Double Falshood
Encyclopedia
Double Falshood; or, The Distrest Lovers is an early 18th century play by the English writer and playwright Lewis Theobald
. Many scholars believe it to be an adaptation of a lost play by William Shakespeare
and John Fletcher
known as Cardenio
. Theobald himself claimed his version was based on three manuscripts of an unnamed lost play by Shakespeare.
The play's title in modern spelling is Double Falsehood.
. Theobald's play changes the names of the main characters from the Spanish original: Cervantes
' Cardenio becomes Julio, his Lucinda becomes Leonora; Don Fernando is turned into Henriquez, and Dorothea into Violante.
was the first to link Cardenio with Shakespeare: the title page of his edition of 1647, entered at the Stationers' Register
on 9 September 1653, credits the work to "Mr Fletcher & Shakespeare". In all, Moseley added Shakespeare's name to six plays by other writers, attributions which have always been received with scepticism.
Theobald's claim of a Shakespearean foundation for his Double Falshood met with suspicion, and even accusations of forgery, from contemporaries such as Alexander Pope
, and from subsequent generations of critics as well. Nonetheless Theobald is regarded by critics as a far more serious scholar than Pope, and as a man who "more or less invented modern textual criticism". The evidence of Shakespeare's connection with a dramatization of the Cardenio story comes from the entry in the Stationers' Register, but Theobald could not have known of this evidence, "since it was not found until long after his death". Scholarly consensus judges the play to be an 18th-century rewriting of the lost Cardenio
by William Shakespeare
and John Fletcher
. In March 2010, the Arden Shakespeare
editors attributed the authorship partly to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, including it officially in Shakespeare's oeuvre for the first time. The inclusion in the Arden canon, notwithstanding the caution expressed in their editor's guarded endorsement, is criticised for harming Shakespeare's reputation as a playwright.
, and published in 1728
. The drama was revived at Covent Garden on 24 April 1749, and performed again on 6 May of the same year. Later performances occurred in 1781 and 1793, and perhaps in 1770 also.
After the first edition of 1728, later editions appeared in 1740 and 1767.
series. In January 2011 this version, advertised as by "William Shakespeare and John Fletcher", was presented at the Union Theatre
, Southwark
, by theatre company MokitaGrit, director Phil Willmott
. Wilmott, while praising the "flashes of psychological insight" in the work, found himself unconvinced by the attribution to Shakespeare, noting the absence of comic interludes, the play's uncharacteristic structure and, above all, the absence of "heart-stopping moments of poetry". Certainly some typical Shakespearean plot elements, such as women disguised as men, a disaffected younger brother and a switch from scenes at court to one in the country are to be found, but the possibility remains that these were included by another as an "homage" to Shakespeare's style, or as a deliberate attempt to deceive. The critic Lyn Gardner found the work stageworthy, but also doubted the attribution, observing that it was "more of a curiosity than a classic".
In April 2011 the Royal Shakespeare Company
presented a version of Double Falsehood as "Cardenio, Shakespeare's 'lost play' re-imagined". The text included "restored" elements of the plot based on Cervantes. The production received good reviews, but the critic Michael Billington believed that it was more suggestive of Fletcher than Shakespeare.
The play's minor roles, of servants, messengers, and others, were omitted from the dramatis personae.
The cast's Wilks and Booth were Robert Wilks
and Barton Booth
, both prominent actors of their generation. The Mrs. Booth who played Violante was the former Hester Santlow
; Mary Porter played Leonora.
in Spain". The opening scene introduces Duke Angelo and his elder son and heir, Roderick. Roderick is the dutiful and virtuous son; the Duke also has a younger son, Henriquez, a scapegrace and prodigal who is absent from the ducal court, pursuing his own interests. Henriquez has just written his father a letter, requesting gold to buy a horse; Henriquez will send his friend Julio to court to receive payment. The Duke and Roderick decide to use Julio for their own purposes: they will detain him at court "some few days...and assay to mould him / An honest spy" upon Henriquez's "riots."
Julio's father Camillo is not happy about his son's mission to court. Julio wants to arrange a marriage with Leonora; his intended bride is agreeable, but cool, and the call to court delays Julio's plan to obtain the consent of both their fathers. Julio leaves Henriquez behind him to further his suit with Leonora — a foolish trust. Henriquez has developed an infatuation with Violante, a beautiful and virtuous local girl of humble birth; she rejects his inappropriate solicitations. Henriquez forces himself upon her. Afterward, confronting his guilty conscience over his "brutal violence," Henriquez tries to convince himself that his act wasn't a rape, with the feeble rationalization that Violante did not cry out, however much she struggled physically.
His pangs of guilt do not prevent Henriquez from pursuing another scheme: in Julio's absence he is courting Leonora. (Henriquez admits in a soliloquy that he sent Julio away with this in mind. His pursuit of both Violante and Leonora is the "double falsehood" of the title.) The young woman is appalled and repelled by this, but her father Don Bernardo wants the family connection with the nobility that their marriage will produce. Leonora sends a letter to Julio, and he returns in time to frustrate the wedding. Julio challenges Henriquez with his sword but is overwhelmed and ejected by Bernardo's servants; Leonora faints and is carried out. Bernardo discovers a dagger and a suicide note on his daughter's person, revealing her final determination to resist the forced marriage.
Julio and the two young women, each in a distraught state of mind, depart mysteriously; the fathers Camillo and Bernardo are left to confront their own distress. Roderick arrives, and comforts the two old men. Their unhappiness works something of a reversal in each man's character: the formerly mild Camillo hardens his nature, while the formerly harsh Bernardo dissolves in tears.
In Act IV the scene shifts from court and town to the wilds where the shepherds keep their flocks (the same shift to the pastoral
mode that Shakespeare employs in Act IV of The Winter's Tale
). Violante has disguised herself as a boy, and has become a servant to a master shepherd. Julio is also in the neighborhood, wandering distractedly, fighting with shepherds and stealing their food. The Master shepherd is a rare character in traditional English drama, who can actually recognize a woman when she's disguised as a boy. He makes a crude and unwelcome sexual advance toward Violante, which is interrupted by the arrival of Roderick. Henriquez has learned that Leonora has taken refuge in a nearby nunnery, and has gained his brother's help in a plan to retrieve her. Roderick has agreed, in part to keep an eye on his younger brother; he insists that Leonora be treated honourably, and given her choice whether to return with them.
Roderick is also clever enough to piece together the larger situation; he manages to bring Julio, Leonora, Violante, and Henriquez back home altogether. He engineers a grand confrontation and reconciliation scene at the play's end: Julio and Leonora and happily re-united, and a now-repentant Henriquez wants to marry Violante to make up for his crime. The three fathers acquiesce to this arrangement.
In traditional pastoral, it is only the well-fed denizens of court and city that are morally corrupt and sensual.
Lewis Theobald
Lewis Theobald , British textual editor and author, was a landmark figure both in the history of Shakespearean editing and in literary satire...
. Many scholars believe it to be an adaptation of a lost play by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and John Fletcher
John Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's...
known as Cardenio
Cardenio
The History of Cardenio, often referred to as merely Cardenio, is a lost play, known to have been performed by The King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. It was attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stationers' Register entry of 1653...
. Theobald himself claimed his version was based on three manuscripts of an unnamed lost play by Shakespeare.
The play's title in modern spelling is Double Falsehood.
Source
The 1727 play is based on the "Cardenio" episode in Don Quixote, and, more specifically, on Thomas Shelton's English translation of the first part of the novel which appeared in 16121612 in literature
The year 1612 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 6 - Ben Jonson's masque Love Restored is performed.*January 12 - The King's Men and Queen Anne's Men unite for the first of two Court performances in January, with Thomas Heywood's The Silver Age*January 13 - The King's...
. Theobald's play changes the names of the main characters from the Spanish original: Cervantes
Cervantes
-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
' Cardenio becomes Julio, his Lucinda becomes Leonora; Don Fernando is turned into Henriquez, and Dorothea into Violante.
Authorship
Publisher Humphrey MoseleyHumphrey 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...
was the first to link Cardenio with Shakespeare: the title page of his edition of 1647, entered at the Stationers' Register
Stationers' Register
The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...
on 9 September 1653, credits the work to "Mr Fletcher & Shakespeare". In all, Moseley added Shakespeare's name to six plays by other writers, attributions which have always been received with scepticism.
Theobald's claim of a Shakespearean foundation for his Double Falshood met with suspicion, and even accusations of forgery, from contemporaries such as Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, and from subsequent generations of critics as well. Nonetheless Theobald is regarded by critics as a far more serious scholar than Pope, and as a man who "more or less invented modern textual criticism". The evidence of Shakespeare's connection with a dramatization of the Cardenio story comes from the entry in the Stationers' Register, but Theobald could not have known of this evidence, "since it was not found until long after his death". Scholarly consensus judges the play to be an 18th-century rewriting of the lost Cardenio
Cardenio
The History of Cardenio, often referred to as merely Cardenio, is a lost play, known to have been performed by The King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. It was attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stationers' Register entry of 1653...
by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and John Fletcher
John Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's...
. In March 2010, the Arden Shakespeare
Arden Shakespeare
The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries...
editors attributed the authorship partly to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, including it officially in Shakespeare's oeuvre for the first time. The inclusion in the Arden canon, notwithstanding the caution expressed in their editor's guarded endorsement, is criticised for harming Shakespeare's reputation as a playwright.
Performance and publication
The play was first produced on 13 December 1727 at the Theatre Royal, Drury LaneTheatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, and published in 1728
1728 in literature
The year 1728 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal is founded by Daniel Defoe and Henry Baker*Jonathan Swift and Thomas Sheridan launch The Intelligencer ....
. The drama was revived at Covent Garden on 24 April 1749, and performed again on 6 May of the same year. Later performances occurred in 1781 and 1793, and perhaps in 1770 also.
After the first edition of 1728, later editions appeared in 1740 and 1767.
Modern revivals
A new edition of the play was published in March 2010 in the Arden ShakespeareArden Shakespeare
The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries...
series. In January 2011 this version, advertised as by "William Shakespeare and John Fletcher", was presented at the Union Theatre
Union Theatre (London)
The Union Theatre is a small fringe theatre situated in the borough of Southwark in London, England. It was established in 1998 by Sasha Regan who took the initiative to convert a disused paper warehouse near Southwark station into a functioning theatre...
, Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
, by theatre company MokitaGrit, director Phil Willmott
Phil Willmott
Phil Willmott is a British director, playwright, arts journalist, teacher, and founder of London based theatre production company, The Steam Industry.He was the Artistic Director of the Finborough Theatre in London's Earl's Court from 1994 to 1999....
. Wilmott, while praising the "flashes of psychological insight" in the work, found himself unconvinced by the attribution to Shakespeare, noting the absence of comic interludes, the play's uncharacteristic structure and, above all, the absence of "heart-stopping moments of poetry". Certainly some typical Shakespearean plot elements, such as women disguised as men, a disaffected younger brother and a switch from scenes at court to one in the country are to be found, but the possibility remains that these were included by another as an "homage" to Shakespeare's style, or as a deliberate attempt to deceive. The critic Lyn Gardner found the work stageworthy, but also doubted the attribution, observing that it was "more of a curiosity than a classic".
In April 2011 the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
presented a version of Double Falsehood as "Cardenio, Shakespeare's 'lost play' re-imagined". The text included "restored" elements of the plot based on Cervantes. The production received good reviews, but the critic Michael Billington believed that it was more suggestive of Fletcher than Shakespeare.
Cast
The 1728 edition provided a cast list for the main speaking parts in the original production:| Role | Actor |
|---|---|
| Duke Angelo | Mr. Corey |
| Roderick, his Elder Son | Mr. Mills |
| Henriquez, his Younger Son | Mr. Wilks |
| Don Bernardo, Father to Leonora | Mr. Harper |
| Camillo, Father to Julio | Mr. Griffin |
| Julio, in love with Leonora | Mr. Booth |
| Citizen | Mr. Oates |
| Master of the Flocks | Mr. Bridgwater |
| First Shepherd | R. Norris |
| Second Shepherd | Mr. Ray |
| Leonora | Mrs. Porter |
| Violante | Mrs. Booth |
The play's minor roles, of servants, messengers, and others, were omitted from the dramatis personae.
The cast's Wilks and Booth were Robert Wilks
Robert Wilks
Robert Wilks was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s...
and Barton Booth
Barton Booth
Barton Booth was one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century.Booth was from Lancashire and was educated at Westminster School, where his success in the Latin play Andria gave him an inclination for the stage...
, both prominent actors of their generation. The Mrs. Booth who played Violante was the former Hester Santlow
Hester Santlow
Hester Santlow was a noted British dancer and actress, who has been termed "England's first ballerina." She was influential in many spheres of theatrical life.-Life:...
; Mary Porter played Leonora.
Synopsis
The play is set in "the province of AndalusiaAndalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
in Spain". The opening scene introduces Duke Angelo and his elder son and heir, Roderick. Roderick is the dutiful and virtuous son; the Duke also has a younger son, Henriquez, a scapegrace and prodigal who is absent from the ducal court, pursuing his own interests. Henriquez has just written his father a letter, requesting gold to buy a horse; Henriquez will send his friend Julio to court to receive payment. The Duke and Roderick decide to use Julio for their own purposes: they will detain him at court "some few days...and assay to mould him / An honest spy" upon Henriquez's "riots."
Julio's father Camillo is not happy about his son's mission to court. Julio wants to arrange a marriage with Leonora; his intended bride is agreeable, but cool, and the call to court delays Julio's plan to obtain the consent of both their fathers. Julio leaves Henriquez behind him to further his suit with Leonora — a foolish trust. Henriquez has developed an infatuation with Violante, a beautiful and virtuous local girl of humble birth; she rejects his inappropriate solicitations. Henriquez forces himself upon her. Afterward, confronting his guilty conscience over his "brutal violence," Henriquez tries to convince himself that his act wasn't a rape, with the feeble rationalization that Violante did not cry out, however much she struggled physically.
His pangs of guilt do not prevent Henriquez from pursuing another scheme: in Julio's absence he is courting Leonora. (Henriquez admits in a soliloquy that he sent Julio away with this in mind. His pursuit of both Violante and Leonora is the "double falsehood" of the title.) The young woman is appalled and repelled by this, but her father Don Bernardo wants the family connection with the nobility that their marriage will produce. Leonora sends a letter to Julio, and he returns in time to frustrate the wedding. Julio challenges Henriquez with his sword but is overwhelmed and ejected by Bernardo's servants; Leonora faints and is carried out. Bernardo discovers a dagger and a suicide note on his daughter's person, revealing her final determination to resist the forced marriage.
Julio and the two young women, each in a distraught state of mind, depart mysteriously; the fathers Camillo and Bernardo are left to confront their own distress. Roderick arrives, and comforts the two old men. Their unhappiness works something of a reversal in each man's character: the formerly mild Camillo hardens his nature, while the formerly harsh Bernardo dissolves in tears.
In Act IV the scene shifts from court and town to the wilds where the shepherds keep their flocks (the same shift to the pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
mode that Shakespeare employs in Act IV of The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...
). Violante has disguised herself as a boy, and has become a servant to a master shepherd. Julio is also in the neighborhood, wandering distractedly, fighting with shepherds and stealing their food. The Master shepherd is a rare character in traditional English drama, who can actually recognize a woman when she's disguised as a boy. He makes a crude and unwelcome sexual advance toward Violante, which is interrupted by the arrival of Roderick. Henriquez has learned that Leonora has taken refuge in a nearby nunnery, and has gained his brother's help in a plan to retrieve her. Roderick has agreed, in part to keep an eye on his younger brother; he insists that Leonora be treated honourably, and given her choice whether to return with them.
Roderick is also clever enough to piece together the larger situation; he manages to bring Julio, Leonora, Violante, and Henriquez back home altogether. He engineers a grand confrontation and reconciliation scene at the play's end: Julio and Leonora and happily re-united, and a now-repentant Henriquez wants to marry Violante to make up for his crime. The three fathers acquiesce to this arrangement.
Versions of pastoral
Theobald takes a very different approach to the pastoral genre and theme, compared to Shakespeare and Fletcher. In the pastoral tradition exploited by the earlier dramatists, the retreat to the primitive world of nature is a return to a rough but morally benign innocence. Theobald worked a century later in a different social and cultural frame; his shepherds are tougher, their life more bleak. Violante is surprised at the Master shepherd's sexual advances:-
- Who would have thought, that such poor worms as they,
- (Whose best feed is coarse bread; whose bev'rage, water),
- Should have so much rank blood?
In traditional pastoral, it is only the well-fed denizens of court and city that are morally corrupt and sensual.