Cupid and Death is a mid-seventeenth-century
masqueThe masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio Masque involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which...
, written by the Caroline era dramatist
James ShirleyJames 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...
, and performed on March 26,
1653The 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....
before the Portuguese ambassador to Great Britain. The work and its performance provide a point of contradiction to the standard view that the England of
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
and the
InterregnumThe English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and military rule under the Commonwealth of England after the English Civil War. It began with the regicide of Charles I in January 1649, and ended with the restoration of Charles II in 1660....
was uniformly hostile to stage drama.
After the closure of the theatres in 1642 at the start of the
English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
, Shirley earned a living as a schoolteacher.
Cupid and Death is a mid-seventeenth-century
masqueThe masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio Masque involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which...
, written by the Caroline era dramatist
James ShirleyJames 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...
, and performed on March 26,
1653The 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....
before the Portuguese ambassador to Great Britain. The work and its performance provide a point of contradiction to the standard view that the England of
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
and the
InterregnumThe English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and military rule under the Commonwealth of England after the English Civil War. It began with the regicide of Charles I in January 1649, and ended with the restoration of Charles II in 1660....
was uniformly hostile to stage drama.
Background
After the closure of the theatres in 1642 at the start of the
English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
, Shirley earned a living as a schoolteacher. As part of his new occupation, he wrote dramas — morality plays and masques — for his students to perform. The final works of his career, including
Honoria and MammonHonoria and Mammon is a Caroline era stage play, written by James Shirley and published in 1659. It is a revision and expansion of Shirley's earlier morality play A Contention for Honor and Riches Honoria and Mammon is a Caroline era stage play, written by James Shirley and published in 1659. It is...
and
The Contention of Ajax and UlyssesThe Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for the Armour of Achilles is a Caroline era stage play, an interlude written by James Shirley and first published in 1659...
(both published in 1659), were works for student performers.
Cupid and Death is another work in this category, though its resemblances with the great masques of the late
StuartThe House of Stuart, also known as the House of Stewart, is an important European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century. Their direct ancestors had held the title High Steward of Scotland since the...
Court have been noted by critics — it "is much more like a Court Masque than any of Shirley's other school Masques." Perhaps this aspect of the work made it seem appropriate for the Portuguese ambassador, the Count of Peneguiaõ. Shirley's past Royalist connections with the Stuart Court, and even his Roman Catholicism, clearly (if surprisingly) did not stand as insuperable obstacles to a public staging of the work.
Publication
Cupid and Death was first published in
quartoThe size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf , or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
in 1653, by the booksellers John Crook and John Baker. It was reprinted in
1659The year 1659 in literature involved some significant events.-New books:*Richard Baxter - The Holy Commonwealth*Thomas Hobbes - De Homine*Christiaan Huygens - Systema Saturnium*Ninon de l'Enclos - La coquette vengée...
. The full musical score for the masque, by
Matthew LockeMatthew Locke was an English Baroque composer and music theorist.As a boy he was trained in the choir of Exeter Cathedral, under Edward Gibbons, the brother of Orlando Gibbons...
and
Christopher GibbonsChristopher Gibbons was an English composer and organist. He was the second son, and first surviving child of the composer Orlando Gibbons.As a child, Gibbons sang in the Chapel Royal under the direction of Nathaniel Giles...
, has survived, and was published together with Shirley's text in a modern edition in 1951.
Source
The drama depends on a traditional tale, found in
AesopAesop , known only for the genre of fables ascribed to him, was by tradition a slave who was a contemporary of Croesus and Peisistratus in the mid-sixth century BC in ancient Greece.-Fables:The various collections that go under the rubric "Aesop's Fables" are still taught as moral...
and many subsequent versions. For his source, Shirley employed a
1651The year 1651 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* August 22 - Execution of Protestant preacher, Christopher Love, whose sermons were later published.-New books:*William Bosworth - The Chaste and Lost Lovers...
translation of Aesop by
John OgilbyJohn Ogilby was a Scottish translator, impresario and cartographer. He is known best for his Britannia Atlas of 1675, which was perhaps the first British road atlas, and set the standard for those that followed John Ogilby (November 1600 – 4 September 1676) was a Scottish translator,...
, with whom he'd worked at the
Werburgh Street TheatreThe Werburgh Street Theatre, also the Saint Werbrugh Street Theatre or the New Theatre, was a seventeenth-century theatre in Dublin, Ireland...
in the later 1630s. Shirley wrote commendatory verses for Ogilby's volume.
Plot
In the tale and in Shirley's retelling, Death and Cupid accidentally exchange their arrows and cause chaos as a result. Cupid shoots potential lovers and inadvertently kills them. Death shoots at elderly people whose time of passing has come, and strikes them ardent instead; he shoots duellists about to fight, and they drop their swords to embrace and dance and sing. The "serious" portion of the masque features the kind of personifications standard in the masque form: Nature, Folly, Madness, and Despair. As usual in masques of Shirley's era, the work contains a comic anti-masque, with a tavern Host and a Chamberlain, and a dance of "
SatyrsIn Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains...
and Apes." (The poor Chamberlain is struck by Death with Cupid's arrow, and falls in love with an ape.) The god
MercuryMercury was a messenger, and a god of trade, profit and commerce, the son of Maia Maiestas, also known as Ops, the Roman version of Rhea, and Jupiter. His name is related to the Latin word merx...
eventually intervenes to set things right; Cupid is banished from the courts of princes to common people's cottages (a suitably sober moral for the
PuritanA Puritan of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant...
regime then in power). The slain lovers are shown rejoicing in
ElysiumIn Greek mythology, Elysium was a section of the Underworld...
.
"
Cupid and Death resembles Caroline masque in its use of staging, music, dance, singing and dialogue. Yet it differs in that the masquers take part in the action and they do not dance with the audience at the end...The balance between spoken prose dialogue, recitative and song carries the performance away from masque and towards
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, a form
DavenantSir William Davenant , also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned both the Caroline and Restoration eras, and who was active both before and after the English Civil...
planned to introduce to the London stage as early as 1639."
Cupid and Death was performed at the
Glastonbury FestivalThe Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or Glasto, is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. The festival is best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and...
in 1919, and by the Halastó Kórus (directed by Göttinger Pál) in Budapest in 2008.
Sources
- Clare, Janet. Drama of the English Republic, 1649–60. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2006.
- Corns, Thomas N. A History of Seventeenth-Century English Literature. London, Blackwell, 2007.
- Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978.
- Rose, Martial. Forever Juliet, Dereham, Norfolk, Larks Press, 2003.