Eskişehir, Türkiye
Thursday 18 April 2024
“It will be difficult to please everyone in the audience because everyone has come for different reasons: some for the wit, some for the costumes, some for comedy, some for passion, and some to arrange a lascivious meeting.
But, despite this, I am confident that, as long as everyone can pay attention and understand the play, they will all be satisfactorily entertained.“
(No Wit, No Help Like a Woman’s, Thomas Middleton)
Thomas Middleton (18 April 1580 – 1627) was an English Jacobean playwright and poet.
He, with John Fletcher (1579 – 1825) and Ben Jonson (1572 – 1637), was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period (1603 – 1625), and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy.
He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants.
Above: Thomas Middleton
He was the son of a bricklayer, who had raised himself to the status of a gentleman and owned property adjoining the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch.
Middleton was five when his father died and his mother’s subsequent remarriage dissolved into a 15-year battle over the inheritance of Thomas and his younger sister – an experience that informed him about the legal system and may have incited his repeated satire against the legal profession.
Middleton attended The Queen’s College, Oxford, matriculating in 1598, but he did not graduate.
Before he left Oxford sometime in 1601, he wrote and published three long poems in popular Elizabethan styles.
None of them appears to have been especially successful, and one, his book of satires, ran foul of an Anglican church ban on verse satire and was burned.
Nevertheless, his literary career was launched.
Above: The Queen’s College, Oxford, England
In the early 17th century, Middleton made a living writing topical pamphlets, including one – Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets – that was reprinted several times and became the subject of a parliamentary inquiry.
At the same time, records in the diary of Philip Henslowe (1550 – 1616) show that Middleton was writing for the Admiral’s Men.
Unlike Shakespeare, Middleton remained a free agent, able to write for whichever company hired him.
Above: Thomas Middleton
His early dramatic career was marked by controversy.
His friendship with Thomas Dekker (1572 – 1632) brought him into conflict with Ben Jonson and George Chapman (1559 – 1634) in the War of the Theatres.
(The War of the Theatres is the name commonly applied to a controversy from the later Elizabethan theatre.
Thomas Dekker termed it the Poetomachia.
Because of an actual ban on satire in prose and verse publications in 1599 (the Bishops’ Ban of 1599), the satirical urge had no other remaining outlet than the stage.
The resulting controversy, which unfolded between 1599 and 1602, involved the playwright Ben Jonson on one side and his rivals John Marston (1576 – 1634) and Thomas Dekker (with Thomas Middleton as an ancillary combatant) on the other.
The role Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) played in the conflict, if any, has long been a topic of dispute among scholars.)
The grudge against Jonson continued as late as 1626, when Jonson’s play The Staple of News indulges in a slur on Middleton’s great success, A Game at Chess (1624).
It has been argued that Middleton’s Inner Temple Masque (1619) sneers at Jonson (then absent in Scotland) as a “silenced bricklayer“.
Above: English playwright / poet Ben Jonson (1572 – 1637)
In 1603, Middleton married.
In the same year an outbreak of the plague forced the London theatres to close, while James I came to the English throne.
Above: James I of England / James VI of Scotland (1566 – 1625)
These events marked the beginning of Middleton’s greatest period as a playwright.
Having passed the time during the plague composing prose pamphlets (including a continuation of Thomas Nashe’s Pierce Penniless), he returned to drama with great energy, producing almost a score of plays for several companies and in several genres, notably city comedy and revenge tragedy.
Above: Woodcut of Thomas Nashe (1567 – 1601) in chains
He continued to collaborate with Dekker:
The two produced The Roaring Girl, a biography of the contemporary thief Mary Frith (1584 – 1659).
Above: Image of Mary Frith from title page of The Roaring Girl
In the 1610s, Middleton began a fruitful collaboration with the actor William Rowley, producing Wit at Several Weapons and A Fair Quarrel.
Working alone in 1613, Middleton produced a comic masterpiece:
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
He also became increasingly involved with civic pageants.
In 1620 he became officially appointed as chronologist to the City of London, a post he held until his death in 1627, when it passed to Jonson.
Such official duties did not interrupt Middleton’s dramatic writing.
Above: Bank Junction, London
The 1620s saw the production of his and Rowley’s tragedy The Changeling, and of several tragicomedies.
In 1624, he reached a peak of notoriety when his dramatic allegory A Game at Chess was staged by the King’s Men.
The play used the conceit of a chess game to present and satirise the recent intrigues surrounding the Spanish Match.
Though Middleton’s approach was strongly patriotic, the Privy Council silenced the play after nine performances, having received a complaint from the Spanish Ambassador.
Middleton faced an unknown, probably frightening degree of punishment.
Since no play later than A Game at Chess is recorded, it has been suggested that the sentence included a ban on writing for the stage.
Middleton died at his home at Newington Butts in Southwark in 1627.
He was buried on 4 July in St Mary’s Churchyard.
The old Church of St Mary’s was demolished in 1876 for road-widening.
Its replacement elsewhere in Kennington Park Road was destroyed in WW2, but rebuilt in 1958.
The old churchyard where Middleton was buried survives as a public park in Elephant and Castle.
Above: St Mary’s Churchyard, Newington Butts, Southwark, England
Middleton’s work has long been praised by literary critics, among them Algernon Charles Swinburne and T. S. Eliot.
Above: English writer Algernon C. Swinburne (1837 – 1909)
The latter thought Middleton was second only to Shakespeare.
Above: English writer Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 – 1965)
Middleton’s plays were staged throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, each decade offering more productions than the last.
Even some less familiar works of his have been staged:
A Fair Quarrel at the National Theatre, and The Old Law by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Above: The National Theatre, London
The Changeling has been adapted for film several times.
The tragedy Women Beware Women remains a stage favourite.
The Revenger’s Tragedy was adapted for Alex Cox’s film Revengers Tragedy, the opening credits of which attribute the play’s authorship to Middleton.
Middleton wrote in many genres, including tragedy, history and city comedy.
His best-known plays are the tragedies The Changeling (with William Rowley) and Women Beware Women, and the cynically satirical city comedy A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
Middleton’s work is diverse even by the standards of his age.
He did not have the kind of official relationship with a particular company that Shakespeare or Fletcher had. Instead he appears to have written on a freelance basis for any number of companies.
His output ranges from the “snarling” satire of Michaelmas Term (performed by the Children of Paul’s) to the bleak intrigues of The Revenger’s Tragedy (performed by the King’s Men).
His early work was informed by the flourishing of satire in the late Elizabethan period, while his maturity was influenced by the ascendancy of Fletcherian tragicomedy.
His later work, in which his satirical fury is tempered and broadened, includes three of his acknowledged masterpieces. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, produced by the Lady Elizabeth’s Men, skilfully combines London life with an expansive view of the power of love to effect reconciliation.
The Changeling, a late tragedy, returns Middleton to an Italianate setting like that of The Revenger’s Tragedy, except that here the central characters are more fully drawn and more compelling as individuals.
Similar development can be seen in Women Beware Women.
Middleton’s plays are marked by often amusingly presented cynicism about the human race.
True heroes are a rarity:
Almost every character is selfish, greedy and self-absorbed.
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside offers a panoramic view of a London populated entirely by sinners, in which no social rank goes unsatirised.
In the tragedies Women Beware Women and The Revenger’s Tragedy, amoral Italian courtiers endlessly plot against each other, resulting in a climactic bloodbath.
When Middleton does portray good people, the characters have small roles and are shown as flawless.
A few descriptions and lines from Middleton’s plays capture my attention.
Falso calls his niece to him and woos her.
She is disgusted at the incest, and says that her heart is Fidelio’s anyway.
She would rather be a beggar than yield.
(The Phoenix, 1604)
(She preferred to be a beggar than to stop being true to herself.)
The Honest Whore begins with a funeral procession for the Duke of Milan’s daughter, Infelice.
The procession is attended by the Duke and several others.
Infelice’s former lover, Hippolito enters.
Extremely upset, he insists that Infelice is not truly dead and demands to see the body.
(I believe that as long as we remember someone that someone is never truly dead for us.)
His friend Matteo holds him back and tries to calm him down.
The procession exits, but the Duke, Hippolito and Matteo stay behind.
The Duke commends Matteo’s efforts to control Hippolito and exits.
Hippolito continues raging.
He swears that he will never love any other woman.
Matteo scoffs at his friend’s oath and predicts that Hippolito will forget about Infelice and visit a brothel within the next ten days.
Above: Milano, Italia
Fustigo has just returned from sea.
He is totally broke.
He sends a porter to fetch his sister, Viola, who has recently married Candido, a wealthy (and very patient) linen-draper.
Viola enters.
Fustigo begs her to give him some money.
Viola agrees to help him out on condition that he do a service for her in return.
She explains that, although she is generally satisfied in her marriage, her husband, Candido, is even-tempered to a fault.
Nothing can move him to anger.
Her greatest wish is to see her husband throw an explosive fit.
With this goal in mind, she instructs Fustigo to pose as a “wide-mouthed swaggerer” and attempt to annoy Candido by stealing things, kissing Viola, etc.
Fustigo agrees to go along with the plan.
But even the loss of millions would not make Candido angry.
Above: Colonne di San Lorenzo, Milano
(Some thoughts here, though they may seem to contradict one another:
It is rather praiseworthy that Candido has mastered himself to such an event that he does not get angry, does not take offence.
His Zen-like nature is quite admirable.
That being said, when it came to his relationship with his wife, I feel that his lack of reaction to his wife’s inappropriate behaviour was not the correct course of action.
I think it is important to stand up to your wife or partner as an equal without intimidating her or being intimidated by her.
Too many men, when faced with their wife’s anger, complaints or general unhappiness, simply submit, mumble an apology (It doesn’t matter if he is blameless.) and tiptoe away.
Sadly, there will always be a small remnant group of men who handle their differences with women through violence and intimidation.
The reader gets the sense that Viola would foolishly prefer the later response to the former response, but the later is abhorrent and the former too ambivalent.
The millions of men who adapt the first stance find that this rarely, if ever, leads to happiness.
Women with this kind of partner are not happy.
They actually become more dissatisfied, more complaining.
Often without even realizing why, the henpecking behaviour escalates – for a simple reason.
Deep down, women want to be met by someone strong.
They want to be debated with, not just agreed with.
They hunger for men who can take the initiative sometimes, make some decisions, tell them when they are not making sense.
It is no fun being the only adult in the house.
Above: Scene from Laws of Attraction
How can a woman relax or feel safe if the man she is teamed with is soft and weak?
Many strong, capable feminist women who finally find the sensitive, caring New Age man they thought they wanted now find themselves bored stiff.
Too many men know they are failing to satisfy the women in their life, have failed to keep their relationships together and don’t know what they have done wrong.
Men may learn to be receptive, but receptivity isn’t always enough to carry a partnership through troubled times.
Above: Scene from Bedazzled
In every relationship, something fierce is needed once in a while.
Both the man and the women need to have it.
But at the point when it was needed, though he was nurturing, something else was required.
A man may learn how to say to a woman:
“I can feel your pain.
I consider your life as important as mine.
I will take care of you and comfort you.“
But he also needs to say what he wants and stick by it.
Resolve of that kind is crucial.
Women are only human.
Sometimes they are dead right and sometimes completely wrong.
Women are neither devils nor saints.
They are normal, fallible human beings.
So a man with a woman needs to keep his head on straight.
You cannot just drift along and let them decide everything.
Marriage is not an excuse to stop thinking.
Not only can she be wrong or immature, perverse or prejudiced, competitive or bloody-minded (just like him), sometimes a man and a woman will just see things differently because you are different.
What is right for her may be wrong for him.
Women often don’t understand men.
(Viola clearly didn’t understand Candido.)
But how can women understand men unless men explain themselves to them?
This doesn’t mean that men and women cannot get along.
It only means that negotiations never end.
Steve Biddulph, Australia’s best-known therapist, has heard hundreds of women say in frustration:
“My husband won’t fight with me.
He won’t even argue.
He just walks away.“
Retreating may be all he knows how to do.
To have a happy marriage, a man has to be able to state his point of view, to debate, to leave aisde hysteria and push on with an argument until something is resolved.
Women need to give up their power in order to experience a really equal relationship, based on intimacy and negotiation, not on emotional dominance.
Both partners need to learn more respect for the other’s need for selfhood.
Couples need to fight in order to root out fixed attitudes or longer term misunderstndings and pull them into the light of day.
A good partnership is therapy, every living day.
Conscious fighting is a great help in relationships between men and women.
When a man and a woman are standing toe-to-toe arguing, what is it that the man wants?
Often he does not know.
He wants the conflict to end because he is afraid, because he doesn’t know how to fight, because he doesn’t believe in fighting, because his boundaries are so poorly maintained that every sword thrust penetrates to the very centre of his being.
It is a paradox that we can only let our feelings flow freely and only be truly passionate when we have certain boundaries laid down.
Trust has to be there.
Never be physical or threatening.
Never walk out mid-fight.
Don’t use put-down language.
Stay on point.
Listen to the other’s point of view while honouring your own.
Take time out, by agreement, if it becomes too heated – to think it over and return to continue the argument.
Above: Scene from Laws of Attraction
Biddulph tells a story of a marriage.
The very first time the wife “threw a fit” (her words) and began to be wildly abusive, the man simply walked quietly to his room and began packing his things.
He refused to fight “dirty” as was being expected.
His words are beautiful:
“I know I am supposed to act like a man now and shout and hit you, but I am not that sort of man.
I will not allow anyone to talk to me in the way you have.
I am leaving.“
The woman was so shocked she apologized.
They are still together.
It is important to point out that if the woman in the story had been making a point, asking for a change, then the man needed to stay put and listen, but this was quite different.
She was “having a fit“.
Men and woman both have a capacity for blind rage, which achieves nothing.
Arising out of centuries of two-way, intergender abuse, there is an archetypal core of rage in us which, if we take it into our relationships, destroys all love and feeling.
“I’ve had it with men!“, says she.
“Women! Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em!“, he cries.
All men hate all women some of the time.
All women hate all men some of the time.
There is a long history of man-bashing by women and woman-bashing by men.
But this isn’t a personal thing and shouldn’t be brought into personal affairs.
Above: Scene from War of the Roses
We must fight, debate and be true to ourselves.
Otherwise our closeness is just an act.
But in fighting, we must show great restraint and always have respect.
Romance is all “Yes!” and heavy breathing.
Marriage is a relationship of trust that is steeped in the primal ambivalence of love and hate.
A third observation I have here is that I wonder if what Viola was searching for was not necessarily anger but rather passion.
Viola wants passion and purpose in Candido.
She carries a weighty desire in her, a passion somewhere between erotic feeling and religious fanaticism.)
Bellafront (the titular “honest whore“) is sitting in front of a mirror as she prepares her make-up.
(Isn’t make-up by its very purpose dishonest?
There is virtually no difference between an unmade-up bald naked woman and an unmade-up bald naked man, except their reporductive organs.
Any other difference between them is artifically produced.
A woman is the author of her own transformation and produces feminity by means of cosmetics, hairstyle and clothes.
This femininity, synthetic in origin, consists of two different components:
Emphasis on secondary sexual characteristics, to make her desirable.
Distancing herself by means of masks, to make her mysterious.
She deliberately keeps men in a state of constant bewilderment.
Woman regards her natural self merely as the raw materal of a woman, as if the raw material is of less value than the mask that conceals it.
It is not the raw material but the end result that has to be judged.
They have the odd idea that unmade-up, without curls and bracelets and necklaces that a woman is not really present.
Amusing themselves with their own bodies has become an end in itself.
For women’s demands on themselves are enormous.
Men have wisely, millennia ago, dropped out of the game.
Every man knows that he himself does not give a damn if a woman wears three colours of eye shadow or one or none, just as he knows he has no need for lace curtains or plants in the living room.
Women are so preoccupied with self and with beautification that men have come to the conclusion that, even if women paid any attention to them at all, they would never be considered handsome.
But men are not driven to wear a mask to pretend a beauty they neither possess nor feel.
What every man of maturity realizes is that woman are only fooling themselves.
If women spent as much time developing their intelligence and character as they do maintaining a mask of beauty than they may truly feel the equality they so desperately claim to crave.)
Hippolito tells her that, if she were his mistress, he would not permit her to carry on with so many different men.
Bellafront sighs longingly and tells Hippolito that it is her dream to be true to a single man.
Hippolito scoffs at this pronouncement and accuses Bellafront of lying to lure him into her web.
He is certain that, if he were to take up with her, she would certainly deceive him, just as all prostitutes always deceive their patrons.
Bellafront swears that she is an “honest whore“.
Claiming that there could never be such a thing, Hippolito offers to “teach” Bellafront “how to loathe” herself.
He proceeds to deliver a long, nasty speech on the sordidness of prostitution.
Bellafront weeps to hear his harsh words, but begs him to continue.
Hippolito continues a little further and exits, even though Bellafront begs him to stay.
Bellafront agonizes over her unrequited love for Hippolito.
She notices that he has left his sword behind, grabs it and prepares to stab herself, but stops when Hippolito re-enters and calls her a “madwoman“.
Hysterical, she begs him to love her or kill her.
Hippolito takes his sword from her and exits without saying another word.
Above: Scene from Wyatt Earp
(In a way, there is a kind of honesty in prostitution.
Every method of manipulation is based on the carrot-and-stick principle.
A man would be above bribery altogether were it not for one basic male need which has to be satisfied.
The need for physical contact.
This need is so strong.
Its fulfillment gives men such intense pleasure.
A man could, of course, condition his sexual needs, but instead of learning to suppress his needs, a man will allow them to be encouraged whenever possible.
Men never dress in such a way as to awaken sexual desire in a woman, but this is very much the contrary with women.
From the moment a girl becomes a woman, she disguises herself as bait.
She offers herself, at a price.
His total subjection to her.
It would be more economical and efficient for a man to satisfy his libido with a prostitute than rushing into marriage, so it is ironic that men consider ordinary prostitutes so very contemptible.
Prostitutes are among the few women who frankly admit that they make money by renting their bodies.
But no man would allow a prostitute to exploit him beyond the bartering of cash for momentary gratification.
Women despise the common prostitute for her stupidity.
A woman who sells her body so ineptly is shockingly stupid by female intelligence standards.
A man with strong sexual needs must be more obedient to women than others.
A woman profits from her body, while a man is slave to his.
The knack of being a good lover is to persist in the chase, without being a pest.
As tenderness, skill and intensity of touch set her alight, he can abandon himself more and more to his passion, cathcing up with her in joyous abandon.
Lovemaking and courtship takes confidence.
Between first meeting a woman and getting where you want to be, there are many chances of rejection, but if you pass the initiation stage, if you view your own sexuality as sacred and are proud of your own gender, then you come to the woman with fascination and respect, but on equal terms.
You respect and desire her but you respect yourself too.
It takes the desperation out of it.
“I am just a poor boy
Though my story’s seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station
Running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Asking only workman’s wages, I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on 7th Avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there, la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Then I’m laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone, going home
Where the New York City winters aren’t bleeding me
Leading me, going home
In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving“
But the fighter still remains
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie-lie-lie”
Most contemporary men get together with a woman first and then grow up second.
We fall in love mostly by good luck.
It just happens.
Sadly, maintaining love is often left to luck too.
But love is a craft which takes practice.
Eventually, then, many men and women lose the spark.
They fall out of love.
The man usually denies this to himself and is happy enough as long as his partner stays sexually available, a kind of sedating, sex-as-a-reward-at-the-end-of- the-day.
Sex compensates for his life of quiet desperation.
Mouths to feed, mortgage to pay, the soul-numbing routine of work.
I wake up every mornin’
I stumble out of bed
Stretchin’ and yawnin’
Another day ahead
It seems to last forever
And time goes slowly by
‘Til babe and me’s together
Then it starts to fly
‘Cos the moment that he’s with me
Time can take a flight
The moment that he’s with me
Everything’s alright
Night time is the right time
We make love
Then it’s his and my time
We take off
My baby takes the morning train
He works from nine till five and then
He takes another home again
To find me waitin’ for him
He takes me to a movie
Or to a restaurant, to go
Slow dancing
Anything I want
Only when he’s with me
I catch a light
Only when he gives me
Makes me feel alright
My baby takes the morning train
He works from nine till five and then
He takes another home again
To find me waitin’ for him
All day I think of him
Dreamin’ of him constantly
I’m crazy mad for him
And he’s crazy mad for me
(Crazy mad for me)
When he steps off that train
I’m makin’ a fool, a fight
Work all day to earn his pay
So we can play all night
My baby takes the morning train
He works from nine till five and then
He takes another home again
To find me waitin’ for him
He’s always on that morning train
(He works from nine till five and then)
He works so hard
(He takes another home again)
To find me waiting for him
(My baby takes the morning train)
Very often though, today’s woman tires of routine sex.
The very thing that makes him a good husband – his devotion to being a stable provider – wears out his spirit and mkaes him boring.
Finding little reward in their boring live or their sex life, she starts to cool down.
She exerts her perfect right not make love.
The man sulks, suffers, grouches and schemes, to no avail.
This long dark night is the result of a totally mistaken belief that he cannot live without a woman’s love.
But for the man who makes it through the long dark night, the rewards are great.
Comfortable in his solitude, he approaches women as equals.
The irony is that when you can “take it or leave it“, when love and affection are no longer a matter of life and death, then you are finally receptive.
Not needing sex makes you much more attractive.
Bellafront realizes that she wants a man’s constant companionship.
In this regard, she truly is honest.)
In A Trick to Catch the Old One, Theodorus Witgood, a ruined gentleman, enters and tells how, after foolishly wasting away all his money on brothels and drunkenness in the city, he has lost all of his lands to his uncle, Pecunius Lucre a usurer.
According to Witgood, Lucre’s motto is:
“He that doth his youth expose
To brothel, drink and danger
Let him that is nearest kin
Cheat before a stranger.”
Witgood says that he must now find some way to make a living for himself, and hints that he may not be averse to activities “out of the compass of the law” (i.e., illegal).
Witgood’s courtesan (kept lady) enters.
Witgood scolds her for being the cause of his ruin.
The Courtesan replies that the ‘jewel’ she gave him — her virginity — was worth much more than all the lands he has lost.
(Here is where I marvel at the mess mankind has made of sexuality.
Why in Heaven’s name does a woman possess more erogenous zones than a man and yet deny herself the liberty of their enjoyment?
How can it be psychologically healthy to possess such innate desires and yet suppress those desires for the sake of potential profit later?
Certainly, I have to admit there is a sort of reckless courage that a woman possesses in deliberately stoking the fires of men’s desires for physical contact with her.
As well, we live in an age where the use of contraceptives can prevent unwanted pregnancy and minimize the risks of contamination, so a cautious woman can be sexually active without the same intensity of worry that previous generations had.
But the unaccountable stigma that is cast upon a woman if she is too promiscuous must, in my opinion, be a source of frustration for some.
As for the jewel of virginity, ideally she should have as her first lover a person that reciprocates the desire, passion and intensity of feeling that she has.
I think what bothers me is the idea of her sex viewed as a jewel, a bartering of her body.
Certainly, she decides the bedroom fun, but if her goal is a devoted exclusive relationship, she may have to kiss a lot of frogs before she finds her prince.)
Witgood lays out a plan to get his lands back from his uncle.
The plan involves going to London (where his uncle is now located) and passing the Courtesan off as a wealthy widow whom Witgood intends to marry.
The Courtesan agrees to the plan.
Above: London, as seen from Primrose Hill
Joyce might marry Sam Freedom (Lucre’s wife’s son from another marriage), however, the match has not yet been confirmed.
Joyce has two suitors:
Sam, a rich idiot, and Moneylove, an impoverished scholar.
Joyce is currently in London, where she is learning how to become a gentlewoman so that she can catch a wealthy husband.
(Notice the calculating nature of all this.
Joyce is interested in her self development so she can catch a wealthy husband.
In fairness, the horizons of a woman in 1608 were quite different than they are for an Englishwoman of 2024.
But I find myself asking the question:
What makes a woman worthy of a man?
It has been said that a woman merely has to be to get a man, while a man has to become to be considered worthy of a woman.
But is it wrong to desire a woman who is a man’s equal counterpart in strength, intelligence and imagination?
To have a life partner who contributes to the family’s future in a job she wants to do rather than at a job she has to do, because she has yet to find a male sponsor?
Joyce may have lacked the opportunities to explore her potential, but what is modern woman’s excuse?
There is no primary difference in intelligence between the sexes.
It is in the decisions made to develop or let disintegrate one’s intelligence that makes differences between people.
I also find myself wondering how many modern women are like Joyce using her self-development, whether in the world of academia or in the business world, in order to simply find a life partner.
I think part of the problem with academia is that we confuse the memorization of knowledge for the true acquisition of wisdom.
There seems to be an unwritten myth that a woman rarely needs to win through her industry, ambition or perseverance, but simply through an attractive appearance.
Beauty can sleep while waiting for her prince to rouse her.)
You look like
A perfect fit
For a girl in need
Of a tourniquet
But can you save me?
Why don’t you save me?
If you could save me
From the ranks of the freaks that suspect
They could never love anyone
‘Cause I can tell
You know what it’s like
A long farewell
Of a hunger strike
But can you save me?
Come on and save me
If you could save me
From the ranks of the freaks that suspect
They could never love anyone
You struck me dumb
Like radium
Like Peter Pan or Superman
You will come
To save me
Why don’t you save me?
If you could save me
From the ranks of the freaks who suspect
They could never love anyone
Except the freaks that suspect
They could never love anyone
But the freaks that suspect
They could never love anyone
Come on and save me
Why don’t you save me?
If you could save me
From the ranks of the freaks that suspect
They could never love anyone
Except the freaks who suspect
They could never love anyone
Except the freaks
Who could never love anyone
Witgood tells his friend Host (an innkeeper) that he is about to marry a wealthy widow whom he plans to take to London so that she can be introduced to his uncle (the ‘widow‘ is actually Witgood’s courtesan).
He asks the Host to pose as the ‘widow’s‘ servingman while they are in London.
This favour is necessary,
Witgood claims, because when she ran away with him, the ‘widow’ abandoned all of her servants.
To convince his uncle of her wealth, appearances have to be maintained.
The Host knows that Witgood intends to trick his uncle, but he does not know that the ‘widow’ is, in fact, Witgood’s courtesan.
(“Appearances have to be maintained.”
But what lies beneath the appearances?)
Witgood and the Host arrive in London.
The Host assures Witgood that the ‘widow’ has been provided with good lodgings.
Dampit and Gulf (two usurers) enter.
Witgood tells the Host that Dampit is “the most notorious usurering, blasphemous, atheistical, brothel-vomiting rascal that we have in these latter times.”
(Shakespeare’s insults are good, but Middleton’s may be better.)
Above: Scene from Full Metal Jacket
He also says that, although Dampit dresses like a beggar, he is, in fact, very rich — he earned all his money with the Devil’s help, by cheating and trampling the law.
As much as Dampit is a reprehensible scoundrel I cannot admire, I see wisdom in his choice of attire.
(José Alberto “Pepe” Mujica Cordano (born 20 May 1935) is a Uruguayan politician, former revolutionary and farmer who served as the 40th President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015.
A former guerrilla with the Tupamaros, he was tortured and imprisoned for 14 years during the military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.
A member of the Broad Front coalition of left-wing parties, Mujica was Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008 and a Senator afterwards.
As the candidate of the Broad Front, he won the 2009 presidential election and took office as President on 1 March 2010.
Mujica has been described as “the world’s humblest head of state” due to his austere lifestyle and his donation of around 90% of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities that benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs.
An outspoken critic of capitalism’s focus on stockpiling material possessions which do not contribute to human happiness, he has been praised by the media and journalists for his philosophical ideologies.
The Times Higher Education referred to him as the “philosopher president” in 2015, a play on words of Plato’s conception of the philosopher king.)
Above: José Alberto “Pepe” Mujica Cordano
I grant you that Dampit is in no way the kind of idealist that Cordano is.
But there is wisdom in not displaying your wealth ostentatiously.
For bling and bounty only create envy and greed in others.
Also the reason that many rich folks have gotten rich and have remained rich is that they are rarely generous with the blessings that good fortune has given them.
In my own travels I have also been impressed by the selfless generosity of those who have littie left to give and yet do so without hesitation nor expectation of reward.
They help others simply because they are compelled to.
Above: The widow with two mites
I am also reminded of the legendary tales of King Arthur and F. W. Woolworth.
“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”
(Rudyard Kipling)
Above: English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)
One of the best known stories in English history is that of King Alfred and the cakes.
Children are taught the story where Alfred is on the run from the Vikings, taking refuge in the home of a peasant woman.
She asks him to watch her cakes – small loaves of bread – baking by the fire, but distracted by his problems, he lets the cakes burn and is roundly scolded by the woman.
Would he have been so roundly scolded had the peasant woman seen Alfred as King?
Above: King Alfred and the cakes
There is the legend of Woolworth visiting his stores disguised as a customer to gauge how customers were being served and then returned as himself to give feedback on the customer service he received (or didn’t receive).
Clearly, he understood that he would be treated quite differently had it been known who he really was.
Above: Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852 – 1919)
I want to be judged by the size of my manners and not by the size of my wallet or bank account.)
Above: Scene from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
(Dex: These Kamino keep to themselves. They’re cloners. Damn good ones.
Obi-Wan: Are they friendly?
Dex: It depends.
Obi-Wan: Depends on what, Dex?
Dex: On how good your manners are and how big your pocketbook is.)
Dampit greets Witgood and rhapsodises about his rise to wealth, repeatedly referring himself as “a great trampler of time“:
“Thus was poor Harry Dampit made rich by others’ laziness, who, though they would not follow their own suits, I made ’em follow me with their purses.”
I won’t reveal any more of the story here.
Above: Ebenezer Scrooge
In A Mad World, My Masters, Richard Follywit enters with his cohorts, Mawworm (intestinal worm), Hoboy, and other hangers-on.
He jokes with his companions about their wild ways and sarcastically repents and says he is now a man who “swears without number, gulls (to cheat) without mercy and drinks without measure“.
He tells his cohorts of a plan he has hatched to get some more money:
His grandfather, Sir Bounteous Progress (a rich old knight) has left him everything in his will, but refuses to give him as much as £10 while he is still alive.
Despite his frugality concerning Follywit, Bounteous loves to entertain noble guests with extravagant feasts.
Follywit therefore plans to disguise himself as a great lord so that he can capitalize on his grandfather’s hospitality.
As Follywit and companions exit, Penitent Brothel, a country gentleman, enters.
Penitent remarks on Follywit’s reputation as a wild prankster, but notes that he is not so much better because he is subject to “wild passions and deadly follies himself“:
He is in love with Mistress Hairbrain, who is extremely difficult to get to because she is kept under strict guard by her obsessively jealous husband, Mr. Hairbrain.
In order to get to Mistress Hairbrain, Penitent says he has contracted the services of ‘The Courtesan‘, a prostitute who poses as Mistress Hairbrain’s friend and moral instructor but is in fact working to corrupt her.
The Courtesan enters and tells Penitent that Mistress Hairbrain’s corruption is going very well.
The only problem is Mr. Hairbrain, whose excessive jealously is likely to make the project very difficult.
Penitent frets, but the Courtesan tells him not to worry:
She won’t take any money unless the project is a success.
Penitent praises the Courtesan’s business ethic and exits.
The Courtesan’s mother brings the Courtesan a token from Sir Bounteous Progress (the Courtesan is Sir Bounteous Progress’ mistress).
Luxuriating in the subtlety of her own craftiness, the Mother tells how she has prostituted the Courtesan 15 times in order to save up enough money for a good marriage dowry.
She tells the Courtesan it is all worthwhile if, by sinning, she can secure a good name for herself:
“Who gets the opinion of a virtuous name
May sin at pleasure and never think of shame.”
The Courtesan exits.
(Consider this:
The Courtesan suggests that losing one’s virtue is OK if it secures a good name for yourself.
As in the end justifies the means.
How is Follywit any different than the Courtesan?
They both do want ever they want to achieve their aims and both are unshamed of doing so.)
Receptionist: How do you write women so well?
Melvin Udall: I think of a man. And I take away reason and accountability.
Inesse and Possibility enter.
They are the eldest brothers from two different families:
The former holds his lands “in esse” (in actual possession) and the latter holds his lands “in posse” (in anticipated possession) — either of these men could be a prime source of revenue for the Courtesan.
Inesse and Possibility ask the Mother where the Courtesan is;
The Mother tells them she is studying the Bible.
They ask if they can see her.
The Mother says she will only grant permission after they have sworn to refrain from using coarse language.
(Even Trump sells Bibles.)
Obsessing over the possibility that his wife might cheat on him, Harebrain hires two watchmen to guard his house, telling them that he has heard a rumour that he might be robbed.
In an aside, he reveals that the ‘jewel’ he really intends to guard is his wife.
The Courtesan enters (posing, as Mistress Hairbrain’s friend and moral instructor).
Hairbrain tells her that he is very worried about his wife’s chastity and mentions that he has taken away all of her erotic literature (which includes Shakespeare’s narrative poem, Venus and Adonis).
He asks the Courtesan to read some religious literature to Mistress Hairbrain:
“There’s a good chapter on Hell that will terrify her in this cold weather.
So read to her the horrible punishments for itching wantonness.”
The Courtesan exits.
(Literature is moral or immoral depending upon whether thoughts turn to deeds.)
Talking to himself, Hairbrain says that, with the help of the Courtesan, he will keep his wife honest, only performing sexual favors for her husband.
(He regards sex as the payment she owes him for room and board.)
(He will provide for her if she will provide for him?
Sounds more like business than love?)
Mistress Hairbrain and the Courtesan enter.
The Courtesan instructs Mistress Hairbrain in the art of appearing chaste and avoiding any traps her husband might set for her.
Mistress Hairbrain gives the Courtesan a jewel to present to Penitent Brothel as a promise of her love, which she says she will demonstrate as soon as she manages to escape from her husband’s strict guard.
When Hairbrain joins them, the Courtesan tells him that Mistress Hairbrain believes that every sin is damnable — an opinion that the Courtesan has been trying to refute.
Hairbrain laughs at his wife’s alleged moral strictness.
He says that sins such as usury, bribery, sloth, pride and gluttony are permissible — the only truly damnable sin is adultery.
When the Courtesan exits, Hairbrain orders his wife to follow her instructor’s advice faithfully.
Above: An allegorical image depicting the human heart subject to the seven deadly sins, each represented by an animal (clockwise: toad = avarice; snake = envy; lion = wrath; snail = sloth; pig = gluttony; goat = lust; peacock = pride), Taolenn de François-Marie Balanant, 2010
(Is it only sinful if we deem it so?)
I must confess I find a sad sameness to the entire body of Middleton’s work.
Almost every character is greedy, selfish and self-absorbed like characters in a never-ending soap opera.
Middleton’s cynicism is as palpable as a cold puddle splashed from a passing car onto a well-groomed pedestrian.
I have read what I could through Google on this day, but despite my best efforts I could not find an open manuscript of Middleton’s Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets, but the title has triggered ideas I wish to share in my next post….
Though the stage is lit, the theatre is shadows.
Though daylight shines through my windows, reading Middleton I feel that I am in the middle of a long dark night.
My mind, that everpresent jukebox, finds Middleton making me think of Leonard Cohen:
Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
Like a worm on a hook
Like a knight from some old fashioned book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee
If I, if I have been unkind
I hope that you can just let it go by
If I, if I have been untrue
I hope you know it was never to you
Oh, like a baby, stillborn
Like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me
But I swear by this song
And by all that I have done wrong
I will make it all up to thee
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch
He said to me, “You must not ask for so much.”
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door
She cried to me, “Hey, why not ask for more?“
Oh, like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
Sources
- Wikipedia
- Google Photos
- Manhood, Steve Biddulph
- “Bird on the Wire“, Leonard Cohen
- “9 to 5 / Morning Train“, Sheena Easton
- “Save Me“, Aimee Mann
- The Phoenix, Thomas Middleton
- The Honest Whore, Thomas Middleton
- A Trick to Catch the Old One, Thomas Middleton
- A Mad World, My Masters, Thomas Middleton
- No Wit, No Help Like a Woman, Thomas Middleton
- “The Boxer“, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel
- The Manipulated Man, Esther Vilar
Chronicles of Canada Slim 