Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes
Encyclopedia
The History of the Two Valiant Knights, Sir Clyomon Knight of the Golden Shield, Son to the King of Denmark, and Clamydes the White Knight, Son to the King of Swabia is an early Elizabethan stage play, first published in 1599
but written perhaps three decades earlier (c. 1570). It is often regarded as a characteristic example — perhaps the best surviving example — of the type of drama that was extremely popular in the early Elizabethan period. The work "best represents the characteristics of pre-Greenian
dramatic romance."
issued by stationer
Thomas Creede
. The title page makes no attribution of authorship; it does state that the play was "sundry time" performed by Queen Elizabeth's Men
. That playing company
originated in 1583
; if the play is as old as some commentators judge it, the company's version must have been a revival.
, or, more properly, tragicomedy
," though it falls securely into the category of romance
, an enormously popular genre in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A modern reader or critic might classify it as an "adventure melodrama."
Clyomon and Camydes is an extravagant example of stage romance. In his Defense of Poetry
, Sir Philip Sidney
generally defended the poets and poems of his era from their critics; but in a famous and often-quoted passage he also ridiculed the fanciful and wild romances then common on the popular stage, in which:
A quick summary of the physical locations in this play confirms and even accentuates Sidney's description: the drama opens in Denmark, "and passes successively to Swabia
, to the Forest of Marvels on the borders of Macedonia
, to the Isle of Strange Marshes twenty days' sail from Macedonia, to the Forest again, to the Isle again, to Norway, to the Forest, to the Isle, to the Forest, to a road near Denmark, to the Isle, to Denmark."
or heptameter
verse that was popular in its era. When the heroine Neronis (daughter of Patranius, late King of the Isle of Strange Marshes) enters the Forest of Marvels in male disguise, she speaks this:
The meter has a jog-trot rhythm to a modern ear, but poets like Sidney and Arthur Golding
employed it for works of serious intent.
, Thomas Preston
, Robert Wilson
, and one Richard Bower. No convincing case has been made for any single candidate.
plays. Most notably, Rosalind in As You Like It
disguises herself in male clothing and flees courtly life for residence among simple shepherds — just as Neronis does in her play. In A Midsummer Night's Dream
, the playlet of the mechanicals in Act V bears a resemblance with Clyomon and Clamydes, though in this case the resemblance is clearly in a spirit of parody
. And the late romance Cymbeline
bears a significant relationship with Clyomon and Clamydes. Shakespeare uses a personified figure of Rumour as a Chorus at the start of Henry IV, Part 2
; the same figure appears in Clyomon and Clamydes.
(Clyomon is originally accompanied by a clown character called Subtle Shift, or Knowledge — a version of the Vice character in the medieval morality play
. Shift quickly changes sides to Clamydes when it's in his interest; though he later betrays Clamydes as well. The play's personification of Rumour is another holdover from its medieval antecedents.)
Sir Clyomon sets off on his knightly adventures, which lead him to the Macedonia of Alexander the Great (a figure commonly featured in chivalric romance). Clamydes pursues Clyomon, seeking revenge for his stolen knighthood; menawhile he kills the dragon in an offstage fight. But he falls victim to the spells of the evil magician Bryan Sans Foy, who steals Clamydes' arms and apparel (and his dragon's head). Bryan intends to take Clamydes' place and marry Juliana.
Clyomon is driven by storms to the Isle of Strange Marshes; he falls in love with the princess Neronis. He vows his fealty to her — and returns to his adventures. (He has sworn to meet and fight with Clamydes, so his knightly honor compels him.) Thrasellus, the King of Norway, also loves Neronis; she has rejected him, and so he kidnaps her. She, however, escapes for him, and in male disguise seeks refuge with the shepherd Corin. (Neronis is "the earliest known example of a girl disguised as a page" in English Renaissance drama
, making her the ancestress of Lyly's
Gallathea and Phillida, Shakespeare's Rosalind and Viola, and all their successors.) Clyomon tries to rescue Neronis; he meets, fights, and kills Thrasellus. Yet since the man is a king, Clyomon gives him an honorable burial, decorating the hearse with his own shield. Neronis finds hearse and shield, and mistakes the dead man for Clyomon. In grief, she sings a song and tries to kill herself with Clyomon's sword — when Providence descends from the heavens to stop her. He assures her that she will find her living beloved soon. Neronis, still in boy's clothes, takes service as page with a disguised Clyomon.
(Thrasellus's hearse remains onstage from one Forest scene to the next — even though an Isle scene intercedes between them.)
After their abundant adventures, problems are resolved in the end. The two knights become friends when Clamydes realizes that Clyomon is a prince of Denmark and Juliana's brother; they return north. Neronis realizes that she is working for the man she loves. Clamydes chases away the cowardly Bryan Sans Foy. Neronis reveals her true identity. The couples plan their weddings as the play concludes.
1599 in literature
-Events:* Undated - Opening of the Globe Theatre.*June 4 - Middleton's Microcynicon and Marston's Scourge of Villainy are publicly burned, as ecclesiastical authorities crack down on the craze for satire of the past year. The Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury tighten their...
but written perhaps three decades earlier (c. 1570). It is often regarded as a characteristic example — perhaps the best surviving example — of the type of drama that was extremely popular in the early Elizabethan period. The work "best represents the characteristics of pre-Greenian
Robert Greene (16th century)
Robert Greene was an English author best known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, widely believed to contain a polemic attack on William Shakespeare. He was born in Norwich and attended Cambridge University, receiving a B.A. in 1580, and an M.A...
dramatic romance."
Publication
Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes was first printed in 1599, in a quartoBook size
The 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"...
issued by stationer
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
Thomas Creede
Thomas Creede
Thomas Creede was a printer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, rated as "one of the best of his time." Based in London, he conducted his business under the sign of the Catherine Wheel in Thames Street from 1593 to 1600, and under the sign of the Eagle and Child in the Old Exchange from 1600 to...
. The title page makes no attribution of authorship; it does state that the play was "sundry time" performed by Queen Elizabeth's Men
Queen Elizabeth's Men
Queen Elizabeth's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in English Renaissance theatre. Formed in 1583 at the express command of Queen Elizabeth, it was the dominant acting company for the rest of the 1580s, as the Admiral's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men would be in the decade that...
. That playing company
Playing company
In Renaissance London, playing company was the usual term for a company of actors. These companies were organized around a group of ten or so shareholders , who performed in the plays but were also responsible for management. The sharers employed "hired men" — that is, the minor actors and...
originated in 1583
1583 in literature
-Events:*June 11 - Rivales, another Latin play by Gager, is acted by the students of Christ Church, Oxford. Rivales, criticized for its "filth," was never printed and does not survive; but was revived for two performances in 1592, one before Queen Elizabeth I of England.*June 12 - Dido, a play in...
; if the play is as old as some commentators judge it, the company's version must have been a revival.
Genre
The play has been called a "comedyComedy
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...
, or, more properly, tragicomedy
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...
," though it falls securely into the category of romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
, an enormously popular genre in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A modern reader or critic might classify it as an "adventure melodrama."
Clyomon and Camydes is an extravagant example of stage romance. In his Defense of Poetry
An Apology for Poetry
Sir Philip Sidney wrote An Apology for Poetry in approximately 1579, and it was published in 1595, after his death....
, Sir Philip Sidney
Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
generally defended the poets and poems of his era from their critics; but in a famous and often-quoted passage he also ridiculed the fanciful and wild romances then common on the popular stage, in which:
- "...you shall have Asia of the one side, and Affrick of the other, and so many other under-kingdoms, that the player, when he commeth in, must ever begin with telling where he is, or else the tale will not be conceived. Now you shall have three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe the stage to be a garden. By and by, we hear news of shipwreck in the same place, and then we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that comes out a hideous monster, with fire and smoke, and then the miserable beholders are bound to take it for a cave. While in the meantime two armies fly in, represented with four swords and bucklers, and then what hard heart will not receive it for a pitched field?"
A quick summary of the physical locations in this play confirms and even accentuates Sidney's description: the drama opens in Denmark, "and passes successively to Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
, to the Forest of Marvels on the borders of Macedonia
Macedon
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....
, to the Isle of Strange Marshes twenty days' sail from Macedonia, to the Forest again, to the Isle again, to Norway, to the Forest, to the Isle, to the Forest, to a road near Denmark, to the Isle, to Denmark."
Verse
The play is composed in the rhymed fourteenerFourteener (poetry)
A Fourteener, in poetry, is a line consisting of 14 syllables, usually having 7 iambic heptametric feet, most commonly found in English poetry produced in the 16th and 17th centuries...
or heptameter
Heptameter
Heptameter is one or more lines of verse containing seven metrical feet .An example from Lord Byron's Youth and Age:...
verse that was popular in its era. When the heroine Neronis (daughter of Patranius, late King of the Isle of Strange Marshes) enters the Forest of Marvels in male disguise, she speaks this:
-
- As hare the hound, as lamb the wolf, as fowl the falcon's dint,
- So do I fly from tyrant he, whose heart more hard than flint
- Hath sack'd on me such hugy heaps of ceaseless sorrows here,
- That sure it is intolerable, the torments that I bear.
The meter has a jog-trot rhythm to a modern ear, but poets like Sidney and Arthur Golding
Arthur Golding
Arthur Golding was an English translator of more than 30 works from Latin into English. While primarily remembered today for his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses because of its influence on Shakespeare's works, in his own time he was most famous for his translation of Caesar's Commentaries, and...
employed it for works of serious intent.
Authorship
There is no evidence from the Elizabethan era to indicate the author of Sir Clymon and Sir Clamydes. Scholars and critics have proposed George PeeleGeorge Peele
George Peele , was an English dramatist.-Life:Peele was christened on 25 July 1556. His father, who appears to have belonged to a Devonshire family, was clerk of Christ's Hospital, and wrote two treatises on bookkeeping...
, Thomas Preston
Thomas Preston (writer)
Thomas Preston was an English master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge and possibly a dramatist.-Life:Preston was born at Simpson, Buckinghamshire, in 1537, and was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, where he was elected scholar, 16 Aug. 1553, and fellow, 18 Sept. 1556. He graduated B.A....
, Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (dramatist)
Robert Wilson , was an Elizabethan dramatist who worked primarily in the 1580s and 1590s. He is also believed to have been an actor who specialized in clown roles....
, and one Richard Bower. No convincing case has been made for any single candidate.
Shakespeare
Crude as it is, Clyomon and Clamydes is thought to have had an influence on several of Shakespeare'sWilliam 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"...
plays. Most notably, Rosalind in As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
disguises herself in male clothing and flees courtly life for residence among simple shepherds — just as Neronis does in her play. In A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
, the playlet of the mechanicals in Act V bears a resemblance with Clyomon and Clamydes, though in this case the resemblance is clearly in a spirit of parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
. And the late romance Cymbeline
Cymbeline
Cymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
bears a significant relationship with Clyomon and Clamydes. Shakespeare uses a personified figure of Rumour as a Chorus at the start of Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V.-Sources:...
; the same figure appears in Clyomon and Clamydes.
Synopsis
Clamydes, son of the King of Swabia, has a problem: he cannot marry his beloved, Juliana, until he slays a dragon that has been killing and eating maidens and matrons. Clamydes must bring Juliana the severed head of the "flying serpent." Juliana's brother Clyomon, son of the King of Denmark, takes Clamydes' place when the Suavian king is knighting his son — effectively stealing his brother-in-law-to-be's knighthood.(Clyomon is originally accompanied by a clown character called Subtle Shift, or Knowledge — a version of the Vice character in the medieval morality play
Morality play
The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of...
. Shift quickly changes sides to Clamydes when it's in his interest; though he later betrays Clamydes as well. The play's personification of Rumour is another holdover from its medieval antecedents.)
Sir Clyomon sets off on his knightly adventures, which lead him to the Macedonia of Alexander the Great (a figure commonly featured in chivalric romance). Clamydes pursues Clyomon, seeking revenge for his stolen knighthood; menawhile he kills the dragon in an offstage fight. But he falls victim to the spells of the evil magician Bryan Sans Foy, who steals Clamydes' arms and apparel (and his dragon's head). Bryan intends to take Clamydes' place and marry Juliana.
Clyomon is driven by storms to the Isle of Strange Marshes; he falls in love with the princess Neronis. He vows his fealty to her — and returns to his adventures. (He has sworn to meet and fight with Clamydes, so his knightly honor compels him.) Thrasellus, the King of Norway, also loves Neronis; she has rejected him, and so he kidnaps her. She, however, escapes for him, and in male disguise seeks refuge with the shepherd Corin. (Neronis is "the earliest known example of a girl disguised as a page" in English Renaissance drama
English Renaissance theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre, refers to the theatre of England, largely based in London, which occurred between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642...
, making her the ancestress of Lyly's
John Lyly
John Lyly was an English writer, best known for his books Euphues,The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England. Lyly's linguistic style, originating in his first books, is known as Euphuism.-Biography:John Lyly was born in Kent, England, in 1553/1554...
Gallathea and Phillida, Shakespeare's Rosalind and Viola, and all their successors.) Clyomon tries to rescue Neronis; he meets, fights, and kills Thrasellus. Yet since the man is a king, Clyomon gives him an honorable burial, decorating the hearse with his own shield. Neronis finds hearse and shield, and mistakes the dead man for Clyomon. In grief, she sings a song and tries to kill herself with Clyomon's sword — when Providence descends from the heavens to stop her. He assures her that she will find her living beloved soon. Neronis, still in boy's clothes, takes service as page with a disguised Clyomon.
(Thrasellus's hearse remains onstage from one Forest scene to the next — even though an Isle scene intercedes between them.)
After their abundant adventures, problems are resolved in the end. The two knights become friends when Clamydes realizes that Clyomon is a prince of Denmark and Juliana's brother; they return north. Neronis realizes that she is working for the man she loves. Clamydes chases away the cowardly Bryan Sans Foy. Neronis reveals her true identity. The couples plan their weddings as the play concludes.