The Queen's Exchange
Encyclopedia
The Queen's Exchange is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy
written by Richard Brome
.
, in a quarto issued by the bookseller Henry Brome. (Henry Brome was reportedly no relation to the dramatist; he joined with Andrew Crooke
to issue the Brome collection Five New Plays in 1659
.) The play was reprinted in 1661
under the title The Royal Exchange.
The quarto's title page states that the play was acted by the King's Men
at the Blackfriars Theatre
. The date of that first production is uncertain; but Brome is known to have written for the King's Men in the earliest phase of his career, in the late 1620s and early 1630s. The play is often conjecturally dated to 1629-31. The play's most recent editor, Marian O'Connor, offers persuasive reasons for doubting the attribution to the King's Men, and for dating the play to around 1634.
. Only three of Brome's plays are tragicomedies; in addition to The Queen's Exchange, they are The Queen and Concubine
and The Lovesick Court
. It can be argued that Brome lacked a natural gift for the tragicomic form — one critic referred to "Brome's three feeble tragicomedies." Two of his three works in the genre, The Queen's Exchange and The Queen and Concubine, share the plot element of the king betraying his queen with a social inferior.
and the city comedy of Thomas Middleton
, Thomas Dekker and others. In tragicomedy, his influences are different: "The Queen's Exchange is much more reminiscent of Shakespeare than any other of Brome's plays," with links to King Lear
and Macbeth
. The play also shows apparent or possible borrowings from works by Philip Massinger
and John Ford
; it has been described as a "virtual pastiche" of earlier works in the tragicomic form.
and The Antipodes, contain similar allusions to lesbianism. Brome appears to have been more aware of the phenomenon, or more interested in it, than most playwrights of his era.
, with her council, discussing her impending marriage to Osrick, king of Northumbria
. Her sycophantic courtiers are in favor of the match; but one old and highly-principled nobleman, Segebert, opposes the arranged marriage. He fears that the local laws and customs of the Saxons will be supplanted by those of Northumbria. The imperious Bertha responds by banishing Segebert from her country.
The second scene shows Segebert at home with his children, as he prepares for exile. He has two sons, Anthynus and Offa, and a daughter, Mildred. Though Anthynus is the elder, Segebert has a partiality for Offa; and when he leaves for exile he assigns care of his estates to Offa. Anthynus wins his father's permission to accompany the old man into banishment. At the end of the scene, Offa says in an aside that "I cannot speak for laughing" over this outcome — indicating that he is not the figure of virtue he appears to be. (This subplot involving Segebert, Anthynus, and Offa resembles the Gloucester/Edgar/Edmund subplot in King Lear
.)
Osrick is shown among his courtiers, discussing the impending marriage. His ambassador, Theodrick, has just returned from Bertha's court, where, in addition to promoting Osrick's match, he has been courting Mildred, Segebert's daughter. The king and his ambassador compare their miniature portraits of the two women; and Osrick is overwhelmed with a sudden infatuation for Mildred. His passion is so intense that it drives him into a mental state of melancholy and distraction.
Travelling in the forest as pilgrims, Segebert and Anthynus are attacked by a disguised Offa and three outlaws hired by him. Anthynus and Segebert defend themselves; Offa is disarmed of his sword and flees, and the outlaws are driven off — though one of the outlaws is severely wounded, and Segebert receives a head wound. Anthynus takes Segebert in search of aid. A passing hermit and his servant find the wounded outlaw, and care for him at the hermit's cave. Anthynus has to leave his father for a time to seek help; in a soliloquy, Segebert admits that he has recognized the abandoned sword as one that he once gave to Offa. The hermit and his servant find Segebert, and take him too into their care. Anthynus is beside himself when he cannot locate Segebert again; he swears not to eat or sleep until he finds his father.
The lovesick Osrick has taken to wandering the countryside around his court; and his courtiers are busy trying to keep track of him. After three days, Anthynus has also wandered into the area; weak from exhaustion, he has a vision in which he joins the line of West Saxon kings. He sleeps deeply, and two of the Northumbrian courtiers discover him, unconscious. The physical resemblance between Anthynus and Osrick is so strong that the courtiers mistake the former for the latter, and carry Anthynus back to court. Osrick enters a pretended seclusion, and absconds to meet Mildred — not realizing that Anthynus has been mistaken for him.
Anthynus regains consciousness in Osrick's place; his assertions of his identity are taken as symptoms of his psychological malady. He decides to play along with the error, and is released from restraints — just in time for Bertha's arrival at the Northumbrian court. A dumbshow
portrays the meeting of Anthynus and Bertha among their courtiers — and their quick marriage.
The two remaining outlaws come to Offa, assuring him of the deaths of Segebert and Anthynus and demanding payment; Offa rewards them by trapping them in a subterranean dungeon. He also makes ruthless sexual advances toward Mildred. To prevent her ravishment, Mildred's old nurse Edith tells them that Mildred is adopted, and so not really Offa's sister; Offa agrees to wait a week before taking Mildred's maidenhead, in the belief that she will marry him. When Osrick arrives to find Mildred, he is mistaken for Anthynus; Offa wants to kill him for his supposed parricide of Segebert, but Segebert's virtuous servants demand that Osrick/"Anthynus" be imprisoned for trial.
Act V contains one of the more remarkably bizarre scenes in English Renaissance drama. Dressed up as devils, three craftsmen, a carpenter, a mason, and a smith, break into Offa's castle. They are the men who built Offa's subterranean room, which they interpret as his "jewel house." During construction, they made "a privy way for themselves to come and take a share" of the supposed treasure. The carpenter is lowered into the room; when the others try to draw him back up, they retrieve one of the outlaws instead. The man is wasted and starving, but still alive. When the carpenter is pulled up, the second starving outlaw is clinging to him, and even biting at him. The Carpenter complains that this "cannibal" has come close to castrating him:
The workmen rescue the outlaws and give them crusts of bread; they are surprised by Mildred and Edith, who are trying to escape from Offa's clutches. Offa himself enters, and the devil-disguised craftsmen bluff their way out with the outlaws and women. The shock of this encounter with "devils" and the "ghosts" of the outlaws deranges Offa's reason.
Osrick's trial for Anthynus's supposed murder of Segebert provides for the plot's resolution. Anthynus admits that he is not Osrick, and Osrick is recognized as himself. Offa is brought in, bound to a chair; in his distraction he freely confesses his crimes. Edith states that her tale about Mildred's adoption was a lie, told to forstall Offa's lust. The recovered Segebert and outlaw also arrive; the outlaws confess and are forgiven. Bertha is happy with Anthynus as her husband, so making him king of the West Saxons and fulfilling his vision. Osrick is free to marry Mildred.
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...
written by Richard Brome
Richard Brome
Richard Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.-Life:Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity...
.
Publication and performance
The Queen's Exchange was first published in 16571657 in literature
The year 1657 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Prohibition of young male actors in Japan.* Madame de la Fayette becomes friends with Madame de Sévigné.-New books:*François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac - Pratique du théâtre...
, in a quarto issued by the bookseller Henry Brome. (Henry Brome was reportedly no relation to the dramatist; he joined with Andrew Crooke
Andrew Crooke and William Cooke
Andrew Crooke and William Cooke were London publishers of the mid-17th-century. In partnership and individually, they issued significant texts of English Renaissance drama, most notably of the plays of James Shirley....
to issue the Brome collection Five New Plays in 1659
1659 in literature
The year 1659 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Andrew Marvell becomes a member of Parliament.* Méric Casaubon edits John Dee's journal of angel magic.-New books:*Richard Baxter - The Holy Commonwealth...
.) The play was reprinted in 1661
1661 in literature
The year 1661 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* The Book of Kells is presented to Trinity College, Dublin.* Controversial author James Harrington is arrested on a charge of conspiracy....
under the title The Royal Exchange.
The quarto's title page states 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...
at the Blackfriars Theatre
Blackfriars Theatre
Blackfriars 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...
. The date of that first production is uncertain; but Brome is known to have written for the King's Men in the earliest phase of his career, in the late 1620s and early 1630s. The play is often conjecturally dated to 1629-31. The play's most recent editor, Marian O'Connor, offers persuasive reasons for doubting the attribution to the King's Men, and for dating the play to around 1634.
Genre
Brome was not a tragedian; of his sixteen extant plays, thirteen are contemporary comedies, usually set in London and assignable to the category of city comedyCity comedy
City comedy, also called Citizen Comedy, is a common genre of Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline comedy on the London stage from the last years of the 16th century to the closing of the theaters in 1642...
. Only three of Brome's plays are tragicomedies; in addition to The Queen's Exchange, they are The Queen and Concubine
The Queen and Concubine
The Queen and Concubine is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Richard Brome and first published in 1659. It has sometimes been called Brome's best tragicomedy.-Publication and date:...
and The Lovesick Court
The Lovesick Court
The Lovesick Court, or the Ambitious Politique is a Caroline-era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Richard Brome, and first published in 1659.-Publication:...
. It can be argued that Brome lacked a natural gift for the tragicomic form — one critic referred to "Brome's three feeble tragicomedies." Two of his three works in the genre, The Queen's Exchange and The Queen and Concubine, share the plot element of the king betraying his queen with a social inferior.
Influences
Brome is universally recognized as more derivative than original in his plays (as is true of Caroline drama generally). His comedies rely heavily on the precedents of Ben JonsonBen 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...
and the city comedy of Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...
, Thomas Dekker and others. In tragicomedy, his influences are different: "The Queen's Exchange is much more reminiscent of Shakespeare than any other of Brome's plays," with links to King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
and Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
. The play also shows apparent or possible borrowings from works by 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....
and John Ford
John Ford (dramatist)
John Ford was an English Jacobean and Caroline playwright and poet born in Ilsington in Devon in 1586.-Life and work:...
; it has been described as a "virtual pastiche" of earlier works in the tragicomic form.
Lesbianism
In Act II, scene i of The Queen's Exchange, the character Theodrick states that "I have known women oft marry one another." It is a surprising line in the context of the prevailing morality of the seventeenth century — though other Brome plays, notably A Mad Couple Well-Match'dA Mad Couple Well-Match'd
A Mad Couple Well-Match'd is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. It was first published in the 1653 Brome collection Five New Plays, issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring....
and The Antipodes, contain similar allusions to lesbianism. Brome appears to have been more aware of the phenomenon, or more interested in it, than most playwrights of his era.
Synopsis
The play is set in the early Medieval period, when Britain was divided into a number of small kingdoms. The opening scene shows Bertha, queen of the West SaxonsSaxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
, with her council, discussing her impending marriage to Osrick, king of Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
. Her sycophantic courtiers are in favor of the match; but one old and highly-principled nobleman, Segebert, opposes the arranged marriage. He fears that the local laws and customs of the Saxons will be supplanted by those of Northumbria. The imperious Bertha responds by banishing Segebert from her country.
The second scene shows Segebert at home with his children, as he prepares for exile. He has two sons, Anthynus and Offa, and a daughter, Mildred. Though Anthynus is the elder, Segebert has a partiality for Offa; and when he leaves for exile he assigns care of his estates to Offa. Anthynus wins his father's permission to accompany the old man into banishment. At the end of the scene, Offa says in an aside that "I cannot speak for laughing" over this outcome — indicating that he is not the figure of virtue he appears to be. (This subplot involving Segebert, Anthynus, and Offa resembles the Gloucester/Edgar/Edmund subplot in King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
.)
Osrick is shown among his courtiers, discussing the impending marriage. His ambassador, Theodrick, has just returned from Bertha's court, where, in addition to promoting Osrick's match, he has been courting Mildred, Segebert's daughter. The king and his ambassador compare their miniature portraits of the two women; and Osrick is overwhelmed with a sudden infatuation for Mildred. His passion is so intense that it drives him into a mental state of melancholy and distraction.
Travelling in the forest as pilgrims, Segebert and Anthynus are attacked by a disguised Offa and three outlaws hired by him. Anthynus and Segebert defend themselves; Offa is disarmed of his sword and flees, and the outlaws are driven off — though one of the outlaws is severely wounded, and Segebert receives a head wound. Anthynus takes Segebert in search of aid. A passing hermit and his servant find the wounded outlaw, and care for him at the hermit's cave. Anthynus has to leave his father for a time to seek help; in a soliloquy, Segebert admits that he has recognized the abandoned sword as one that he once gave to Offa. The hermit and his servant find Segebert, and take him too into their care. Anthynus is beside himself when he cannot locate Segebert again; he swears not to eat or sleep until he finds his father.
The lovesick Osrick has taken to wandering the countryside around his court; and his courtiers are busy trying to keep track of him. After three days, Anthynus has also wandered into the area; weak from exhaustion, he has a vision in which he joins the line of West Saxon kings. He sleeps deeply, and two of the Northumbrian courtiers discover him, unconscious. The physical resemblance between Anthynus and Osrick is so strong that the courtiers mistake the former for the latter, and carry Anthynus back to court. Osrick enters a pretended seclusion, and absconds to meet Mildred — not realizing that Anthynus has been mistaken for him.
Anthynus regains consciousness in Osrick's place; his assertions of his identity are taken as symptoms of his psychological malady. He decides to play along with the error, and is released from restraints — just in time for Bertha's arrival at the Northumbrian court. A dumbshow
Dumbshow
Dumbshow, also dumb show or dumb-show, is a traditional term for pantomime in drama, actions presented by actors onstage without spoken dialogue. It is similar to the masque...
portrays the meeting of Anthynus and Bertha among their courtiers — and their quick marriage.
The two remaining outlaws come to Offa, assuring him of the deaths of Segebert and Anthynus and demanding payment; Offa rewards them by trapping them in a subterranean dungeon. He also makes ruthless sexual advances toward Mildred. To prevent her ravishment, Mildred's old nurse Edith tells them that Mildred is adopted, and so not really Offa's sister; Offa agrees to wait a week before taking Mildred's maidenhead, in the belief that she will marry him. When Osrick arrives to find Mildred, he is mistaken for Anthynus; Offa wants to kill him for his supposed parricide of Segebert, but Segebert's virtuous servants demand that Osrick/"Anthynus" be imprisoned for trial.
Act V contains one of the more remarkably bizarre scenes in English Renaissance drama. Dressed up as devils, three craftsmen, a carpenter, a mason, and a smith, break into Offa's castle. They are the men who built Offa's subterranean room, which they interpret as his "jewel house." During construction, they made "a privy way for themselves to come and take a share" of the supposed treasure. The carpenter is lowered into the room; when the others try to draw him back up, they retrieve one of the outlaws instead. The man is wasted and starving, but still alive. When the carpenter is pulled up, the second starving outlaw is clinging to him, and even biting at him. The Carpenter complains that this "cannibal" has come close to castrating him:
-
-
- He has gnaw'd a piece of my flank out with's teeth;
- And missed very narrowly certain members of more moment,
- They'd have gone down glib with him....
-
The workmen rescue the outlaws and give them crusts of bread; they are surprised by Mildred and Edith, who are trying to escape from Offa's clutches. Offa himself enters, and the devil-disguised craftsmen bluff their way out with the outlaws and women. The shock of this encounter with "devils" and the "ghosts" of the outlaws deranges Offa's reason.
Osrick's trial for Anthynus's supposed murder of Segebert provides for the plot's resolution. Anthynus admits that he is not Osrick, and Osrick is recognized as himself. Offa is brought in, bound to a chair; in his distraction he freely confesses his crimes. Edith states that her tale about Mildred's adoption was a lie, told to forstall Offa's lust. The recovered Segebert and outlaw also arrive; the outlaws confess and are forgiven. Bertha is happy with Anthynus as her husband, so making him king of the West Saxons and fulfilling his vision. Osrick is free to marry Mildred.
Critical responses
The play's treatment of the "pretended prince" theme has been singled out for attention. Brome's handling of the subject of mental illness, a recurring aspect of his drama, has also received comment.External links
- Richard Brome Online http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/brome/ contains a scholarly edition of this play, including textual and critical introductions.
- The play text online.