A Mad Couple Well-Match'd
Encyclopedia
A Mad Couple Well-Match'd is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy
written by Richard Brome
. It was first published in the 1653
Brome collection Five New Plays, issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley
, Richard Marriot
, and Thomas Dring
.
list of plays belonging to the Beeston's Boys
company includes an otherwise-unknown play titled A Mad Couple Well Met, which some scholars have taken as a mistake for Brome's play. (Matthew Steggle observes that "the two phrases are variants of the same proverb.") Brome is known to have written for William Beeston
's company at the Cockpit Theatre
during the final phase of his career; they staged his last play A Jovial Crew
in 1641
. Most critics accept the later 1630s as the likeliest time for the authorship of A Mad Couple Well-Match'd.
and from earlier works in the genre of city comedy
. The resemblance between Brome's complaisant cuckold Saleware in A Mad Couple and the character Candido in Thomas Dekker's The Honest Whore, Part 1
has drawn notice.
A special debt to Jonson's comedy has been noted in Brome's portrayal of the widow character, Mistress Crostill. She is a "humours" character of the type made famous by Jonson, most notably in his Every Man In
and Every Man Out of His Humour
; and her characterization as lustful and lubricious is typical of Jonson's comedy specifically, and more generally of city comedy as a whole.
, The Weeding of Covent Garden
, and The New Academy
refer to actual, socially significant locations in contemporary London, as do other plays of the period like Shirley's
Hyde Park
(1632
) and Nabbes's
Covent Garden (1633
) and Tottenham Court (1634
). A Mad Couple shows this same tendency toward place realism: in Act II, the protagonist Careless says,
All of these were locations in the London of Brome's day: Fuller's or Fulwood's Rents and the others were places where debtors could find sanctuary from creditors and bailiffs and the threat of debtor's prison.
called the work both "very clever" and "very coarse;" Clarence Andrews complained that "the bad characters all end happily; no one suffers for his flagrant immorality; the hero is faithless, a rake, a scoundrel, and a liar."
Modern commentators tend to approach the play with less moral high dudgeon, and have recognized that the play's rough-and-tumble morality, and its treatment of the contrasting roles of men and women in the Caroline double standard, have some overlooked subtlety and power. The play's element of latent lesbianism has also attracted attention. [See The Antipodes and The Queen's Exchange
for other Brome allusions to lesbianism.]
This backstory is delivered in the play's opening dialogue, between Careless and his servant Wat. Their conversation also touches upon the subject of Careless's mistress Phebe, a young woman whom Careless has seduced and maintained as his lover. Phebe had grown increasingly unhappy with her disreputable state, and longs for marriage; Careless does not. Phebe has appealed for help to a relative of hers, a London merchant named Tom Saleware. Saleware has a notorious reputation as a "wittol" — a complaisant cuckold: his wife Alicia Saleware sleeps with prominent men for social and financial advantage.
Among those men is Sir Anthony Thrivewell; the guilt-ridden old knight admits to his Lady that he had one sexual experience with Mistress Saleware, which cost him £100. Lady Thrivewell, a worldly woman, forgives her husband — but extracts a little revenge from Mistress Saleware: she buys goods at the Salewares' shop worth a hundred pounds and change, but pays only the change. Alicia Saleware is resentful over the trick, but has other matters to attend to: she is being courted by a licentious nobleman called Lord Lovely, who sends his follower, a young man called Bellamy, as his go-between. Their conversations reveal a noticeable measure of sexual tension, the suggestion being that young Bellamy, though naive and inexperienced, is interested in Alicia Saleware for himself. Alicia Saleware is shown conducting her flirtations under her husband's nose, while he refuses to acknowledge the facts before him.
Through the intervention of Sir Anthony's friend Mr. Saveall, Careless is welcomed back into Sir Anthony's graces, and the Thrivewell house, once again. As a way of reforming the nephew and restoring his fortune, Thrivewell and Saveall promote an arranged marriage between Careless and a wealthy young widow, Mistress Crostill. Careless sends her a letter to advance his suit, and at the same time writes a dismissive and insulting letter to Phebe; true to his name, however, he misdirects the two letters, so that Phebe receives the marriage proposal and Mrs. Crostil the insults. The widow, however, has a "humorous" and contrary personality (hence her name: she is always contrary, "cross still"):
— as Mr. Saveall puts it. The rudeness and sexual bravado of Careless's "cross abusive letter" only attract the widow to him.
Careless is incorrigible himself: drunk, he makes sexual advances to Lady Thrivewell, offering to impregnate her with the heir that his uncle apparently cannot conceive. When his servant Wat protests Careless's callous treatment of Phebe and his general bad behavior, Careless beats him and fires him. Even when he's sober, Careless continues his pursuit of the Lady for sex, and the widow for marriage. Mrs. Crostil is a handful for him, however; Lord Lovely has proposed a marriage between her and young Bellamy, and in one comic scene Crostil merely repeats Careless's wooing to Bellamy verbatim, and repeats Bellamy's words back to Careless. Careless quickly develops a resentment toward Bellamy, and a suspicion of the young man's friendship with Lady Thrivewell.
Meanwhile, Alicia Saleware finds that Bellamy evades and frustrates her attempts to have sex with him. Offended, she decides to accuse him of trying to seduce her away from Lord Lovely. The play's entanglements come to a head in the final Act: Careless believes that he has seduced Lady Thrivewell and then been dismissed by her, and he exposes her to her husband. Lord Thrivewell is deeply distressed by the accusation, but Lady Thrivewell assures him that she can resolve him of her innocence. She reveals that she has played a version of the bed trick
(so common in English Renaissance drama), and that the woman Careless mistook for Lady Thrivewell in the dark was actually his mistress Phebe. By this, the Lady has managed to teach a lesson to Careless, and also to her husband and his double standard of sexual behavior.
The accusations against young Bellamy, and all appearances of sexual misbehavior on his part (with Alicia Saleware or Lady Thrivewell or Mrs. Crostil), are negated when it is revealed that "he" is actually a young woman, disguised to safeguard her against sexual predators like Lord Lovely. Careless, exposed and disgraced, states that he will marry Phebe and sell tobacco for a living — but Lady Thrivewell has other ideas: she and other friends provide a dowry on which Phebe and Wat can marry and establish themselves. Lord Lovely promises to reform; Alicia Saleware is sent back to her husband to make something of her marriage, if she can. With all his other plots exposed, Careless admits that the robbery from which he once rescued Sir Anthony was a con-game, a trick arranged to earn the knight's gratitude. Yet despite all of his faults, Careless still attracts Mrs. Crostil; they decide to marry — two incorrigibles who deserve each other, a mad couple well matched.
era, Aphra Behn
adapted Brome's play into The Debauchee, or the Credulous Cuckold (printed 1677
). Behn retained much of Brome's work in her version, even keeping the original characters' names — though she expanded the crucial bedroom scene in Act IV.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
written by Richard Brome
Richard Brome
Richard Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.-Life:Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity...
. It was first published in the 1653
1653 in literature
The year 1653 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* James Shirley's masque Cupid and Death is performed on March 26.* Pierre Corneille retires from the theatre for six years.* John Evelyn buys Sayes Court, Deptford....
Brome collection Five New Plays, issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley
Humphrey Moseley
Humphrey Moseley was a prominent London publisher and bookseller in the middle seventeenth century.Possibly a son of publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley became a "freeman" of the Stationers Company, the guild of London booksellers, on 7 May 1627; he was selected a Warden of the Company on...
, Richard Marriot
John and Richard Marriot
John Marriot and his son Richard Marriot were prominent London publishers and booksellers in the seventeenth century. For a portion of their careers, the 1645–57 period, they were partners in a family business....
, and Thomas Dring
Thomas Dring
Thomas Dring was a London publisher and bookseller of the middle seventeenth century. He was in business from 1649 on; his shop was located "at the sign of the George in Fleet Street, near St...
.
Date and performance
Hard evidence on the play's date of authorship and first stage production is lacking. The 16391639 in literature
The year 1639 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*May 21 - The King's Men act John Fletcher's The Mad Lover.*Blaise Pascal's family move to Rouen.*François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer is elected to the Académie Française....
list of plays belonging to the Beeston's Boys
Beeston's Boys
Beeston's Boys was the popular and colloquial name of The King and Queen's Young Company, a troupe of boy actors of the Caroline period, active mainly in the years 1637–1642.-Origin:...
company includes an otherwise-unknown play titled A Mad Couple Well Met, which some scholars have taken as a mistake for Brome's play. (Matthew Steggle observes that "the two phrases are variants of the same proverb.") Brome is known to have written for William Beeston
William Beeston
William Beeston was a 17th century actor and theatre manager, the son and successor to the more famous Christopher Beeston.-Early phase:...
's company at the Cockpit Theatre
Cockpit Theatre
The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was christened The Phoenix....
during the final phase of his career; they staged his last play A Jovial Crew
A Jovial Crew
A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. First staged in 1641 or 1642 and first published in 1652, it is generally ranked as one of Brome's best plays, and one of the best comedies of the Caroline period; in one critic's view, Brome's The...
in 1641
1641 in literature
The year 1641 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Pierre Corneille marries Marie de Lampérière.*Sir William Davenant is convicted of high treason.*Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon becomes an advisor to King Charles I of England....
. Most critics accept the later 1630s as the likeliest time for the authorship of A Mad Couple Well-Match'd.
Genre
Like most of Brome's comedies, A Mad Couple shows strong influences from the works of Ben JonsonBen Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
and from earlier works in the genre of city comedy
City comedy
City comedy, also called Citizen Comedy, is a common genre of Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline comedy on the London stage from the last years of the 16th century to the closing of the theaters in 1642...
. The resemblance between Brome's complaisant cuckold Saleware in A Mad Couple and the character Candido in Thomas Dekker's The Honest Whore, Part 1
The Honest Whore
The Honest Whore is an early Jacobean city comedy, written in two parts; Part 1 is a collaboration between Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, while Part 2 is the work of Dekker alone...
has drawn notice.
A special debt to Jonson's comedy has been noted in Brome's portrayal of the widow character, Mistress Crostill. She is a "humours" character of the type made famous by Jonson, most notably in his Every Man In
Every Man in His Humour
Every Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson. The play belongs to the subgenre of the "humours comedy," in which each major character is dominated by an overriding humour or obsession.-Performance and Publication:...
and Every Man Out of His Humour
Every Man Out of His Humour
Every Man out of His Humour is a satirical comedy written by English playwright Ben Jonson, acted in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It is a conceptual sequel to his 1598 comedy Every Man in His Humour...
; and her characterization as lustful and lubricious is typical of Jonson's comedy specifically, and more generally of city comedy as a whole.
Place realism
Brome's plays regularly participate in the trend toward "place realism" that was fashionable in the drama of the 1630s; his The Sparagus GardenThe Sparagus Garden
The Sparagus Garden is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy by Richard Brome. It was the greatest success of Brome's career, and one of the major theatrical hits of its period.-Performance and publication:...
, The Weeding of Covent Garden
The Weeding of Covent Garden
The Weeding of the Covent Garden, or the Middlesex Justice of Peace, alternatively titled The Covent Garden Weeded, is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome that was first published in 1659...
, and The New Academy
The New Academy
The New Academy, or the New Exchange is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. It was first printed in 1659.-Performance and publication:...
refer to actual, socially significant locations in contemporary London, as do other plays of the period like Shirley's
James Shirley
James Shirley was an English dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly...
Hyde Park
Hyde Park (play)
Hyde Park is a Caroline era comedy of manners written by James Shirley, and first published in 1637.Hyde Park was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on April 20, 1632, and acted at the Cockpit Theatre by Queen Henrietta's Men...
(1632
1632 in literature
The year 1632 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*On February 14, Tempe Restored, a masque written by Aurelian Townshend and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace....
) and Nabbes's
Thomas Nabbes
Thomas Nabbes was an English dramatist.He was born in humble circumstances in Worcestershire, and educated at Exeter College, Oxford in 1621...
Covent Garden (1633
1633 in literature
The year 1633 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*On May 21, Ben Jonson's masque The King's Entertainment at Welbeck is performed....
) and Tottenham Court (1634
1634 in literature
The year 1634 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The King's Men perform Cymbeline at the court of King Charles I of England.*January 22 - The King's Men perform Davenant's The Wits at the Blackfriars Theatre....
). A Mad Couple shows this same tendency toward place realism: in Act II, the protagonist Careless says,
- "I need no more insconsing in Ram Alley, nor the sanctuary of Whitefriars, the forts of Fullers Rents and Milford Lane, whose walls are daily batter'd with the curses of bawling creditors."
All of these were locations in the London of Brome's day: Fuller's or Fulwood's Rents and the others were places where debtors could find sanctuary from creditors and bailiffs and the threat of debtor's prison.
Sex and morals
Traditional critics objected to the sexual themes in this play. Algernon Charles SwinburneAlgernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
called the work both "very clever" and "very coarse;" Clarence Andrews complained that "the bad characters all end happily; no one suffers for his flagrant immorality; the hero is faithless, a rake, a scoundrel, and a liar."
Modern commentators tend to approach the play with less moral high dudgeon, and have recognized that the play's rough-and-tumble morality, and its treatment of the contrasting roles of men and women in the Caroline double standard, have some overlooked subtlety and power. The play's element of latent lesbianism has also attracted attention. [See The Antipodes and The Queen's Exchange
The Queen's Exchange
The Queen's Exchange is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Richard Brome.-Publication and performance:The Queen's Exchange was first published in 1657, in a quarto issued by the bookseller Henry Brome...
for other Brome allusions to lesbianism.]
Synopsis
George Careless is a debauched young gentleman, the type of character who often appears in Caroline drama. Since rescuing his rich uncle Sir Anthony Thrivewell from an attempted robbery, Careless has enjoyed his uncle's patronage and financial support — though lately Sir Anthony has grown weary of rescuing his nephew from his "surfeits, wants, wounds, and imprisonments," as is threatening to cut the young man off. The matter is complicated by the fact that the elderly Sir Anthony married a young wife two years previously, but has yet to father a child with her, leaving his nephew Careless as the heir to his estates.This backstory is delivered in the play's opening dialogue, between Careless and his servant Wat. Their conversation also touches upon the subject of Careless's mistress Phebe, a young woman whom Careless has seduced and maintained as his lover. Phebe had grown increasingly unhappy with her disreputable state, and longs for marriage; Careless does not. Phebe has appealed for help to a relative of hers, a London merchant named Tom Saleware. Saleware has a notorious reputation as a "wittol" — a complaisant cuckold: his wife Alicia Saleware sleeps with prominent men for social and financial advantage.
Among those men is Sir Anthony Thrivewell; the guilt-ridden old knight admits to his Lady that he had one sexual experience with Mistress Saleware, which cost him £100. Lady Thrivewell, a worldly woman, forgives her husband — but extracts a little revenge from Mistress Saleware: she buys goods at the Salewares' shop worth a hundred pounds and change, but pays only the change. Alicia Saleware is resentful over the trick, but has other matters to attend to: she is being courted by a licentious nobleman called Lord Lovely, who sends his follower, a young man called Bellamy, as his go-between. Their conversations reveal a noticeable measure of sexual tension, the suggestion being that young Bellamy, though naive and inexperienced, is interested in Alicia Saleware for himself. Alicia Saleware is shown conducting her flirtations under her husband's nose, while he refuses to acknowledge the facts before him.
Through the intervention of Sir Anthony's friend Mr. Saveall, Careless is welcomed back into Sir Anthony's graces, and the Thrivewell house, once again. As a way of reforming the nephew and restoring his fortune, Thrivewell and Saveall promote an arranged marriage between Careless and a wealthy young widow, Mistress Crostill. Careless sends her a letter to advance his suit, and at the same time writes a dismissive and insulting letter to Phebe; true to his name, however, he misdirects the two letters, so that Phebe receives the marriage proposal and Mrs. Crostil the insults. The widow, however, has a "humorous" and contrary personality (hence her name: she is always contrary, "cross still"):
- "she has a violent humour to do, and not to do things oftentimes willfully against all good counsel or persuasion; she has the spirit of contradiction in her, and an unalterable resolution upon sudden intentions, a most incorrigible will she has, that will not bow nor break"
— as Mr. Saveall puts it. The rudeness and sexual bravado of Careless's "cross abusive letter" only attract the widow to him.
Careless is incorrigible himself: drunk, he makes sexual advances to Lady Thrivewell, offering to impregnate her with the heir that his uncle apparently cannot conceive. When his servant Wat protests Careless's callous treatment of Phebe and his general bad behavior, Careless beats him and fires him. Even when he's sober, Careless continues his pursuit of the Lady for sex, and the widow for marriage. Mrs. Crostil is a handful for him, however; Lord Lovely has proposed a marriage between her and young Bellamy, and in one comic scene Crostil merely repeats Careless's wooing to Bellamy verbatim, and repeats Bellamy's words back to Careless. Careless quickly develops a resentment toward Bellamy, and a suspicion of the young man's friendship with Lady Thrivewell.
Meanwhile, Alicia Saleware finds that Bellamy evades and frustrates her attempts to have sex with him. Offended, she decides to accuse him of trying to seduce her away from Lord Lovely. The play's entanglements come to a head in the final Act: Careless believes that he has seduced Lady Thrivewell and then been dismissed by her, and he exposes her to her husband. Lord Thrivewell is deeply distressed by the accusation, but Lady Thrivewell assures him that she can resolve him of her innocence. She reveals that she has played a version of the bed trick
Bed trick
The bed trick is a plot device in traditional literature and folklore; it involves a substitution of one partner in the sex act with a third person...
(so common in English Renaissance drama), and that the woman Careless mistook for Lady Thrivewell in the dark was actually his mistress Phebe. By this, the Lady has managed to teach a lesson to Careless, and also to her husband and his double standard of sexual behavior.
The accusations against young Bellamy, and all appearances of sexual misbehavior on his part (with Alicia Saleware or Lady Thrivewell or Mrs. Crostil), are negated when it is revealed that "he" is actually a young woman, disguised to safeguard her against sexual predators like Lord Lovely. Careless, exposed and disgraced, states that he will marry Phebe and sell tobacco for a living — but Lady Thrivewell has other ideas: she and other friends provide a dowry on which Phebe and Wat can marry and establish themselves. Lord Lovely promises to reform; Alicia Saleware is sent back to her husband to make something of her marriage, if she can. With all his other plots exposed, Careless admits that the robbery from which he once rescued Sir Anthony was a con-game, a trick arranged to earn the knight's gratitude. Yet despite all of his faults, Careless still attracts Mrs. Crostil; they decide to marry — two incorrigibles who deserve each other, a mad couple well matched.
Adaptation
During the RestorationEnglish Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
era, Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
adapted Brome's play into The Debauchee, or the Credulous Cuckold (printed 1677
1677 in literature
The year 1677 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Roger Morrice begins his Entring Book.* Francis North's A Philosophical Essay of Music published....
). Behn retained much of Brome's work in her version, even keeping the original characters' names — though she expanded the crucial bedroom scene in Act IV.
External links
- Richard Brome Online http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/brome/ contains a scholarly edition of this play, including textual and critical introductions.
- The play text online.