The Brothers (James Shirley)
Encyclopedia
The Brothers is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy
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 James Shirley
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...

. First published in 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....

, The Brothers has sometimes been hailed as one of Shirley's best plays, though it has also been a focus of significant confusion and scholarly debate.

"There is much uncertainty about this play" — though much of this uncertainty seems unnecessary, given the historical facts. The Brothers was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels
Master of the Revels
The Master of the Revels was a position within the English, and later the British, royal household heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels" that originally had responsibilities for overseeing royal festivities, known as revels, and later also became responsible for stage censorship,...

, on November 4, 1626
1626 in literature
The year 1626 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Izaak Walton marries Rachel Floud.*John Beaumont is made a baronet.-New books:*Francis Bacon - The New Atlantis*Robert Fludd - Philosophia Sacra...

. The title page of the first edition indicates that the play was acted by the King's Men
King's Men (playing company)
The King's Men was the company of actors to which William Shakespeare belonged through most of his career. Formerly known as The Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it became The King's Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne and became the company's patron.The...

. Some scholars have assumed that Shirley wrote for the King's Men only in the final phase of his career, in 1640–42; but this is by no means a certainty. Shirley's long and productive connection with Queen Henrietta's Men
Queen Henrietta's Men
Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men.-Beginnings:...

 dominated most of his career, though he wrote Love in a Maze
Love in a Maze
The Changes, or Love in a Maze is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy of manners written by James Shirley, first published in 1639. It was one of Shirley's most popular comedies, especially in the Restoration era...

for the King's Revels Men
King's Revels Men
The King's Revels Men or King's Revels Company was a playing company or troupe of actors in seventeenth-century England. In the confusing theatre nomenclature of that era, it is sometimes called the second King's Revels Company, to distinguish it from an earlier troupe with the same title that was...

 in 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....

.

The eccentric nineteenth-century critic F. G. Fleay
Frederick Gard Fleay
Frederick Gard Fleay was an influential and prolific nineteenth-century Shakespeare scholar.Fleay, the son of a linen draper, graduated from King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge , where he received mathematical training that was key to his later achievements...

 originated the argument that the play that was published as The Brothers in 1653 is a revision of an otherwise-unknown play by Shirley titled The Politic Father, which was licensed by the Master of the Revels on May 26, 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....

. This argument was accepted by Arthur Nason. Other critics have regarded The Politic Father as an alternative title for Shirley's extant tragedy The Politician, for which there is no license in Herbert's records, and have treated the Brothers = Politic Father argument as tendentious and overly elaborate. "The fact of the matter seems to be that The Brothers of 1652 is The Brothers of 1626," writes Forsythe. Schelling also supports this view. Occam's razor
Occam's razor
Occam's razor, also known as Ockham's razor, and sometimes expressed in Latin as lex parsimoniae , is a principle that generally recommends from among competing hypotheses selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions.-Overview:The principle is often summarized as "simpler explanations...

 certainly appears to cut their way.

The play was printed in the octavo
Book 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"...

 volume titled Six 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...

 and Humphrey Robinson
Humphrey Robinson
Humphrey Robinson was a prominent London publisher and bookseller of the middle seventeenth century.Robinson was the son of a Bernard Robinson, a clerk from Carlisle; other members of his family were important clergymen and church office-holders. Humphrey Robinson became a "freeman" of the ...

 in 1653. (Five of the dramas in Six New Plays, including The Brothers, are dated to 1652, while the sixth, and the general title page, are dated to 1653, leading to a confusion in dating.) In that volume, The Brothers is dedicated to Thomas Stanley
Thomas Stanley (author)
Sir Thomas Stanley was an English author and translator.-Life:He was born in Cumberlow, Hertfordshire, the son of Sir Thomas Stanley of Cumberlow, Hertfordshire and his wife, Mary Hammond. Mary was the cousin of Richard Lovelace, and Stanley was educated in company with the son of Edward Fairfax,...

.

The Brothers was revived early in the Restoration
English 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; it was acted in July 1662
1662 in literature
The year 1662 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*September 29 - Samuel Pepys sees the King's Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream...

.

Synopsis

Though set in Madrid, the play is "purely a comedy of English manners." It tells the story of a tyrannical father eager for his daughter to marry into money. He pursues one suitor after another for her, only to be fooled in the end.

Fernando and Francisco, the brothers of the title, are in love with Felisarda and Jacinta, the niece and daughter of Don Carlos. But the Don will not favor Francisco, a second son with no patrimony, for his daughter; and so, to fool the old man, the brothers pretend to love the other brother's love. Don Carlos's son Luys comes home from the university with a friend named Alberto, a potential suitor for Jacinta's hand; and the Don favors the young student. The brothers' father Don Ramyres, ignorant of his sons' affections, suggests his elder son Fernando as a match for Jacinta, and Don Carlos prefers him over Alberto because he's richer; but then Fernando is displaced in Don Carlos's good graces by Don Pedro, an even wealthier candidate.

Fernando tells his father of his love for the penniless Felisarda, and Don Ramyres pretends to disinherit him. Their romance revealed, Felisarda is sent away from her uncle's house to stay with Don Ramyres's household. Don Ramyres pretends to die, leaving Francisco as his heir and Fernando with only a meagre pension. Jacinta is to by married to the rich Don Pedro, a fool and braggart—but she disguises Don Pedro's cast-off love Estefania in her clothes and sends Estefania off to the church in her place. Jacinta then elopes with Francisco.

At Luys's instigation, Alberto abducts the woman he thinks is Jacinta (actually Estefania) on her way to the marriage ceremony. Finding that he's been fooled and that Jacinta has eloped, the flexible Alberto marries Estefania (he's a more attractive match for her than Don Pedro). Don Carlos, confronted with the fact of a new son-in-law, takes rueful comfort in the idea that at least Francisco is an heir; Francisco, however, offers his patrimony to his older brother—who refuses it. The supposedly dead Don Ramyres suddenly re-appears, to announce that he's merely been testing his sons; and he blesses the marriages of both young men.

As is usually the case with Caroline era plays, The Brothers shows links and commonalities with various earlier works; Forsythe cites Webster's
John Webster
John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...

 The Devil's Law Case, Jonson's
Ben 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...

 The Staple of News
The Staple of News
The Staple of News is an early Caroline era play, a satire by Ben Jonson. The play was first performed in late 1625 by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre, and first published in 1631.-Publication:...

, the Beaumont/Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I ....

 play The Maid's Tragedy
The Maid's Tragedy
The Maid's Tragedy is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It was first published in 1619.The play was one of the earliest works in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators that was acted by the King's Men; Fletcher would spend most of his career as that company's regular playwright...

,
and The London Prodigal
The London Prodigal
The London Prodigal is a play in English Renaissance theatre, a city comedy set in London, in which a prodigal son learns the error of his ways. The play was published in quarto in 1605 by the stationer Nathaniel Butter, and printed by Thomas Cotes...

, among others.
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