Thierry and Theodoret
Encyclopedia
Thierry and Theodoret is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 in the canon of 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...

 and his collaborators that was first published in 1621
1621 in literature
The year 1621 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*August 26 - Barten Holyday's allegorical play Technogamia, originally produced at Christ Church, Oxford in 1618, is staged before King James at Woodstock Palace...

. It is one of the problematic plays of Fletcher's oeuvre; as with Love's Cure
Love's Cure
Love'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...

,
there are significant uncertainties about the date and authorship of Thierry and Theodoret.

Publication

The first edition of the play is the 1621 quarto
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"...

 issued by the bookseller Thomas Walkley
Thomas Walkley
Thomas Walkley was a London publisher and bookseller in the early and middle seventeenth century. He is noted for publishing a range of significant texts in English Renaissance drama, "and much other interesting literature."-Career:...

, with no attribution of authorship. The second quarto of 1648, published by 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...

, assigned the play to Fletcher alone, but the third quarto of the following year (1649), also from Moseley, cites Francis Beaumont
Francis Beaumont
Francis Beaumont was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher....

 and John Fletcher on its title page. The play was included in the second 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 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....

, though the text there is truncated and omits a substantial part of the work's conclusion.

Authorship

Early critics attributed the play to Beaumont and 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 ....

, 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....

, Nathan Field, Robert Daborne
Robert Daborne
Robert Daborne was an English dramatist of the Jacobean era.Little is known for certain of his birth, background, or early life; he may have come from a family in Guildford, Surrey. He is now thought to have been a "sizar"—an undergraduate exempt from fees—at King's College, Cambridge...

, John Webster
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...

, and George Chapman
George Chapman
George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...

, in various combinations. Most modern scholarship accepts the play as a work originally by Beaumont and Fletcher that was later revised by Massinger, comparable to Love's Cure, The Coxcomb
The Coxcomb
The Coxcomb is an early Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.-Date and performance:...

,
and Beggars' Bush
Beggars' Bush
For the old military barracks in Dublin, Ireland, see Beggars BushBeggars' Bush is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that is a focus of dispute among scholars and critics.-Authorship and Date:...

.
Cyrus Hoy
Cyrus Hoy
Cyrus Hoy was a literary scholar of the English Renaissance stage who taught at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, and was the John B. Trevor Professor of English at the University of Rochester...

, in his survey of authorship problems in Fletcher's canon, produced this breakdown amont the three authors' shares:
Beaumont — Act III; Act V, scene 1;
Fletcher —Act I, scene 1; Act II, 2 and 3; Act IV, 1; Act V, 2;
Massinger — Act I, scene 2; Act II, 1 and 4; Act IV, 2.

Date

The date of the play is a matter of deep uncertainty and widespread dispute; scholars have ventured dates from 1607 to 1621. If Beaumont was one of the original authors, the first version of the drama obviously must have pre-dated his 1613 retirement and 1616 death. The title page of the first quarto 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...

. This may refer to the revised version; both Fletcher and Massinger worked for the King's Men through much of their careers.

Anachronisms

Some critics have commented on the historical anachronisms
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...

 that, while common 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...

, are notably glaring in Thierry and Theodoret. The play's plot is based on the careers of Frankish rulers
Frankish Empire
Francia or Frankia, later also called the Frankish Empire , Frankish Kingdom , Frankish Realm or occasionally Frankland, was the territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks from the 3rd to the 10th century...

 of the late sixth and early seventh centuries of the Christian era, Brunhilda of Austrasia
Brunhilda of Austrasia
Brunhilda was a Visigothic princess, married to king Sigebert I of Austrasia who ruled the eastern kingdoms of Austrasia and Burgundy in the names of her sons and grandsons...

 and her grandsons Theuderic II
Theuderic II
Theuderic II , king of Burgundy and Austrasia , was the second son of Childebert II...

 and Theudebert II
Theudebert II
Theudebert II , King of Austrasia , was the son and heir of Childebert II. He received the kingdom of Austrasia plus the cities of Poitiers, Tours, Vellay, Bordeaux, and Châteaudun, as well as the Champagne, the Auvergne, and Transjurane Alemannia, on the death of his father in 595, but was...

 (transformed in the play into Brunhalt and her sons Thierry and Theodoret); yet their soldiers are armed with muskets, and the characters observe the gods of ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

.

Synopsis

The play opens with a verbal confrontation between Brunhalt and her elder son Theodoret, King of France. Theodoret is reproving his mother for her licentious and libertine lifestyle, criticisms that Brunhalt rejects; she accuses her son of disrespect in merely broaching the subject with her. Theodoret ends the confrontation by telling his mother to prepare to take up a monastic life within ten days. Brunhalt calls forth her principal followers, Bawdber, Lecure, and Protaldie, to tell them the news. The play does not specify details of the queen mother's libidinous behavior, though Brunhalt is shown kissing her lover Protaldie in the others' presence. Her followers are concerned about facing the legal punishments for sexual impropriety, which include whipping and castration. Brunhalt decides that she and her followers will immediately leave Theodoret's court for that of his younger brother Thierry.

(The play makes Theodoret the king of France, while Thierry rules Austrasia
Austrasia
Austrasia formed the northeastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims, Trier, and...

, the northeastern portion of the Frankish domain. The historical facts were different: Theudebert II was king of Austrasia, while Theuderic II spent most of his career as the ruler of Burgundy.)

In the second scene, Theodoret is shown in consultation with his virtuous councillor Martell; the play presents the French king as a dedicated and upright ruler. When Theodoret is informed that Brunhalt and her followers have gone to Thierry's court, he quickly decides to follow her, to forestall any further mischief from her. Brunhalt is shown meeting Thierry, who is outraged at Brunhalt's account of Theodoret's treatment of her. Suddenly, Theodoret himself arrives with his courtiers; he makes a reasonable case for his behavior, which deflates Thierry's indignation. (The scene constructs a personality portrait of Thierry that prevails through the rest of the play: he is passionate and given to overblown language, but highly impressionable.)

The characters' attention shifts in response to the news that Thierry's fiancée — the fifteen-year-old princess Ordella, daughter of the King of Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

 — has arrived. Brunhalt hates the thought of taking second place to her son's new queen; she and her followers concoct a plot to ruin the marriage. They will administer a potion to Thierry that will leave him impotent for the first five days of his marriage; this will, they think, force an irreparable fissure between the newlyweds, and leave Ordella open to seduction. Brunhalt and her cronies work their plan; the wedding night of Thierry and Ordella is unsuccessful. But Ordella reacts with noble forbearance, patience, and concern for her new husband; Thierry calls her his "saint."

With the failure of her first scheme to waylay Ordella, Brunhalt tries again. She arranges for Thierry to consult a famed magician and astrologer (actually Lecure in disguise) for a prediction on possible heirs to the throne. Lecure tells Thierry that he can father many sons...but only if he kills the first woman who leaves the temple of Diana
Diana (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy...

 before dawn the next morning. Thierry is prepared to commit the murder, but he pulls off the woman's veil to discover that the woman is Ordella, and he cannot go through with the act. Martell convinces Ordella to tell him spread a rumor that Ordella has committed suicide.

Thierry has made Protaldie, Brunhalt's lover, the commander of his military forces. Theodoret's minister Martell is eager to expose Protaldie as a poseur and a coward; he challenges Protaldie and gets the man to surrender his sword without a fight. When Martiall presents this fact to the court, however, Protaldie manages to lie his way out of his embarrassment. To buoy his reputation, Brunhalt's sycophants pay De Vitry, an old soldier down on his luck, to challenge Protaldie in public and then take a beating from him. De Vitry accepts the bargain — but then he fails to fulfill it, instead beating Protaldie and revealing the whole scheme to the court.

Protaldie is so humiliated by this that Brunhalt can talk him into overcoming his natural cowardice; at her urging, Protaldie sneaks behind Theodoret's throne during a court celebration and stabs the king in the back, killing him. The passionate Thierry is so outraged that he wants to burn down his own palace around the body as a funeral pyre; Brunhalt talks him out of this plan by admitting that she is responsible for the murder. Brunhalt claims that she was pressured to produce an heir by Thierry's father, but failed for the first years of their marriage; when a pregnancy miscarried, she passed off a gardener's infant child as the heir to the realm. With Theodoret dead, Thierry is elevated to his rightful place as the ruler of France.

In response to Ordella's rumored suicide, the capricious Thierry decides to marry Memberge, Theodoret's daughter. Brunhalt complains about her son marrying what she calls a gardener's child; but Thierry thinks he can make up for the girl's loss of a father. The frustrated Brunhalt then admits that she lied, and that Thierry will be committing incest if he married Memberge. She also takes her final step along her path of moral degeneration, by poisoning Thierry.

Brunhalt sends Protaldie with a message to Theodoret's bastard son, urging him to rise up and seize power; but Protaldie is intercepted and the message revealed. As Thierry lies dying, unable to sleep, Brunhalt is apprehended and subjected to sleep deprivation as an appropriate punishment. She is forced to watch her lover Protaldie being broken on the wheel; she chokes herself to death in response. Thierry finally succumbs to the poison; and Ordella joins him on his deathbed, dying of a broken heart.
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Thierry and Theodoret bears a significant relationship with the 1611
1611 in literature
The year 1611 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - Oberon, the Faery Prince, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace....

 Beaumont/Fletcher play A King and No King
A King and No King
A King and No King is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher and first published in 1619. It has traditionally been among the most highly-praised and popular works in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators.The play's title became almost...

:
"two kings in each play, one of whom in each case is a somewhat furious ranter, the queen mother who loathes her son...." Nineteenth-century critics like Charles Lamb and Edmund Gosse
Edmund Gosse
Sir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...

rated Thierry and Theodoret highly, as "the best of Fletcher's tragedies."
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