The Loyal Subject
Encyclopedia
The Loyal Subject is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy
by John Fletcher
that was originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio
of 1647
.
; the cast list added to the text in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679
cites Richard Burbage
, Nathan Field, Henry Condell
, John Underwood
, John Lowin
, Nicholas Tooley
, Richard Sharpe
, and William Ecclestone
— which indicates a production in the 1616–19 era, between 1616, when Field joined the company, and Burbage's death in March 1619.
, and performed it at the Palace of Whitehall
on the night of Tuesday, December 10 of that year, before King Charles I
and Queen Henrietta Maria
. The play was entered into the Stationers' Register
in 1633, which normally preceded a publication; but the play remained out of print until 1647.
Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels
, left a note in his office book that is unusually informative on this play:
Sir George Buck
was Herbert's predecessor as Master of the Revels in the 1610–22 period. Critics have debated whether Herbert would have re-licensed an old play unless it had been changed or revised in the interim; some scholars have supposed that Fletcher's play must have been revised for the 1633 revival — though no clear evidence of revision is found in the text. The play's Prologue and Epilogue are thought to date from the 1633 production, and are perhaps the work of Fletcher's longtime collaborator Philip Massinger
.
titled The Royal King and the Loyal Subject, first published in 1637
but written two or three decades earlier. He also used a play by Lope de Vega
called El gran duque de Moscovia, written c. 1613. An extensive study of the relationship between the plays of Fletcher and Lope de Vega and their background in Russian history has been published by Ervin Brody.
saw a production that featured Edward Kynaston
, the last of the famous boy actors
of the century, in the role of the Duke's sister. (Pepys thought that Kynaston "made the loveliest lady that ever I saw in my life, only her voice not very good.") The Loyal Subject was one of the first dramas staged by Thomas Betterton
, and was one of his earliest successes. Fletcher's play was adapted into a version titled The Faithful General by a woman who identified herself as M. N.; among other changes, she shifted the setting from Russia to Byzantium
. Her version was acted and printed in 1706. Thomas Sheridan made a prose adaptation that was staged in Dublin.
invasion is imminent, however, the Duke must recall Archas, since the army refuses to fight without their commander. The evil counsellor Boroskie tells the Duke that Archas conceals a secret treasure, which was given to him by the Duke's father for safe keeping; Archas was to give it to the present Duke in time of need. The Duke takes possession of the treasure, and orders Archas to send his two daughters to Court. (One of the daughters, a supposed innocent, nonetheless manages to outwit and outmaneuver the dissipated Duke before he can seduce her; they end up married.)
Based on Boroskie's false charges, Archas is arrested and tortured on suspicions that he aims at the throne. The general's son Theodor storms the royal palace and frees his father; the Duke repents, apologizes to Archas, and punishes Boroskie. The Duke's soldiers rebel, and are so disaffected that they intend to join the Tartars to overthrow their Duke; but the loyal Archas prevents them, and is even prepared to execute his son Theodor for treason before the Duke intervenes. It is revealed that Archas's younger son has been living in disguise for his own safety, as Alinda, a servant of the Duke's sister.
----
The idea of an extreme test of a subject's loyalty under outrageous royal misbehavior is one that Fletcher employs in other plays, including The Maid's Tragedy
and Valentinian
.
Critics have studied Fletcher's as a socio-political commentary on his own culture: the Muscovy of the play is a version of the England of King James I
.
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...
by 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...
that was originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio
Beaumont and Fletcher folios
The Beaumont and Fletcher folios were two large folio collections of the stage plays of John Fletcher and his collaborators. The first was issued in 1647, and the second in 1679. The two collections were important in preserving many works of English Renaissance drama.-The first folio, 1647:The 1647...
of 1647
1647 in literature
The year 1647 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Thomas Hobbes becomes tutor to the future Charles II of England.* Plagiarist Robert Baron publishes his Deorum Dona, a masque, and Gripus and Hegio, a pastoral, which draw heavily on the poems of Edmund Waller and John Webster's...
.
Performance
The play was acted by the King's MenKing'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...
; the cast list added to the text in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679
1679 in literature
This article lists some of the most significant events of the year 1679 in literature.-Events:*John Locke returns to England from France.*Étienne Baluze becomes almoner to King Louis XIV of France....
cites Richard Burbage
Richard Burbage
Richard Burbage was an English actor and theatre owner. He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage. They were both actors in drama....
, Nathan Field, Henry Condell
Henry Condell
Henry Condell was an actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing the First Folio, the collected plays of Shakespeare, published in 1623....
, John Underwood
John Underwood (actor)
John Underwood was an early 17th century actor, a member of the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare.-Career:Underwood began as a boy player with the Children of the Chapel, and was cast in that company's productions of Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels and The Poetaster...
, John Lowin
John Lowin
John Lowin was an English actor born in the St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, the son of a tanner. Like Robert Armin, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. While he is not recorded as a free citizen of this company, he did perform as a goldsmith, Leofstane, in a 1611 city pageant written by...
, Nicholas Tooley
Nicholas Tooley
Nicholas Tooley was a Renaissance actor in the King's Men, the acting company of William Shakespeare.Recent research has shown that Tooley was born in late 1582 or early 1583; his birth name was not Tooley but Wilkinson...
, Richard Sharpe
Richard Sharpe (actor)
Richard Sharpe was an actor with the King's Men, the leading theatre troupe of its time and the company of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage...
, and William Ecclestone
William Ecclestone
William Ecclestone or Egglestone was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a member of Shakespeare's company the King's Men.Nothing is known with certainty about Ecclestone's early life...
— which indicates a production in the 1616–19 era, between 1616, when Field joined the company, and Burbage's death in March 1619.
Revival
The company revived the play in 16331633 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 performed it at the Palace of Whitehall
Palace of Whitehall
The Palace of Whitehall was the main residence of the English monarchs in London from 1530 until 1698 when all except Inigo Jones's 1622 Banqueting House was destroyed by fire...
on the night of Tuesday, December 10 of that year, before King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
and Queen Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria of France
Henrietta Maria of France ; was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I...
. The play was entered into 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...
in 1633, which normally preceded a publication; but the play remained out of print until 1647.
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,...
, left a note in his office book that is unusually informative on this play:
- "The Kings players sent me an old booke of Fletchers called The Loyal Subject, formerly allowed by Sir George Bucke, 16 Novem. 1618, which according to their desire and agreement I did peruse and with some reservations allowed of, the 23 of Nov. 1633, for which they sent mee according to their promise £1.0.0."
Sir George Buck
George Buck
Sir George Buck was an antiquarian who served as Master of the Revels to King James I of England.George Buck was educated at the Middle Temple, and served on the successful Cádiz expedition of 1596 under Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex...
was Herbert's predecessor as Master of the Revels in the 1610–22 period. Critics have debated whether Herbert would have re-licensed an old play unless it had been changed or revised in the interim; some scholars have supposed that Fletcher's play must have been revised for the 1633 revival — though no clear evidence of revision is found in the text. The play's Prologue and Epilogue are thought to date from the 1633 production, and are perhaps the work of Fletcher's longtime collaborator Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The City Madam and The Roman Actor, are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and social themes.-Early life:The son of Arthur Massinger or Messenger, he was baptized at St....
.
Sources
Scholars have devoted significant attention to the question of Fletcher's sources for his play. Fletcher modeled his play on an earlier work by Thomas HeywoodThomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood was a prominent English playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre.-Early years:...
titled The Royal King and the Loyal Subject, first published in 1637
1637 in literature
The year 1637 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 24 - Hamlet is performed before King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria at Hampton Court Palace....
but written two or three decades earlier. He also used a play by Lope de Vega
Lope de Vega
Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...
called El gran duque de Moscovia, written c. 1613. An extensive study of the relationship between the plays of Fletcher and Lope de Vega and their background in Russian history has been published by Ervin Brody.
In the Restoration
The play was both revived and adapted after the London theatres re-opened with the Restoration (1660), as were many of Fletcher's plays. On August 18, 1660, Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
saw a production that featured Edward Kynaston
Edward Kynaston
Edward Kynaston was an English actor, one of the last Restoration "boy players," young male actors who played women's roles.-Career:...
, the last of the famous boy actors
Boy player
Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the mainstream companies and performed the female roles, as women did not perform on the English stage in this period...
of the century, in the role of the Duke's sister. (Pepys thought that Kynaston "made the loveliest lady that ever I saw in my life, only her voice not very good.") The Loyal Subject was one of the first dramas staged by Thomas Betterton
Thomas Betterton
Thomas Patrick Betterton , English actor, son of an under-cook to King Charles I, was born in London.-Apprentice and actor:...
, and was one of his earliest successes. Fletcher's play was adapted into a version titled The Faithful General by a woman who identified herself as M. N.; among other changes, she shifted the setting from Russia to Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
. Her version was acted and printed in 1706. Thomas Sheridan made a prose adaptation that was staged in Dublin.
Synopsis
The play is set in Muscovy, which is ruled by an otherwise-unnamed Duke. The Duke is served by Archas, a capable and loyal general; but the Duke dismisses Archas from his post, because Archas once corrected the Duke's mistakes in a military exercise. When a TartarTatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
invasion is imminent, however, the Duke must recall Archas, since the army refuses to fight without their commander. The evil counsellor Boroskie tells the Duke that Archas conceals a secret treasure, which was given to him by the Duke's father for safe keeping; Archas was to give it to the present Duke in time of need. The Duke takes possession of the treasure, and orders Archas to send his two daughters to Court. (One of the daughters, a supposed innocent, nonetheless manages to outwit and outmaneuver the dissipated Duke before he can seduce her; they end up married.)
Based on Boroskie's false charges, Archas is arrested and tortured on suspicions that he aims at the throne. The general's son Theodor storms the royal palace and frees his father; the Duke repents, apologizes to Archas, and punishes Boroskie. The Duke's soldiers rebel, and are so disaffected that they intend to join the Tartars to overthrow their Duke; but the loyal Archas prevents them, and is even prepared to execute his son Theodor for treason before the Duke intervenes. It is revealed that Archas's younger son has been living in disguise for his own safety, as Alinda, a servant of the Duke's sister.
----
The idea of an extreme test of a subject's loyalty under outrageous royal misbehavior is one that Fletcher employs in other plays, including 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 Valentinian
Valentinian (play)
Valentinian is a Jacobean era stage play, a revenge tragedy written by John Fletcher was that originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. The play dramatizes the story of Valentinian III, one of the last of the Roman Emperors, as recorded by the classical historian...
.
Critics have studied Fletcher's as a socio-political commentary on his own culture: the Muscovy of the play is a version of the England of King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
.