1/ The play premiered in 1622. I was quite surprised to come across a reference to A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
“FRANCISCUS Hail, bright Titania!
Why stand’st thou idle on these flow’ry banks?
Oberon is dancing with his Dryades;
I’ll gather daisies, primrose, violets,
And bind them in a verse of poesy.”
(Act 3 scene 3)
Didn’t expect that.
2/ There are two (not quite parallel) plots that later converge.
The main plot starts with a forced marriage, like Women Beware Women: Beatrice-Joanna is in love with Alsemero but forced by her father Vermandero to marry Alonzo de Piracquo.
In the subplot, Alibius, a jealous doctor, imprisons his beautiful wife Isabella in the house for fear of losing her, as Leantio does with Bianca in Women Beware Women. He tells his servant Lollio to keep watch on Isabella.
“LOLLIO I’ll do my best, sir, yet surely I cannot see who you should have cause to be jealous of.
ALIBIUS Thy reason for that, Lollio? ’Tis a comfortable question.
LOLLIO We have but two sorts of people in the house, and both under the whip, that’s fools and madmen; the one has not wit enough to be knaves, and the other not knavery enough to be fools.”
(Act 1 scene 2)
It is a madhouse—fools and madmen are those we now call the mentally disabled and the mentally ill. There are however two counterfeits—Franciscus and Antonio pretend to be a madman and a fool in order to enter the house, as they’re in love with Isabella. Lollio is also horny for her.
“ISABELLA […] would a woman stray,
She need not gad abroad to seek her sin,
It would be brought home one way or other;
The needle’s point will to the fixed north,
Such drawing arctics women’s beauties are.”
(Act 3 scene 3)
3/ In the main plot, De Flores, an ugly servant, is obsessed with Beatrice-Joanna (“Dog-face” she calls him). When he sees her with Alsemero despite her engagement to Alonzo, he thinks:
“DE FLORES I have watch’d this meeting and do wonder much
What shall become of tother; I’m sure both
Cannot be serv’d unless she transgress, happily
Then I’ll put in for one; for if a woman
Fly from one point, from him she makes a husband,
She spreads and mounts then like arithmetic,
One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand,
Proves in time sutler to an army royal…”
(Act 2 scene 2)
What a disgusting man.
Beatrice-Joanna is in a pickle—she loves a man but her father forces her to marry another—not knowing how to get out of the marriage, she decides to hire De Flores to kill Alonzo, and once “Dog-face” gets the money and runs away, she will be rid of “two inveterate loathings” at once—I mean, what is she even thinking?
The scene of De Flores speaking to Beatrice-Joanna after the deed is done is a fantastic scene:
“DE FLORES Do you place me in the rank of verminous fellows,
To destroy things for wages? Offer gold?
The life blood of man! Is anything
Valued too precious for my recompense?”
(Act 3 scene 4)
No, not money—he wants her virginity.
“BEATRICE Why, ’tis impossible thou canst be so wicked,
Or shelter such a cunning cruelty,
To make his death the murderer of my honour!
Thy language is so bold and vicious,
I cannot see which way I can forgive it
With any modesty.
DE FLORES Push, you forget yourself!
A woman dipp’d in blood, and talk of modesty?
[…]
DE FLORES Look but into your conscience, read me there,
’Tis a true book, you’ll find me there your equal…”
(ibid.)
An excellent scene—it must be one of the greatest scenes in 17th century English drama—and I think The Changeling is one of the greatest plays I’ve read, because of the twisted relationship between Beatrice-Joanna and De Flores. It disgusts, but it also fascinates. Other plays from the same period also paint violence, also depict depravity, also portray evil, but the relationship between these two characters is more bizarre and perplexing—Beatrice-Joanna goes from loathing De Flores to being under his power, to being sexually drawn to him, to, in a way, even loving him—it is therefore more fascinating. Beatrice-Joanna especially is a great character, a complex character. She is wicked, but at the same time her attraction, or attachment, to De Flores, despite his ugliness and despite her feelings for Alsemero, makes her appear helpless as it’s something beyond her control.
And the bed trick? It’s even more twisted than the ones in Measure for Measure and All’s Well that Ends Well.
4/ I also like that the main plot is a tragedy and the subplot is a comedy—it is audacious—and it works very well.
A masterpiece.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’ve read it a few times and love it. I’m reminded further that Middleton is often credited as the reviser of Macbeth (the original version is lost, and we only have the First Folio edition) — I believe it’s thought that he wrote the Hecate scenes, and some other of the witches dialogue. No slouch.
ReplyDeleteAs I told you before, in my mind the Changeling is associated with the twisted, creepy, mannered madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo, a contemporary of Middleton and Shakespeare (who is perhaps the only notable composer to have murdered his wife and her lover in a jealous rage).
The bizarre love affair, where disgust turns to sexual attraction, is fascinating. A psychiatrist once told me that the psychological insight of the story is in the fact that any strong emotion— even disgust or hate — is much closer to love than is mere indifference.
Have you read The Revenger's Tragedy? There's no consensus over the authorship, but some scholars believe it's Middleton's. That one is excellent.
DeleteAnd yeah, this play is fascinating because of that relationship.