Neon ether: both reject St Lancelot in the ng Flowerdale. Notes Towertat Semor disguised) ***etokG O) ང i、ittv iན ང 'E g Now that be The father and the unch now plan to have arrested on the way to church, and Suged wet cet in order to try the temper of this wrie, Lace is her husband, she clings to him laihtub. She uses go home with her enraged father, and he leaves her with her husband and his uncle. Young F The uncle puts a hundred angels into Kester's hands for her. The y and, at her request, it is given to him upon her now: A rattle-baby e Go, get you gone to the escorns her. by Kester) demands it, igal turns follow me your f me your dowry, never look on Flow. Sen. Sir, she hath forsook her father and all her friends for you. M. Flow. Hang thee, her friends and father, all together. Flow. Sen. Yet part with something to provide her lodging. M. Flow. Yes, I mean to part with her and you; but if I part with one angel, hang me at a post. I'll rather throw them at a cast of dice, as I have done a thousand of their fellows. Kester takes the deserted wife under his protection, but soon, in the disguise of a Dutch frow,' she becomes the servant of her married sister. Young Flowerdale loses the money at dice, turns highwayman, is arrested, and is about to be put in prison on the double charge of robbery and of having killed his wife. Both Luce and Flowerdale Senior now throw off their disguise. The prodigal repents. and all ends well. In each play, then, we have two brothers, one of whom gives out that he himself is dead, and in disguise becomes the servant of his spendthrift son. In addition, there is the common feature of a sham will. These major resemblances make it nearly certain that The Staple of News borrowed from The London Prodigal, or else that there was some third piece which was the common source of both. There are excellent reasons, however, for believing, not only that Jonson borrowed from The London Prodigal, but also that, in doing so, he was borrowing from a play of which he himself had written, if not the whole, at least the greater part. Though Jonson borrowed freely from the ancients, he prided himself on his independence of writers of his own day. If any one else of that day had written The London Prodigal especially if Shakespeare had written it-this probably would have been reason enough to Jonson why he should not imitate the plot. Or if there were a common source for the two plays, it seems very unlikely hat Jonson would have permitted his play to resemble The ndon Prodigal in anything but its more general features. -areful comparison of the two plays, however, brings to a remarkable number of minor resemblances. Pre imitation does not descend to particulars.1 Cunningham quotes from Coleridge's marginal notes: 'I dare not, will not, think that honest Ben had Lear in mind in this mock mad scene.' This suggestion is not to be entertained. The plot of Jonson's early romantic comedy, The Case is Altered, it will be remembered, is little more than a skilful interweaving of the plots of two of Plautus' comedies, the Aulularia and the Captivi. The character of the miser, Jaques, in The Case is Altered, is imitated, yet with considerable freedom, from the character of Euclio in the Aulularia.2 From Euclio, Jonson also got a few hints for the figure of Peniboy Senior, in our play. The scene in which the absent Euclio is characterized is adapted as a part of the jeering in the second scene of Act 2.3 This, a simile or two, and a few dim echoes, are the sum of Jonson's debt to Plautus here. Indeed, with the exception of a few adaptations of brief passages, scattered here and there, and all indicated in the notes, this closes the list of our play's debts to ancient authors. Professor Emil Koeppel of Halle has observed that the news-staple in our play may be compared to the House of Fame in the Second Book of Chaucer's poem, and that it still more resembles the House of Daedalus, in the Third Book. Once the clue is given, it is not hard to find resemblances, but these are very vague, and had not Jonson' in 1Cf. the note on trials of animals during 12th to 18th centuries, at the beginning of that scene. 2 Molière took the main idea of his L'Avare from the Aulularia. Thomas Shadwell and Henry Fielding, who each wrote a comedy named The Miser, based their plays on the Aulularia and L'Avare. In Shadwell's Miser there are a few faint reminders of our play. 3 Cf. note on 2. 2. 69. *Quellen Studien, etc., in Münchener Beiträge 2. 17. * Cf. Act 2, Sc. 2, and especially lines 116-20. For a discussion of Jonson's indebtedness to the House of Fame here, as also in the Mask of Queens (1609), and in News From the New World (1621), see Dr. Otto Ballman's Dissertation, pp. 22, 26-8 (cf. Bibliography). "Münchener Beiträge 2. 17. one place called his staple the House of Fame, probably no one would ever have guessed that he had Chaucer's poem in mind. Koeppel suggests also that Jonson may have borrowed the motif of the father, Peniboy Canter, following his son in the disguise of a beggar, from The London Prodigal. This comedy was first published in 1605, with this title: 'The London Prodigal. As it was plaide by the Kings Maiesties seruants. By William Shakespeare, London. Printed by T. C. for Nathaniel Butter.' There is no entry of it in the Stationers' Register. Schlegel says: 'If we are not mistaken, Lessing pronounced this piece to be Shakespere's, and wished to bring it on the German stage.' Tieck also regarded it as Shakespeare's. Knight thinks that it was written between 1603-1605, and hence that, if Shakespeare wrote it at all, he must have written it after his comic powers were fully matured. "The belief,' says Knight, 'is almost too extravagant to be gravely controverted.' Sidney Lee says it has 'no internal claim to Shakespeare's authorship.' 1 The argument of The London Prodigal is this: Flowerdale Senior, a London merchant who had gone to Venice leaving his son, Matthew, under the guardianship of his brother, Flowerdale Junior, returns home. The uncle tells of the reckless behavior of the young man : he is a mighty swearer, drinker, brawler, borrower. The youth himself now appears, and to him the father, who is disguised, represents himself as having died in Venice. He produces a will, which he says Flowerdale Senior charged him to deliver. The will is read, and the son is found to be disinherited. The father, in his assumed character, lends him twenty pounds, and becomes his servant, under the name of Kester. Young Flowerdale is one of three suitors for the hand of Luce, the most attractive of the three daughters of Sir Lancelot Spurcock. She prefers Sir Arthur Greenshield; Pictorial Edition of Shakespeare, vol. Doubtful Plays, pp. 227-8. 'Life of Wm. Shak., p. 142. 1 her father prefers Oliver, a Devonshire clothier; both reject young Flowerdale. Kester (Flowerdale Senior disguised) proposes to overcome the scruples of Sir Lancelot in the following way: Presently we'll go and draw a will, Where we'll set down land that we never saw; This done, the foolish changing Weathercock The plan works: Sir Lancelot rejects the clothier, and forces Luce to marry the heartless young Flowerdale. To Kester the youth confides: And thou shalt see, when once I have my dower, As for this wench, I not regard a pin, It is her gold must bring my pleasures in. The father and the uncle now plan to have the prodigal arrested on the way from church, and charged with debt, in order to try the temper of his wife, Luce. Now that he is her husband, she clings to him faithfully. She refuses to go home with her enraged father, and he leaves her with her husband and his uncle. Young Flowerdale scorns her. The uncle puts a hundred angels (provided by Kester) into Kester's hands for her. The young man demands it, and, at her request, it is given to him. The prodigal turns upon her now: A rattle-baby come to follow me! Go, get you gone to the greasy chuff your father: bring me your dowry, or never look on me. |