The Noble Gentleman is a Jacobean era stage play, a
comedyComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, 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 Ancient Greece...
in the canon of
John FletcherJohn 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 rivaled Shakespeare's...
and his collaborators that was first published in the
first Beaumont and Fletcher folioThe 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
1647The 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...
. It is one of the plays in Fletcher's canon (see
Love's CureLove's Cure, or The Martial Maid is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. First published in the Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647, it is the subject of broad dispute and uncertainty among scholars...
and
Thierry and TheodoretThierry and Theodoret is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that was first published in 1621...
for other examples) that presents significant uncertainties about its date and authorship.
Performance
The earliest certain fact known about the play is that it was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the
Master of the RevelsThe Master of the Revels was a position within 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, until this function was...
, on February 3,
1626The 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...
(
new styleOld Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January even though contemporary documents use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian calendar ,...
). The play was acted by the
King's MenThe 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...
at the
Blackfriars TheatreBlackfriars Theatre was the name of a theatre in the Blackfriars district of the City of London during the Renaissance. The theatre began as a venue for child actors associated with the Queen's chapel choirs; in this function, the theatre hosted some of the most innovative drama of Elizabeth and...
.
Authorship
Broadly speaking, there are two competing scenarios for
The Noble Gentleman:
- The play is a "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" — either a direct and overt collaboration between the two dramatists, or a work by Beaumont that was later revised by Fletcher. In the context of this hypothesis, dates for the play have been postulated that range from 1606 to 1613.
- The play is a later work written by Fletcher without Beaumont's participation; it may have been left unfinished at Fletcher's death in 1625 and been completed by someone else.
Cyrus HoyCyrus Hoy is a contemporary literary scholar who has taught at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, and is currently the John B. Trevor Professor of English at the University of Rochester...
, who favored the first of these interpretations, provided this breakdown of the authors' putative contributions in his survey of authorship problems in Fletcher's canon:
- Beaumont — Act I, scene 4; Act II, 2; Act III, 1, 3, and 4; Act IV, 3-5;
- Fletcher — Act I, scenes 1-3; Act II, 1; Act III, 2; Act IV, 1 and 2; Act V.
Earlier researchers had provided comparable divisions. Other scholars, however, have judged the evidence of Beaumont's presence too weak to be persuasive.
Date
Commentators who advocate Beaumont's authorial contribution must postulate a date of authorship prior to Beaumont's 1613 retirement and 1616 death, in the face of a lack of evidence. Conversely, Fletcher is supposed by some calculations to have worked on eleven plays in the last four years of his life; adding a twelfth stretches the credulity of some commentators. A compromise view, that Fletcher did a late (c. 1625) revision of a much earlier play that contained Beaumont's work, may have merit.
After 1660
Like the majority of the plays in Fletcher's canon,
The Noble Gentleman was both revived and adapted into new forms during the
RestorationThe English Restoration, often shortened to the Restoration, began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Commonwealth of England that followed the English Civil War...
era.
Thomas D'Urfey'sThomas D'Urfey , was an English writer and wit. He composed plays, songs, and poetry, in addition to writing jokes. He was an important innovator and contributor in the evolution of the Ballad opera....
adaptation, called
A Fool's Preferment, was licensed on May 31,
1688The year 1688 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*John Locke has the first abstract of his seminal Essay concerning Human Understanding appear in Leclerc's Bibliotheque universelle...
.
The plot
The play is a farcical comedy about a benign but not very sensible French gentleman, Monsieur Mount-Marine, who has an ambition to become a great courtier. His sensible wife is concerned about the possible negative consequences of this lofty ambition. With the help of friends, she manages to fool her husband into believing that the King of France has promoted him to the rank of knight...then, baron...then, earl...then, duke, all in quick succession. But his precipitate (fictitious) rise in society is matched by an equally vertiginous (and fictitious) decline in wealth; by the end of the play, Mount-Marine is convinced that he retains his title of
Duke of BurgundyDuke of Burgundy was a title borne by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, a small portion of traditional lands of Burgundians west of river Saône which in 843 was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of West Franks.-Bosonid dynasty:...
, though he must never mention it to strangers. His situation is paralleled by that of another character, Chatillion, who has been driven slightly mad by love and fancies himself a claimant to the throne of France. As a result, he believes himself surrounded by perils — all in his own imagination.