^ . >
DRAMATIC FUNCTIONS OF BURLESQUE IN
REPRESENTATIVE RENAISSANCE PLAYS
by
MARTHA SUE SHIPLEY, B.A.
A THESIS
IN
ENGLISH
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Approved
Accepted
May, 1971
Aew- sqz^
AC
T3
1971
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I should like to express my appreciation to Dr.
Joseph T. McCullen, Jr. for his assistance in this study
and for his first suggesting the study to me.
His sug-
gestions and criticism have been invaluable to the study
and to the preparation of this paper.
11
FOREWORD
Although burlesque has been considered a major part
of eighteenth century literature, few have considered its
importance in Renaissance literature.
Those who have made
studies of it have considered it in light of its satiric
function and have often looked upon it merely as a type of
satire.
The drama of the Renaissance has a wealth of burlesque, much of which is aesthetically good.
Aside from
the well-known satiric function, the burlesque performs a
number of other functions.
It creates comedy, heightens
dramatic effect, develops dramatic action, comments upon
or serves as a foil to serious elements, and helps to
develop characterization.
The purpose of this study is
to point out the general dramatic types of burlesque found
in the Renaissance drama and to show that the burlesque is
sufficiently developed and refined to contribute structurally and dramatically to the plays.
The study breaks the burlesque into four dramatic
categories, going from specific parody to general burlesque:
(1) parody of elements within the plays in which the parody
occurs; (2) parody of passages or elements from other
•
•
•
111
plays; (3) burlesque of various ceremonies of life; and
(4) comprehensive burlesque which is the controlling force
of the plays.
The study is in no way exhaustive.
It
does not attempt to survey the subjects of burlesque or
to consider even a major part of the drama which contains
2
burlesque.
Instead, it looks at the burlesque in a
limited selection of the many plays available and analyzes
its dramatic function to prove the thesis that the burlesque in the Renaissance drama is well-developed in its
own rights and that it contributes structurally and aesthetically to the plays in which it occurs.
There is an abundance of burlesque of non-dramatic
literature in the Renaissance plays, but it has been excluded
from this study except where it fits into the other categories because its function is chiefly satiric rather than
dramatic, except for its obvious use to create comedy.
2
For a survey of the subjects of Renaissance burlesque and the plays in which burlesque occurs, see William
John Olive, "Burlesque in Elizabethan Drama" (unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation. University of North Carolina, 1937).
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ii
FOREWORD
I.
II.
iii
TERMINOLOGY
1
THE BURLESQUE TRADITION
5
Burlesque From its Beginning Through
Chaucer
III.
5
Burlesque in Pre-Renaissance Drama
13
Non-Dramatic Renaissance Burlesque
16
THE FUNCTIONS OF BURLESQUE IN RENAISSANCE
DRAMA
Parody of Elements Within the Same Plays
23
. .
23
Parody of Elements from Other Plays
33
Burlesque of Various Ceremonies of Life . . .
43
Comprehensive Burlesque as the Controlling
Force of Plays
IV.
50
CONCLUSION
53
BIBLIOGRAPHY
55
V
CHAPTER I
TERMINOLOGY
A problem arises in definition when one discusses
burlesque and its related subjects, parody, travesty, and
mock poem.
Although the general meanings of the terms are
understood, specific definitions become circular and confusing.
The Oxford English Dictionary uses the terms
burlesque and travesty in its definition or parody, parody
in its definition of travesty, and travesty and parody in
its definition of burlesque.
The exact meaning of the term burlesque is difficult to specify because, at different times, the word has
been used to state different concepts.
The name is derived
from the Italian burla, meaning a joke, but it did not
come into English usage until almost the middle of the
seventeenth century.
V. C. Clinton-Baddeley points out
that in the seventeenth century the meaning of burlesque
was limited to the debasement of classical writers, but
that in the eighteenth century the meaning was expanded to
include the use of grand style for presenting mean
V. C. Clinton-Baddeley, The Burlesque Tradition in
the English Theatre after 1660 (London: Methuen and Company, Ltd. , 1952) , p. W.
2
subjects.
In the nineteenth century the definition was
expanded even more.
Webster's American Dictionary of the
English Language (1828) defines burlesque as "composition
in which a trifling subject or low incident is treated
with great gravity, as a subject of great dignity or importance; or a composition in which the contrast between the
subject and manner of considering it renders it ludicrous
or ridiculous."
This definition is not far removed from
the generally accepted interpretation of today.
Most recent critics consider burlesque as a generic
term for all comedy which is based on both incongruity and
imitation.
Richmond P. Bond gives the clearest and most
comprehensive definition. He says:
The essence of humor lies in incongruity, and
when imitation is added, burlesque is the result.
Burlesque consists, then, in the use or imitation
of serious matter or manner, made amusing by the
creation of an incongruity between style and subject. This inconsistency between form and content,
this opposition between what is said and the way
it is said, is the necessary qualification of burlesque. As a species of indirect satire burlesque
achieves its end by creating a sense of the absurd
because by serious standards the form does not fit
the theme, because the flesh and the spirit are
not one.^
Although burlesque has generally been established
as a generic term, many modern critics make little or no
^Ibid.
3
Richmond P. Bond, English Burlesque Poetry 17001750, Harvard Studies in English, Vol. VI (19 32; reprint
New York: Russell and Russell, Inc., 1964), p. 3.
distinction between it and the other related terms, especially between it and parody.
H. W. Fowler states that
"in wider applications the words are interchangeable."^
George Kitchin says that they are undistinguished in modern
usage and that he will use them "for variation."^
However,
Bond gives a thorough consideration and arrives at clear
definitions.
He divides burlesque into "high," that which
"fixes the style above the subject," and "low," that which
"places the subject above the style"; and he defines the
types of burlesque as follows:
The travesty lowers a particular work by applying
a jocular, familiar, undignified treatment, and
the Hudibrastic poem uses the same procedure on
more general matter, the difference being one of
particular and general. The parody mimics the
manner of an individual author or poem by substituting an unworthy or less worthy subject,
and the mock poem copies the manner of a general
class of poetry without specific reference to a
poet or poem, again the difference being one of
strictness of imitation. Thus the travesty and
the parody imitate some definite work or style;
the Hudibrastic and the mock poem are more general in their approach.6
With slight modification, the terms are employed in
this paper according to the distinctions made by Bond.
It
4
H. W. Fowler, Modern English Usage (2nd ed., revised
by Sir Ernest Cowers; New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1965), s.v. "burlesque."
George Kitchin, A Survey of Burlesque and Parody
in English (1931; reprint^ New York: Russell and Russell,
1967) , pT ^xxii.
Bond, English Burlesque Poetry, p. 4.
is anacronistic to apply the term Hudibrastic to Renaissance literature since Hudibras was not written until 1668
Therefore the term travesty is applied to the degrading of
elevated material through inferior form, whether it be
specific or general.
The term parody is broadened to in-
clude what Bond calls mock poems, because, as Olive points
out, in Renaissance literature it is often hard to tell
whether a writer is parodying a specific work or burles7
quing a popular literary style.
For instance, if an
author parodies the style of Euphues, it is impossible to
determine whether the author has in mind Lyly's work or
simply the style of writing to which critics have applied
the word Euphuism.
Therefore, if there is a definite
humorous imitation of phraseology or style, even though a
specific author or work cannot be identified, the imitation is considered parody.
The term burlesque is applied
to any comedy based on incongruity and imitation, and as
such is used interchangeably with parody, travesty, and
mock poem.
7
•• •
Olive, "Burlesque in Elizabethan Drama," p. viii.
CHAPTER II
THE BURLESQUE TRADITION
Burlesque From its Beginning Through Chaucer
Burlesque in both dramatic and non-dramatic writings
has an ancient lineage in world literature.
The Greeks
are given credit for being the first to employ a direct
burlesque.
An author of uncertain identity burlesqued
Homer in the mock-epic Battle of the Frogs and Mice (150
B.C.) by presenting mice and frogs engaged in heroic combat.
Even earlier Aristophanes had made burlesque popular.
His The Frogs (405 B.C.) is the first great burlesque
drama.
Through the literary contest between Aeschylus and
Euripides, Aristophanes satirized the works of the authors:
Dionysus:
I mean a man
VJho'll dare some novel venturesome conceit, ^
Air, Zeus's chamber, or Times's foot, or this
"Twas not my mind that swore; my tongue committed
A little perjury on its own account."^
Aristophanes is parodying three passages of Euripides. The third is an expansion of a famous line in the
Hyppolytus.
Aristophanes, "The Frogs," Five Comedies of Aristophanes , trans, by Benjamin Bickley Rogers and cd. by
Andres Chiappe, Doubleday Anchor Books (Garden City, New
York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1955), p. 87.
Aristophanes satirized sophist educational instruction
in The Clouds (423 B.C.) , and he caricatured high ambition
in The Birds (414 B.C.).
Though most of his burlesque
dealt with topical matters, he began the tradition of
poking fun at classes rather than personalities.
Plautus, the famous Latin writer, is significant
in the burlesque tradition.
He used characters such as
stupid fathers of households, formidable wives, idle sons,
scheming servants, and foolish-acting lovers—characters
who have been popular burlesque figures throughout literature.
As Burleson
points out, Plautus's Pseudolus (191
B.C.) set the style for the burlesque character of the sly
servant and his inept master:
Calidorus
(almost in tears)
But I'm heartbroken!
Pseudolus
(still hauling, though without much effort)
Harden your heart.
Calidorus
(piteously)
No, impossible.
Pseudolus
(as before)
Do the impossible.
Calidorus
Pseudolus
Start.
(dumbly)
I'm to start the impossible?
How?
(as before)
Fight your heart. Turn your mind to
what's good. Heart's in tears? Close
your ears!
Noyce Jennings Burleson, "The Knight of the Burning Pestle: A Showcase of Burlesque Techniques" (unpublished Master's thesis, Texas Technological College, 1968),
p. 11.
Calidorus
(sadly and thoughtfully)
Oh, that's nonsense. A lover must act
like a fool. Otherwise it's no fun.
Pseudolus
(giving up the hauling and throwing up his
hands in disgust)
Since you won't stop this drool—
Calidorus
(taking him by the arm, piteously)
My dear Pseudolus, please! Let me
stay just a fool!4
This passage also plays up the ridiculous behavior of
lovers, a subject which has been exploited by writers of
burlesque in all ages.
Nigel Wireker was one of the first writers of burlesque in English.
His Speculum Stultorum (1180) is a
burlesque allegory of the religious institutions of the
day.
It is the story of the ass Burnellus, who seeks a
way to elongate his tail.
His adventures with the doctors
of Salerno, his years of study at the University of Paris,
and his founding of the Order of the Ass satirize ambitious monks and ridicule church Orders, especially the
Benedictine Order of which Wireker was a member.
Chaucer, the most important English writer of the
Middle Ages, has an important position in the burlesque
tradition.
The Canterbury Tales offer numerous examples
of burlesque.
The two best known fabliaux of the Tales,
the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale, are based on
Plautus, "Pseudolus," Six Plays of Plautus, trans.
and ed. by Lionel Casson, Anchor Books (Garden City, New
York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1960), p. 2G4.
8
burlesque of the courtly love tradition.
Tale is a parody of the Knight's Tale.
The Miller's
It contains the
same love triangle as the Knight's Tale, but it replaces
the majestic, flowing style of the Knight's Tale with
5
quick, episodic action.
The Tale depends on a distortion
of the traditional courtly lovers for much of its comic
effect.
Alisoun is a country parody of the courtly lady,
and she is described in terms of farm imagery:
As any wezele hir body gent and smal.
A ceynt she werede, barred al of silk,
A barmclooth eek as whit as morne milk
But of hir song, it was a loude and yerne
As any kyde or calf folwynge his dame.
Hir mouth was sweete as bragot or the meeth.
Or hoord of apples leyd in hey or heeth.
Wynsynge she was, as is a joly colt, g
Long as a mast, and upright as a bolt.
Absalom is also a distorted figure.
He has a red complex-
ion, grey eyes, a small and proper stature, and a gentle
voice—the characteristics of the courtly heroine rather
than the courtly lover.
7
The Reeve's Tale parodies courtly love conventions.
The "courtly lady" is certainly not of noble birth.
She
is the daughter of a miller, and her mother is the
Joseph John Mogan, Jr., Lecture given m
seminar at Texas Tech University, Fall, 1970.
Chaucer
^Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Miller's Tale," The Works
of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. by F. N. Robinson (2nd ea.; Carabridge, Mass.: Riverside Press of Houghton Mifflin Company, 1957), p. 49.
7
Mogan lecture.
illegitimate daughter of a priest.
The "courtly lovers"
are Northern hicks who are simply fulfilling carnal desires
rather than seeking any sort of beauty or elevation of
spirit, the fruits of a courtly love relationship.
Also,
Allyn sings to Molly a morning song which parodies the
courtly love aubade.
Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas is a spoof of the
metrical romance.
It presents in doggeral verse an effemi-
nate knight's enamourment of a fairy queen, whom he has
never seen, and his inglorious encounter with Sir Oliphant
(elephant), a giant with "hevedes three."
As F. N. Robin-
son points out, nearly every line of the Tale recalls some
figure, incident, or stylistic trick of the romances and
8
9
makes it ridiculous.
Various critics
have asserted that,
in addition to the literary burlesque, the Tale is a social
burlesque of the Flemish knighthood.
The whole piece is
preposterous, and Chaucer makes the verse so bad that it
becomes unbearable for the pilgrims and the host cries out,
"For the love of God, no more of this," and the tale is
cut short.
The Nun's Priest's Tale is a burlesque on several
^F. N. Robinson, ed., The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer,
p. 12.
^See, for example, John M. Manly, "Sir Thopas: A
Satire," Essays and Studies by Mombors of the English Association, collected by Caroline F. E. Spurgeon, XlTl (Oxford
Oxford University Press, 1928), 52-73.
10
levels.
It is especially important because it is the
earliest mock-heroic poem in English and perhaps the most
important one until Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1714).
Chaucer presents his characters and their actions in the
grand epic style.
Chaunticleer is described in great
detail as if he were an epic hero:
A yeerd she hadde, enclosed al aboute
With stikkes, and a drye dych withoute.
In which she hadde a cok, hight Chauntecleer.
In al the land of crowyng nas his peer.
His voys was murier than the murie orgon
On messe-dayes that in the chirche gon.
Wei sikerer was his crowyng in his logge
Than is a clokke or an abbey orlogge.
His
And
His
Lyk
His
And
coomb was redder than the fyn coral.
batailled as it were a castel wal;
byle was blak, and as the jeet it shoon;
asure were his legges and his toon;
nayles whitter than the lylye flour
lyk the burned gold was his colour.•'•^
In trying to convince Pertelote of the significance of his
dreams, Chaunticleer recounts in the manner of an epic
catalogue a number of historical figures to whom dreams
were important.
The list includes Saint Kenelm, who fore-
saw his own murder in a dream; Hector, whose wife dreamed
that he would be slain; and Joseph and Daniel, Biblical
figures who interpreted dreams.
Chaunticleer's comparing
himself to these figures as if his case could be comparable
to theirs heightens the mock-epic tone of the Tale.
When the fox captures Chaunticleer, Chaucer compares
^^Chaucer, "The Nun's Priest's Tale," The Works of
Geoffrey Chaucer, pp. 199-200.
11
the screaming of Pertelote and the other hens to that of
ancient heroes' wives when their husbands were cut down
in battle:
Certes, swich cry ne lamentacion.
Was nevere of ladyes maad whan Ylion
Was wonne, and Pirrus with his streite swerd.
Whan he hadde hent kyng Priam by the herd.
And slayn hym, as seith us Eneydos,
As maden alle the hennes in the clos,
Whan they had seyn of Chauntecleer the sighte.
But sovereynly dame Pertelote shrighte
Ful louder than dide Hasdrubales wyf.
Whan that hir housbonde hadde lost his lyf,
And that the Romayns hadde brend Cartage.
She was so ful of torment and of rage
That wilfully into the fyr she sterte.
And brende hirselven with a stedefast herte.
O woful hennes, right so criden ye
As, whan that Nero brende the citee
Of Rome, cryden senatoures syves
For that hir husbondes losten alle hir lyves, . .
11
The Nun's Priest's manner of relating the Tale contributes to the epic tone.
He describes the. fox as an
enemy of great magnitude, comparing him to Judas, Genelon,
the traitor in the Song of Roland, and Simon, the deviser
of the Trojan horse.
He also interjects a long discussion
of divine foreknowledge, a popular subject of the fourteenth
century.
The discussion has little to do with the actual
story, but its presence lends a serious air to the Tale.
At the most intense moment of the Tale, when Chaunticleer
is caught by the fox, the Nun's Priest pulls out all the
rhetorical stops in recounting the misfortune.
His high-
flown declamation and his use of apostrophe bring the
•'••^Ibid. , pp. 204-205.
12
grandiose tone of the burlesque to its greatest heights:
O destinee, that mayst nat been eschewed!
Alias, that Chauntecleer fleigh fro the hemes!
Alias, his wyf ne roghte nat of dremes!
And on a Friday fil al this meschaunce.
O Venus, that art goddesse of plesaunce,
Syn that thy servyce dide al his poweer,
Moore for delit than world to multiplye.
Why woldestow suffre hym on that day to dye?
O Gaufred, deere maister soverayn.
That whan thy worthy kyng Richard was slayn
With shot, compleynedest his deeth so score.
Why ne hadde I now thy sentence and thy loore.
The Friday for to chide, as diden ye?^^
The Nun's Priest's Tale also parodies courtly love
by bringing it to the barnyard.
Chaunticleer is the typi-
cal courtly lover proudly displaying his talents to win
his lady's favor; and Pertelote is the courtly lady,
"curteys, discreet, and debonaire," and is the object of
Chaunticleer's courtly affections.
Several critics 13 have viewed the Nun's Priest's
Tale as a parody of the Monk's Tale, which immediately
precedes it.
Pride precedes Chaunticleer's fall, just as
it precedes the falls of the tragic figures which the Monk
recounts.
The Tale of Sir Thopas and the Nun's Priest's Tale
together are a landmark in the burlesque tradition.
They
establish the birth of burlesque as a device governing the
•^^Ibid. , p. 204.
13
See, for example, Samuel B. Hemingway, "Chaucer's
Monk and Nun's Priest," MLN, XXXI (December, 1916), 479483.
13
development of a work.
Although burlesque had long been
used to accomplish a secondary purpose or effect, these
two works mark the beginning of the appearance of burlesque
as the primary motive for the creation of a work in English
literature.
Burlesque in Pre-Renaissance Drama
Burlesque first appears in English drama in the medieval religious drama.
In the Townley Second Shepherds' Play,
the most famous English play before the Renaissance, the
first part is a comic parallel to the second part, the conventional Pastores, and is considered by some critics
be a burlesque of the nativity.
to
Mak, a notorious sheep
stealer, steals a lamb from three Yorkshire shepherds, conceals it in a cradle, and pretends that it is a baby to whom
his wife has just given birth.
The shepherds bring gifts to
the supposed infant and discover that it is their stolen
sheep.
The play has a mock noel.
After the angel sings
his song announcing the birth of Christ and v/ithdraws, the
shepherds attempt to imitate the song:
II. Pastor. Say, whac was his song?/
Hard ye not how he crakyd it,
Thre brefes to a long?/
III. Pastor.
Yee, mary, he hakt it;
Was no crochett wrong,/ nor no-thyng
that lakt it.
See, for example, Martin S. Day, Historv of English
Literature to 1660, Doubleday College Course Guides (Garoon
City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1963), pp. 117-118.
14
I, Pastor. For to syng vs emong,/ right
as he knact it.
I can.
II. Pastor. Let se how ye croyne.
Can ye bark at the mone?^-^
Likewise, the comic morality play Mankind (1475)
includes a mock noel.
Although the play has the framework
of the morality plays, its emphasis is on buffonery and
indecency.
Among the obscenities preferred to Mankind by
New-gyse, Now-a-dayes, and Nought is a "Crystemes songe."
Nought requests the audience to join in the song:
Now I prey all the yemandry that ys here
To synge with ws with a mery chere.^^
The song is of such gross coarseness that it is omitted
in some editions.
Olive points out that there is a burlesque church
ritual in The Conversion of Mary Magdalene.
After the
priest of Mahomet and his boy have quarreled, the boy
recites a mock ritual, which ends with a song in which
the priest joins him. 17
The religious burlesque of the Middle Ages carried
over into the Renaissance.
There is a burlesque litany
in John Bale's King Johan and at the end of Ben Jensen's
Cynthia's Revels.
A mock requiem appears in Nicholas
Udall's Ralph Roister Doister and in Every Woman in her
15
"The Shepherds," Chief Pre-Shakespearean Dramas,
ed. by Joseph Quincy Adams (Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside
Press of Houghton Mifflin Company, 1924), 11. 656-662.
"^^"Mankind," Ibid. , 11. 326-327.
17
Olive, "Burlesque in Elizabethan Drama," pp. 4-5.
15
Humour.
And Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus contains
a parody of the papal malediction.
Henry Medwall's Fulgens and Lucrece (1497), the
first secular drama in English, has the first burlesque
subplot in an English play.
The primary plot of the play
concerns a Roman senator's daughter Lucrece and her selection of a suitor.
She promises to marry one of two suitors,
one of noble birth and the other of poor stock but great
virtue.
The two plead their cases before Lucrece, and she
promises to give her decision by letter.
To assist in their
wooing, the suitors each acquire a servant.
These servants
become rivals for the favor of Joan, the handmaid of Lucrece,
and the burlesque version of the main theme appears.
Joan
promises to accept the suitor who can show the most mastery
whether in cookery or chivalry, and she encourages the men
to compete with each other in singing, wrestling, and jousting.
The competition ends in a burlesque duel, after which
Joan announces that she plans to marry another and beats
both servants for their efforts.
While the primary plot of the play is little more
than a medieval debate on what makes a gentleman, the subplot anticipates the comic technique of Renaissance plays
such as Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Fulgens and Lucrece
has an important place in the burlesque tradition because it
forms a link between the unrefined burlesque of the medieval
religious drama and the highly developed burlesque of
16
the drama of the Renaissance.
Non-Dramatic Renaissance Burlesque
Although burlesque is most frequently found in the
drama of the Renaissance, it is also present in the nondramatic literature of the period.
There are numerous
examples, but for purposes of illustration I will discuss
only three.
One of the most significant non-dramatic burlesque
works is John Beaumont's The Metamorphosis of Tobacco
(1602).
It is perhaps the best drawn mock-heroic poem
between Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale and Pope's The Rape
of the Lock.
The poem recounts two legends which describe
the origin of tobacco.
The first legend explains that when
Prometheus laments the injustice of his suffering and the
incompleteness of his work, the elements, under the leadership of earth, create tobacco, a plant which has the capacity to give immortality.
Angered by the conspiracy of
Prometheus and the elements and fearful that the earthlings
might become immortal, Jove banishes the plant to America,
an unknown continent.
The Graces find it and, delighted
with its peaceful effects, abandon Europe.
In order to
bring the Graces back to Europe, a group of people discover
America and bring tobacco to Europe.
The second legend
tells that roaming the hills of Virginia is a nymph so
beautiful that the sun becomes ashamed to shine except upon
the ocean.
Jove decides to investigate after finding out
17
why the sun refuses to shine; and seeing the nymph, he
disguises himself as a shepherd and attempts to assault
her chastity.
In a jealous rage, Juno transforms the
nymph into an herb.
Having supreme power over the gods,
Jove invests the plant with "heau'nly powers" and makes
it "a Micro-cosme of good."
The content of the poem is obviously much like that
of the Greek and Roman epics.
The transformation of
people into plants, the conflicts between earthlings and
gods, and the arguments among the dieties are certainly
integral parts of the ancient legends.
What creates the
burlesque in Beaumont's poem is his praise and high-flown
epic treatment of tobacco as a source of supreme good and
supernatural powers against the background of the first
important tobacco controversy in Europe.
Beaumont's poem is written in the grandiose style,
and it makes full use of epic machinery.
The author begins
his poem with the formal address of the epic:
I sing the loues of the superiour powers.
With the faire mother of all fragrant flowers:
From which first loue a glorious Simple springs,
Belov'd of heau'nly Gods, and earthly Kings.
Let others in their wanton verses chaunt
A beautious face that doth the senses daunt.
And on their Muses wings lift to the skie
The radiant beames of an inchaunting eye.
Me let the sound of great Tabaccoes praise
A pitch aboue those loue-sicke Poets raise.-L°
don:
18
John Beaumont, The Metamorphosis of Tobacco (LonImprinted for John Flasket, TCC'Tf, B. 1.r .
18
The poem also includes a long, high-flown invocation of
the muse, although Beaumont's muse is none other than the
herb tobacco:
Breath-giuing herbe, none other I inuoke
To helpe me paint the praise of sugred smoke:
Auant base Hypocrite, I call not thee.
But thou great God of Indian melodie,
Which at the Caribes banquet gouern'st all,
And gently rul'st the sturdiest Caniball;
Which at their bloodie feasts dost crowned fit.
And smok'st their barking iawes at eu'ry bit:
Which lead'St the Circle of a sauage round
With iarring fongs, and homely musicks found:
Which to fond mirth their cruell minds dost frame.
And after with a pleasing sleepe dost tame:
By whom the Indian Priests inspired be.
When they presage in barbrous Poetrie:
Infume my braine, make my foules powers subtile,
Giue nimble cadence to my harsher stile:
Inspire me with thy flame, which doth excell
The purest streames of the Castalian well.
That I on thy ascensiue wings may flie
By thine ethereall vapours borne on high.
And with thy feathers added to my quill
May pitch thy tents on the Parnassian hill.
Teach me what power thee on earth did place.
What God was bounteous to the humane race.
On what occasion, and by whom it stood,
,Q
That the blest world receiu'd so great a good.
Beaumont employs the traditional epic simile in describing
the plant that the elements create.
He compares its capac-
ity for giving immortality to the Phoenix, the famous
immortal bird:
The man that tasted it should neuer die.
But stand in records of eternitie:
And as the ashes of the Phoenix burn'd
Into another lining bird are turn'd.
^Ibid. , B.l.r.-B.2.r.
19
So should the man, that takes this sacred fume.
Another life within himselfe resume.20
Beaumont goes even further and says that lolaus, the only
man that ever had two lives, gained his second life from
tobacco:
So lolaus, when his first was done,
^,
His second life was of Tobacco spunne.
The poem also contains epic catalogues.
One of the best
examples is the listing of the contributors and their contributions to the creation of the plant:
The Icy waues were all with Christall fraught:
The Magellanick sea her vnions brought:
Tagus with golden gifts doth proudly rise.
And doth the famous Indian rills despise:
Eridanus his pearl'd Electrum gaue:
Euripus the swift fluxure of his v;aue:
From British seas doth holesome Corall come:
The Danish gulfe doth send her Succinum:
:um
And each this hoped embryon dignifies
With offring of a seu'rall sacrifice. 22
In addition to the mock-heroic, there is parody in
the non-dramatic literature of the Renaissance.
For in-
stance, Marlowe's poem "The Passionate Shepherd to his
Love" is parodied by Sir Walter Raleigh's "The Nymph's
Reply to the Shepherd" and by John Donne's "The Bait."
Marlowe's poem is an invitation to his love to share the
joys of life with him:
^^Ibid., B.4.V.
Ibid.
^^Ibid., B.4.r.-v.
20
Come liue with mee, and be my loue.
And we will all the pleasures proue.
That Vallies, groues, hills and fieldes.
Woods, or steeple mountaine yeeldes.
And wee will sit vpon the Rocks,
Seeing the Sheepheards feede theyr flocks
By shallow Riuers, to whose falls
Melodious byrds sings Madrigalls.
And I will make thee beds of Roses,
And a thousand fragrant poesies,
A cap of flowers, and kirtle,
Imbroydred all with leaues of Mirtie.
A gowne made of the finest wooll,
Which from our pretty Lambes we pull,
Fayre lined slippers for the cold.
With buckles of the purest gold.
A belt of straw and luie buds.
With Corall clasps and Amber studs.
And if these pleasures may thee moue.
Come liue with mee, and be my loue.
The Sheepheards Swaines shall daunce and sing
For thy delight each May-morning.
If these delights thy minde may moue.
Then liue with mee, and be my loue.^3
Sir Izaak Walton states that Raleigh's poem is a
reply by a milkmaid's mother. 24 In the first stanza, the
nymph uses Marlowe's words in replying that if conditions
were as they are not, she would accept the shepherd's invitation:
Christopher Marlowe, "The passionate Sheepheard
to his loue," The v;orks of Christopher Marlowe, ed. by C
F. Tucker Brooke (Oxford: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press, 1910).
^^Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler (New York:
Modern Library of Random House, n.d.), p. 100.
21
If all the world and loue were young.
And truth in euery Sheepheards tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me moue.
To liue with thee, and by thy loue.^J
The nymph proceeds to tell the shepherd that conditions
will not be as he says they will and that his delights are
transient.
In Stanza V, the nymph again uses Marlowe's
words in saying that the delights hold no intrigue for her:
All these in mee no meanes can moue.
To come to thee, and be thy loue.2"
In the last stanza the nymph repeats her statement that,
if conditions were different, she would consider his invitation:
But could youth last, and loue still breede.
Had ioyes no date, nor age no neede,
Then these delights my minde might moue,
To liue with thee, and by thy loue.27
Donne's poem parodies Marlowe's in style and meter.
Donne uses the same four-line iambic tetrameter stanza that
Marlowe does; and his poem, like Marlowe's, is an invitation.
The first two lines of Donne's poem are a close
parody of Marlowe's opening lines:
Sir Walter Raleigh, "The Nimphs reply to the
Sheepheard," The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh, ed. by Agnes
M. C. Latham (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951),
11. 1-4.
^^Ibid., 11. 19-20.
^'^ibid. , 11. 21-24.
22
Come live with mee, and bee my love, ^Q
And wee will some new pleasures prove;
but, instead of describing the delights that the couple
may enjoy together as Marlowe does, Donne compliments the
lady by comparing her to, of all things, fish bait.
He
says that when the lady goes fishing, she will need no
bait or fishing equipment because she is so beautiful that
the fish will be bewitched and will swim to her.
Donne
ends his poem with the humorous comment:
That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,
Alas, is wiser farre then 1.29
Although the non-dramatic burlesque of the Renaissance is important, burlesque reached its height in the
drama of the period.
In the drama it became a part of a
whole and took on a dramatic character to perform specific
dramatic functions.
John Donne, "The Baite," The Complete Poetry of
John Donne, ed. by John T. Shawcross, The Stuart Editions,
ed. by J. Max Patrick (1967; reprint. New York and London:
New York University Press and University of London Press,
Limited, 1968), 11. 1-2.
^^Ibid., 11. 27-28.
CHAPTER III
THE FUNCTIONS OF BURLESQUE IN RENAISSANCE DRAMA
Parody of Elements Within the Same Plays
Often in Renaissance plays there is a comic element
which parodies a serious element in the play in which it
occurs.
These parodies usually heighten the dramatic
effect of the serious element or make some comment upon
it.
Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1592)
scenes
has two burlesque
which serve as foils to or comments upon the main
action of the play.
One of the most important scenes in
the play is Scene iii, Faustus's first interview with
Mephistophilis.
Faustus sends word to Lucifer that he is
willing to surrender his soul if he can have twenty-four
Dates of the Renaissance plays are taken from Alfred
Harbage, Annals of English Drama 975-1700 (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940).
^The editions of Doctor Faustus vary greatly in
arrangement and division of the text. The edition used for
this study is "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus,"
English Drama 1580-1642, ed. by C. F. Tucker Brooke and
Nathaniel Burton Paradise (Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1933), which divides the play into scenes. Some
editions divide the play into different scenes; others
divide it into acts and scenes; and still others use no
division at all.
23
24
years with unlimited sensual pleasures and Mephistophilis
as his personal attendant.
The following scene is a parody
of this interview and agreement.
Wagner, Faustus's servant
who also has learned to conjure up devils, meets a clown
and tries to bind the clown to him for seven years.
He
threatens to have lice tear the clown apart, and he calls
up two devils, Balio and Belcher.
The clown finally agrees
to serve him, if he will teach him to raise the two devils
and to turn himself into anything.
In Scene vii Faustus and Mephistophilis go to Rome.
Mephistophilis makes Faustus and himself invisible, and
the two play clownish tricks in the Pope's palace.
At a
banquet they snatch dishes and cups from the Pope, box his
ears, and beat and fling fireworks at the friars who try
to exorcise the evil spirits.
burlesque of this scene.
Scenes viii and ix are a
Robin, the ostler, having stolen
one of Faustus's conjuring books, promises his servant
Rafe that he v/ill perfoinn miracles.
He steals a silver
goblet from a vintner and tries to hide his theft by incantations.
Mephistophilis enters, sets squibs about, and
frightens Robin so much that he returns the goblet to the
vintner and asks forgiveness of the devil.
But Mephistoph-
ilis is so angered at having to come from Constantinople
and at Robin's presumptuous offer to pay him sixpence tor
his supper and his trouble that he transforms Robir. into
an ape and Rafe into a dog.
25
The burlesque scenes in Doctor Faustus are important
to the play because they help to point out the folly of
Faustus's actions.
Wagner's ability to conjure up devils
and gain power through black magic points out the futility
of Faustus's agreement with Mephistophilis.
Faustus decides
to involve himself with black magic because he desires to
be more powerful than anyone else and to be admired for
his power; but, since uneducated servants can also perform
black magic, Faustus is accomplishing nothing that cannot
be done by mere servants.
Robin's foolish use of black
magic to hide the goblet that he should not have had in the
first place parodies Faustus's making himself invisible at
the Pope's palace; and it emphasizes how foolishly Faustus
has used his power, the power that he has wanted so that
he can be wiser than anyone else.
The effect of burlesque
in Doctor Faustus is a heightening of an ironic mood, permm^mm^mm-^mm^mmmii^mmmm.^mm^'mmmma^^^^m^^^i^m^
haps the most distinctive characteristic of the play.
Like Doctor Faustus, Shakespeare's Othello (1604)
uses burlesque to heighten a serious mood.
In Act I,
Scene iii, the Duke tries to comfort Brabantio in his agony
over Desdemona's elopement with the Moor.
Although the
Duke has good intentions, his attempt to comfort Brabantio
falls short of being sympathetic and consists of only highflown philosophy and proverbs:
When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
26
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes.
Patience her injury a mockery makes.
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.^
Brabantio answers the Duke, parodying his consolation:
So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile;
We lost it not, so long as we can smile.
He bears the sentence well that nothing bears
But the free comfort which from thence he hears.
But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow
That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
These sentences, to sugar, or to gall.
Being strong on both sides, are equivocal:
But words are words; I never yet did hear
That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear.
Brabantio's terseness toward the Duke makes clear his suffering and his inability to be consoled by platitudes.
The parody makes Brabantio's agony more poignant and
heightens the dramatic effect of the situation immediately
preceding Brabantio's confrontation with Othello.
In Shakespeare's As You Like It (1599), burlesque
is used as a foil to help maintain a balance, which is
the basis of the play, between country and court and
between idealized courtly love and unromantic physical
love.
Two instances of parody are particularly important,
and in both. Touchstone is the key character.
In Act II,
Scene iv, after overhearing Silvius's declaration of love
3
William Shakespeare, "Othello, the Moor of Venice,"
The Complete \7orks of Shakespeare, ed. by Hardin Craig
(Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 19 51),
I.iii.202-209.
^Ibid., I.iii.210-219.
27
for Phebe, Touchstone declares that he once loved a milkmaid.
He says that he was so completely overcome with
love that with his sword he attacked a stone on which his
sweetheart sat, because he was jealous of anyone else or
anything else coming near her; and he kissed the udders of
the cow her hands had milked.
When he could not be with
her, he wooed a pea plant instead of her.
He fondled two
peapods from the plant and, returning them, addressed the
plant:
"Wear these for my sake."
In Act III, Scene ii. Touchstone parodies one of
Orlando's extravagant love poems about Rosalind.
Disguised
as Ganymede, Rosalind enters reading one of the poems which
she has found carved on a tree:
From the east to western Ind,
No jewel is like Rosalind.
Her worth, being mounted on the wind.
Through all the world bears Rosalind.
All the pictures fairest lined
Are but black to Rosalind.
Let no fair be kept in mind
But the fair of Rosalind.^
Unimpressed by Orlando's verse. Touchstone retorts that
he could write continuously in that style for eight years,
"dinners and suppers and sleeping hours excepted"; and to
prove his point, he rattles off in the same meter a poem
which satirizes rather than compliments Rosalind:
If a hart do lack a hind.
Let him seek out Rosalind.
^Shakespeare, "As You Like It," The Complete Works
of Shakespeare, III. ii.92-100.
28
If the cat will after kind.
So be sure will Rosalind.
Winter garments must be lined.
So must slender Rosalind.
They that reap must sheaf and bind;
Then to cart with Rosalind.
Sweetest nut hath sourest rind.
Such a nut is Rosalind.
He that sweetest rose will find
Must find love's prick and Rosalind.
Touchstone's ridiculous love affair with the milkmaid (probably imaginary) pokes fun at the idealized romantic love of Silvius.
The giving of the peapods as a keep-
sake to the pea plant parodies Rosalind's giving Orlando
a chain from her neck in Act I, Scene ii; and Touchstone's
substitution of the plant for the milkmaid parodies Rosalind's scheme in which Orlando uses her, disguised as the
youth Ganymede, as a substitute for his sweetheart.
Touch-
stone's parody of Orlando's poor verse acts as an antidote
to the sentimentality in the romanticized love of Orlando
and Silvius.
His comment, "dinners and suppers and sleeping
hour excepted," points out his realism and his concern with
practical matters and counteracts the idealism of some of
the other characters.
The ruling objective of Touchstone's
parodies is to give a sense of balance to the play and to
avoid the excessive sentimentality of romanticized love
and the supposed idealism of the forest.
In Shakespeare's I Henry IV (1597), Prince Hal and
^Ibid. , III.ii.107-109.
29
Falstaff parody the interview which occurs between Hal and
Henry IV later in the play.
The parody gives insight into
the character of Falstaff, and it serves as a foil to the
real interview.
Hal has been called to appear before his
father at court the following morning, and Falstaff suggests
that they enact the interview so that Hal can practice an
answer.
Choosing a chair for the throne, his dagger for a
sceptre, and a cushion for his crown, Falstaff accepts the
role of Henry IV with great ease and delight.
He mimicks
the dignity of the King and delivers a castigation of Hal
for his choice of companions.
His speech is stilted, and
it travesties the antithetical style of Euphuism:
Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest
thy time, but also how thou art accompanied: for
though the camomile, the more it is trodden on
the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is
wasted the sooner it wears. That thou art my
son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly my
own opinion, but chiefly a villanous trick of
thine eye and a foolish hanging of thy nether
lip, that doth warrant me. If then thou be son
to me, here lies the point; why, being son to me,
art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of
heaven prove a micher and eat blackberries? a
question not to be asked. Shall the son of England prove a thief and take purses? a question
to be asked. . . . ^
Falstaff eliminates himself from the group of Hal's low
companions in attempt to safeguard his own position:
"there
is a virtuous man whom I have often noted in thy company.
"^Shakespeare, "The First Part of King Henry the
Fourth," The Complete Works of Shakespeare, II.iv.439-462.
30
but I know not his name."
He then cleverly pays tribute
to himself:
A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent;
of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye and a most
noble carriage; and, as I think, his age some
fifty, or by'r lady, inclining to three score;
and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff:
if that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth
me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks. . . .
When Hal impetuously decides that he wants to play
his father, he and Falstaff change roles.
Hal indicts
Falstaff mercilessly, and Falstaff brilliantly defends
himself.
Instead of denying Hal's charges against him,
he defends the charges themselves:
If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the
wicked! if to be old and merry be a sin, then
many an old host that I know is damned: if to
be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine
are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto,
banish Bardolph, banish Poins: but for sweet
Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack
Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore
more valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff,
banish not him thy Harry's company, banish not
him thy Harry's company: banish plump Jack, and
banish all the world.^
The parody contributes significantly to the characterization of Falstaff.
It supports his overall character
as an individual living in a world of make-believe, and it
points out his ability to make himself the center of the
stage in any situation.
His defense of himself demonstrates
^Ibid., II.iv.464-470.
^Ibid., II.iv.516-527.
31
his love of life and his good nature toward everyone about
him.
The parody demonstrates Falstaff's versatile wit,
the quality which endears Falstaff to Hal.
Through contrast the parody heightens the dramatic
effect of the real interview between Hal and Henry IV.
With Falstaff, Hal is frivolous and he concentrates on
having a good time; but with his father, he is serious and
totally concerned with the affairs of state.
The parody
and the real interview combined provide a balanced view of
Hal's character, and they foreshadow Hal's being a prudent
and conscientious ruler as king in Henry V.
Like I Henry IV, Shakespeare's A Midsummer-Night's
Dream (1595) has burlesque in the form of a play-within-aplay which parodies a serious element in the drama.
The
play-within-a-play is a comic interlude, based on the Pyramus and Thisbe legend, which is performed at the celebration of the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta at the end
of the play.
It presents the tragic side of unfortunate
love, but is presented in such a ridiculous way that the
result is a complete farce.
When Quince gives his prologue, he places the pauses
in the wrong places and delivers it so badly that he says
the opposite of what he means:
If we offend, it is with our good will.
That you should think, we come not to offend.
But with good will. To show our simple skill.
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider then we come but in despite.
32
We do not come as minding to content you.
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here. That you should here repent you.
The actors are at hand and by their show
,^
You shall know all that you are like to know.
Classical allusions are made ludicrous by their being confused and mispronounced.
Cephalus and Procris become
Shefalus and Procrus; Thisbe becomes Thisby; Ninus becomes
Ninny; and Hero and Leander are confused with Paris and
Helen and become Lemander and Helen.
Abuses in style make the burlesque even more humorous and contribute to the travesty of the Pyramus and
Thisbe legend.
Excess of exclamation such as "0 night; O
wall; O sweet; O lovely wall!" are abundant in the interlude.
Many lines are padded to fill out the meter:
scare away, or rather did affright;" and "O night!
alack, alack!"
"Did
alack,
Also, alliteration is badly abused:
"He
bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast."
In addition, the substitution of characters for
stage props contributes to the burlesque.
Starveling,
who is Moonshine, forgets his lines and has to ad lib in
prose, and he is the subject of some humorous comments by
Theseus and Hippolyta.
Snout, who is Wall, holds his
fingers so that they form the chink in the wall through
which Pyramus and Thisbe whisper.
He is the subject of
some humorous conversation between Bottom and the audience;
"^^Shakespeare, "A Midsummer-Night's Dream," The
Complete Works of Shakespeare, V.i.108-117.
33
and at the end of the play. Bottom, who is supposedly the
dead Pyramus, jumps up to tell the audience that Wall can
take no part in the burial of the dead because the wall
that parted the lovers has been torn down.
The interlude is a parody of the serious theme of
the play, centered mainly around Lysander and Hermia.
Just as all the troubles of the lovers in the woods arise
from the disobedience of Hermia to her father's commands,
so the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe arises from their
refusal to obey their parents.
The burlesque play in A Midsummer-Night's Dream
actually serves a two-fold purpose.
First, it provides
comedy and dissolves the general seriousness of the play.
Second, the rehearsal for the burlesque play helps to
complicate the plot and provides much of the comedy
throughout the play.
The actors' rehearsing in the woods
sets the stage for Puck's changing Bottom's head into an
ass's head, and it enables Bottom to be at the scene when
Titania awakens and falls in love with the first living
creature she sees.
Parody of Elements from Other Plays
In addition to parodies within the same plays,
parodies of passages in other dramas are abundant.
The
most popular sources of these parodies are the bombastic
dramas of the early Elizabethan period.
As Olive points
34
out, the sophistication of the later Elizabethan audiences
made the lack of restraint, the exploitation of the spectacular and melodramatic, and the highly rhetorical language of the earlier bombastic dramas seem extremely crude
and overdone.
But, paradoxically, the popularity of such
plays made them familiar to virtually every playgoer.
Thus, the later playwrights had a wealth of material to
burlesque and an audience unusually familiar with the
subjects of the burlesque.
The most frequently burlesqued of the bombastic
dramas was Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (1587).
As
Olive points out, the parodies of the play indicate that
the audiences must have been familiar with almost every
12
line in its major scenes.
One of the most popular pas-
sages was the speech of Andrea's ghost in the Induction.
The play opens with the ghost's telling Revenge who he
was as a mortal and what events have occurred since his
death:
When this eternall substance of my soule
Did liue imprisond in my wanton flesh,
Ech in their function seruing others need,
I was a Courtier in the Spanish Court.
My name was Don Andrea; my discent.
Though not ignoble, yet inferiour far
To gratious fortunes of my tender youth:
For there in prime and pride of all my yeeres,
By duteous seruice and deseruing love.
"^•'"Olive, "Burlesque in Elizabethan Drama," p. 118.
35
In secret I possest a worthy dame.
Which hight sweet Bel-imperia by name.
But in the haruest of my sommer ioyes.
Deaths winter nipt the blossomes of my blisse.
Forcing diuorce betwixt my loue and me.
For in the late conflict with Portingale
My valour drew me into dangers mouth,
Till life to death made passage through my wounds,,^
The speech is parodied in Thomas Tomkis's Albumazar
(1615).
The rustic Trincalo, having been transformed by
the magic of the wizard Albumazar into the likeness of
Antonio, his absent master, says:
When this transformed substance of my carcase
Did live imprison'd in a wanton hogshead.
My name was Don Antonio, and that title
Preserv'd my life, and chang'd my suit of clothes.
How kindly the good gentlewoman used me! ^.
With what respect and careful tenderness!
The parody provides a humorous comment on what has happened
to Trincalo, and it heightens the comic effect of his transformation.
The ghost's speech is also burlesqued in Francis
Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607).
When
Rafe enters for the last time, he parodies the speech in
reciting his previous exploits in the play:
Thomas Kyd, "The Spanish Tragedie," The Works of
Thomas Kyd, ed. by Frederick S. Boas (revised ed.; Oxford:
Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press, 1955), I.i.1-85.
^"^Thomas Tomkis, "Albumazar," Dodsley's Old English
Plays, ed. by W. Carew Hazlitt, Vol. XI (4th ed.; 1874-1876;
reprint [2 vols, in 1]. New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc.,
1964), IV.vi.p. 386.
36
When I was mortall, this my costive corps
Did lay up Figs and Raisons in the Strand,
Where sitting I espi'd a lovely Dame,
Whose Maister wrought with Lingell and with All,
And under ground he vampied many a boote.
Straight did her love pricke forth me, tender sprig.
To follow feats of Armes in warlike wise.
But all these things I Raph did undertake,
Onely for my beloved Susans sake.
Death caught a pound of Pepper in his hand.
And sprinkled all my face and body ore.
And in an instant vanished away.
I die; fly, fly, my soul, to Grocers' Hall.
O, O, O, Sc-I-S
The parody adds to the comedy of Rafe's mock heroism, and
it heightens the dramatic effect of his death.
Another famous passage in The Spanish Tragedy is
Heronimo's soliloquy after the murder of Horatio:
Oh eies, no eies, but fountains fraught with teares;
Oh life, no life, but liuely fourme of death;
O world, no world, but masse of publique wrongs,
Confusde and filde with murder and misdeeds.
O sacred heauens, if this unhallowed deed.
If this inhumane and barberous attempt.
If this incomparable murder thus
Of mine, but now no more my sonne.
Shall vnreueald and unreuenged passe.
How should we tearme your dealings to be iust.
If you vniustly deale with those, that in your
iustice trust?
16
Heronimo's speech is burlesqued in Albumazar.
In
15
Francis Beaumont, "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," ed. by Cyrus Hoy, The Dramatic Works in the Beaumont
and Fletcher Canon, ed. by Fredson Bowers, Vol. I (Cambridge
The Syndics of Cambridge University Press, 1966), V.277-328.
•"•^Kyd, "The Spanish Tragedie," III.ii.1-23.
37
Act II, Scene i, after Trincalo talks with Armellina,
Antonio's maid of whom he is enamoured, he parodies the
soliloquy and exaggerates the artificiality by beginning
each line with the ending of the last:
O
O
O
O
lips, no lips, but leaves besmear'd with mildew!
dew, no dew, but drops of honey-combs!
combs, no combs, but fountains full of tears!
tears, no tears, but . . . 17
The parody heightens the comic effect of the exchange
between Armellina and Trincalo, and it emphasizes the
dramatic nature of Trincalo.
In the burlesque of the bombastic drama in Albumazar and The Knight of the Burning Pestle, the parodies are
spoken by unsophisticated characters (Trincalo is an ignorant farmer, and Rafe is a grocer's apprentice).
Much of
the comedy in both plays evolves from the incongruity of
their backgrounds and the situations into which they are
placed.
Because the late Elizabethan audiences viewed the
bombastic drama as unsophisticated, the parodies in these
plays help to portray the characters who speak them as
fools and laughing stocks.
Jonson further dev'3loped the use of parody of the
bombastic drama to mark characters as people with crude
and unsophisticated tastes.
In Every Man in his Humour
(1598), Mathew, the "town gull," reading from The Spanish
17
Tomkis, "Albumazar," II.i.p. 327.
38
Tragedy says:
Indeed, here are a number of fine speeches in
this booke! 0 eyes, no eves, but fountavnes fraught
with teares! There's a conceit! fountaines fraught
with teares! O life, no life, but liuely forme of
death! Another! o world, no world, but miasse oF"
publique wrongs! A third! Confus'd and fil'd with
murder, and misdeeds! A fourth! O, the Muses! Is't
not excellent? Is't not simply the best that euer you
heard, Captayne? Ha? How doe you like it?18
In having Mathew reveal that he is impressed by the play,
Jonson presents him as a ludicrous character and makes
his poetic endeavors appear all the more ridiculous.
Although the bombastic dramas were especially subject to being burlesqued, they certainly were not exclusive.
Almost all popular tragedies and many other well-
known plays were burlesqued.
Parodies of such popular
plays as Shakespeare's Richard III (1593), Hamlet (1589),
and Romeo and Juliet (1595) are abundant.
One frequently burlesqued passage in Richard III
is Richard's distressed cry, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"19 For example, in John Marston's What
You Will, Quadratus says, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom
for a horse!/ Look thee, I speak play scraps."20 In
18
Ben Jonson, "Every Man in his Humour," Ben Jonson,
ed. by C. J. Herford and Percy Simpson, Vol. Ill (Oxford:
Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press, 1927), I.v.56-63.
IQ
Shakespeare, "The Tragedy of King Richard the Third,"
The Complete Works of Shakespeare, V.iv.7.
20
John Marston, "What You Will," The Works of John
Marston, ed. by A. H. Bullen, Vol. II (London: John C.
Ninomo, 1887) , II. i . 126-127 .
39
Eastward Ho, the line is changed to "A boate, a boate, a
full hundred Markes for a boate. "^^
used to heighten dramatic effect.
Both play scraps are
In What You Will,
Quadratus uses the play scrap in answer to Lamphatho's
threat that he will "rhyme thee dead."
The play scrap
contributes to Quadratus's tone of mockery.
The parody
in Eastward Ho heightens the effect of Security's chagrin
when he returns home and discovers that his wife is gone.
Olive notes that Hamlet is parodied in Beaumont
and Fletcher's The Woman Hater (1606).^^
One scene which
is parodied is that in which the ghost calls upon Hamlet
to revenge his father's murder:
Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
To what I shall unfold.
Hamlet.
Speak; I am bound to hear.
Ghost.
23
So are thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
In The Woman Hater, Lazarello, the glutton courtier, provides much of the comedy in his efforts to get the fish
head which is passed around among the characters.
Valore
parodies the ghost scene from Hamlet in preparing Lazarello
for the shock that the fish head is gone:
Valore. Lazarello, bestirre thy selfe nimbly and
sodainly, and here me with patience.
21
George Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marston,
"Eastward Ho," Ben Jonson, Vol. IV (1932), III.iv.5.
^^Olive, "Burlesque in Elizabethan Drama," pp. 207-209
23
Shakespeare, "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark," The
Complete Wor]:s of Shakespeare, I.v.6-8.
40
Lazarello. Let me not fall from my selfe; speake I am
bound to heare.
Valore. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt heare.
The fish head is gone, and we know not whither. 24
Another passage in Hamlet which The Woman Hater
parodies is the beginning of the play-within-the-play,
"The Mousetrap."
As the player king and queen enter, the
king recounts how long they have been married, and the
queen hopes they may continue to be married just as long:
Player king. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart
gone round
Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground.
And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen
About the world have times twelve thirties been
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.
Player queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon
Make us again count o'er ere love be done!25
Lazarello parodies the passage in telling the Duke his age;
Full eight and twenty severall Almanackes
Hath been compyled, all for severall yeares,
Since first I drew this breath; foure prentiships
Have I most truly served in this world:
And eight and twenty times hath Phoebus carre
Runne out his yearely course since . . . 26
The Duke interrupts his circumlocutions oration with his
remark, "I understand you Sir."
Both parodies are used to heighten comic effect.
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, "The Woman
Hater," ed. by George Walton Williams, The Dramatic Works
in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon, Vol. I, II.i.342-347.
^^Shakespeare, "Hamlet," III.ii.165-172.
^^Beaumont and Fletcher, "The Woman Hater," II.i.
259-264.
41
In the first parody the use of the serious language to
deliver the humorous message heightens the comedy of the
situation.
In the second parody, Lazarello's use of the
players' speeches to reveal his age helps to characterize
him as a ludicrous courtier.
Fred L. Jones points out that Shakerly Marmion's
27
The Antiquary (1635) burlesques Romeo and Juliet.
In
the well-known balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet, when
Juliet opens the balcony window, Romeo says:
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon.
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
2©
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Seeing Juliet's lips move, though hearing no sound, Romeo
says :
She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.29
Seeing Juliet lean her cheek on her hand, he says:
O, that I were a glove upon that hand.
That I might touch that cheek!"^^
Act II, Scene i, of The Antiquary is a take-off on
this popular scene.
Early in the morning Aurelio brings
^"^Fred L. Jones, "Echoes of Shakespeare in Later
Elizabethan Drama," PMLA, XLV (September, 1930), pp. 798-799
^^Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet," The Complete Works
of Shakespeare, II.ii.2-6.
^^Ibid., II.ii.12-13.
•^^Ibid., II.ii.24-25.
42
musicians to serenade Lucretia.
After the song she appears
on the balcony; but, unlike Juliet, she seems very much
annoyed with Aurelio's attention and speaks harshly to
him.
When she appears, Aurelio says:
What more than earthly light breaks through that
window?
Brighter than all the glittering train of nymphs
That wait on Cynthia, when she takes her progress
In pursuit of the swift enchased deer
Over the Cretan or Athenian hills;
Or when, attended with those lesser stars.
She treads the azure circle of the heavens. ^-^
Although Lucretia is by no means silent, Aurelio follows
Romeo's precedent:
Shine still, fair mistress;
And though in silence, yet still look upon me.
Your eye discourses with more rhetoric
Than all the gilded tongues of orators.^2
Even though Lucretia's actions furnish no occasion for such
a comment, Aurelio continues to imitate Romeo:
O, that I were a veil upon that face,
To hide it from the world! methinks I could
Envy the very sun for gazing on you!^-^
The function of Aurelio's parody is chiefly the
creation of comedy, which stems from the incongruity
between what is said and what the situation calls for.
It
also helps to characterize Aurelio as a love-struck young
man who sees only what he wants to see.
'^•^Shakerley Marmion, "The Antiquary," Dodsley's Old
English Plays, Vol. XIII, II.i.p. 437.
-^^Ibid. , Il.ii.p. 438.
-^^Ibid., Il.ii.pp. 439-440.
43
Burlesque of Various Ceremonies of Life
In Renaissance plays are many burlesques of ceremonies of life with which the Elizabethans were familiar.
The most frequently burlesqued subject of this type is
the ceremony of the church.
Almost every aspect of church
ritual is burlesqued.
In Ralph Roister Doister (1553), a burlesque of
the ritual for the dead is used to heighten comic effect.
Roister Doister thinks that all women are enamoured of
him; and, having wooed many women, he is once again in
love, this time with Dame Custance.
In Act III, Scene iii,
when he is rejected by her, he falls into a feigned swoon;
and Merygreeke, his fun-loving companion, recites over him
a parody of the church service for the dead:
Maister [R]oister Doister will streight go home and
die.
Our Lorde lesus Christ his soule haue mercie vpon:
Thus you see to day a man, to morrow lohn.
Yet sauing for a womans extreeme crueltie,
^A
He might haue lyued yet a moneth or two or three.
Roister Doister interrupts Merygreeke's fun-making with
his melodramatic comment, "Heigh how, alas, the pangs of
death my heart do breake!" and Merygreeke retorts, "Holde
your peace!
For shame, sir! a dead man may not speake."II3 5
The two discuss the number of mourners Roister Doister
"^"^Nicholas Udall, "Roister Doister," Chief PrcShakespearean Dramas, III.iii.54-58.
-^^Ibid. , 59-60.
44
shall have and the distribution of his possessions.
Merygreeke continues the burlesque by calling in Roister
Doister's servants and giving a funeral speech:
Audiui vocem: All men, take heede by this one
gentleman
Howe you sette your loue vpon an vnkinde woman!
For these women be all suche madde, pieuishe elues.
They will not be wonne except it please them-selues.
But, in fayth, Custance, if'euer ye come in hell,
Maister Roister Doister shall serue you as well.
Now lesus Christ be your speede!
Good night, Roger, olde knaue! farewell, Roger,
olde knaue!
Good night, Roger, old knaue! knaue, knap!
Neguando. Audiui vocem. Requiem eternam.
Pray for the late Maister Roister Doisters soule!
Merygreeke then calls for the Parish Clerk to ring the
bells; and the Clerk, Merygreeke, and Roister Doister's
servants sing a mock requiem.
The burlesque church seirvice helps to point out the
melodramatic character of Roister Doister, and it heightens
the comic effect which is characteristic of all his actions
It also helps to show Merygreeke as the witty, fun-making
companion who supports Roister Doister in his folly.
In Shakespeare's As You Like It, a mock marriage
heightens dramatic irony.
In Act IV, Scene i, Orlando pro-
poses to Ganymede (Rosalind), he accepts, and Celia, officiating in place of a priest, marries the two in a mock
ceremony.
A discussion about marriage ensues, and during
"^^Ibid., 75-86.
45
the exchange, Orlando says that his Rosalind would never
behave badly as his wife.
Ganymede replies with the in-
tensely ironic comment, "By my life, she will do as I do." 37
The effect of the mock marriage is a heightening
of the dramatic irony which characterizes the Orlando and
Ganymede (Rosalind) plot throughout the play.
From the
beginning the audience is aware that Ganymede is Rosalind
in disguise and that in wooing Ganymede to rid himself of
his love for Rosalind, Orlando is in actuality wooing
Rosalind.
The mock marriage is the climax to Orlando's
wooing of Ganymede as a substitute for Rosalind, and it
emphasizes that Orlando is actually wooing Rosalind when
he thinks that he is only pretending to do so-
The mock
ceremony also foreshadows the real marriage of Orlando and
Rosalind which takes place at the end of the Fi^YAnother ceremony which is the subject of burlesque
is the judicial process, in Gammer Gurton's Needle (1553) ,
a burlesque court sentence is used in the denouement to
work out the final action of the play.
V7hen Diccon reveals
to Master Bailey and the other characters that he is responsible for all the mix-ups in the play, other than the
original loss of the needle. Master Bailey assures him of
a fair punishment to which the others agree.
To set an
example of good humor, he issues a mock judgment which pokes
^"^Shakespeare, "As You Like It," IV. i. 159.
46
fun at the weaknesses of all the characters involved.
He
waives the usual fee in assault cases and decrees that
Diccon kneel down and take a riddling oath on Hodge's
leather breeches:
First, for Master Doctor, vpon paine of his cursse.
Where he wil pay for al thou neuer draw thy purrse.
And when ye mette at one pot, he shall haue the
first pull.
And thou shalt neuer offer him the cup but it be full;
To goodwife Chat thou shalt be sworne, euen on the
same wyse.
If she refuse thy money once, neuer to offer it
twise,—
Thou shalt be bound by the same here, as thou dost
take it.
When thou maist drinke of free cost, thou neuer forsake it;
For Gammer Gurtons sake, againe sworne shalt thou bee.
To helpe hir to hir nedle againe, if it do lie in
thee,—
And likewise be bound by the vertue of that
To be of good abering to Gib, hir great cat;
Last of al, for Hodge, the othe to scanne,
^g
Thou shalt neuer take him for fine gentleman.
A prankster to the end, Diccon seals the oath by
giving Hodge a sharp whack on the buttocks, and Hodge discovers the missing needle where Gammer Gurton had left it
in her mending.
The mock judgment reestablishes the amiable
relationship which has been destroyed among the characters
as the play progresses, and it provides a basis for the
action which reveals the location of Gammer Gurton's needle.
Thus, all mysteries are solved, and the order which was
present at the beginning of the play is happily restored.
^^Mr. S. [William Stevenson], "Gammer Gurtons Nedle,"
Chief Pre-Shakespearean Dramas, V.ii.274-287.
47
Elizabethans were familiar with the duel, a formal
type of challenge and answer, through their knowledge of
the romances.
A number of Renaissance plays contain either
serious or burlesque duels.
A burlesque duel in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
(1600) heightens the comic effect of the subplot of Olivia's
servants.
When Sir Andrew Agnecheck tells Sir Toby and
Fabian of his jealousy of Cesario (Viola in disguise)
because Olivia has shown favor to Cesario and because
Cesario has skill in handling the language and style of
court.. Sir Toby tells him that since he did not put down
Cesario when he was with him, his only alternative is to
challenge Cesario to a duel.
Andrew agrees and sets out
to compose an angry letter to Cesario.
After he leaves.
Sir Toby and Fabian remark that the duel should be funny,
since Andrew is a coward and Cesario "bears in his visage
no great presage of cruelty."
Andrew gives his letter to Toby to deliver to
Cesario, but Toby decides against delivering it since any
young man of good breeding could tell that it was written
by a "clodpole."
selves.
He and Fabian deliver the challenge them-
They describe Andrew to Viola as a knight of such
courage, strength, and fury that she is terrified.
Toby
then frightens Andrew by telling him that Cesario has been
a fencer to the Sophy.
Both Viola and Andrew try to
escape the match but are prevented from doing so by Fabian
48
and Toby.
The resulting duel is a delightful burlesque
of a duel, with both opponents so reluctant to fight that
they have to be literally dragged into the proper positions.
Both finally draw their swords and are about to attack each
other when Antonio enters and, thinking that Cesario is
Sebastian, demands that Andrew put up his sword.
Thus,
the duel between Cesario and Andrew is ended.
The duel and the actions preceding it perform several
functions in Twelfth Night.
Certainly, their main function
is to produce comic effect.
The gulling of Andrew and his
ridiculous letter challenging Cesario are humorous in their
own rights, and the duel is the climax of the scheme by
Toby and Fabian to make a fool of Andrew.
The burlesque
also helps to develop the character of Andrew.
In the duel
he behaves with as much cowardice as the naturally shrinking, feminine Viola, despite all his boasted training as
a knight.
His egotism and his shallow self-love are shown
in his silly, puffed-up challenge to Cesario.
Through the
burlesque he is shown to be as Toby describes him:
"an
ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave, a thin-faced knave,
39
a gull!"
The duel plays an important part in the development of dramatic action. Antonio's rescue of Viola and
his addressing her as Sebastian let Viola know that her
^^Shakespeare, "Twelfth Night; or. What You Will,"
The Complete Works of Shakespeare, V.i.22.
49
brother is alive and somewhere nearby.
In addition,
Antonio's quick confusion of Sebastian with Viola prepares
the way for Olivia to make a similar mistake later in the
play.
In Jonson's Epicoene (1609), there is in effect a
burlesque of a burlesque.
The burlesque is a duel which
burlesques the duel in Twelfth Night.
Truewit contrives
to pit Sir Jack Daw and Sir Amorous La-Foole against one
another in a duel which exposes their folly.
He tells
each of them that he is going to be attacked by the other,
and he plans the scene so that they will be forced to confront each other.
Neither of them wants the duel; so,
when they are forced to face each other, they both claim
that their servants have their swords to mend the handles.
The burlesque duel parodies the duel in Twelfth
Night in several ways.
Truewit sets up the duel as Toby
does in Twelfth Night for basically the same reason, that
is for comedy which results from exposure of cowardice.
Neither of the partners wants the duel, as does neither
of them in Twelfth Night; and both of them are led to
believe that they will be attacked, as is Viola in Twelfth
Night.
The burlesque duel in Epicoene exposes Daw's and
La-Foole's pretense before the Collegiate ladies, the
people whom they have tried so hard to impress.
The two
reach their lowest level in the play during the dueling
50
scene, excepting the final expose when Epicoene is revealed
as a boy.
Comprehensive Burlesque as the
Controlling Force of Plays
Although burlesque elements are almost unlimited in
Renaissance drama, plays which have burlesque as the controlling force and primary purpose are few.
The best of
these plays is Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle.
The play is truly burlesque for the sake of burlesque.
consists of three main elements:
It
(1) a frame-plot staged
around George, the London grocer, and his family; (2) a
parody of romantic love, called The London Merchant; and
(3) a burlesque romance of chivalry.
The three burlesque
elements are interwoven to create a unified burlesque work.
An audience is assembled to see the play The London
Merchant.
As the Prologue introduces the play, he is
interrupted by George the grocer, who demands a play in
which a common citizen does admirable things.
He then
goes on stage with his wife to devise a play in which their
apprentice Rafe has the heroic role.
Thus, the three ele-
ments of the play are woven together.
They remain inter-
woven throughout the play.
The London Merchant is presented
with some degree of coherence and is really the unifying
thread of the play.
George and his wife comment on the
action throughout the play and periodically interrupt it,
demanding of the acting company that Rafe appear on the
51
stage.
Rafe makes sporadic appearances throughout the play.
His part has no consistency, but there is no need for any.
That his adventures are unconnected heightens the burlesque
effect of his mock heroism.
It is in Rafe's part that the burlesque reaches its
greatest heights in the play.
Rafe appears reading the
romance, Palmerin of England.
So impressed is he with
the knights of old that he resolves to leave his grocer's
shop and pursue feats of arms.
He concludes that he will
be a "Grocer Errant," and that in remembrance of his former
trade he will have emblazoned on his shield a burning pestle and be known as the "Knight oth [sic] burning Pestle."
He chooses the two grocer apprentices for his squire and
dwarf and instructs them in the ways of romantic chivalry:
My beloved Squire, and George my Dwarfe, I charge
you that from hence-forth you never call me by
any other name, but the Right Courteous and Valiant
Knight of the burning Pestle, and that you never
call any female by the name of a woman or wench,
but faire Ladie, if she have her desires, if not
distressed Damsell; that you call all Forrests
and Heaths Desarts, and all horses Palfries.^^
The incongruity in Rafe's part is maintained throughout.
After a misadventure in Waltham Forest, Rafe and his
attendants spend the night at "an ancient castle, held by
the Old Knight of the Most Holy Order of the Bell," otherwise known as the Bell Inn at Waltham and its landlord.
^^Beaumont, "The Knight of the Burning Pestle,"
1.261-266.
In
52
storybook fashion Rafe persists in thanking the landlord
for his lodging, while the realistic landlord insists on
payment.
Rafe then sets out to a cave on a quest to get
rid of a giant named Barbaroso, in actuality a barbersurgeon, and to rescue several wretched prisoners, the
barber's customers, whom the giant has lured to his den
under pretext of curing them of various diseases.
After
he is successful in this adventure, he goes to the King
of Cracovia's house, where the king's daughter falls in
love with him; but he rejects her love because he prefers
Susan, the cobbler's maid of Milk Street.
At the end of
the play, Rafe comes on stage with a forked arrow through
his head, gives a long summary of his virtues and adventures (discussed on page 36), commends his soul to Grocer's
Hall, and piteously dies.
The Knight of the Burning Pestle is the most complete
burlesque drama of the English Renaissance.
Whereas, in
most of the plays, the burlesque fills out the drama and
makes it more developed, without the burlesque in The
Knight of the Burning Pestle, there would be no play.
In
a sense it is a sort of link between the mixture of the
comic and the serious in the drama of the Renaissance and
the burlesque drama of the eighteenth century.
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
Although critics have briefly made reference to
burlesque in Renaissance drama, none has called attention
to any of its functions other than satiric comment. As
this study shows, the burlesque does serve other functions.
It creates comedy, heightens dramatic effect, develops
dramatics action, comments upon or serves as a foil to
serious elements, and helps to develop characterization.
The comedy is effected by an incongruity between what is
said and either or both who said it and the situation surrounding the burlesque.
The burlesque heightens the dra-
matic effect by temporarily stopping the action and by
calling attention to the particular moment in the play.
Burlesque elements comment upon and serve as foils to
serious elements by placing the serious elements in a different situation and by presenting an opposite to them.
The burlesque elements help to develop characterization,
usually that of humorous characters (in either or both the
comic and the Jonsonian sense), by making them admire what
the audience thinks ludicrous or by having them place something from an originally serious situation into a situation
53
54
which makes whatever is wrenched from a more sober context
and the characters look ridiculous; or it emphasizes a
characteristic already established by calling attention to
it.
A study of the dramatic functions of burlesque is
appropriate, because the significance of burlesque in the
dramatic or non-dramatic literature of any period is judged
by the variety of ways in which it contributes to the
literature.
Considered in light of its dramatic functions,
the burlesque in the drama of the Renaissance is certainly
significant.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Texts of Renaissance Plays
Beaumont, Francis. "The Knight of the Burning Pestle."
Edited by Cyrus Hoy. The Dramatic Works in the
Beaumont and Fletcher Canon. Edited by Fredson
Bowers. Vol. Tl Cambridge: The Syndics of Cambridge University Press, 1966.
, and Fletcher, John. "The Woman Hater." Edited
by George Walton Williams. The Dramatic Works in
the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon^ Edited by Fredson Bowers. Vol. I. Cambridge: The Syndics of
Cambridge University Press, 19 66.
Chapman, George; Jonson, Ben; and Marston, John. "Eastward
Ho." Ben Jonson. Edited by C. H. Herford and Percy
SimpsorH Vol. IV. Oxford: Clarendon Press of
Oxford University Press, 1932.
Jonson, Ben. "Epicoene, or The Silent Woman." Ben Jonson.
Edited by C. H. Herford and Percy Simpson. Vol. V.
Oxford: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press,
1937.
. "Every Man in his Humour." Ben Jonson. Edited
by C. H. Herford and Percy Simpson. Vol. III.
Oxford: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press,
1927.
Kyd, Thomas. "The Spanish Tragedie." The Works of Thomas
Kyd. Edited by Frederick S. Boas'! Revised ed.
D3iTord: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press,
1955.
Marlowe, Christopher. "The Tragical History of Doctor
Faustus." English Drama 1580-1642. Edited by C. F.
Tucker Brooke and Nathaniel Burton Paradise. Boston:
D. C. Heath and Company, 1933.
Marmion, Shakerley. "The Antiquary." Dodsley's Old English
Plays. Edited by \;. Carew Hazlitt. 4th ed. Vol. XIII
1874-1876. Reprint (2 vols, in 1). New York: Benjcimin Blom, Inc., 1964.
55
56
Marston, John. "What You Will." The Works of John Marston.
Edited by A. H. Bullen. Vol. II. London: John C.
Nimmo, 1887.
Shakespeare, William. "As You Like It." The Complete
Works of Shakespeare. Edited by Hardin Craig.
Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company,
1951.
. "The First Part of King Henry the Fourth." The
Complete Works of Shakespeare. Edited by Hardin
Craig. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and
Company, 1951.
. "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." The Complete Works
of Shakespeare. Edited by Hardin Craig. Glenview,
Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1951.
"A Midsummer-Night's Dream." The Complete Works
of Shakespeare. Edited by Hardin Craig. Glenview,
Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1951.
. "Othello, the Moor of Venice." The Complete
Works of Shakespeare. Edited by Hardin Craig. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1951.
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