Jacobean Flashcards
Who discussed Comedy of Humour for the first time?
Greek Medic Hypocrites- 4th century BCE
• Father of Medicine
• Human body is made with four substances. Their balance is required for good health, when disbalance sickness happens
Four substances are?
Black Bile- Earth (Cold and dry-Melancholic: Sensitive, artistic
Yellow Bile-• Fire, dry and warm properties. • Choleric: Passionate,
Temperamental (anger)
Blood- • Air, Moist and warm properties. • Sanguine: Confidence, Joyful, Social.
Phlegm- Water, Moist and cold Properties. Deep thinkers
Who played Hieronimo in Spanish Tragedy?
Ben Jonson
What made Ben Jonson Poet Laureate?
From 1605 to 1634 he created masques for the courts of James I and Charles I, and collaborated with the architect and designer Inigo Jones
Masques by Ben Jonson?
Hymenaei (1606), Hue and Cry After Cupid (1608), The Masque of Beauty (1608), and The Masque of Queens (1609)
Everyman in His Humour was played in?
first performed by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men in 1598 at the Curtain Theatre.
• written in Blank Verse
• Set in Italy then changed to London
• Allusion to John Barrore a Burgundian Fencer challenged everyone that year and hanged for murder in 1598
- KNO’WELLl spies on his son who is a flirtatious young man but his plot is subverted by his servant BRAINWARM
- A merchant called Kitely is jealous thinking that his wife is in love with someone
Volpone was performed in?
1605/06
Summary of Volpone?
• Volpone is a rich man from Vence who fools people to get gifts by pretending to be ill and he’ll give his inheritance to them after his death. One by one, Voltore, Carbaccio, Carvino come to him. Mosca his parasite fools Carbaccio to disinherit his son, Carvino gives his wife to Volpone, as he makes him believe that if he sleeps with her, he’ll get cured of his illness. Volpone tries to rape Celia, Carvino’s wife but saved by Bonario, disinherited son of Carbaccio. Volpone wants to announce that he is dead and has given his wealth to Mosca, but Mosca fools him by announcing that he is indeed dead and all the potential heirs go to court. Volpone had to reveal that he is not dead and he is fooling everyone. All the characters except Bonario and Celia get punished.
Quotes from Volpone?
Volpone: Hail to the world’s soul, and mine. More glad than is The teeming earth to see the longed-for sun Peep through the horns of the celestial ram, Am I, to view they splendour, darkening his: That lying here, amongst my other hoards, Show’st like a flame by night; or like the day Struck out of chaos, when all darkness fled Unto the center. Oh, thou son of Sol (But brighter than thy father) let me kiss, With adoration, thee, and every relic Of sacred treasure in this blessed room.
• These lines are spoken at the beginning of the play (I.i.3–13). It is early morning, Volpone stands in front of his treasure, collected through his tricks.
Mosca: I am so limber. Oh! Your parasite Is a most precious thing, dropped from above, Not bred ‘mongst clods and clot-poles, here on earth. I muse, the mystery was not made a science, It is so liberally professed! Almost All the wise world is little else, in nature, But parasites, or sub-parasites.
• Mosca speaks these lines in soliloquy in Act III, scene i, lines 7–13. In these lines, Mosca says that what defines him is him being Volpone’s “parasite”, completely dependent on Volpone for his livelihood.
Summary of Bartholmew Fair?
- Bartholomew Fair is a Jacobean comedy in five acts by Ben Jonson. It was first staged on 31 October 1614 at the Hope Theatre by the Lady Elizabeth’s Men company.
- ZEAL OF THE LAND-BUSY, a Puritan wants to win the hand of Dame Purecraft, mother-in-law of amateur dramatist Littlewit
- Wasp, a country simpleton comes to marry Grace Wellborn, the ward of Adam Overdo, a Justice of the Peace.
- All of these characters are at Littlewit’s to get a marriage license and after getting that they go to visit the fair.
Summary of The Alchemist?
- The Alchemist, comedy in five acts by Ben Jonson, performed in 1610 and published in 1612.
- In London, LOVEWIT gives control of his house to his servant FACE, who schemes through his charms to fool people with his alchemist friend Dol Common. He fools characters like Sir EPICURE Mammon, the tobacconist Abel Drugger, the gamester law clerk Dapper, and the parvenu Kastril with his widowed sister, Pliant. His plot is almost revealed by the gamester. In the end, Face arranges his master’s marriage with Pliant.
Summary of Cynthia’s Revels?
- Cynthia’s Revels or The Fountain of Self-Love was first acted in 1600. It includes masques, singing and dancing.
- The goddess Diana, also called Cynthia, went for a “solemn revels” in the valley of Gargaphie in Greece where she sings and dances with others. The gods Cupid and Mercury. A competition is held, in four phases, and the courtiers are beaten. At their conclusion, Cynthia (representing Queen Elizabeth) has the dancers unmask and it is revealed that vices have masqueraded as virtues. She sentences them to accept their faults and to purify themselves by bathing in the spring at Mount Helicon.
Summary of • Epicœne or The Silent Women?
• Epicœne or The Silent Women is about MOROSE, a wealthy man who hates noises. Dauphine, his nephew plans and sends a silent woman, Epicœne to marry Morose. Morose tests her and finds her right for marriage, but when married she reveals herself to be a loudmouth. Dauphine agrees to get them divorced if he is given Morose’ inheritance. In the end, it is revealed that the silent woman was a boy.
About White Devil?
Play by John Webster
• The White Devil (full original title: The White Divel; or, The Tragedy of Paolo Giordano Ursini, Duke of Brachiano. With The Life and Death of Vittoria Corombona the famous Venetian Curtisan) is a tragedy.
• The first performance in 1612 was a failure, but it was revived in 1630 and became a hit.
• It is based on a murder in Italy of Vittoria Accoramboni in Padua in 1585 as mentioned in William Painter’s Palace of Pleasure. He reveals the moral and political corruption of the England. It exposes the reality of people who show themselves to be white or pure.
Summary of The Duchess of Malfi?
- The Duchess of Malfi (originally published as The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy) is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then later to a larger audience at The Globe, in 1613–1614. Published in 1623.
- The plot is inspired from a tale by Italian Matteo Bandello, whose English version was a part of William Painter’s Palace of Pleasure
- The play is loosely based on events that occurred between 1508 and 1513 surrounding Giovanna d’Aragona, Duchess of Amalfi (d. 1511)
- The Duchess falls in love with her steward Antonio, but her brothers Ferdinand and Cardinal don’t want them to marry. She leaves for Rome where she marries Antonio. She becomes pregnant and Bosola gets her to reveal who the father is.
- She gives birth to her son, and Bosola finds the horoscope, which reveals that the Duchess has a child. Ferdinand comes to Rome and when Antonio leaves, he reveals himself and tell Duchess to kill herself. He leaves saying he won’t see her again after she reveals she is married.
- Cardinal finds the couple in Ancona and banish them. Antonio is forced to flee to Milan with their eldest son.
- Bosola imprisons the Duchess and two younger children. Ferdinand makes her believe that Antonio and her son are dead. Duchess and her two children are strangled. Ferdinand blames Bosola for the murders.
- The Cardinal offers Bosola a reward for murdering Antonio. Bosola accepts but plots to kill the two brothers instead, but accidentally attacks and kills Antonio.
- Bosola stabs the Cardinal, while Ferdinand and Bosola strike each other – all three die.
