0 90 90 00 0 0

Had I but met with one kind gentleman,That would have purchas'd sin alone to him-

selfFor his own private use.I would have been as true unto his pleas-

ures,Yea, and as royal to his afternoons,As ever a poor gentlewoman could be.1 5

Hippolito construes this answer as one which she has

made many times to many men in an effort to gain new cli-

ents for her business; he does not realize that Bellafront

is experiencing a great awakening, a regeneration which is

the result of her first experience of true love:

Bell. . . . therein I'll prove an honest whQge,In being true to one, and to no more.

He is skeptical about a whore's becoming honest, and

he turns a deaf ear to her earnest statements of determina-

tion to forsake her wicked life:

14Ibid. ,II, i, 339-348.

1 5 Ibid. II, i, 351-362.

16I1.id.,II, i, 396-397.

108

Hip. If any be dispos'd to trust your oath,Let him: I'll not be he. I know you feign.All that you speak; ay, for a mingled krlotIs true in nothing but in being false.

In fervent speeches Hippolito denounces both Bellafront

in particular and prostitution in general, and his words are

marked by a fervor which approaches an evangelistic fire:

Hip. . . . for your bodyIs like the common-shore, that still receivesAll the town's filth. The sin of many menIs within you; and thus much I suppose,That if all your committers stood in rank,They'd make a lane, in which your shame might

dwell,And with their spaces reach from hence to

hell.18

You are the miserablest cr tures breathing,The very slaves of nature.1

You're like the Jews, scattered in no placescertain;

Your days are tedious, your hours burdensome:And weren't not for full suppers, midnight

revels,Dancing, wine, riotous meetings, which do

drownAnd bury auite in you all virtuous thoughts,And on your eyelids hang so heavily,They have no power to look so high as

Heaven,--You'd sit and muse on nothing but despair.20

With speeches such as these, Hippolito makes Bellafront look

at her life realistically, to see how wicked are her pur-

suits after pleasure, and how devoid of meaning her life has

17 Ibid.), II, i, 398-401.

18Ibi.,III, i, 410-416.

19Ibid., II, i, 449-450.

20Ibid., II, I1, 487-494.

109

become. Even though he points out the wickedness in her

life, he fails to warn her what difficult times are ahead

of her when she tries to convince the world of the fact

that she has renounced her old life and is determined to

become moral and upright. She believes that her earnest

endeavors to mend her ways will impress Hippolito as being

evidence that she is worthy of his love; the situation is

ironical in that even if Bellafront does become honest, his

grief over the loss of Infelice will preclude his returning

her love.

From this discussion of the character of Bellafront as

she appears in the early scenes of Part I, it may be con-

cluded that she is essentially not a wicked person, but

rather that she is an attractive, spirited girl who slipped

into an easy life of sin. It took but a short time for her

fall to come to pass, as Bellafront herself describes it in

the following manner:

Curst be that minute--for it was no moreSo soon a maid is chang'd into a whore.21

She is to be admired for her grim determination to divorce

herself from her former, and probably more interesting,

life; the power of love is stupendous, but it is seldom

that it motivates a complete change of character.

Bellafront's friends and admirers are disbelieving and

skeptical about her metamorphosis. Roger is unhappy

2Ibid. , II, 1, 513-515.

110

because he now has no money to buy food, and Mistress

Fingerlock, a bawd, thinks that she has chosen a very poor

time for this new fancy of hers, now that there is such a

wide choice of handsome, charming well-dressed young men at

her disposal. Her admirers are puzzled and dumbfounded

when she makes clear her disinterest in them; she even

pleads with them to spurn all harlots and to repent. of

their evil lives. She is completely oblivious of them, for

she is engrossed in finding a means to make known her love

to Hippolito and to convince him of her sincerity. She

thinks once about writing him a letter, but the blackness

of the ink is suggestive of the black spots on her soul.

Finally, in desperation she disguises herself as a page,

and pretending that she is bringing Hippolito a letter from

Matheo, she gains entrance to his room. When he discovers

her identity, he sternly commands her to leave, and he is

deaf to her entreaties to hear her story.

Hippolito learns that his beloved Infelice is alive

from her doctor, who has grown to distrust her father, the

Duke; the doctor explains all that has happened,and he

tells Hippolito that Infelice is now being held in Bethlem

Monastery. Hippolito and Matheo go there in disguise, and

with the aid of Friar Anselmo, they manage to find Infelice

and the two are secretly married. Bellafront, too, has

been brought there, and she recognizes them, revealing

their identities to the Duke. When he is trying to

111

straighten out all of the problems, the Duke learns that it

was Matheo who first led Bellafront astray, and he commands

him to marry her as a recompense. Matheo is very bitter,

because he knows that he is not the only man who has had

pleasure with the girl--it is his misfortune that he was

first. Bellafront reconciles herself to the marriage of

Infelice and Hippolito, and she signifies her intentions to

love Matheo and be a good wife:

Bell. Matheo, thou didst first turn my soul black,Now make it white again. I do protest,I'm pure ag fire now, chaste as Cynthia's

breast. 2

Part I of The Honest Whore concerns itself with the

reformation of the character of Bellafront and her marriage

to Matheo; Part II of the play deals with the temptation of

the girl by the man responsible for her regeneration,

Hippolito. The second part contains most of the same char-

acters and both have an identical setting, Milan; in the

later play, however, Dekker made one important addition,

the character of Orlando Friscobaldi, Bellafront's father.

The portrayal of the old man is done excellently and real-

istically; the characterization is a pleasant blend of

humor and pathos.

The second play begins with Bellafront's presenting a

plea to Hippolito that he and his father-in-law, the Duke,

will release Matheo from prison; the latter is condemned to

22Ibid. , V, ii, 512-514.

112

die for a murder which he committed. He agrees to help his

old friend, and he inquires as to whether or not Bellafront

has been upright and steadfast during the twenty-five years

of her marriage. Her transformation has withstood the test

of the years, because one of Hippolito's servants describes

her as follows:

This is the blackamoor that by washing wasturned white; this is the birding-piece now scoured;this is she that, if any of her religion can be saved,was saved by my lord Hippolito. 2 3

Hippolito learns that Bellafront's father, Orlando, is

at court but that he has had nothing to do with her because

of her former life. She feels that they will never be

reconciled, and her grief in regard to the matter, together

with Matheo's excesses--drinking, gambling--are two of the

serious problems with which she is beset.

Hippolito talks with Orlando and tells.him that his

daughter is not dead, as he had supposed, but rather that

she has become honest; he recounts to him some of their

misfortunes, such as their poverty and Matheo's being in

jail. The father pretends to be cold-hearted and dis-

interested, but his paternal feeling and desire to help her

prove too strong. He resolves to disguise himself with a

mask and the cloak of a servingman and to go to his daugh-

ter, whom he has not seen since she was seventeen years

old.

2Ibid., Part II, I, i, 112-115.

Bellafront has forgiven Matheo for the crime which

sent him to prison, but she asks only that he forsake his

old way of life; however, when he returns he is even more

eager to resume his activities:

Bell. Matheo, prithee, make thy prison thy glass,And in it view the wrinkles and the scarsBy which thou wert disfigured: viewing them,

mend them.Mat. I'll go visit all the mad rogues now, and

the good roaring boys.

'Sfoot, I wonder how the inside of a tavernlooks now.

Oh, when shall I bizzle, bizzle?Bell. Nay, see, thou'rt thirsty still for poison!

Come,I will not have thee swagger.4

Because Matheo is penniless he cannot rush off imme-

diately to engage in drinking and dicing, "that four-squared

sin." An unexpected stranger arrives, who says he is

Pacheco, but in reality he is the disguised Orlando. He

tells Matheo that he was formerly Orlando's servant, and

that he will give him twenty pounds if he will hire him and

let him live with Bellafront and him for his few remaining

years; needless to say, Matheo commences to swagger, now

that he has both a servant and some money. Pacheco says

insulting things about Orlando in order to find out how the

two feel about him; Bellafront staunchly defends the memory

of her father, but Matheo adds a few additional invectives

of his own.

24Ibid., II, i, 20-32.

114

When Hippolito sends first a letter and a diamond,

then brings in person a bag of money, Bellafront perceives

quickly and clearly what his intentions are. . She is not

impressed by his rank and wealth, and she has no thought of

yielding to him, despite the fact that she and Matheo are

desperately poor:

Bell. He thinks a silver net can catch the poor,Here's bait to choke a nun, and turn her whore.(To Orlando) . . . Thou to this lord shall go,

commend me to him,And tell him this, the town has held out long,Because within was rather true than strong:To sell it now were base. Say 't is no holdBuilt of weak stuff, to be blown up with

gold.42

Perhaps Bellafront's greatest moment of sorrow and

disgrace comes when Matheo very insultingly takes the dress

off her back and sends Pacheco out to pawn it; then with a

surly and callous air, he tells her that she shall have to

return to her former business in order to make money for

him to spend. To add insult to injury, he tries to get one

of their mutual friends to make Bellafront his mistress.

Throughout all these painful incidents, however, she is

never accusing nor condemning, but rather sad and tender.

She endeavors to make Matheo realize that she will try to

help him with his financial difficulties if he will stop

wasting and losing money, with the one exception that she

will not return to prostitution as a means to aid him.

25Ibid. , II, i, 287-296.

115

Orlando devises a number of schemes to aid his daugh-

ter, whom he has come to admire and respect, and to gain

revenge upon some of those who are eagerly trying to tear

down her character and morals. Realizing that Infelice

will not be hesitant to act when her husband's advances to

Bellafront are made known to her, he goes to her and

reveals what Hippolito has done; she is very angry, and

life at home is no longer tranquil and peaceful for him.

Orlando feels that his daughter would be better off were

she rid of Matheo; he sets a trap by disguising two of his

servants as peddlers, and he tells Matheo that they are

carrying money with them. He falls into the snare and robe

them; Orlando makes his crime known to the Duke and recom-

mends that he be put into jail.

Undeterred by Infelice's angry accusations, Hippolito

comes to see Bellafront, and, reminding her that he once

before persuaded her with his words, he tries to duplicate

his former oratory; however, this time his objective is the

reverse. Using every argument, from that of the carefree,

interesting life which a courtesan leads to that of the

history of Harlotta, the mistress of the father of William

the Conqueror, he talks at great length, but to no avail;

Bellafront is determined to remain honest. When he realizes

that his powers of persuasion are not moving her, he prom-

ises Bellafront that she shall become his own mistress:

116

Hip. And who, than whores, with looser wings darefly?

As Juno's proud bird spreads the fairest tail,So does the strumpet hoist the loftiest sail,She's no man's slave; men are her slaves... .In brief, gentlemen haunt them, soldiers fight

for them,Few men but know them, few or none abhor them.Thus for sport's sake speak I, as to a womanWhom, as the worst ground, I would turn to

common:But you I would enclose for mine own bed.26

Bellafront is never at a loss for an answer, and in

the oratorical contest between the two her quick, sharp

retorts win for her the upper hand:

Bell. If all the threadsOf harlot's lives be fine as you would make

them,Why do not you persuade your wife turn whore?

Hip. . . . Why are you sharp 'gainst that you onceprofest?

Bell. Why do you on that, which you did once detest?27

Bell. Were harlots therefore wise, they'd be solddear:

For men account them good but for one year,And then like almanacs whose dates are gone,They are thrown by, and no more looked upon.28

When Matheo is arrested for the robbery, Bellafront,

always loving and forgiving to her wastrel husband, asks

the Duke to have mercy on him; Matheo rewards her by trying

to implicate her in the crime. Orlando comes to her aid

and attests to her innocence, and Matheo then seeks to

defame her character by describing the relation between

26Ibid., IV, 1, 332-347.

7bid.,IV, i,404-423.

2Ibid. , IV, i, 443-446.

117

Hippolito and her; Hippolito speaks in vehement defense of

her reputation, which remained good, certainly not because

he didn't try to ruin it but because he "could sooner shake

th' Appenine and crumble rocks to dust than . . . tempt her

to lust.n29

When Matheo realizes that his attempts to cast blame

upon his wife are fooling no one, and that his unkind treat-

ment of her is known, he resigns himself to receiving his

sentence from the Duke and his father-in-law, two people

from whom he can expect no mercy. He does not reckon with

Bellafront's infallible power to forgive him, because it is

she who pleads with Orlando to be kind and merciful in deal-

ing with him. Orlando is amazed that a woman could suffer

so much at the hands of her husband and not have her love

and faith destroyed:

Orl. Dost thou beg for him, thou precious man'smeat, thou? Has he not beaten thee, kicktthee, trod on thee, and dost thou fawn on himlike his spaniel? Has he not pawn'd thee tothy petticoat, sold thee to thy smock, madeye leap at a crust, yet wouldst have me savehim?

Bell. Oh, yes, good sir, women shall learn of me,To love their husbands in greatest miser *Then show him pity, or you wrack myself. *O

Seeing that Bellafront does truly love Matheo, Orlando

agrees not only to spare his life but also to give them

food, shelter, and a home with him.

2 9 Ibid., V, ii, 196-198.

30Ibid., V, 11, 542-551.

118

The reversal of the motif of the faithful wife appears

in Part I of The Honest Whore, the subplot in the story of

Candido the linen-draper and his waspish wife Viola.

Candido is a patient, long-suffering man who, according to

Viola, has but one fault. She is very angry because she

has never been able to make him lose his temper. She tries

all sorts of schemes, any one of which would be enough to

drive an ordinary man into a ferocious rage. She makes her

brother Fustigo, whom Candido does not know, come into her

husband's linen shop, and she hints very broadly that she

and the young man are having an affair; Candido shows no

signs of anger, but his apprentices give Fustigo a thorough

beating for his pains. Some of the young gallants of the

town try to make him angry by buying one pennyworth of lawn

and demanding that it be cut from the middle of the bolt of

material; Candido smilingly complies with their request,

even though the entire bolt of material is ruined. On

another occasion they take away his silver beaker, feeling

sure that this will vex him; he does not try to stop them,

but instead he notifies the sheriff of their theft. Viola

plays what is perhaps the meanest trick of all when she

locks up his senate-robe, but he very patiently goes to the

meeting wrapped in a carpet and a night-cap. When he

returns, Viola has had one of the apprentices dress himself

in Candido's clothes and take his place in the linen shop,

but this trick also fails to irk him. The supreme test of

119

the paragon's patience comes when Viola has him arrested as

a madman because he is walking the streets dressed in the

carpet; he is carried away to Bethlem Monastery. However,

because she really does love Candido, even though she is

displeased because she cannot force him to lose his temper,

Viola goes to the Duke and asks for her husband's release.

As he is leaving the asylum, Candido discusses the virtue

of patience, and in doing so, he describes the quality

which is outstanding in the character of the faithful, long-

suffering wife:

Patience, my lord! why, It is the soul ofpeace,--

Of all the virtues, 't is nearest kin to Heaven,It makes men look like gods. The best of menThat e'er wore earth about him, was a sufferer,A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,The first true gentleman that ever breathed.The stock of patience, then, cannot be poor,All it desires, it has, .It is the greatest enemy to lawThat can be; for it does embrace all wrongs.

* . . 'Tis the perpetual prisoner's liberty .. . . the bond slave's freedom, . . . the beggar's

music . . . the sap of bliss . ... 31It is the honey 'gainst a waspish wife.

Dekker's indebtedness in The Honest Whore to Shakespeare

is evident on several occasions. For example, Bellafront's

disguising herself as a page and going to see Hippolito is a

favorite device with Shakespeare, appearing for instance in

All's Well That Ends Well. The marriage of Bellafront and

Matheo at the Duke' s command is parallel to the situation

31Ibid., V, ii, 569-589.

120

in All's Well That EndsWel in which Helena and Bertram

are married. In Measure for Measure Claudio's urging of

Iseabella to accept Angelo's proposal to exchange her

brother's freedom for her virginity is very similar to the

incident in Dekker's play in which Matheo urges Bellafront

to accept Hippolito or any other man from whom she may

obtain money. When the young couple, Hippolito and

Infelice, are aided by the Friar in carrying out their wed-

ding plans, the similarity between this and another pair of

lovers, Romeo and Juliet, is brought to mind; in addition

to this point, another parallel between the two plays is

that in each the young girl is given a potion which renders

her apparently lifeless. Although Matheo conforms more

closely to the theme of the prodigal than does Bertram,

both possess certain characteristics in common.

There is no parallel in any of Shakespeare's plays,

however, for the character of Bellafront. He could never

have described so effectively a woman of her qualities and

status in life. In portraying her, Dekker is both sympa-

thetic and sincere, and his earnestness permeates his writ-

ing. Many human weaknesses are pointed out in this play,

such as the rapidity with which a person may succumb to

temptation and the unwillingness with which some people

help others to lead an upright life. Dekker shows human

nature at its worst and at its best, and he is never con-

demning, but rather hopeful. The Honest Whore ranks very

121

high in the list of effective presentations of the motif of

the faithful wife; it is the first instance in which the

wife assumes the most important role. The play demonstrates

effectively that this type of woman may exist in any social

class, and in this particular case the wife's patience and

moral fortitude are especially admirable. The play merits

praise, both for its realistic portrayal of contemporary

society and for its laudable characterizations.

CHAPTER V

THE FAITHFUL WIFE AS INTERPRETED BY THE

MINOR WRITERS OF THE PERIOD

Interest in the motif of the faithful wife reached its

highest point immediately after the beginning of the seven-

teenth century; not only was it used and adapted by the

foremost dramatist of the period, William Shakespeare, and

one of the outstanding realists, Thomas Dekker, but the

motif was also incorporated into a number of works by sev-

eral minor playwrights of the period.

In the years between 1599 and 1606 the motif of the

faithful wife, or some variation of it, appeared in at

least eight plays, all of which were written by lesser-

known authors of the age. Although these plays are not so

skillfully executed as those of Shakespeare, they shed an

interesting light both on the popular taste of the English

audiences and on the quality of the dramatic output of

Shakespeare's contemporaries; the identity of the authors

of four of the works has been lost, but the plays them-

selves would imply authorship by writers of only ordinary

ability. Two variations of the motif were very popular at

this time; the first was the faithful wife harassed by a

122

123

jealous or tyrannical husband, and the second was the link-

ing together of the motif of the faithful wife with that of

the prodigal. The history and background of the motif of

the prodigal is as varied and interesting as that of the

faithful wife; one of the stock characters in Elizabethan

drama became the young man who leads a carefree existence

and indulges in various vices, returning home penniless,

contrite, and repentant. The faithful wife provides an

excellent foil for a man of this type, and the two motifs

were frequently combined.

The eight plays to be examined in this chapter are The

Wisdomeo-f Doctor Dodypoll, How a Man = Choose a Good

Wife from a Bad, The Dutch Courtesan, The Faire Maide of

Bristow, The London Prodigal, The Wise Woman of fHogdon,

The Miseries of Inforst Mariage, and A Yorkshire Tr

These plays may be presented for study either from the

point of view of chronology or of plot structure. Because,

however, a chronological study illustrates more clearly the

use and development of the theme of the faithful wife, the

plays will be discussed in the order in which they were

written.

The first play to be considered in the study of the

presentation of the motif of the faithful wife by various

lesser-known and anonymous writers of the Elizabethan

period is The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll, which was written

in 1599. The author of the play is unknown; certain

124

aspects of it, such as its realism and the use by Doctor

Dodypoll of a curious Dutch-English, show a similarity to

the works of Thomas Dekker; if the play was written by him

in the early years of his literary career, it certainly is

not indicative of the successful works which he wrote

later, because the play is one of the poorest which is

included in this study. Its plot is complicated and tedi-

ous, and it is extremely difficult to follow; its numerous

sub-plots detract from the effectiveness of the main story.

Very frequently the speeches are awkward and heavy, and the

few poetic passages are overshadowed by the far more numer-

ous flat, uninspired lines.

The sub-plot in which the theme of the faithful wife

appears is the story of Lucilla and Lassingbergh. Dis-

guised as a painter, Lassingbergh, who is an influential

earl, has been engaged in a flirtation with the innocent

Lucilla; when her father learns of the young man's chican-

ery, he insists upon marriage between the two as redress

for the wrong done to his daughter. After the two are wed,

the young man scorns and spurns his wife, and commands her

to leave his presence. Finally, however, when he fears

that he has truly lost her, he becomes sorrowful and con-

trite, and the two are reunited and reconciled.

When Lassingbergh indicates his intention to leave his

wife, she exhibits the patience and faithfulness which are

indicative of the faithful wife; her seriousness of

125

purpose and her humility are shown in the following

passage:

Lass. Nothing shall hinder my resolued intent,But I will restlesse wander from the world,Till I haue shaken off these chaines from me.

Luc. And I will neuer cease to follow thee,Till I have Y onne thee from these vnkinde

thought s.

Undaunted by his evident dislike for her, Lucilla will

not leave him; she even keeps guard over him when he falls

asleep in the forest. While she is sitting alone in the

woods, she is found by a duchess, who is her husband's

aunt; she is persuaded by the older woman to accompany her

to court. Her disappearance brings Lassingbergh to his

senses, and after he has undergone a self-imposed penance,

he resolves to treat his young wife with more kindness,

respect, and loyalty.

The characterization of Lucilla is given only an inci-

dental part in the play, with very few lines being devoted

to her story. The play is important to this study, how-

ever, because it is the forerunner of more skillful pre-

sentations of the motif, and it helped to some degree to

familiarize the Elizabethan audiences with the motif of the

patient wife.

How a Man May Choose a Good Wife from a Bad presents

one of the most comprehensive, intelligent, and thorough

1The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll (author unknown),Sig. D 3r.

126

studies of the motif of the faithful wife which are included

in this group of plays. It is not improbable that the

author of the work was Joshua Cooke, because it was attrib-

uted to him in an edition of the work which appeared soon

after its writing in 1602.2 Whoever the author may have

been, he succeeded in building a well-known theme into a

drama which is permeated with pathos and tragic foreboding;

he combined the character of the faithful wife with that of

the prodigal, and the result is a stirring conflict between

pure love and lustful passion. In his style of writing the

author was vastly superior to many of his contemporaries,

and the dialogue of this work is the result of an unusual

technical cleverness; many of the passages are works of pure

poetry. The play is enhanced by the same polished sophisti-

cation which lends beauty and grace to Shakespeare's works;

the author was a skilled dramatist, and the play affords

evidence of his many and varied literary talents.

The plot of the play tells of the marriage of Young

Master Arthur and Mistress Arthur, a union which is charac-

terized by long-suffering devotion on the part of the wife

and callous indifference on the part of the husband. The

husband acts dissimilarly to the conventional character of

the prodigal in that he does not pursue a life of vice; he

neither drinks nor gambles, nor does he carouse with a

2W. Carew Hazlitt, editor, Old English jly , IX, 2.

127

group of boisterous, swaggering young gallants. Although

his wife has been true and faithful, loving him with a deep

devotion, he falls out of love with her and decides to

sever all relations with her. She is heart-broken by his

indifference, but she never reproaches him for his unkind

treatment of her. Master Arthur soon becomes infatuated

with Mistress Mary, a beautiful courtesan, and he decides

at once to murder his wife in order that he might be free

to marry the harlot. He administers to Mistress Arthur a

potion which he believes to be a poison; in reality, how-

ever, she merely falls into a deep sleep for a few hours

and gives the appearance of being dead. Anselm, a serious,

soulful young man whose true love and advances Mistress

Arthur has spurned, as a good wife should, visits her tomb

and is there when she awakens. He takes her to his mother's

house, where she lives in seclusion, giving her husband no

intimation that the poison had not proved fatal. In the

meantime, her husband has married the courtesan, who then

begins to treat him as badly as he had treated Mistress

Arthur. When Mistress Mary learns that Arthur poisoned his

first wife, she renounces him as a murderer, and he is

arrested. Mistress Arthur leaves her refuge in order to

prove that no murder had been committed; the second mar-

riage is set aside, and Arthur announces his intention to

reform and to be more appreciative of his wife's admirable

virtues.

128

When Arthur tells his friend Lusam of the hateful

loathing with which he has begun to regard his wife, Lusam

is perplexed by the news; that he regards Mistress Arthur

with the highest respect is illustrated in the following

passage:

Lus. Is she not loyal, constant, loving, chaste:Obedient, apt to please, loath to displease:Careful to live, chary of her good name,And jealous of your reputation?Is she not virtuous, wise, religious?3

Because Mistress Arthur has done nothing intentionally

to displease her husband, she is at a loss to account forhis change in manner; her sincere belief in her own inno-

cence is expressed in the following speech:

Till I see him,My heart will never be at rest within me:My husband hath of late so much estrang'dHis words, his deeds, his heart from me,That I can seldom have his company;

Had I deserved the least bad look from him,I should account myself too bad to live,But honouring him in love and chastity,All judgments censure freely of my wrongs.4

As additional proof of her character's being parallel

to that of the true faithful wife, Mistress Arthur is hum-

ble and piously submissive to her husband, as is demon-

strated in the following plea which she makes to him:

How a Man May Choose a Good Wife from a Bad (authorunknownTf7 in Old English Pays, edited TW~Carew Hazlitt,Vol. IX, I, i, p. 6. All references to this work willinclude act, scene, and page number as in this edition.

4 1id.,I, ii, pp. 11-12.

129

If you delight to see me drudge and toil,I'll be your drudge because 'tis your delight.Or if you think me unworthy of the nameOf your chaste wife, I will become your maid,Your slave, your servant--anything you will,For if that name of servant and of slaveYou will but smile upon me now and then.5

Mistress Arthur's boundless faith in her husband

allows her to believe that he is visiting the courtesan

only with the intention to reform her, to make her turn

away from her life of sin; even the entreaties of her

father cannot force Mistress Arthur to renounce her hus-

band. She is deaf to the amorous speeches made by Anselm,

because she believes that if she remains chaste and virtu-

ous, Master Arthur will eventually return to her. Mistress

Arthur endures what is one of the worst possible insults

when her husband brings his mistress to a dinner in his own

home and seats her in his wife's place at the table; this

bold affront is doubly unwise, however, because it turns

his friends against him and it leads the courtesan to pity

the wronged wife, thereby causing Mistress Mary to come to

despise him.

When Mistress Arthur recovers from her husband's

attempt to poison her, and she learns that he has married

the courtesan, she is not angry, but rather tender and

charitable; her good will toward her husband, which even

these insults have not obliterated, is expressed in the

following speech:

5Ibid. , I, i, pp. 13-14.

130

And yet, and yet,And still, and even whilst I breathe this

air,Nay, after death, my unsubstantial soul,Like a good angel, shall attend on him,And keep him from all harm.But is he married? much good do his heart!Pray God, she may content him better farThan I have done; long may they live in

peace,Till I disturb their solace, but becauseI feel some mischief doth hang o'er his head,I'll weep my eyes dry with my present care,And for their hgalths make hoarse my tongue

with prayer.

When a reconciliation is reached between Master and

Mistress Arthur, and all of the husband's transgressions

and prodigalities are forgiven, Master Arthur makes the

following interesting comment:

A good wife will be careful of her fame,Her husband's credit, and her own good name;And such are thou. A bad wife will respectHer pride, her lust and her good name neglect;And such art thou. A good wife will be stillIndustrious, apt to do her husband's will,But a bad wife, cross, spiteful, and madding,Never keep home, but always be a-gadding;And such art thou.

Now, husbands, choose on which hand you willgo.

Seek virtuous wives, all husbands will beblest;

Fair wives are good, but virtuous wives arebest.

They that my fortunes will peruse, shall findNo beauty's like the beauty of the mind.7

This passage shows an overwhelming respect for the

faithful wife which is not expressed with equal fervor in

6Ibid. , IV, ii, p. 77.

7Ibid. , V, iii, p. 96.

131

any other play that embodies the motif. The author of this

work clearly believed that the faithful, patient wife was

the ideal wife, and the play supports his theory. In this

play the question of a wife's enduring faith and patient

love is viewed from a loftier aspect, and the faithful wife

becomes synonymous with the good wife. This play presents

by far what is the most purposeful and moral treatment of

the motif.

The Dutch Courtesan, written by John Marston in 1604,

is one of the outstanding plays in which the motif of the

faithful wife is combined with that of the prodigal son; it

is a well-written social comedy, in which satire is used to

point out human frailties and the effect which ungoverned

passion exerts upon the individual and society. Marston

composed the play with a moral purpose in mind; in it the

courtesan Franceschina is realistically portrayed as being

merciless and venomous, perhaps in direct protest against

Dekker's attractive characterization of Bellafront, a har-

lot who is admirable and appealing. Marston is prone to

alternate passages of pure poetry with speeches filled with

obscenity and coarseness, and the play is the work of a

satirist looking realistically at his contemporary society.8

The play consists of two different plots. One concerns

the light-hearted, clever trickery of Cocledemoy, and his

8 Walley and Wilson, m. it., p. 163.

132

especial harassment of the vinter, Master Mulligrub; the

other plot-element tells of the infatuation of Malheureux,

the calm, sensible, Philosophical friend of Freeville, for

Franceschina, the courtesan, and it is in this part of the

play that the motif of the faithful wife is used.

The plot is similar in some respects to The Honest

Whore, because just as Matheo persuades Hippolito to accom-

pany him to Bellafront's house, so does Freeville persuade

Malheureux to go with him to visit the Dutch courtesan.

Because Freeville is preparing to marry Beatrice, he is no

longer interested in Franceschina and feels no twinge of

jealousy when he realizes that his friend is becoming very

deeply infatuated with her. Franceschina is enraged, how-

ever, when Freeville spurns her and so willingly yields his

place with her to his friend; when Malheureux visits her,

she tells him that she will return his affection only on

the condition that he will kill Freeville and bring her a

ring which he must take from his victim's hand. This dia-

bolical plan for revenge forces Malheureux to be torn

between love for his friend and passion for the courtesan;

he decides to reveal to Freeville the harlot's scheme, and

together the two work out a plan whereby they will have a

mock battle and Freeville will pretend to be dead.

Malheureux will take Freeville's ring and give it to

Franceschina, and then he will be permitted to become her

lover. According to the plan, Freeville is to hide at the

133

jeweler's shop, in order that Franceschina will not become

suspicious; in reality, however, because he wants Malheureux

to realize his error in pursuing the affair with the cour-

tesan, and because he would like to see Franceschina pun-

ished for her malicious plot to have him killed, Freeville

does not go to the jeweler's shop but rather disappears

completely. Thus, when Malheureux is arrested for his

friend's death, he cannot prove that the supposed murder

was only a hoax. Freeville assumes the disguise of a pan-

der, and he accompanies Franceschina when she goes to

Beatrice and taunts her with her husband's ring as proof of

his unfaithfulness. It is difficult for him to refrain

from revealing his true identity when he sees how

Franceschina's words cause Beatrice to suffer unjustly;

however, he remains disguised until the time that Malheureux

has realized the folly of loving the harlot. After

Franceschina's poisonous plot has been revealed, Freeville

realizes that he must come to the aid of Malheureux, who is

in- danger of losing his life. Then he explains all that

has transpired; Malheureux is grateful for his friend's

having revealed to him the danger of a life marked by

uncontrolled lust, and Franceschina's concupiscence leads

to her receiving a whipping and sentence to prison.

The characterizations of Freeville, Malheureux, and

Franceschina are presented in a forceful manner; they are

done skillfully and realistically, and their excellence

134

makes them an outstanding feature of the work. The charac-

ter of Beatrice plays a minor part, because this is not

primarily a play about a faithful wife but rather one about

an unscrupulous, insidious harlot and the destruction which

she wrought in the lives of two friends. Beatrice's good

and pure love for Freeville presents a contrast to the

feeling which Franceschina feels for him; when the courte-

san visits her to torment and vex her, Beatrice is not

moved to anger, but rather accepts the signs of Freeville's

apparent infidelity with the calm and patient resignation

evident in the following speech:

He did not ill not to love me, but sure he did notwell to mock me; gentle minds will pity though theycannot love. Yet peace and my love sleep with him.. . . Alas, I was not so ambitious of so supreme ahappiness, that he should only love me; 'twas joyenough for me, poor soul, that I might only lovehim.

This unexpected and unpremeditated trial of his wife's

love, and the proof of- her unwavering affection for him,

fill Freeville with joy and admiration, as is illustrated

in the following speech:

Heaven, to have such a wifeIs happiness to breed pale envy in the saints!Thou worthy, dove-like virgin without gall,Cannot that woman's evil, jealousy,Despite disgrace, nay, which is worst, con-

tempt,Once stir thy faith? 0 Truth, how few sisters

hast thou!Dear memory,With what a suff'ring sweetness, quiet modesty,

9John Marston, The Dutch Courtesan, IV, iv, 57-62.

135

Yet deep affection she received my death!And then with what a patient, yet oppressed

kindnessShe took my lewdly intimated wrongs .OhI the dearest of Heavenll0

Although Beatrice plays a minor role in the drama, the

picture of her as the patient Griselda type of woman is of

importance. She serves as a contrast to Franceschina, and

the pathos of her unjust trial at the hands of the harlot

lends a touching aspect to the rather forbidding story of

the revengeful strumpet. Although Marston's play has other

outstanding qualities which make it a play of merit, the

appearance in it of the motif of the faithful wife acts

somewhat as a humanizing force, contributing an air of

pathos and tenderness to the work.

The Faire Maide of Bristow, written in 1604, marks

another author's attempt to weave together the motifs of

the faithful wife and the prodigal into a drama of life in

England at that time. The play exhibits very little

improvement over several other works of the same year in

which the two motifs appeared conjunctively. The author of

the play cannot be determined with certainty; however, it

has been attributed to an obscure writer named John Day,

and its architectonics add further proof that it is by one

of the minor writers of the period. The author's style of

writing lends the work no grace and beauty, and the speeches

10Ibid., IV, iv, 77-88.

136

are frequently heavy, cumbersome, and contrived. In fair-

ness to the author, however, credit must be given to him

for his use of imagination and creative ability in the con-

struction of his plot, for he does add to the story certain

details which lead to a relatively effective characteriza-

tion of the faithful woman.

In order to re-emphasize the modifications which had

exerted an influence upon the story in the first few years

of the seventeenth century, a brief examination of the plot

of The Faire Maide of Bristow may prove valuable. In the

beginning of the work a young gallant, Vallenger, becomes-

enamored of Anabell, the daughter of Sir Godfrie and the

beloved of Challener, a friend of Vallenger. The two quar-

rel over the girl, and in the ensuing fight Challener

wounds Vallenger and then flees. Sir Godfrie, his wife,

and Anabell discover Vallenger and decide to keep him in

their home and nurse him back to health; all the time he is

recuperating the young man wooes Anabell and endeavors to

win her father's approval of a marriage between the two.

Meanwhile, Challener hears a rumor that the two are about

to be married, and he returns to the city, disguised as a

doctor and accompanied by a courtesan, Florence. Anabell

and Vallenger have been married only a very short time when

Florence captures the fancy of Vallenger; he asks the doc-

tor, who, in reality, is Challener, to poison Anabell in

order that he might be free to pursue Florence. So eager

137

is he to enter into an affair with Florence, however, that

Vallenger does not wait for the death of his wife to free

him from his moral obligations before he visits Florence's

house; there he is discovered by Anabell, whom he forces to

give her newest gown to his mistress. His wife remains

unprovoked and patient, yielding gladly to his demands, and

even when she learns of his plot against her life, her love

for him does not diminish; rather, it seems to be strength-

ened by her adversity. Vallenger falls into a trap, which

has been carefully planned by Challener, when circumstances

make him appear to be guilty of a murder, and he is sen-

tenced to die. Anabell gives proof of her undying love by

disguising herself as a man and offering to die in his

place; Challener has undergone a change of heart, and he,

too, offers to exchange his own life for Vallengerts free-

dom rather than to have killed the man whom Anabell loves.

All of this generosity and benevolence is more than

Vallenger truly deserves, but when the truth about the sup-

posed murder is finally revealed, he repents of his former

actions and is welcomed back by the patient, faithful

Anabell.

In consideration of the motif of the faithful wife as

it is found in The Faire Maide of Bristow, a speech made by

the courtesan Florence is particularly interesting, because

she makes a direct reference to the original story in the

following passage:

138

Will Sentlo leave hir that doth love him so,For thy sake will I go in russet,Liv in a cottage, eat what so thou please,Rather than I will want thy companie,I will be come as mild and dutyfull,As ever Grissell was unto hir lord,And for my constancie, as Lucree was,And if that Sentlo will but live with me.11

Even a cursory glance at the role which Anabell plays

in the drama reveals how closely she conforms to the stand-

ards which characterize the faithful wife; Anabell, as an

example of the patient, suffering woman, is a more believ-

able and appealing characterization than is found in many

of the other plays included in this group of works by

lesser-known and anonymous writers. In some respects she

is similar to Shakespeare's Juliet, not only because Anabell

first meets the young man who is to become her lover at a

masked ball, but because she, too, is young and has led a

sheltered life under the guidance of her parents.

Anabell's innocence and trust are in direct contrast

to Vallenger's indifference and duplicity. He tries to

excuse his treatment of his wife by saying that he never

loved her, that "our fathers made the match"1 2--a statement

which is neither a valid excuse nor a sound explanation,

because he wooed Anabell with great ardor. When Vallenger

and Florence seek to move Anabell to wrath by asking her to

llThe Faire Maide of Bristow (author unknown),Huntington Galleries Reprint, Sig. A 4r.

12Ibid., Sig. C 2r.

139

make a present of her new gown to Florence, Anabell complies

willingly with their request, explaining that what is hers

is also her husband's. When Sir Godfrie, Anabell's father,

and Sir Eustace, Vallenger's father, become aroused at

Vallenger's despicable treatment of his wife, Anabell does

not add words of condemnation to theirs, but rather she

blames herself for all that he has done, and she remains

hopeful that in time he will see the error of his ways and

return to her. When Anabell has learned of Vallenger's

scheme to have her poisoned, even this does not serve to

deter her in her attempt to have him pardoned of the crime

of which he is accused; in the speech which she makes to

the King, Anabell expresses a thought which is directly

parallel to that found in the earliest versions of the story

of patient Griselda:

To try my patience, all that he did or gave,Or did contrive conserneth me,His act was my allowance.Now since my selfe, accuse not, but excuseSince she that was supposed to be wronged,Doth right that wrong, be iust and set him

free,For I protest I know no injury.1 0

Anabell gives proof of her deep love for Vallenger and

her uncomplaining forgiveness of him when she offers to be

executed in his place; this final act of devotion and for-

giveness ecuals and perhaps surpasses anything done by the

women heretofore discussed in relation to the motif of the

13Ibid., Sig. E ly.

140

faithful wife. In the characterization of Anabell, the

unknown author of The Faire Maide of Bristow has created a

woman who is the epitome of unselfishness and forgiveness.

Another of the several plays of this period in which

the figure of the faithful wife appears with that of the

prodigal is The London Prodigat written in 1604 and pub-

lished in 1605. In the first quarto William Shakespeare

was named as the author of this work, but a careful study

of the play reveals the improbability of this statement;

the play reveals nothing of the concept of human character

which is characteristic of Shakespeare, and in none of his

works is found a close counterpart for the character of

Flowerdale, the prodigal. In the play's portrayal of life

in contemporary London and in its use of the vernacular, it

shows a certain similarity to works by Marston and Dekker;

there exists a parallel between Luce in this play and

Franceschina in The Dutch Courtesan in that they both speak

a curious Dutch-English. In the play, the unknown author

shows an acquaintance with the details of ordinary, common-

place life, and the work was popular and well-received when

it was presented by Shakespeare's Company.14

The plot of the play develops in detail the motif of

the prodigal son. Flowerdale, Senior, worried about his

son's extravagances, appears in disguise to observe

1 4C. F. Tucker Brooke, editor, The ShakespeareApocrypha, p. xxx.

141

first-hand the life which his son, Matthew Flowerdale, is

leading. The boy is an extremely despicable person; he

borrows money and refuses to repay it, he makes boasts

which he cannot fulfill, he gambles, he swaggers, and he

desires only to carry out his own selfish whims. In order

to win the hand of Luce, he tells Sir Lancelot Spurcock,

father of the girl, that he has made out a will which '

bequeaths all of his vast fortune to Luce and her father;

the impressed and greedy Sir Lancelot, believing that the

young gallant is wealthy, decides to force Luce to marry

him, even though she is in love with another man.

Flowerdale soon begins to give evidence of his true nature;

he squanders his fortune and becomes almost a beggar, and

probably he reaches the lowest point in his moral decline

when he tries to rob members of his betrothed's family.

As he and Luce leave the church after their wedding cere-

mony, Flowerdale is arrested for his attempted crime by the

sheriff, and he is to be sentenced to prison; Luce begs for

his release, which is granted, and then she disappears.

Flowerdale continues to lead a riotous life, and when he

sees the pretty Dutch maid whom his sister-in-law has

hired, he makes evident his lewd intentions toward her,

never realizing that the Dutch girl is none other than

Luce. When Flowerdale is accused of murdering his wife by

Sir Lancelot, Luce forsakes her disguise, and Flowerdale is

so overcome by her loving faithfulness and enduring patience

142

that he decides to mend his ways and become a respectable

gentleman and conscientious husband. In this respect the

play contains an interesting analogy to two other works,

The Dutch Courtesan and The.Faire Maide of Bristow, because

in all three works the husband is unjustly accused of

murder.

Excellent delineation of character and well-executed

plot-structure are responsible for the fact that The London

Prodigal is a play which is a superior presentation of the

motif of the prodigal son; the author is sensitive to the

changes in character of the prodigal, and these modulations

in Flowerdale's nature are described in a realistic and

skillful manner. The character of the faithful wife is a

favorite foil for that of the prodigal, because in describ-

ing the prodigal's treatment of his wife, a writer can

illustrate clearly many of the vices and sins commonly

attributed to the prodigal. The unknown author of this

work seems to be implying that faithfulness is an attribute

which comes automatically to a woman immediately after mar-

riage; although Luce has been forced by her father to marry

Flowerdale, her loyalty to him makes itself evident soon

after the marriage vows are given. It is interesting to

note that this play differs slightly from others which com-

bine the same motifs in that Flowerdale has completely

deteriorated in character when he marries Luce; in several

other plays, the husband does not fall into a life of

143

debauchery and wickedness until after the marriage, which

in itself is often the impetus and excuse for his downfall.

Luce adheres closely to the pattern of the faithful

wife, with the one exception that her faithfulness is

resultant from her marriage vows, rather than from a deep,

sincere love for her husband. She explains the motive

which is responsible for her faithfulness in the following

speech:

He is my husband, & hie heauen doth know,With what vnwillingnesse I went to Church,But you inforced me, you compelled me too

it:The holy Church-man pronounced these words

but now:I must not leaue my husband in distresse.Now I must comfort him, not goe with you.15

When Sir Lancelot discovers that Luce intends to

remain Flowerdale's wife, he threatens her with disinherit-

ance, but this does not deter her; she explains her hus-

band's wild deeds in the following way:

Impute his wildnesse, syr, vnto his youth,And thinke that now is the time he doth

repent:Alas, what good or gayne can you receiue,To imprison him that nothing hath to pay?And where nought is, the king doth lose

his due:0, pittie him, as God shall pittie you.1 6

Luce does not abandon her husband even when he

harangues her, takes her money, and sardonically tells her

15 The London Prodigal (author unknown), III, iii,I27-)32.0

16Ibid. , III, iii, 200-205.

144

to resort to prostitution as a means of obtaining more

money for him to gamble away. She accepts all his male-

dictions without complaint and determines to remain faith-

ful to him. She sees in his actions an implication that

his treatment of her is the result of some inadequacy on

her part; her sincerity and her deep respect for her hus-

band are shown in the following passage:

Luc. 0 M(aister) Flowerdale, if too much griefeHave not stopt vp the orgens of your voyce,Then speake to her that is thy faithful

wife:Or doth contempt of me thus tye thy tongue?Turne not away, I am no AEthyope,No wanton Cressed, nor a changing Hellen:But rather one made wretched by thy losse. 17

Luce's unexpected and unmerited faith in Flowerdale

works a transformation in the spendthrift, and he promises

to quit his gambling, swearing, and careless living. This

play has more merit than some other works with similar

themes, because the adroit characterizations of Luce and

young Flowerdale lend additional interest to a skillfully

drawn plot. Because of his craftsmanship in careful delin-

eation of character, and because of his superior ability to

write poetic passages, the unknown author of' The London

Prodigal succeeded in depicting effectively an incident

from contemporary London society in which the prodigal is

transformed by the love of his faithful, patient wife; this

17Ibid., V, i, 311-317.

145

play possesses an air of realism which makes it appear to

be a true dramatization of a real life happening.

The Wise Woman of Hogsdon is the last of the five

plays written in 1604 in which the character of the faith-

ful wife appears in combination with that of the prodigal

son; its author was Thomas Heywood, who was one of the best

of the minor dramatists of the Elizabethan period. In this

play, as in others by the same author, the plot is unfolded

in a skillful manner, the speeches are filled with realism

and spirit, and the play moves with an ease and spontaneity

which is unusual in the minor works of this period. The

Wise Woman of Hogsdon has a plot which is technically

clever, although it is complicated by the fact that two of

the leading women characters have the same name; it was a

popular play with the Elizabethan audiences, who by this

time were tboroughly familiar with the stock characters

which it presents.

The action of the play centers around the antics and

love affairs of young Chartley, a man described aptly in

the dramatis person as "a wild-headed gentleman." After

deserting an innocent and trusting young country lass, the

Second Luce, on the eve of their wedding day, he goes to

London, falls in with a band of boisterous young gallants,

and quickly adapts himself to their carefree way of life.

He falls in love with Luce and asks for her hand in mar-

riage; he requests that she tell no one about the wedding,

146

explaining that he does so out of fear that his father will

disinherit him if he marries at this time. Luce goes to

Hogsdon to see the "wise woman" for the purpose of engaging

a priest, who is a friend of the fortune-teller, to perform

the wedding ceremony. The old woman does not like the

swaggering Chartley, and when the Second Luce, who has dis-

guised herself as a boy and come to London in search of her

one-time lover, suggests that they play a trick on him, the

fortune-teller agrees. The wedding is performed, but

another couple is married at the same time and the four

people are masked; instead of the intended matches, Luce is

married to Boyster, a man who is straightforward and very

sincere in his love for her, and the Second Luce, once

spurned by Chartley, is married to him. Because of the

success of the chicanery, it is Luce, rather than the true

wife of Chartley, the Second Luce, who is heart-broken when

he announces his intention to desert his wife and marry

Gratiana, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy nobleman.

The Second Luce is undaunted by this added obstacle to her

desire to regain her lover; she forces Chartley to reveal

his adulterous plan, and then the old woman explains about

the marriages. Luce is so incensed at Chartley's behavior

that she is overjoyed when she learns that it is Boyster to

whom she is married, and Chartley is so impressed by the

Second Luce's tenacious love for him that he is moved to

repentance.

147

It is interesting to note that both Luce and the

Second Luce exhibit some of the characteristics of the

faithful wife. The Second Luce resorts to deeds rather

than words to express her faith in Chartley and her love

for him; Luce engages in a more passive campaign, but the

sentiments, which she expresses when her love for Chartley

is tried by his affair with Gratiana, place her in the

category of the faithful wife.

As was true of Griselda in some of the earliest ver-

sions of the story of her marriage and its trials, Luce is

a shy and modest girl; she does not even like to sit out-

of-doors where she may be seen by strangers. She is chaste

and virtuous, and Chartley knows that she will engage in no

illicit love affair with him, but that he must marry her

before she will allow him to express his love for her; this

is parallel to the situation which existed between James

and Ida in James IV. Luce agrees to Chartley's plea that

they be married secretly, but she is sorely troubled by the

thought of the gossip which is sure to follow; she gives

Chartley a large sum of money, since she is much infatuated

with the man to whom she believes she is married. When she

learns that Chartley intends to marry Gratiana, she is

heart-broken and bewildered, but she realizes that her own

secret marriage to him would be difficult to prove. She

exhibits admirable spirit and strength when she gives the

148

following explanation in regard to her belief in her own

innocence and faithfulness:

And I a project in my brain begot,To make his own mouth witness to the worldMy innocence, and his incontinence.Leave it to me, I'll clear myself from

blameThough I the wrong, yet he shall reap the

shame.18

This desire for retribution on Luce's part is not

characteristic of the faithful wife, but in other respects,

such as her moral virtue and innocent trust, she is similar

to the prototype of the patient woman.

The Second Luce is a girl of high spirit and forward-

ness of manner; she desires so deeply to marry Chartley

that not only does she come to the city to look for him,

but she even resorts to the aid of the "wise woman" in

order to dupe him into marriage with her and to unite Luce,

her rival, in marriage with another man. She is nonplused

by the appearance of a second rival, Gratiana; she is suc-

cessful in bringing about a marriage between Gratiana and

Sencer, a gentleman and a scholar. Her faith and ever-

growing love for Chartley is a revelation to him and causes

him to recognize her as his "first love and best beloved,"19

and he imputes his follies to his youth. Thus, not only

18Thomas Heywood, The Wise Woman of Hogsdon, edited by

J. Addington Symonds, TEe~Mermaid Series, IV, ii, p. 305.All references to this work will include act, scene, andpage number as in this edition.

19Ibid., V, iv, p. 326.

149

does the Second L4ce finally win the man whom she loves,

but she is responsible for the marriages of two other

couples; she is one of the most interesting, determined,

and spirited representatives of the type of woman known as

the faithful wife#

Because of great similarities between the plots of A

Yorkshire Tragedy and The Miseries of Inforst M

these plays should be considered in relation to each other,

as well as to other plays in which the motif of the faith-

ful wife appears. The two plays differ slightly with

regard to one element in the plot: The Miseries of Inforst

Marriage, like the other works hitherto considered in this

chapter, combines the motif of the faithful wife with that

of the prodigal, whereas A Yorkshire Traged presents the

conflict between the faithful wife and a jealous, tyranni-

cal husband.

These two plays are both representative of the dramatic

form known as the domestic tragedy, or the "murder play,"

which was exceedingly popular from 1590 to 1610. As was

frequently the case, an actual murder is described in one

of these plays; in the other play the same incident, but

only up to the time of the crime, is the basis of the plot.

On April 23, 1605, Walter Calverley, a wealthy land-owner

in Yorkshire, fatally stabbed two of his sons and tried to

kill both his wife and a third son. This was but the cul-

mination of an unhappy life for Calverley, because he had

150

been forced to give up the girl whom he loved and marry a

girl whom his guardian had chosen for him; his marriage had

been jeopardized by his excessive drinking and gambling.

After some delay he was brought before the judge and sen-

tenced to death; he was executed on August 5, 1605. On

June 12 Nathaniel Butter published a popular tract on the

subject, which was followed on August 25 by a sequel which

told of Calverley's execution. A ballad on the subject was

issued by another publisher, Thomas Pavyer or Pauvier, at

the same time. 2 0

The Miseries of Inforst Marage was written by George

Wilkins; it was both registered and-published in 1607.21

The author of A Yorkshire Tragedy is not so easy to identify.

It was entered on the Stationers' Register in May, 1608, as

"A Yorkshire Traged written by Wylliam Shakespeare." It is

quite possible that Shakespeare's name was associated with

the one-act play by an enterprising publisher in order to

accelerate its sale; however, it is regrettable that the

play was ever attributed to Shakespeare, because scholars

have been more eager to disprove his authorship than they

have been to evaluate the play itself. Frederick Fleay, a

20"Walter Calverley," Dictionary of National Biography,edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, Vol. III (1908).

2 1 E. H. C. Oliphant, editor, Shakespeare and His FellowDramatists, p. 26.

22 Ibid., p. 25.

151

noted Shakespearean scholar, suggests the possibility that

A Yorkshire Tragedy was written by Edmund Shakespeare,

assisted by his brother William: this would account in part

for the fact that William Shakespeare was named as author.23

Until the time that the identity of the author can be proved

conclusively, the work will remain in the list of anonymous

plays. The play has been classified quite understandably as

a tragedy; The Miseries of Inforst Ma e is considered to

be a problem play.

Wilkins' work, a full-length play with twenty separate

characters, covers the period in Calverley's married life

up to 1604; thus he was able to give his play a happy end-

ing. Scarborow is Wilkins' portrayal of Calverley; Clare

Harcop is the girl whom he loves and is forced to give up;

Kathryn is the girl whom he marries; Calverley's guardian

becomes Sir William Scarborow in the play. In A Yorkshire

Tragedy, which is a one-act play with ten scenes, only a few

characters have actual names; three serving-men are called

Oliver, Ralph, and Samuel. The nomenclature for the

remainder is merely Wife, Husband, Master of a College,

Little Boy, et cetera. The author followed very closely

the actual murder-case in the writing of this play.

In each play appears the character of the faithful

wife, and in each version she is not the woman whom her

23Frederick Gard Fleay, A Chronicle History of the Lifeand Work of William Shakespeare, p. 303.

152

husband would have chosen to marry had the decision been

left to him. In A Yorkshire Tragedy, the Wife is cruelly

reviled and harangued by the Husband, blamed for all his

misfortunes, and unjustly accused by him of being a strum-

pet. She is always patient and respectful, and she tries

to help him in every way that she possibly can. She over-

comes her pride and goes to her uncle, whom she persuades

to give her husband a job; her uncle would not have granted

her request had he been aware of the Husband's cruel treat-

ment of his wife. Instead of being grateful to her, as he

should have been, the Husband curses the Wife even more

vehemently. When a visitor brings the news that the

Husband's brother has been imprisoned for his relative's

debts, the Husband goes berserk and kills two of his three

sons and wounds his wife and a third son. Even though she

is heartbroken over the loss of her children, this does not

preclude the Wife's experiencing deep, sincere pity and

compassion for her husband:

Oh my sweete Hus-band, my deere distressedhusband,

Now in the hands of vnrelenting lawes .My greatest sorrow, y extremest bleeding,Now my soule bleeds.~1

She forgives him, both for attempting to take her life

and for his unkind treatment of her; her love for him has

24A Yorkshire Tragedy (author unknown), in TheShakespeare Apocrypha, edited by C. F. Tucker Brooke, x,6-9.

153

not diminished because of his cruelty, and she is made more

unhappy by his imprisonment for the murders of the two

children than by his harsh treatment of her; this sentiment

is illustrated in the following passage:

Wife. More wretched am I now in this distresse,Than former sorrows made me.

Dearer then all is my poore husbands life;Heauen give my body strength, which yet is

faintWith much expence of bloud, and I will

kneele,Sue for his life, nomber vp all my friends,To plead for pardon (for) my deare husbands

life.25

A Yorkshire Tragedy is predominantly the study of a

man driven to insanity, not solely by an enforced marriage,

but also by the consequences of his debauchery. The char-

acterizations of the Husband and Wife are done with feeling

and with force, and the play presents the sole example of a

work in which the patient wife undergoes trials and tor-

tures at the hands of a man who is insane.

Wilkins' Kathryn is a more passive character than the

Wife; she seems to have resigned herself to letting

Scarborow continue on his own course. She knows that their

marriage has not been based on love but that Scarborow mar-

ried her at his uncle's insistence. She has tried to live.

up to her husband's demands, but he has no interest in the

marriage. He soon forsakes her for a life with his

25Ibid., x, 64-73.

154

companions, and gambling, f ighting, drinking, and other

like activities fill his days. When he has fallen into the

greatest possible depths of moral degradation and asks very

repentantly that Kathryn forgive him, she is overjoyed and

complies gladly with his wishes:

Ka. Wee kneele, forget, and say if you but lovevs26

You gave vs greefe for future happiness.

This play is no better than several others in which

the motif of the faithful wife is combined with that of the

prodigal; it exhibits very little originality, and the

characterization of Kathryn is probably the poorest, least

attractive presentation of a faithful wife found in the

plays considered in this chapter. It is interesting, how-

ever, to compare this play with A Yorkshire Tragedy in

order to see the differences in presentation of the same

character by two authors.

Several of these works contain similarities to each

other, because it was a common practice among the

Elizabethan playwrights to borrow liberally from the works

of their contemporaries. One of the most common analogues

is the plot device of the husband's being accused of mur-

der, which is found in How a Man May Choose a Good Wife

from a Bad, The Faire Maide of Bristow, and The London

Prodigal; this stratagem was especially valuable, because

26 George Wilkins, The Miseries of Inforst Mariage, inTudor Facsimile Texts, Sig. K 4r.

155

it could be used successfully to demonstrate the patience,

affection, and forgiving nature of the wife. In several

works appears a character who shows a foreign influence in

that he speaks an odd combination of Dutch-English; such a

figure is found in The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll and The

Dutch Courtesan, and Luce in The London Prodigal disguises

herself as a Dutch maid and adopts the same kind of jargon.

In The Dutch Courtesan, The Faire Maide of Bristow, and How

a Man May Choose a Good Wife from a Bad appears the figure

of a harlot, and in the latter two plays occurs an identical

triangle between husband, wife, and mistress. In these two

plays the husband humiliates his wife by exhibiting in pub-

lic a preference for the courtesan, and in both works the

husband plans to poison his wife in order that he might be

free to have an affair with the harlot. It is interesting

to note that in three of these works one of the characters

in each play either knows, or pretends to know, about the

uses of medicine; Dodypoll in The Wisdome of Doctor Dodytoll

is a doctor of rather questionable value, in The Faire Maide

of Bristow Challener disguises himself as a doctor, and in

How a Man Kay Choose a Good Wife from a Bad a doctor con-

spires with Master Arthur in the plot against his wife's

life. The similarities between A Yorkshire Tragedy and The

Miseries of Inforst Mariage are numerous, because each play

is based on the same incident; they differ primarily in

construction and duration of action. In a consideration of

156

the analogues and similarities of these works by the minor

authors of the period, the most important interrelationship

is that all of the plays, with the exception of A Yorkshire

Tragedy, contain the same two stock characters--the prodigal

son and the faithful wife; the story woven around the

debauchery and repentance of the prodigal is very similar

in all cases. Therefore, it was primarily the individual

writer's creative ability and talent for dramatic presenta-

tion which determined whether his work would be a literary

success or be merely a mediocre play built upon two familiar

themes.

From the foregoing discussion it may be seen that not

every play which embodied the motif of the faithful wife

was a good play, because the motif appealed to both the

skilled and the unskilled author. The popularity of this

theme accounts in part for the success of the motif of the

prodigal, because each serves to complement the other.

Part of the value of these plays lies in the fact that they

depict life in contemporary London society, and several of

the authors possessed a thorough acquaintance with life on

the lower levels. This group of plays, all by minor

writers, represent clearly both the popularity of the motif

of the patient, forgiving wife and the type of work which

was presented to the Elizabethan audiences. Even though

some of these plays are of meager literary merit, the very

fact of the appearance of eight of them within a period of

157

seven years attests both to the popularity of the motif

itself and to the ease with which it could be combined with

other literary motifs and incorporated into various dramatic

forms, such as the comedy, the murder play, and the realistic

satire of everyday life.

CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION

When one looks in retrospect at the history of the

motif of the faithful wife and the part which it played in

Elizabethan drama, one may draw several conclusions in

regard to the factors responsible for the singular popu-

larity in that period of this particular literary motif and

the reasons underlying its sharp decline in appeal soon

after the advent of the Stuart period in English drama.

Because the factor of human nature cannot be discounted

when an attempt is made to explain the appeal of a certain

theme in literature, explanations can at best be only

assumptions; however, even a cursory glance reveals the

great popular appeal which the motif of the faithful wife

held for the Elizabethan audiences.

In all likelihood a large part of the Elizabethans who

attended the theaters were to no appreciable degree cogni-

zant of the rich heritage which the motif of the faithful

wife brought to the English drama; they were unaware that

the theme had grown out of a folk tale or that it had been

the source for works by such notable writers as Chaucer,

Boccaccio, and Petrarch. Instead, the playgoers knew only

158

159

that they enjoyed seeing on the stage the portrayal of a

particular type of woman, one whose characteristics were

undying devotion, enduring patience, and boundless faith, a

woman whose love for a man could survive the severest

trials.

The motif of the faithful wife was valuable to the

construction of a play for several reasons. In some plays

the faithful wife was presented from a moral standpoint as

the ideal woman, and playwrights utilized the theme to cast

a favorable light on women. In many instances, however, the

theme was primarily an aid in the characterization of the

husband; therefore, the wife's patience and faith could be

brought out by the actions of a tyrannical, jealous, or neg-

lectful husband, or the faithful wife could be a foil for

the character of the prodigal, in which case her placidity

and saintly patience showed by contrast the depths of moral

degradation to which the prodigal descended before his

repentance and transformation. Playwrights invented a num-

ber of explanations for the wife's enduring love and

patience, and some of these minor variations of the theme

met with great success.

Besides the structural variations of the theme, sev-

eral of the authors who took the motif and incorporated it

into their own works made changes which were less tangible

but equally important in the stock characterization of the

faithful wife by means of their individual styles of

160

writing. Robert Greene, who was the earliest writer in the

Elizabethan period to make use of the motif of the faithful

wife, created women characters who were tender and appeal-

ing, such as Margaret in Friar Bacon and Friar Bungy and

Dorothea and Ida in James IV. A glance at some of

Shakespeare's interpretations of the faithful wife--Julia

in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Helena in All's Well That

Ends Well, Mariana and Isabella in Measure for Measure,

Hermione in The Winter's Tale, or Desdemona in Othello--

reveals the influences upon the motif which resulted from

his understanding and sympathetic portrayal of human nature,

his artistry, and the polished sophistication which adorns

and enhances nearly all of his works. The motif reached

its perfection in the hands of Shakespeare, who ably and

successfully demonstrated that it could be used effectively

in either deep tragedy, such as Othello, or in light comedy,

such as Measure for Measure.

The works of Thomas Dekker illustrate a trend in

Elizabethan drama which had its effect upon the motif of

the faithful wife; there was a turning away from the roman-

tic, the far-removed, and playwrights began to look around

them in their own contemporary society for situations and

characterizations which would provide the germ for success-

ful dramatizations. The writers became aware of the evils

which lurked in everyday life, especially that of the lower

classes, and their works were designed to point out these

161

social problems. Representative of a play written in

accordance with this new trend is Dekker's The Honest Whore,

in which the repentance and transformation of a harlot,

Bellafront, are portrayed not only with realism but also

with sympathetic understanding; the play is important in

this study of the motif of the faithful wife because Dekker,

unlike Shakespeare and Greene, shows that such a woman is

not limited to the upper classes in society but may be

found in the lowest class. Dekker is noteworthy in the

history of this literary motif for two other reasons; in

The Honest Whore he reversed the situation usually found in

conjunction with the motif of the faithful wife and created

the character of Candido, the patient, long-suffering hus-

band of a shrewish wife, and he collaborated with Henry

Chettle and William Haughton in the writing of Patient

Grissil, a play which embraces in dramatic form all the

aspects of the story of patient Griselda as it was related

by Chaucer and Boccaccio and is therefore the most thorough

treatment of the theme which appeared on the Elizabethan

stage.

Some of the lesser-known playwrights of the Elizabethan

period were successful in interpreting effectively the

character of the faithful wife. When John Marston cleverly

satirized his contemporary London society in The Dutch

Courtesan, he used the character of Beatrice, his variation

of the faithful wife, in effective contrast to that of

162

Franceschina, a malicious, incestuous harlot. In The Wise

Woman of Hogsdon, the author, Thomas Heywood, presented

with a commendable degree of skill two characters, Luce and

the Second Luce, both of whom were patterned after the

patient wife.

The motif of the faithful wife was used even in the

murder play, a genre of which The Miseries of Inforst

Mariage and A Yorkshire Tragedy are exemplary. Probably

the poorest plays in which the motif appeared were The

Faire Maide of Bristow and The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll,

two anonymous works which are plagued by poor construction,

repetition, verbosity, and an evident lack of dramatic

skill on the part of their respective authors. How a Man

M Choose a Good 1ife from a Bad is perhaps the best of

the plays by anonymous authors; with this play, the motif

of the faithful wife shows a tendency to take on new pro-

portions, because in this work, as in no other, Mistress

Arthur, the faithful wife, is lauded and upheld as the

good, the ideal wife.

To a majority of the Elizabethan playwrights, the bor-

rowing of an incident or a particular characterization from

the work of some other author was both customary and proper,

and the dramatists were quick to capitalize upon end to

adapt to their own works any element or device which was

successful in other plays. Such plagiarism helped to

insure the success of the motif, because after it had once

163

achieved popularity through the works of Robert Greene and

William Shakespeare, other writers were not hesitant to

include it in their own presentations.

There is a direct correlation between the works of

Greene and Shakespeare; in all probability Greene was the

greatest single influence on Shakespeare's characterization

of women. Not only is there likelihood that Shakespeare

was familiar with two of Greene's most charming, appealing

heroines--Margaret in Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay and

Dorothea in James IV--but also Greene's style of writing

and method of presentation exerted a powerful influence on

the later writer, especially in the formative years of his

literary career; of special significance is the fact, which

has been discussed earlier in this thesis, that Greene's

prose work, Pandosto, was Shakespeare's direct source for

The Winter's Tale. Therefore, Greene's women, who were

tender, sweet, and sympathetic, became the pattern after

which Shakespeare modeled some of his heroines, such as

Helena in All's Well That Ends Well, Mariana and Isabella

in Measure for Measure, Desdemona in Othello, and Hermione

in The Winter's Tale.

Almost all of Shakespeare's contemporaries were influ-

enced to some extent by the great dramatist's style of

writing and skillful characterizations, and many of the

playwrights tried to duplicate his successes; however,

Shakespeare's profound and sympathetic understanding of

164

human nature and his superior ability as a poet gave to his

works certain qualities which could only be imitated, never

equalled or surpassed.

The plays written around 1600 reveal the influence of

Shakespeare, but they also show interesting analogues and

similarities among themselves in plot and in characteriza-

tion. One of the most interesting interrelationships is

that of the husband's being tried for murder, which may be

found in How a Man May Choose a Good Wife from a Bad, The

Dutch Courtesan, The Faire Maide of Bristow, and The London

Prodigal. In The Dutch Courtesan the husband is accused of

murdering his best friend, but in the other three works, he

apparently is guilty of a crime against the life of his

patient, forgiving wife.

Another interesting analogue in the plays of

Shakespeare's contemporaries is the character of the prodi-

gal, who is a perfect foil for the faithful wife; the man's

riotous, intemperate way of living and his subsequent

repentance provide an excellent contrast with the wife's

faithful love and tender forgiveness. This theme occurs in

The Wisdome of Doctor DodyPoll, How a Man May Choose a Good

Wife from a Bad, The Wise Woman of Hogsdon, The Faire Maide

of Bristow, The London Prodigal, and The Miseries of Inforst

Marriage. In these works various explanations are given for

the husband's unfaithfulness and excesses; he simply does

not love the woman to whom he is married, he is in love

165

with another woman, or he does not possess enough strength

of character to refrain from drinking, gambling, swaggering,

and engaging in illicit love affairs. Another outstanding

similarity is that in three plays--How a Man MAY Choose a

Good Wife from a Bad, The Faire Maide of Bristow, and The

Dutch Courtesan--the strong, pure love of the faithful wife

is contrasted with the licentious passion of a harlot.

The question of the fallen woman and the part she plays

in these various dramas which embody the motif of the faith-

ful wife is a problem which should not be overlooked. In

The Honest Whore the character of Bellafront, who repents of

her sinful ways and becomes a moral upright woman, is made

both admirable and attractive; however, the character of

Franceschina in The Dutch Courtesan presents the opposite

picture of a harlot who is vicious and completely degraded.

The other two outstanding characterizations in this group of

plays seem to come about midway between the extremes repre-

sented by Bellafront and Franceschina; an interesting point

is that the two portrayals point out another relationship

between The Faire Maide of Bristow and How a Man May.Choose

a Good Wife from a Bad, because in each work the actions of

the husband cause the courtesan to exhibit the moral code by

which she lives. Mistress Mary in How a Man May Choose a

Good Wife from a Bad has no scruples about carrying on an

affair with Master Arthur, who is a married man, but she

denounces him when he tells her that he has murdered his

166

wife. A parallel sentiment is expressed in The Faire Maide

of Bristow when Luce allows Vallenger to command his wife

to give her new gown to his mistress, and the harlot is

amused at the wife's unquestioning obedience; however, Luce

refuses to continue her relationship with Vallenger when

she learns that he is accused of murdering his wife.

The group of plays by the minor writers of the

Elizabethan period show many similarities to various works

by Shakespeare; one of the most common analogues is the

friendship between two young men, which appeared first in

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, then in How a Mjan ay Choose a

Good We from a Bad, The Honest Whore, The Dutch Courtesan,

and The Faire Maide of Bristow, and again in another of

Shakespeare's works, The Winter's Tale. A favorite plot

device of Shakespeare's was the heroine's disguising her-

self as a boy, and this stratagem plays an important part

in the action of The Wise Woman of jogdon. That

Shakespeare's extremely successful Romeo _and Juliet exerted

a powerful influence on the dramatists of the Elizabethan

period cannot be denied; The Honest Whore shows a similar-

ity to it in that the two lovers, Infelice and Hippolito,

are united in marriage by a priest who hopes to bring peace

and friendship between the two families which the couple

represent. How a -Man May Choose a Good Wife from a Bad

shows a similarity to Shakespeare's drama by the use in it

167

of a potion which causes a deep, death-like sleep for sev-

eral hours.

The realistic works of Thomas Dekker were an important

influence upon his contemporaries; similarities between The

Honest Whore and The Dutch Courtesan illustrate the trend,

started by Dekker, to dramatize situations from contemporary

life in London. Dekker was also important in the develop-

ment of the motif of the faithful wife because of his col-

laboration in the writing of Patient Grissil, which told in

dramatic form the original story of patient Griselda. It

was this work which made the name of Griselda familiar to

the Elizabethans who, in all probability, had not read the

story of the original faithful wife in its earliest prose

forms.

There are many other similarities and relationships

among these plays, because the writers of the period exerted

a powerful influence on each other; the one fact which is of

utmost importance to this study is that each work included a

characterization of the faithful rife. In some instances

the entire plot was centered around the patient, forgiving

woman, end in other plays she held only a minor position;

because not all the playwrights were equal in ability and

skill, some of the portrayals are more outstanding than

others. Probably the most interesting presentations of the

faithful wife included in this group of plays, the delinea-

tions which represent the highest peak in literary

168

achievement, are Greene's Dorothea in James IV,

Shakespeare's Hermione in The Winter's Tale and Desdemona

in Othello, Dekker'e Bellafront in The Honest Whore,

Heywood's Second Luce in The Wise Woman of Hogsdon, and

Grissil in Patient Grissil, the result of Dekker's collabo-

ration with Chettle and Haughton. Each characterization

has tender warmth and appealing reality; each represents a

writer's attempt to create a woman whose love and patience

are as boundless as her power to forgive. These six char-

acterizations illustrate the heights of literary merit to

which the motif of the faithful wife was elevated in the

period of Elizabethan drama.

It is interesting to speculate on the reasons which

account for the decline in popularity of this motif; it was

limited in the main to the Elizabethan period, because

there are very few instances of its appearance in the fol-

lowing Stuart period. Perhaps its rapid climb to popular-

ity was responsible in part for its subsequent decline;

taking advantage of the popular appeal of the theme, play-

wrights flooded the stage with presentations of it, and the

audiences may simply have become tired of it. Another rea-

son for its decline in popularity may have been that the

taste of the audiences became more sophisticated as the

years went on, and the character of the simple, sweet, lov-

ing wife was no longer attractive. The plays characteristic

of the Stuart period are the somber tragedies of murder and

169

revenge, the sophisticated comedies which were the fore-

runner of the comedy of manners, and the sensational works

in which the worst qualities in human nature are emphasized

and satirized; the motif of the faithful wife could not be

incorporated easily into any of these dramatic forms.

Therefore, the change in the literary tastes of both

the audiences and playwrights of the Stuart period caused

the motif to fall into disuse, and the character of the

faithful wife per se was no longer appealing nor popular;

however, the subsequent decline in popularity in the Stuart

period should not be allowed to overshadow or obviate the

importance of the theme in Elizabethan drama. The motif of

the faithful wife was instrumental in molding the dramatic

concept of womankind, it was responsible for the develop-

ment of one of the best-known stock characterizations in

Elizabethan drama, and it is one of the most interesting

and important threads woven into the tapestry of English

drama.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Plays Studied

Dekker, Thomas, The Honest Whore, Parts I and II, in ChiefElizabethan Dramatists, edited by William AllanNeilson, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911.

Dekker, Thomas, Chettle, Henry, and Haughton, William,Patient Grissil, edited by J. Payne Collier, London,F. Shoberl, 1841.

The Faire Maide of Bristow, London, Thomas Pauyer, 1605(Huntingon Gaalleries photostatic reproduction).

Greene, Robert, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, in The Playsand Poems of Robert Greene, edited by J. ChurtonCollins, II, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1905.

Greene, Robert, James IV, in The Plays and Poems of RobertGreene, Vol. II, Oxford, Clarendon~Press, 1905.

Heywood, Thomas, The Wise Woman of Hogsdon, edited byA. Wilson Verity, The MermaiW Series, New York, CharlesScribner's Sons, 1893.

How a Man May Choose a Good Wife from a Bad, in Old EnglishPlayS, edited by W. Carew Hazlitt, Fourth Edition,Vol.IX, London, Reeves and Turner, 1874.

The London Prodigal, in The Shakesneare Apocrypha, edited byC. F. Tucker Brooke, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908.

Marston, John, The Dutch Courtesan, in Early Seventeenth-Century Plays edited by Harold Reinoehl Walley andJohn Harold Wilson, New York, Harcourt, Brace andCompany, 1930.

Shakespeare, William, All's Well That Ends Well, YaleShakespeare Series, edited by Karl Young, New Haven,Yale University Press, 1924.

Shakespeare, William, Measure for Measure, Yale ShakespeareSeries, edited by Willard Higley Durham, New Haven,Yale University Press, 1926.

170

171

Shakespeare, William, Othello, New Variorum Edition, editedby Horace Howard Furness, Vol. VI, Philadelphia, J. A.Lippincott Company, 1888.

Shakespeare, William, Othello, Yale Shakespeare Series,edited by Tucker Brooke and Lawrence Mason, New Haven,Yale University Press, 1947.

Shakespeare, William, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, YaleShakespeare Series, edited by Karl Young, New Haven,Yale University Press, 1924.

Shakespeare, William, The Winter's Tale, New VariorumEdition, edited by Horace Howard Furness, Vol. XI,Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1898.

Shakespeare, William, The Winter's Tale, Yale ShakespeareSeries, edited by Frederick E. Pearce, New Haven, YaleUniversity Press, 1918.

Whetstone, George, Promos and Cassandra, Parts I and II, inShakespeare's Library, edited by J. Payne Collier,Vol. VI, London, Reeves and Turner, 1875.

Wilkins, George, The Miseries of Inforst Mar edited byJohn S. Farmer, Tudor Facsimile Texts, London, 1913.

The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll, London, Thomas Creede, 1600(Huntington Galleries photostatic reproduction).

A Yorkshire Tragedy, in The Shakespeare Acryha, editedby7C.F. Tucker Brooke, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908.

Works Consulted

Adams, Henry Hitch, English Domestic or, Homiletic Tragedy,New York, Columbia University Press, 1953.

Anders, H. R. D., Shakespeare's Books, Berlin, Georg Reimer,1904.

Boccaccio, Giovanni, Decameron, translated by John Payne,New York, Bibliophilist Library, 1903.

Chaucer, Geoffrey, Cante Tales, edited by T. Tyrwhitt,Vol. II, London, T. White and Co., 1822.

Collins, J. Churton, editor, The Plays and Poems of RobertGreene, 2 vols., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1905.

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Fleay, Frederick Gard, A Chronicle Hi of the Life andWork of William Shakespeare, London, John C. Nimmo,199l!6.

Oliphant, E. H. C., editor, Shakesieare and His FellowDramatists, Vol. I, New York, Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1929.

Schelling, Felix, Elizabethan Drama, Vol. I, Boston,Houghton Mifflin Co., 1908.

Schelling, Felix, Elizabethan Playwights, New York, Harperand Brothers, 1925.

Schelling, Felix, English Drama, New York, E. P. Dutton andCompany, 1914.

Severe, J. Burke, The Literary Relationships of Chaucer's'Clerke's Tale,' New Haven, Yale University Press,1942.

Smith, Goldwin, A History of England, New York, CharlesScribner's Sons, 1949.

Storojenko, Nicholas, Robert Greene: His Life and Works,translated by E. A. Brayley Hodgetts T in The Life andComplete Works in Prose and Verse of Robert~Greene,edited by Alexander B. Grosart, Vol. I, London,Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Ld., 1881-86.

Walley, Harold R., and Wilson, John Harold, editors, ESeventeenth-Century Plays, New York, Harcourt, Braceand Company, 1930.

"Walter Calverley," Dictionary of National Biography editedby Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, Vol. III (1908).

Articles

Cate, Wirt Armistead, "The Problem of the Origin of theGriselda Story," Studies in Phi XXIX (July,1932), 389-405.

Griffith, Dudley David, "The Origin of the Griselda Story,"Univeri of Washington Publications in Language andLiterature, VIII (September, 1931), 1-120.

Hudson, Ruth, "Greene's James IV and Contemporary Allusionsto Scotland," Publications of the Modern LanguageAssociation, XLVII (June, 17)OTT~652-657.

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McNeal, Thomas H., "The Clerke's Tale as a Possible Sourcefor Pandosto," Publications of the Modern LanguageAssociation, XLVII (June, 1950)7T5-460.