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Jacobean Age - Part 2

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Jacobean Age -
Part 2
The Jacobean era ended with a severe
economic depression in 1620-1626,
complicated by a serious outbreak of
____________in London in 1625 ?

Jonson was also an important innovator in

the specialized literary sub-genre of the…..,
which went through an intense development
in the Jacobean era ?

Who is called the father of English classical

comedy?
A woman killed with kindness is written
by ________
A Woman Killed With Kindness, a
critically acclaimed Renaissance drama
by the renowned playwright Thomas
Heywood, centers around the marriage
between John Frankford and his new
wife, Anne. The couple have a
seemingly perfect marriage, until
Frankford invites Wendoll into their
home to stay as his companion.
Increasingly ignoring his wife, to spend time with
Wendoll, Frankford is unaware of his new
companion’s growing attachment to Anne.

Anne is overwhelmed and seduced by Wendoll,

against her better judgement. However their affair is
brought to light by Frankford’s faithful servant,
Nicholas, and the Frankford household is in
disarray.
Appalled and angered by
his wife’s betrayal,
Frankford chooses to
punish her by shunning
her and refusing to
acknowledge or pay any
attention to his wife.
Anne’s plight is contrasted in the play with the virtuous Susan
Mountford, sister of Sir Charles Mountford. After Charles
unintentionally kills the servants of Sir Francis Acton (Anne’s
brother) in a heated argument, Charles goes to prison. He
manages to buy his way out of jail but, without a penny to his
name, foolishly accepts an overly generous sum of money from
an untrustworthy and false friend. When Charles cannot repay
the debt, he is plunged back into prison once more, only to be
rescued by Francis. In desperation, Charles tries to offer his
sister to Francis, to pay off his debt to him. However, Susan’s
virtue remains intact and Francis proves his good character by
discharging Charles’ debts and marrying Susan of his own free
will. However, Anne’s fate is not so favorable. Alone and
distraught, she starves herself in misery until, at death’s door,
Frankford reunites with his wife as she dies in his arms. Hotly
debated and frequently re-envisioned, Heywood’s tragedy
explores marriage, women’s sexuality and social position in the
seventeenth century.
The play GAME OF CHESS was
written by ________

Who said that England emerged as

a puissant and a noble nation,
arousing herself as a strong man
after a long sleep?_________

POLITICAL ARITHMETIC is
today known as _________
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine; Drink to me only with thine eyes -
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
a lyric of _______________
And I’ll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth
rise
Doth ask a drink divine; Whom did Ben Jonson attack in
But might I of Jove’s nectar sup,
THE POETASTER?
I would not change for thine.

Shakespeare acted in which play of

Jonson?
Father of classical comedy in
England?

Subtitle of VOLPONE is ______

Epicene subtitle?

Jonson’s TIMBER or
DISCOVERIES is __________
 Timber, his most
important prose "Timber, or Discoveries
work, includes Made Upon Men and
extensive Matter" (1641)
discussions of the
drama.
Introduction: Jacobean English literature during the reign of
Age James I - 1603-1625 came to be
known as the Jacobean literature

- The term derived from

JACOBUS the Latin word for
James
Introduction: Jacobean There was much rejoicing when James I
Age ascended the throne after the
uncertainties of succession that riddled
Queen Elizabeth’s last years

In contrast to the optimism and promise

of the Elizabethan era Jacobean
literature is coloured by darker,
doubting tones
Introduction: Jacobean Elizabethan literature was experimental
Age expansive and sometimes ingenuous in
fairly close touch with medieval
traditions yet energized by the inspiring
spirit of the Renaissance. Jacobean
literature on the other hand is critical,
sombre and somewhat cynical, the court
became the centre of culture
Leading figure: Ben Jonson

- Theory of humours: 4 humours,

blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile
and therefore 4 types of humours
were created

- Forms of literature: sonnet gradually

declined and went out of fashion in
the Jacobean period
Introduction: Jacobean Comedy of humours:
● A dramatic genre associated with Ben Jonson
Age
and the term humor is derived from the Latin
word which means liquid
● Originally a medical term, humours were the
fluids which were believed to regular the body
and by extension the human temperament
● This theory can be traced to the ancient times
about 4 distinct bodily fluids: blood, phlegm,
black bile and yellow bile
● An imbalance of these fluids or humours causes
a personality disturbance
● Jonson’s EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR
popularized the comedy of humours
Introduction: Jacobean - Revenge plays popularized by
Age Webster

- King James Bible- huge

translation project- 1604-1611,
standard Bible of the church of
England , led by James I himself
with 47 scholars
 Donne’s poetics: Radical break from
Introduction: Jacobean
petrarchan tradition , “ Donne has
Age
purged English poetry of pedantic
weeds” according to Carew, Donne
replaced SERVILE IMITATION with
FRESH INVENTION

Distorts traditional rhythmic and

stanza patterns
Introduction: Jacobean Duchess of Malfi:
Age
To marry out of class was a social wrong
for the Elizabethans and Jacobeans
 Antonio Delio Daniel De Cardinal
Bologna Bosola
- A courtier - Having an
- Duchess’s who tries to - Former affair with
steward woo Julia servant of Julia
- Husband the
- Just - Friend of Cardinal
returned Antonio
from - Sent by
France Ferdinand
- Secret to spy on
marriage the Duchess
 Ferdinand Julia Castruchio

- Duke of Calabria - Castruchio’s - An old lord

- Given to violent wife and elderly man with
outbursts Cardinal’s young, unfaithful
- Incestuous desire mistress wife- Julia
for his sister

Based on Carlos the

Marquis of Gerace
Introduction: Jacobean Status of women
Age
Duchess: Will you hear me? I’ll never marry
Cardinal: so most widows say, but commonly
that motion lasts no longer than the turning of
an hourglass, the funeral sermon and it end
both together

Ferdinand: now hear me you live in rank

pasture, here in the court there is a kind of
honey dew that’s deadly twill poison your
fame look….. For they whose faces do belie
their hearts are witches ere they arrive at 20
years/ aye and give the devil suck
Introduction: Jacobean Jacobean Prose
Age The Jacobean period was the first that was
really rich in prose literature with writers like
Francis Bacon, John Donne and Lancelot
Andrewes

The monumental achievements in prose

writings of this period include the great King
James Version of the Bible which first appeared
in 1611

Learning and theology were the major concerns

of prose writers
 17th Century Prose Writers
James I Sir Francis Robert Thomas Izaak Sir Thomas
Bacon Burton Hobbes Walton Thomas Fuller
Browne
Introduction:
● Keats wrote LINES ON THE
Jacobean Age
MERMAID TAVERN: Ben Jonson
presided over a literary circle which
met at the Mermaid Tavern, Keats
wrote LINES ON THE MERMAID
TAVERN beginning with ‘Souls of
poets dead and gone.’
● Epitaph of Ben Jonson O Rare Ben
Jonson
Introduction: Middle Group of Comedies
Jacobean Age
VOLPONE OR THE FOX (1605)
● Performed by the King's Men
● Volpone, a rich Venetian without children,
feigns that he is dying; in order to draw gifts
from his would be heirs. Mosca, his parasite
and confederate, persuades each of these in
turn that he is to be the heir, and thus extracts
costly presents from them. One of them,
Corvino, even attempts to sacrifice his wife to
Volpone in hope of the inheritance.
Introduction: ● Finally Volpone overreaches himself. To enjoy the discomfiture
of the vultures who are awaiting his death, he makes over his
Jacobean Age
property by will to Mosca and pretends to be dead. Mosca takes
advantage of the situation to blackmail Volpone, but rather than
be thus defeated Volpone chooses to reveal all to the authorities.
They direct that Volpone shall be cast in irons until he is as
infirm as he pretended to be, Mosca whipped and confined to
the galleys, Corvino made to parade in ass's ears, and his wife
be returned to her family with a trebled dowry. A secondary plot
involves Sir Politic Would-be, an English traveller who has
absurd schemes for improving trade and curing diseases, and his
Lady, a loquacious, hectoring pedant. Sir Politic is chastened
when Peregrine, a wiser English traveller, pretends to have him
arrested for treason. The names of the principal
characters,Volpone (the fox), Mosca (the fly), Voltore (the
vulture), Corbaccio (the crow), Corvino (the raven), indicate
their roles and natures.
Introduction: Jacobean Drama:
Jacobean Age
The enterprise and the excitement that
were infused into every aspect of
Elizabethan life changed dramatically
under the Stuart rule beginning with King
James I

The high hope and the arduour generated

by the accession of a male monarch
gradually tapered out, giving rise to a
sense of disillusionment as the new king
could not live up to the expectations of his
people
John Webster He was an English Jacobean dramatist
(1580-1632)
Best known for his tragedies The White
Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which
are often regarded as masterpieces of the
early 17th- century English stage.
The White Devil, like Macbeth, is a
tragedy of action; and The Duchess of
Malfi, like King Lear, is a tragedy of
suffering.
His life and career coincides with William
Shakespeare

Apart from his two major plays and The

Devils Law-Case (published 1623), was
written in collaborations with leading writers
of the age

Thomas Dekker, was his main collaborator,

who also wrote Westward Ho and Northward
Ho, both of which were published in 1607.
Major Works of John Webster
1. The Malcontent (1604) - augmented by Marston
2. Northward Ho (1607) - with Dekker
3. The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1607) - with
Dekker
4. Westward Ho (1607) - with Dekker
5. The White Devil (1612)
6. A Monumental Column (1613)
7. The Devil's Law Case (Created in 1610, pub. 1623)
8. The Duchess of Malfi (Created in 1614, pub. 1623)
9. Monuments of Honour (1624)
10.Appius and Virginia (pub. 1654)
11.A Cure for a Cuckold (pub. 1661) - with Rowley
12. Anything for a Quiet Life (pub. 1662) - with Middleton
The White Devil

● The White Devil; or, The Tragedy of Paolo

Giordano Ursini, Duke of Bracciano. With The Life
and Death of Vittoria Corombona the famous
Venetian Courtesan is a tragedy in five acts
● Performed and published as The White Devil in
1612.
● Based on historical events that occurred in Italy
during the 1580s, the murder of Vittoria
Accoramboni in Padua on 22 December 1585.
● Setting: Rome and Padua: The play was written for
and first performed by Queen Anne's Men at the
Red Bull Theatre in Clerkenwell in 1612
Characters

Cornelia – Mother to Vittoria, Flamineo, and Marcello Vittoria

Corombona – a Venetian lady, sister of Flamineo and

Marcello. First married to Camillo – afterwards to Brachiano

Flamineo – Vittoria's brother. Brachiano's secretary.

Marcello – An attendant to the Duke of Florence; Vittoria's younger

brother.

Brachiano – other name Paulo Giordano Orsini, The Duke of

Brachiano, husband of Isabella, and in love with Vittoria.

Isabella – Francisco De Medici's sister; first wife of Brachiano

Lodovico – Sometimes Lodowick, an Italian Count
in love with Isabella.

Francisco De Medici – Duke of Florence; in Act V

disguised as the Moor, Mulinassar.

Giovanni – Brachiano's son by Isabella.

Monticelso: Cardinal
Plot
● Count Londovico is banished from Rome for
debauchery and murder; his friends, Gasparo and
Antonelli promise to work for the repeal of his
sentence.
● The Duke of Bracciano has conceived a violent
passion for Vittoria Corombona, daughter of a noble
but impoverished Venetian family, despite the fact
they are both married to other people.
● Vittoria's brother Flamineo, employed as a secretary
to Brachiano, has been scheming to bring his sister
and the Duke together in the hope of advancing his
career, much to the dismay of their mother, Cornelia.
The plan is foiled by the arrival of Brachiano's wife
Isabella, escorted by her brother and Cardinal
Monticelso.

They are both outraged by the rumours of Brachiano's

infidelity and set out to make the affair public; before
that happens Brachiano and Flamineo arrange to have
Camillo (Vittoria's husband) and Isabella murdered.

Vittoria is put on trial for the murder of her husband

and although there is no real evidence against her, she
is condemned by the Cardinal to imprisonment in a
convent for penitent whores. Flamineo pretends
madness to protect himself from awkward suggestions.
The banished Count Lodovico is pardoned and
returns to Rome; confessing he had been secretly
in love with Isabella, he vows to avenge her
death. Isabella's brother Francisco also plots
revenge.

He pens a love letter to Vittoria, intentionally

allowing it to fall into the hands of Brachiano, in
order to fuel his jealousy. Though at first his plan
seems to work, Vittoria manages to convince
Brachiano that she is faithful and the two elope.
Cardinal Monticelso is elected Pope and as his first act
he excommunicates Vittoria and Brachiano, who have
fled Rome.

Vittoria and Brachiano, now married, hold court in

Padua. Three mysterious strangers have arrived to enter
Brachiano's service.

These are Francisco, disguised as Mulinassar, a Moor,

and Lodovico and Gasparo, disguised as Capuchin
monks, all conspiring to avenge Isabella's death. They
begin their revenge by poisoning Brachiano.
As he is dying, Lodovico and Gasparo reveal
themselves to him. Next, Zanche, Vittoria's Moorish
maid, who has fallen in love with her supposed
countryman Mulinassar, reveals to him the murders of
Isabella and Camillo and Flamingeos part in them.

Flamineo is banished from court for the murder of his

brother Marcello by Brachiano's son Giovanni, the
new Duke, and sensing that his crimes are catching up
with him he goes to see Vittoria.

He tries to persuade her and Zanche to a triple suicide

by shooting him, then themselves. Vittoria and Zanche
shoot Flamineo and, thinking him dead, exult in his
death and their escape.
Much to their surprise, Flamineo rises from the
'dead' and reveals to them the pistols were not
loaded. While trying to exact his own revenge on
Vittoria, Lodovico and Gasparo then enter the
scene and complete their revenge by killing her.

Giovanni and officers come to the scene and the

play ends with Giovanni learning of his uncle's
participation in the bloody acts and sending
Lodovico off to torture.
The Duchess of Malfi

The Duchess of Malfi, originally published as The Tragedy

of the Dutchesse of Malfy in 1612–1613

It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre

the play is loosely based on events that occurred between

1508 and 1513 surrounding Giovanna d'Aragona, Duchess
of Amalfi

Webster was completely influenced by Seneca.

The play is set in the court of Malfi (Amalfi), Italy, from

1504 to 1510.
The Duchess falls in love with her steward,
Antonio. Her brothers, Ferdinand and the
Cardinal tell her not to remarry (she was
recently widowed). She agrees and they
leave for Rome. But they don’t trust their
sister and hire a servant, Bosola, to spy on
her.

Once they’ve gone, the Duchess meets

Antonio. They confess their love for each
other, she proposes and they are married in
secret.
APRICOTS

● Nine months later, Bosola suspects the Duchess is

pregnant. He hatches a plan to present her with
apricots (believed to induce labour). She eats them
and immediately becomes ill.
● The Duchess gives birth to a son. His father,
Antonio, writes his newborn a horoscope, but then
loses it. Bosola finds the horoscope – proof that the
Duchess had a child. He tells her brothers, who are
furious with her (they don't know she is married).
TWO YEARS LATER

● The Duchess and Antonio have two more

children. Ferdinand returns from Rome and
hides in his sister’s bedroom. When Antonio
leaves he reveals himself, gives the Duchess a
dagger and tells her to kill herself. She tells
him she’s married, making him even more
angry. He leaves saying he will never see her
again.
ESCAPE FROM MALFI

The Duchess persuades Antonio to flee to Ancona.

Bosola tricks the Duchess into telling him who the father
of her children is, and where he is. Bosola takes this
information straight to her brothers
The Duchess and her children meet Antonio in Ancona.
The Cardinal finds them, takes their wedding rings and
banishes them. The Duchess forces Antonio to flee to
Milan with their eldest son.
IMPRISONMENT AND EXECUTION

Bosola imprisons the Duchess and her two younger

children. In prison, a furious Ferdinand tricks the Duchess
into believing that Antonio and her eldest son are both
dead.
Bosola pleads for her life, but the Duchess and her two
children are strangled. Ferdinand is overwhelmed with
remorse and blames Bosola for the murders.
A BLOODY END

Ferdinand joins the Cardinal in his palace in Milan, but has now
lost his mind and believes he is a wolf. The Cardinal offers Bosola
a reward for murdering Antonio. Bosola accepts but plots to kill
the two brothers instead. He conceals himself in the Cardinal's
room, but accidentally attacks and kills Antonio instead.

Bosola confronts the Cardinal, and in the ensuing fight, Ferdinand

is woken from his madness and joins in. Bosola stabs the Cardinal,
while Ferdinand and Bosola strike each other – all three die.
Antonio’s friend, Delio, arrives too late to save anyone, but
promises to raise Antonio’s eldest son in the image of his parents.