Drama and the Succession to the Crown, 1561-1633

Drama and the Succession to the Crown, 1561–1633

Lisa Hopkins

DRAMA AND THE SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN, 1561–1633

The succession to the throne, Lisa Hopkins argues here, was a burning topic not only

Shakespeare

The Theater of Fine Devices

Hence the corresponding perhaps uneasy rise in sophistication:

Drama and the Succession to the Crown, 1561–1633

LISA HOPKINS

II

Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company

England USA

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

modern drama)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Contents

List of Figures viix

Introduction 1

1 Christopher Marlowe and the Succession to the English Crown 1

3

4 5

5

6 One King, Two Kingdoms? 115

Conclusion 155

73

Acknowledgements

his essay on As You Like It

, and to Adam Hansen

of QueenshipThe Yearbook of

, edited by Willy Maley and Philip

Introduction

1

succeeded to

James’s cousin Robert Stewart appeared to challenge the king’s right to the islands

1 Leanda de Lisle,

The

3

Ireland, whose status remained wholly unclear, continued to contest any attempt at

Second, it was not wholly clear when

4

succession in Scotland had been problematic in its own right, since it had resulted

5 Although

6

3 New

4 Thomas Dekker, in

5 De Lisle, 6

3

A Conference , the Jesuit author Robert

Similarly, in his , Thomas Wilson declared

the now Queen, the Eldest Prince in yeares and raygne throughout Europe or

Other particularly

Robert Persons, ,

Thomas Wilson,

De Lisle,

4

11

it was the second son Thomas who initially tested the legal waters by submitting

11

5

13

14

15 making his

16 The

I shall be discussing, and that

13 De Lisle, 14 De Lisle, 15 De Lisle, 16

6

a changeling:

matter, an old woman reputedly told him that “there was one like an auld man came into the room and threw his cloak owre the prince’s cradle and syne drew

Ruth Hudson, ‘Greene’s and Contemporary Allusions to Scotland’,

Edith Rickert, ‘Political Propaganda and Satire in ’,

to ,

and ,

the kingdom into three, which is central to succession plays such as , Locrine, and the old , and most importantly to

,

Albany than Cornwall’,

and in

the older boy Henry would inherit England, and reported that ‘the Scots were not

more directly, , which, Catherine Loomis has recently suggested, may well

prominent in the trials associated with the Plot, and Richard Wilson notes that

William Shakespeare,

–

bloody sergeant’,


impossible’ that

the company’s repertory included and

Faerie Queene

the English throne’

can glance at rulers: both and

Richard Wilson,

–

See the chapter on Arden in my Writing

True noblesse, royalty and happiness31

addition to those I mention here, Thomas Hughes’s , and , and This

Although such a moment had not recently produced and did not during the period

In the second place, just as the ancient Greeks thought that no man could be

31 George Chapman, , edited by John Margeson

11

only in and

33

The 34

and

both historical and contemporary: Robert Lane points to ‘how thoroughly, almost systematically, Shakespeare in

35 and indeed King John is mentioned by name in John Hayward’s

36 and is

, , As You Like It, , , , and all touch on

33 As You Like It: Social Process

34 William Shakespeare, , edited by Virginia Mason Vaughan and Alden

35 and the

The

36 John Hayward,

Grey,

by Thomas Norton and Thomas

Gertrude Catherine Reese also reads the play as supporting Lady Catherine’s claim,

was ‘written

41 and Henry James and Greg Walker also suggest that

Stuarta

was more politically

‘Was

43

41 Rickert, ‘Political Propaganda and Satire in ’,

Review

43 Locrine

13

44

45

, may well be a pertinent

46 and this was, I suggest, something that

notable that in many plays,

As this instance suggests, the resurrected

44 De Lisle, 45 Rickert, ‘Political Propaganda and Satire in 46 , in ,

Mayer, ‘Introduction’, in

Succession’, in , edited by

14

In Samuel Rowley’s play , the young Edward VI

,

51 Here we hear ‘I’ three times

Works

Marcus et al,

51 Marcus et al,

15

53

Particularly interesting in this respect is Thomas Heywood’s

54

My god doth know, I can no note but truth,That with heauens King,

55

Thou power eternall, Inocents just guide,

That hidious death presentes, by Tyrants Lawes,And as my hart is knowne to thee most pure,

John Webster,

53 :

54 ’, in

55 Thomas Heywood,

16

56

and , discussed in Chapters

not clear whether he had actually been asleep, but as he redescends into the tomb

56 , edited by

Robert Greene,

and , to suggest that Marlowe has a

pronounced interest in both the Tudor past and the theoretical principles on which

inheritance, particularly in relation to As You Like It and

, and

, , Locrine and

and , to show

king combined with an attempt to impugn the Stuart claim to the Scottish throne,

Chapter 1 Christopher Marlowe and the

Succession to the English Crown

1 It is also possible that Marlowe knew

In The Reckoning

3

1

Charles Nicholl,

3 See

4

especially those with legal training, were genuinely interested not only in who basis they were doing so – not to

5

The

begins by announcing that

6

dominates the , which closes with power passing

Queen of Carthage

4 Nicholl, Reckoning5 Patrick Cheney,

6

be entitled ‘

and too, since

thinking that that play can be seen as alluding to Lucas de Heere’s painting The

The Jacobean

Constance

11 and Marlowe certainly knew Walsingham’s young cousin Thomas, in whose house at Scadbury he seems to

Louis Montrose has pointed out that the painting came to renewed prominence ‘and

printed’,

As You Like It to ‘a great reckoning in a little room’,13

14

15

Nicholl, The Reckoning

11

Louis Montrose,

13 William Shakespeare, As You Like It

14

15

Into what corner peers my halcyon’s bill?

And crowns come either by succession,

16 this painting, with its pious message and

16 See Lisa Hopkins,

this

Most prominently, I think this is present in book in a sense, so are all Marlowe’s plays, but

There can be no doubt,

Tamburlaine, when Eubulus says:

John Darwin, –

Who seeth not now how many rising minds

Who wins the royal crown will want no right,Nor such as shall display by long descent

All right and law shall cease, and he that hadNothing today, tomorrow shall enjoy

Women and maids the cruel soldier’s swordShall pierce to death, and silly children, lo,

philosophy is that

interested in amassing gold, as we see when he has golden wedges laid out to

, in ,

to subjugate the world entirely to his essence when he says that he will not only

with this pen reduce them to a map,

In this he directly echoes

Earlier in

Medea, Athamas, Ino, Cambyses and Althea, who are shortly to be joined by

and a

Chorus declares that

Later we hear

Lo, such are they now in the royal throne

,

Locrine, in which, as Marie

Locrineplay, , which actually predates

, and by implication Locrine

Locrine

in lines like Thrasimachus’s:

That we will boldly enterprise the same,Were it to enter black Tartarus,Where triple Cerberus

This heart, my lords, this neare appalled heart,

Locrine,George a

Greene, which is probably though not certainly his,

, and Early Responses to ’, Research

the Locrine: An Edition’, unpublished PhD thesis,

George a Greene

George a Greene’,

Least I, like martiall Tamberlaine, lay waste

LocrineLocrine

, Locrineand this would be something sharply resonant in the troubled and paranoid

Locrine

: so Locrine

and ,

William Warner’s

the likelier candidate on the grounds that William was an uninspired panegyrist

that he knows Hercules and Aeneas much better than he knows Albion and

Contrary to Curran’s

Robert Greene, George a Greene,

Charles Whitney,

–

women than monstrous men – two concerns which would chime with the mood

A Troians

William Warner,

general scepticism about kings in , so precious to early

Brute his line the scepter then did passe:

– and

personal mythology was the Welsh ancestry which supposedly linked her to Arthur

31

by Kyd, the man who ’

Queen of Carthage

Warner also displays in about the English Catholic community, on whom, it seems likely, Marlowe was

When

Least

Thomas Hughes,

Thomas Nashe,

31 See Hopkins,

31

Which scruple was remoued soone by one, that well did know,

Than had she been in : nor was Libertie denayde

Earle , so dissenting, so did trie,

agents provocateurs, and potential Catholics in

it recalls

33

‘Lear, Lear, Lear: Marlowe, Shakespeare and the Third’,

33 William Shakespeare,

in

, Doctor Faustus, when Mephistopheles , two

Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion

the stage and editorial tradition is that it is in the arm, and there would certainly be a parallel here with the later incident when his brother Edgar declares,

In turn, there is perhaps a connection between and an earlier

opens with a king who

33

As welcome as was to ,Or braue Aeneas

He may also be recalled when Ragan asks the Messenger,

Hast thou the heart to act a stratagem,

in which Spencer

In complaint:

Leir

because

I am as kind as is the Pellican,

And yet as ielous as the princely Eagle,

34

34 Most interestingly,

Here is an answere answerlesse indeed:

35 Gonorill’s words might thus be seen as coming

indication rhat too is interested in the issue, and that in the charged

character: when there is a Tamburlaine on stage to be looked at it, we hardly seem

34 in its Time’,

35

35

youngest son Celebinus,

Thou shalt be made a king and reign with me,

introduce

Leir and Lear:

a slightly earlier succession play, Greene’s

36

36

has a childless Dido willingly mothering the son whom

Doctor Faustus

says ‘

does not, indeed

36 Robert Greene,

Oberon in the romance cycle might best be considered to be the

1

Oberon’s sometime consort Queen Mab, according to Mercutio, gallops ‘O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on curtsies straight’,

3

,

, which appears to date

1 Matthew Woodcock,


3

by

4 which clearly brings us close to the debate about the succession not only in Spain, but also in England, where a Spanish princess

the Queen Mother’s name is Eugenia)5

that

Indeed Jowitt claims that Persons’s ‘suggestion that armed combat would be ’

and suggests that ‘In Philip’s supine and helpless body, which generates rumors

6

4 plays: and The Turke’,

5 Anonymous, http://

m

6

Antonio, whose claim to the English throne I discuss in Chapter 5, appears as a

’tis not the Spanish Crown

Although in Oberon’s appearance is at least nominally in

out that in the ‘which the Romans claimed a descent which they had allegedly transmitted to the

preceding “

As Marjorie Swann has it, ‘the

, and Oberon, ,

Woodcock, , in Ben Jonson

, Pompey’s

11 In another Roman play,

,

Present me with a Cup, made, o’th bottome

13

See Lisa Hopkins, Stage

11 William Shakespeare, , edited by Emrys Jones

13

41

’,14

has been

courtship between Archduke Albert and Isabella which, to anyone inclined to

15

14

15

in Shakespeare’s own

completed , wrote and As You Like It’16 and , the interest

As You Like It too bears also, the interest in the succession is

, also known as

please’, and in George Chapman’s , where the opening lines, spoken by Cato, are:

With their contention, all the clouds assemble

Which we shall shortly see poure down in bloud,

16 James Shapiro,

Anonymous, /

George Chapman,

43

considerations, suggested that a similar conceit might be at work in Shakespeare’s

Later in ,

O setting sun,As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night,

A Conference about the

was reprinted in a binding together with John Lydgate’s The Serpent of Division

subiecte

were direct competitors:


John Lydgate, The Serpent of Division

44

while in his answer to Persons, John Hayward noted that

Hereupon Pompei gaue sentence, that Aristobulus should giue ouer the kingdome

’,

kingmaker, declares,

It was an old tradition that the monarch must be physically whole,

Robert Persons,

John Hayward,

Charles Whitworth, ‘Thomas Lodge, Succession Crisis’, in , edited

Thomas Lodge,

Robert Carey, , reprinted in John Nichols,

45

An ansvver to the

in minde: but it is a greater inconuenience, by making a breache in this high point

connects Pompey with lameness, when a character asks,

, a play scarred

,

dead brother:

Hayward, succession

John Webster,

46

In auncient Recordes SejanusKingdomes, are memorable: yet was Sejanus

the Cardinall, abounding in riches and abounding in miserie: ROBERT ESSEX 31

jokes that ‘Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you, so that in the beastliest sense you are Pompey the Great’, and later threatens,

Revenge:

In name also mentioned in , where the Duke says,

To Valentius, Rowland, and to Crassus,

31 ,


an allusion to

Shakespeare may also be remembering in a rather

, Marlowe had paid a

33 John Hayward discusses this renunciation in

34 In Marlowe’s play,

35

might indeed start

33

34 Hayward, 35 Christopher Marlowe, , in

remind a Jacobean audience that in arranging the marriage between his daughter and her cousin, Philip II also took the opportunity to set up the Netherlands as

, Oberon says to Huon:

36

Margo Hendricks notes that this account enjoyed widespread and longlasting popularity:

went

, Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene The Scottish

36

, see Diane Purkiss,

, a play

strongly suggests his currency as

alludes to The Faerie Queene

As sooner may the Moor be washèd white

’,

’,

The

Robert Greene,

Ruth Hudson, ‘Greene’s and Contemporary Allusions to Scotland’,

Most notably, in Locrine

And massacre their bodies with our blades:

More then the mighty Queen,

41

and the parallel with

’s

43 and in

which Thisbe may glance at when she praises Pyramus as being ‘As true as truest

may well

44 and indeed

41 William Shakespeare, , in The Norton Shakespeare,

43 Gordon Kipling,

44

51

Ruth Hudson suggests that Greene’s

45

Most gracious and imperial majesty –

shares with

45 Hudson, ‘Greene’s

46 Woodcock also

was

In Catholicism when he says that ‘moe Ghostes and spirites were seene, nor tongue

Reginald Scot

and declared in The Discoverie of Witchcraft

46

between and The Faerie Queenetimes in The Faerie Queene

James VI and I, Tom Hayes,

53

51

, /

53

54 In some sense,

the Gunpowder Plot’),55 whose includes ‘Titania’ and ‘Th’Empresse

’,56 and which shows that Oberon still

51 Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Phebe Jensen,

53 Iconography in Thomas Dekker’s ’, in

54 Diane Purkiss,

55 ’, , Richard Wilson

56 On the connections between and , see also Taylor, ,

54

How many plots were laid to bar us hence,

tomb Pyramus and Thisbe plan to meet in

nod to

: ‘He swears

Empress too echoes this language with her lines:

In short,

crucial issue in discussions about the succession, it also seems to glance at the

55

Lady Catherine Grey, and the child her son, and that the allusion was intended

The Faerie Queene

supposed antipathy to swords, commented on amongst others by Sir Kenelm

One that compos’d your beauties, yea, and one

Second, he orders her:

Annabel Patterson,

: A Shakespearean

Edith Rickert, ‘Political Propaganda and Satire in ’,

relationship between and Prince Henry’s christening, see also

glanced at in

56

Upon that day either prepare to die

Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would,Or on Diana’s altar to protest,

’s apparent

Oberon in

Indeed Romans could be seen as troping mutability in general: Curtis Perry suggests that

61

61 ’,

Chapter 3

Oberon’s was not the only name in with the potential ,

1

and Look About You

3

4 and Michael

5 In this chapter,

succession debate but also one who allows us to chart its continuance well into the

1 ,

Stephen Knight,

3 Knight, 4

George a Greene and ’, in in Five Centuries

5

George a Greene, perhaps written by

6 The at court during the Christmas

Skura points out that

and Death Sir

Look About You

pageant,

is also

There was also Look About You, which Stephen Knight describes

also entered in the

George a Greene says, ‘As it was sundry times acted

6 On the dating see Knight,

Tracey Hill,

Knight, Look About You

mentions ‘Sir with all Sussex’,plays are associated with Nottingham, and it is no coincidence that there was also a strong association with the Admiral’s Men, since the Admiral, Charles Howard, was

Look About Youon its title page that it is printed ‘As it was lately played by the right honourable the

11 In Look About You

,

These two howers it pleas’d his Maiesty

That to the Indies, at Sebastians sute,

Victorious Edward, to whom the Scottish kings

George Peele, Longshankes

11 Anthony Munday,

And weares the Scottish Diadem,

Here, as in

it, all Englishmen had long claimed that Scotland was held as subject to England Scotland also

George a Greene, where Kendall warns that ‘Iames, the

Cuddie declares,

and The Death

and

13 This is particularly pertinent to the succession

in

13 Knight,

61

14

sic

claim would reopen the 15

16 and

challenge’, I think it is worth noting that, intriguingly,

14

15 Thomas Wilson,

16

Munday’s Huntington plays’, in , edited by Helen

In the Death

Richard, king Richard, in thy Grandsires daies,A law was made, the Cleargie sworne thereto,

and the Death that

While both plays, but especially

The crie of the poore

was still open in giuing the poore’, and

–

Anonymous,

63

To poore and to needie, to high and to low,Lord

continuity:

Yet Lord

sake,As manie poore children, their praiers will make:

And graunt him old

order: in

Context

64

anonymous Queen’s Men play , and second , and a number

Look About You , and Earle Iohn Skinke says

,Wend to Prince , say though I am loath,

Skinke that posyond red cheekt

Look About You

and , in

In doing this, Look About You

instance, Skelton says:

The Death, the Epilogus assures us that

Thus is story showne in act,

Cahiers

Episcopal Propaganda’,

65

likely to be Edward III,Robyn Hode who was paid as a when

The Death of ,

and

and

the

In Carnaruan

Pollard, Knight, Anthony Munday,

66

When legs shall lose their length,

contemporary audience, when the Harper says:

A Tract on the Succession to the Crown, Sir John Harington remarks

makes me call to mynde a blynde prophesye that I heard when I was a child, namely:

In

kingdoms one king could rule, which I discuss in Chapter 6, is also touched on when

Look About You, whose

?

Rich

Sir John Harington, A Tract on the Succession to the Crown

Lets’ all to the Chappell, there giue thanks and praise,

and Locrine

Thomas

Hood, like the monarch, has two bodies, in that there is always an inherent

Lluellen declares,

In

separate identities’,

, the aged

Wilson, The

Hill,

A , which was 31 In Look About You, there are so many

The Disguises

in where Robin has been reduced to a clownish tagalong, it is the urban pinner who takes on Robin’s position as noble outlaw when he

Two and

, while Shakespeare’s

33

Similarly, Prince John in says ‘Then Robin Ile weare they kendall

31 Nelson, Look About You and The Disguises’,

33

Another thing that makes Robin Hood particularly suitable as a succession

34

35 and certainly Robin Hood

36

Iohn, on a sodaine thus I am resolu’d,

George a Greene, where the

may declare ‘Then

George a Greene theory, since

George a Greene

least in George a Greene where King Edward says:

34 35

36 Knight, Hamilton, ,

he , which I discuss in Chapter 6, where we hear

41

concluding with the assurance that

Nelson, 41

Riots’,

Let none then thinke this a lye,

As I direction show,

And I shall thinke my labour well

When’t shall be sayd that I did tell43

It castigates the clergy:

Onely, because he was undone

All meanes that he could thinke upon

In which he was to blame,

called

Scotland, suggesting that

43 m,

He wished well unto the king,

, in which both Oberon and

44

based on the ballad

45

46

In

44 Nelson, 45 Tom Hayes,

46

William Sampson,

Accession Crisis’, in , edited

And report you more odde tales,

making them

51

and disguise in particular is important again, since

, in Ben Jonson

, in Ben Jonson

51 Julie Sanders, ‘Jonson, and the North Midlands’, The Ben Jonson

and the Robin Hood tradition’, in , edited by Helen

link between Scots and Gypsies,53

as well as and

he might be thought to be glancing at in particular and hence by

Scottish accents in

allusion to James in

54

at least is directly related to Charles I’s journey north to be crowned in Scotland in 1633,

55

53

54 Jacobean Stage

55

Chapter 4

1 This is intriguing because another painting apparently

speculates that

3 while William Camden in his compiled earlier, wrote that ‘Lady

Greia, Graia’,4

1

Alison Plowden, 3 4 William Camden,

5

The

6

, which included

1554

5 , edited by

6

John Watkins,

These links constitute the epistles

, , Lancasterwhose worthiness to succeed we are implictly assured when we are told in the

remembered Jane Grey, though she had other reasons to do so too: an ‘anonymous

Michael Drayton,

the Lady Jane Grey whose hand I know, and she sent hir sister a book at hir death

11

13

Lost Queen11

13

14

15

Northumberland, assuring James that he would be able to take the throne without opposition, ‘reported that his competitors were either “contemptible, or else not

16

me, and to remember your last promise and my last demand: that is, not to be

concludes, ‘And so, most humbly praying to God to continue your majesty long comparing her to

14

15

16 The Dumbe ’,

Works

Marcus et al, Marcus et al,

he has put you to’,

princesses: she addresses her stepmother, Katherine Parr, as ‘most gracious and

listing the other claimants, declares that

the sayde people concluded, that their power and righte to make the sayde

succession, whereuppon the other pretenders grounded them selues, and the same people added withall, that by the Lawe, called the mentall Lawe, made

Marcus et al, Marcus et al,

Association, her heirs had lost their title to their succession, and James was so

James also tried his best to counteract the

In

and As You Like It, especially since the

associated with the succession: Stephen Knight argues that ‘As You Like It is a

–

As You Like It

As You Like It

Leach argues that

As You Like It brings the disguised outlaws

As You Like It

As You Like It

and Richard Wilson, As You Like It with

the Robin Hood legend’, contends that ‘As You Like It introduces all the Sherwood

As You Like It and

that both plays share an interest in Ireland, but it may be slightly less so that both

Stephen Knight,

Robert Leach, ‘As You Like It

As You Like It’,

Riots’,

Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,31

, when he describes Mahomet III returning to Constantinope to take up rule:

Henry also declares that

In As You Like It

Look About You

, As You Like It and

something in which both As You Like It and are interested, but also more

31

Charles Hughes,

That least when the King says

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed

33

answer to Persons:

34

a monarch mentioned in

passing to a new Scots dynasty’,35

36


34 John Hayward,

35

36

In

Richard Hillman notes,

had gone to great lengths to produce a suitable heir to the throne who could also

Richard Hillman,

Conference

that Shakespeare actually used the Conference to write this play or the two parts

Richard Dutton too reads as not just one but two succession plays, an

been determined in accordance with Salic Law’41 but principally because James’s

kings and Robert Parsons’s Conference about the Next Succession’, in Lancastrian Shakespeare

41

’,

, as the Scottish

that year

Dutton also sees

43 It is certainly worth noticing that Robert Persons’s A Conference about

, discusses Hugh Capet ,44 and the

idea that might engage with the succession is boosted by Catherine Grace Canino’s argument that its predecessors the plays certainly do so: she sees

45 Ultimately,

I argue that As You Like ItAs You Like It

43 Christopher Morash,

44 Robert Parsons, ,

45 Catherine Grace Canino,

46 but the play,

, situating it in both

, Robert Greene’s Scottish history play also seems to be remembered in As You Like It

As You Like It

word usurp

, with the

46 Hayward,

when Rosalind

As You Like It thus alludes is,

Louis Montrose argues that

In As You Like It

was more widely and rigorously practised in England – by the gentry and lesser landowners, as well as by the aristocracy – than anywhere else in Europe’, and

declares that

theire patrimony, but hauing all goods in common or as they call it in brotherhood

As You Like It

Hughes,

Shakespeare’s socially heterogeneous audience might construe the action as

when Celia says to Rosalind,

but As You Like It51

She says

53 and tells Touchstone, ‘you’ll

with Ireland, where women in particular were considered both to ‘ripen’ and to

51

Shakespeare, Translation and the Irish Language’, in

Links53 In

Night

Doctor Faustus

54

55

56

‘Although a woman could purchase and own land in her own right, she was prohibited Sir Thomas Smith’s proposed colony

to prosper, and attitudes to both gender and primogeniture were also central to the

and was soon to be brought to prominence by an

54

55

56

Anne Chambers,

As You Like It

, that the land shall descend to the the custom,

Hence although there were, as Christopher Highley notes, surprisingly

61

As You Like It

l

Pawlisch, 61

Negative Representations of

two issues which are here seen as troublingly interlinked to such a degree that they As You Like It

As You Like It and

committed to the Protestantism which Henry at least was known to espouse

Cary’s

early as the Argument:

63

63 , in

In the same year as was published, Shakespeare and

Should without issue die, he’ll carry it so64

64

Chapter 5 Antonios and Stewards

In a recent article, Paulina Kewes wonders why , a play which speaks

popular well into the Jacobean period:

lay in its

appeal to the Jacobean audience?

1

Secondly, and probably

1 Paulina Kewes, ‘Julius Caesar in Jacobean England’,

John Watkins,

, The , and

and , that Antonio is accompanied by a

3

4

in Peele’s makes plain in a scene which, Gertrude Catherine

5

6 but he adduced

3 Charles Nicholl,

4 Cynthia Lewis,

5

6

designated heir:

’Tis you and yours to sit upon our throne,

period,

, the alleged Sebastian is scrupolously polite to Dom Antonio’s younger son,

Presumably

, translated

, in The

nor his national identity is readily apparent to those who encounter him’ – and

discussed in Robert Persons’s A Conference about the Next Succession to the , and though Persons ultimately rules him out on the grounds

as does Thomas Wilson, who in his lists

Sebastian

Thomas Wilson,

Truth is a golden ball cast in our way

A hundred thousand crowns, caused all the state

11

Although in both and in

we are assured that not

both

13 Although the Spanish ambassador to

charlatan’14 and Thomas Nashe in Lenten Stuff

11

, edited by Charles

13

14 –

15

: 16 seems deliberately to point us in the

says that Sir Anthony Shirley, who

has met Dom Sebastian, though did not know so because he was using an alias, where Sir Toby says

Sir Anthony’s brother Robert Sherley’, an allusion which Wilson sees as directly There might also just

has a number

the scatologically minded ,

15 ,


and Shakespeare’s

Eastern Promise’, Shakespeare

‘ , written by Shakespeare around the same time as , contains

and

Grey,

’,

’, in Writing in Shakespeare

Similarly when

, recalled on a symbolic

story which Webster’s Leonora recalls in :

let me die

Scots

John Webster,

Night

Shakespeare’s earlier twin play, , as a succession play

, ‘a scurrilous book

bodies’:

Nicholl,

Why should I not – had I the heart to do it –

31

and we are told in Locrine

’s

deploys against James in 33 Locrine,

31 William Camden, Britannia

John Monipennie,

33 See Lisa Hopkins, Stage

34

The , where it belongs to Prospero’s brother, who usurps the ducal throne in an

The

The Duchess of

usurping Duke was actually Philip III, and to blockade Naples, the other Italian

35

36

34

35 Richard Wilson,

see also Roy Strong,

36

more has

and his harp,Locrine: Corineus is a character

Secret Shakespeare,

Gabriel Egan, Green Shakespeare

in the play, and Locrine on hearing that Albanact is dead wishes ‘O that I had

since the name Claribel may be traceable to Jonson’s

was written

points in

playwright Thomas Dekker’s

41

’ and launched ‘a storm that Walter Haddon called the In

the Duchess:

see, see, like to calm weather

41 Leanda de Lisle, –

Two politicians’ rotten bladders, tied

seems to be remembered too when the Duchess says,

And on a sudden all the diamonds

, where Ariel sings,

Those are pearls that were his eyes,

43

The Duchess might well remind us , not least since is a play that seems

Duchess tells Antonio:

suggestion in

44 In , Leslie

43 William Shakespeare, , edited by Virginia Mason Vaughan and Alden

44 The Sources of

111

45

The , since Isabella

46 The Duchess

and

who was

Lady Arbella’s story certainly caught the public imagination, and has

, , ,51 and

45 Leslie Hotson,

46

The Duchess of ’, Richard Dutton,

51

See Steen, LettersJonson’s

with Arbella disguised as a pageboy, but she was captured in the Channel and

sympathy, and Steen writes:

53

54 Similarly, when the Duchess

, Rhetias tells

A young lady contracted to a noble gentleman, as the lady we last mentioned

Arbella initially escaped by ship in such a disguise, and is

Rhetias

Corax55

53 54 Steen, Letters55

113

Swiss guards, might recall the tale in Chapman’s that the

56

:

To associate the Duchess with both the Virgin Queen and with Arbella, whose

I stand

56 John Webster,

in its Time’,

on her progresses’,

114

to write an elegy on Prince Henry,

conspicuously

The Duchess of , and suggest that the language and imagery used

Michael Neill, ‘Monuments and ruins as symbols in ’, in

Chapter 6 One King, Two Kingdoms?

1

succession in general and to Robert Persons in particular are glanced at too

the Portuguese ambassador that

and Spain,3

1

,

Thomas Kyd,

3

116

4 In

5

was eagerly taken up in other plays: in Samuel Daniel’s

Macedonians are there to judge him, asks him what language he will use, and 6 and the Chorus

character in , which, like Shakespeare’s , takes part

4 The Jacobean

5

6 Samuel Daniel,

Welsh seaport when the men who are supposed to be watching the beacon in case

respects but also threatening in that it can be penetrated by, and indeed to a certain

both geographically marginal to and yet at the same time mythically central to

ties is one on which

In Locrine, Camber,

11 Locrine

, Scotland, and the English Race’, in


–

11

Locrine

knappan as

, though not in

John Gordon and John Russell both ‘concentrated on the mythological King Lucius,

13

anonymous play

14

both Camden’s Britannia

The Faerie Queene 15

, edited by Dillwyn

13

14

15 Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

His part in the Lear story is remembered in 16 and in

William Lambarde in

while in Thomas Deloney’s

, is not only

Shakespeare’s , with its multitude

16 , in ,

William Lambarde,

Thomas Deloney,

’, Renaissance

rather than in

’s Wales is a Wales which insistently

,

in

In that light,

and in the short

James I’,

, is not contained in the sources,

John Monipennie,

Emrys Jones, ‘Stuart Cymbeline’,

in ’,

Richard Hingley, –

Jacobean Stage

Britain and,

both and , two plays that seem to be deliberately associated when

at

writing

might be, and why he needs Wales to make it, I return to the idea that it might in conjunction with Locrine

mentioned in the introduction, Locrine

Can

, written in

and it might be worth remembering that the

, as Stuart Kurland has

Camden, Locrine

Nations’,

, I will argue, are best appreciated in

and also raise

This remained a possibility well into the

31

, James I, and the

Leanda de Lisle,

31

in

33

34 In his

to marrie the saide King’s Sister, whose Children to Philip, should succeede to

35

Charles Nicholl,

33 De Lisle, 34

35 Peter Hay,

where he should succeede, can iustlie seclude him?36

The

burone or Berowne

Into a greater kingdom, I will spreadWith no more shade than may admit that kingdom

O rare,What an heroic, more than royal spirit

36

George Chapman,

with a small company and rallied support there),

41

young prince, as patron, as potential auditor’

Lytton Strachey,

41 tragedy’,

Also pertinent on this score is

43

44 Nick de

’,45

In

Lewes

NauarWhat wrong, King Lewes?

LewesThree hundred yeres prescriptions on our sides,

There’s no prescriptions to inthrall a King:

Nauar’s a Kingdome solely absolute,

The people speaking all one mother toung,

That speaks the truth, behold my sword,46

43 , a Chettle Play’,

’,

44 ’,

45 Nick de Somogyi, 46 Anonymous,

in

but perhaps an association

Sidney’s :

What matter ist who weares both Diadems,When the Succession liues in eythers heyre?

made his louely Queene,

seruants

and

,

On the debt to the

The people speaking all one mother toung,

To a contemporary audience, this would ring wholly true because in the late

It is,

Giacomo, and perhaps it is possible that

51

Denmark as separately ruled, albeit in complicated ways, and shows no interest

53

two nations:

Against the which a moiety competentWas gaged by our King, which had return’d

54

that country when Claudius sends ambassadors to him:

we here dispatch

To business with the King more than the scope

51 Cay Dollerup,



131

is no other,As it doth well appear unto our state,

when Hamlet, dying, says,

I do prophesy th’election lights

, in

Vnto an instant Parliament, where we

55

notorious in England, when he asks, ‘Is our commission, as wee gaue in charge, /

reads as a play commenting on the succession, arguing that ‘In his desire to secure his own accession to a neighbouring kingdom ruled by a

55

56

illustrated rather later in the period, in Shirley’s , though

begins by staging not one but two

leading Alphonso to suggest sarcastically,

Capuchin,

The Sicily/Naples tension also lies behind ,

in ,

56 ’, The Review

James Shirley,

133

There is no bar

,‘No woman shall succeed in Salic land’:

:

King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,Did as heir general, being descended

In , the Captain says to Pharamond ‘dear Prince Pippin, down with your


134

looks back to an earlier succession play, suggest that

It is perhaps too much to say that

and James’s own works,

scene that there This is particularly pertinent because the

My Parke I liken to a Common wealth,

Onely our gouernment’s a tyranny,

This speech, which echoes As You Like It , neatly

’,

135

61

Hear me, thou,

directly mentioned:

Dion

Perhaps there is a still wider implication, that enjoying two kingdoms is always,

continued by his heirs?

61 ’,

1

, but

1 –

This paper was duly brought to London, where

said to be ‘that his blood was the reddest blood in Scotland and that the King was

,

to , which

’,

Spain or France

Strathern Queen did Don Antonio Crato, who claimed the Crown

and Drake)

, as King the Fourth practised upon

York Daughter

3

Proposing these conditions only, that

after the

4

3

4

5

6

In April 1631 he reported

in all 11

5 the March’, in , edited by Willy Maley and Andrew Murphy

6

o Hinds,

o Hinds,

o Elder,

11

141

The

the contemporary situation:

was probably intended to imply that he, like Hal, Prince

13

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that

contemporary applicability by homing in on the marriage which brought the Stuarts to the English throne, and also by comparing an English and a Scottish royal court

daughter that one consideration when arranging her marriage must be that

Elder, 13

The king that sits upon the throne is young

On any least occasion to endanger

when he says

Once more

14

15

In auncient Recordes SejanusKingdomes, are memorable: yet was Sejanus

the Cardinall, abounding in riches and abounding in miserie: ROBERT ESSEX 16

14 , edited by Peter Ure

15

16 ,

143

Daliell too says,

to the succession debate, , is also echoed when

, with which

The Whore of

Parthenophil, a name which recurs in , where it is used by

The Whore

that

Notes

Thomas Dekker,

144

Stanley:

And so persuade your subjects that the title

could well be taken as a sustained study, but one into which Charles I would not,

when he declares that

Our ends, and Warwick’s head,

Perkin Warbeck and Katherine Gordon had had a son, Richard Perkins, who had

can

Lisa Hopkins,

145

heroine, Annabella, shares a name with Annabella Drummond, whose marriage to

The Queen The

succession, although The Queen collapses ’s two separate plots

oeuvre, since there is a

in which they argued

partially in

’,

:

and ’, in

’,

The Broken ’,

’, and Notes

’,

146

relation to , enabling them to argue that the two works together

When Tecnicus in prophesies disaster to both Ithocles and

undertones, like the riddle in and The

about

ruler – but the , the hereditary, monarch who can claim the throne through his legitimate

a Whore and ’,

’, in

to remember that many succession theorists would be dubious about them,

The , had two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who both proceeded to claim

the throne and thus,

Sebastian

l

‘

31

And mother his own in marriage tok, with whom he got kingdom

Sejanus

33

Cujus est terre?

34 This work, written by a man with intimate connections both with

Oedipus, Sed Morus’, in

31

33

34

Chapman’s play

35 Chapman’s 36 Spenser’s uses an

and Cleon the Lacedaemon, and talks

Union tracts also tend

35 John Hayward,

36 George Chapman, Sir William Leighton,

Unioun’, in

, we only

on learning that Ithocles is betrothed to Calantha says:

Stands seated in your will, secure and settled,

into one united nation, in ways that seem deliberately to echo the debate about the

I would presume you would retain the royalty

,

151

41

James as her successor,43

The Broken

41

Dekker and Jonson’s handing James a sceptre, and Anthony Munday’s

, edited by Richard

, ’, in , edited by Jonathan

a will in 43

44

45

46 There was

Warbeck

Whether , it

, although in each case

written by Samuel

, a

The

44

45 Steen,

46 LettersLetters

De Lisle, Steen, Letters

Steen, Letters

153

, seen not only

a Whore

51 The play also makes numerous allusions to , as

In both and

, the setting in ‘The

, Nearchus’s claim to the throne

53

and

51 Samuel Harding,

53

154

Gordon and laments:

And Orgilus in

54

54 Durant,

Conclusion

, which does

, and perhaps also

and perhaps and

As You Like It,

how they

and

Works Cited

In

The Jacobean

m

/

of ScotsLocrine , and Early Responses to ’,

, the Property

The Sources of

Iconography in Thomas Dekker’s

As You Like It and the Celtic

Britannia

’,

present: A Shakespearean

, , and The

–

–

George a Greene and

’,

Opposition

Green Shakespeare

Nations’,

161

:

Locrine

’, Renaissance

–

A Tract on the Succession to the Crown

A ’,

––

Narrative Strategies in

Crow

Queen of Scots

163

and Contemporary Allusions to Scotland’,

’, Review

, a Chettle Play’,

Look About You and The Disguises’,

’,

Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

’,

164

plays: and The Turke’,

and the Robin

The Whore of ’,

, James I, and the

and the

165

The Serpent of Division

’,

166

Parsons’s Conference about the Next SuccessionLancastrian Shakespeare

Locrine: An Edition’, unpublished

and ’,

As You Like It: Social Process

–

Renaissance England’,

’, Queries

George a Greene’,

–

and

http:/m

’,

Longshankes

’,

Context

New

–

Jacobean Stage

’,

and the North Midlands’, The Ben

’,

The

The Discoverie of Witchcraft

The Norton Shakespeare

’,

The Faerie Queene

–

The Duchess of ’,

A Midsummer Night’s

,

As You Like It

tragedy’,

’,

Cahiers

Riots’,

and Shakespeare’s Eastern Promise’, Shakespeare

In

’,

in its Time’,

Albert, Archduke 3, 41, 46, 4 , 3,

3Antonio, Dom 3 , 1, 4, 115, 13

14

, 1 , 6, 43, 5 , 5, , 115, 14

6

3–5, ,

111

, 111, 131–54

5

1 , 5 , , , 11161

6511

4146

3–5, 4114111

34 , 53

11

4 , 46Caine, Hall 3Camden, William 6, 1, 1, 6,

11 , Canino, Catherine Grace Carey, Robert Carney, Jo Eldridge 15–16

45, 4Cecil, Robert 3, 44, 5Cecil, William 3–4, 1Chapman, George

, 1, 113, 6 5, 14

146– , 11, 1 , 3 , 41,

44–6, , 4, 3, , 3, 13 , 1, 144, 14 , 155

Charles V, Emperor , 34

Cheney, Patrick 116,

Christophero, Dom , 5,

11 , 1Coke, Sir Edward 135

6, 555

13Curran, John

13Daniel, Samuel

116Darwin, John 4

16 , 6

134Dawson, Lesel , 131– , 145De Heere, Lucas De Lisle, Leanda 1, 3, 13, De Somogyi, Nick Dekker, Thomas

53–4, 143–4 ,

Deloney, Thomas

Dench, Judi 55Digby, Sir Kenelm 55Dobson, Michael 14Doddridge, John 115Doran, Susan

, 13Drayton, Michael

Dutton, Richard

6565

165, 5

11 , 13–14

Egan, Gabriel 14

1–3, 5, 1, 13–1 , 1, 3, 3 , 34, 41– ,

3, 55–6, 6 , , , 6, 3, 5, , , , 5,

3, , 6, 13 , 145–6, 14 , 151, 154–5

, 45, 3, 5, Escobedo, Andrew

3, , 4, 113, 6, 13 , 13 , 14 , 145, 15

1 , ,

, The , 1

, 31, 4

1116

11

15, 1 , 143, 145– , 5

46, 14 3, 143

1 , 3 , 13 , 141–4, 146– , 14 , 151–5

The Queen 145 144–6, 153

15, 145–6, 15 , 1515, 145–6, 15 , 15

15–16, 54

16

1436, 5, 4, , 115

George a Greene , 5 , 6 , Gerard, John Gernon, Luke 1

, 11–13, 1 , 6, , 43–4, 6 , 6 , , 5, , 14 , 155

Gordon, John 11Grant, Teresa 15Greene, Robert , 51,

5–6, 16, 35–6, 1, 143

Grey, Lady Catherine 3–5, 11–1 , 54–6, 6, , , 3, 11 , 145, 155

Grey, Lady Jane , 1 , ,

Gurr, Andrew 5

Hakluyt, Richard Hales, John Hall, Peter 55

6 , 6Harding, Samuel

3Harington, Sir John 66, Hay, Peter 4Hayes, Tom Hayward, John 11, 44–5, 4 , 4, , 14Hendricks, Margo 4

4, 4 , 116, 5,

Henrietta Maria 41, 13 , 14164–53, 61, , 111, 116, 1

4–5, , 11, 1, 3, 55–6, 6 , 5, , 3, , 14 , 151

6– , 1 , 3 , 44–6, 55, 3, 5, , , , 114,

3, 6, , 135, 13 , 14 , 1553–5,

3, 41, 54, , 3, 11 , 145Hesketh, Richard 31

Heywood, Thomas

15–16Highley, Christopher Hill, Tracey 5 , 6Hilliard, Nicholas 34Hillman, Richard 5Hingley, Richard 1Holinshed, Raphael 65Hood, Robin 16–1 , 4, 133–4Hotson, Leslie 1Hudson, Ruth 5–6, Hughes, Thomas

1n , 1 , 33, 3, 155

3 , 4 , 56

3, 3 , 41, 4 , , 115

, 1 , 13 , 13 , 1551

James VI and I 1–11, 13, 1 , 1, , 3 , , 1, , 51– , 55–6, 6 , , 4, , 1, 6, 3, ,

, , 6, , 111–14, 116, 11 , 6, , 134–5, 13 , 13 , 146– , 14 , 151, 153, 155

5 , 4 James, Henry 1Jensen, Phebe 53

6

4

4

Oberon 3 13

4Sejanus 14

Jowitt, Claire 3

4Keenan, Siobhan Kewes, Paulina Knight, Stephen , 6 , 6 , 3,

53Kuriyama, Constance

Kurland, Stuart 3Kyd, Thomas , , 3

3 , 115–16

Lambarde, William Lane, Robert 11Leach, Robert Lee, Sir Henry 5

, 1 , 5 , 61, 6

Leighton, Sir William 14Leslie, John 43Leslie, Michael 113

15–16, , 11–1 ,

Lewis, Cynthia

Locrine , 1 , , 5 , 6 , 6, , ,

Lodge, Thomas 44Look About You , 64, 66, 6 , 3Loomis, Catherine

43

, 111

Lydgate, John 43

, 35, McLaren, Anne 61

4Major, John 65Mallin, Eric 4Manningham, John 5Manoel, Dom

Manwood, Sir Roger 1Marcus, Leah 41, 1Margeson, John 6

131– , 145Marlowe, Christopher 1 , 1 , 6, 155

, 3 , 36Doctor Faustus 1, 3 , 36

1, 3, 35–6, The 1 , 4, 31– , 36

, The , 3 , 36, 4 1 , , , 6

4Marprelate, Martin 63

1 , 1, 5, , , , 11, 1 , ,

31, 34, 1, 6, , 4, 111, 1554 , 6 , 6

, 14Middleton, Thomas

1 111

Monipennie, John 6, 1Montrose, Louis 11, , More, Sir Thomas 14

3, , Mountjoy, Charles, Lord Munday, Anthony

5 , 1, 63–5, , 155

, 63– , 6 , 3, 155 5

Nashe, Thomas 3 , Neill, Michael 114Nelson, Malcolm

3, 15Nicholl, Charles , 5, 4

11,

Norris, Sir Henry , 6, 4

Norton, Thomas 1Nottingham, Catherine Howard, countess

45 , 135

61Orsini, Virginio 1

Paget, Charles 31Parker, Martin

Parr, Katherine Patterson, Annabel 55Pawlisch, Hans Peele, George

, 65, 6

11 , 6

11Perkins, Richard 144Perry, Curtis 56Persons, Robert 3–4, 11, 3 , 41, 43–5, ,

1, 6, , 5, 115Phaer, Thomas 116, 11

3, 1, 3, 3 , 4 , 115, 4, 155

5Plowden, Alison 5Poley, Robert 1 , , 31

63, 65Pollini, Girolamo 5Purchas, Samuel Purkiss, Diane 53

Ralegh, Sir Walter 1Raylor, Timothy Redmond, Michael 4, 1Reese, Gertrude Catherine 1 , 1 , , 11

466–

Rickert, Edith 3, 54–55

13 , 156Robertson, Karen 3

Ross, Euphemia Rowley, Samuel

14–15Russell, Conrad 116, 3Russell, John 5, 11 , 14

3

Saltern, George 11Sampson, William Sanders, Julie 3

1351, 115–16

Scot, Reginald 3, 113,

115, 14Seymour, Thomas 4–5, 41, 56Seymour, William 11Shakespeare, William

4 , 6

As You Like It 11, 1 , , 4 , 4, 3, 134, 155

5 11, 16, 4 , 111, 3, , 3

11, 1, , 4 , , 3, 1, 134, 153

, Part One 6, , 133, Part Two 11, 3, 6,

, 133 , 11–1 , 4 , 133, 155 plays

3, 46– , 11, 64–5 , 31– , 35, 116, 1

11, , 11, 4, , 13

11, 41– , 46– , 3

5, , 11,

13, 16, , 4, , 143, 155 , 3, 146

11, 6 6 , 141

3 11, 16–1 , 1, 4, ,

, 114 1 , , ,

1, 114 11, 3

5, 14Shapiro, James 4Shapiro, Michael 5Sherbrook, Michael 6Shirley, James

13 , 141Sidney, Sir Philip

116–1 ,

Sidney, Sir Robert 44

64–5 1 , 6

Skura, Meredith 5 , 63, ,

Smith, Sir Thomas 1

Sophocles 146–

13 , 14 , 145Spelman, Sir Henry 15

146Spenser, Edmund 3

The Faerie Queene , , 5 , 55, 11

1, 14

Stallybrass, Peter 63, 1 , 31, 6 , 6

Steen, Sara Jayne 111–1Stewart, Robert 1Stowe, John 65

Stuart, Arbella 3, 1 , , , 111–1 , 135, 151– , 154–5

Swann, Marjorie 3 , 3

Tennenhouse, Leonard 151Tilney, Charles ,

, see

, The 116–1 , , 134, The

, 64–5Tudor, Margaret 4, 11, 111, 1, 13 , 151

4, 1

Ure, Peter 13

, The 11

Walker, Greg 11

Walsingham, Thomas , 6Warner, William 1Watkins, John Watson, Nicola 14Webster, John

4 15, 1 , 45, ,

, 4, 155 1

Wentworth, Peter 1

Whitney, Charles Whitworth, Charles 44Whyte, Rowland 4Wilson, Richard , 5 , , , , Wilson, Thomas 3, 61, 6 ,

Wintour, Robert Woodcock, Matthew 3 , 3 , 51–Woods, Gillian

Drama and the Succession to the Crown, 1561-1633

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Transcript of Drama and the Succession to the Crown, 1561-1633