Sir John van Olden Barnavelt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tragedy of Sir John van Olden Barnavelt was a Jacobean play written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger in 1619, and produced in the same year by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre. Based on controversial contemporaneous political events, the play was itself controversial and had to survive an attempt at suppression by religious authorities.

The historical Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (spellings vary), "Lord of Berkel, Rodenrys, etc.," was a prominent Dutch politician and statesman who was executed in The Hague on May 13, 1619. He was beheaded at the age of 72, after a conviction on a charge of high treason for allegedly conspiring with the Spanish enemies of the Netherlands — though he maintained his innocence to the end of his life. Since Holland was an English ally and English troops had long been involved in their conflict with Spain, the case of Oldenbarnaveldt was of immense interest in England. Fletcher and Massinger composed a drama on the subject that was ready for the stage in a scant three months, by August 1619.

The play they wrote has been described as "an ideologically charged work with distinct republican and anti-authoritarian connotations."[1] It was actable on the Jacobean stage only because it met the official line on Oldenbarnaveldt's life and death. King James I was an opponent of the Dutch statesman, and especially of his Arminianism; Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, Oldenbarnaveldt's rival and the main engine of his downfall, was a close ally of James. In the play, Barnavelt is plainly guilty of treason and attempts to seduce English soldiers to join with him — unsuccessfully of course.

The play was censored by George Buc, the Master of the Revels, for its political content. Buc was not interested in suppressing a play that endorsed the official line on the case; rather, he worked to ensure that the play did its job in a way that served the government's interests. The surviving manuscript shows that most of Buc's edits consisted of small changes, "altering the tone or tweaking a phrase."[2] In one place where such tweaking was inadequate, Barnavelt's speech of self-defense in his trial scene in Act IV, Buc cut out the entire speech. (Coincidentally, Buc had been James' diplomatic representative in the Netherlands and was personally acquainted with both Prince Maurice and Oldenbarnaveldt.)[3]

Even after meeting this political vetting, the play had to confront religious censorship. In 1619 as for a long period previously, the Bishop of London had an authority to approve plays for their religious conformity as the government did for political content; and Barnavelt touched on the sensitive subject of Arminian-Calvinist rivalry. The Bishop acted to stop the play on August 14, 1619, just before its premier. Yet the play was in the interest of the state, and the actors managed to get clearance to perform it; Barnavelt was on the boards by August 16.

Though it was a popular success, Barnavelt was not published in the seventeenth century. It remained in manuscript until 1883, when A. H. Bullen included it in his Old English Plays, Vol. 2. The manuscript is now in the collection of the British Museum, identified as Add. MS. 18653. It is a fair copy of the play text prepared by the professional scribe Ralph Crane, who worked repeatedly for the King's Men and would prepare copy for some of Shakespeare's plays for the First Folio (1623). Crane's manuscript, of high quality, with full Act-and-scene divisions, is marked by two other hands. The prompter of the King's Men added details about stage props, sound effects (horns offstage), and other matters needed for performance, indicating that the manuscript was going to be used, and in all likelihood was used, as the prompt-book for the production; and it also bears Buc's censorship marks.

One notable aspect of Crane's manuscript is that it faithfully reproduces the textual and linguistic preferences of the two authors. Scholars have long recognized that Fletcher had a highly distinctive profile of linguistic usages that allows his share in collaborative works to be distinguished from others — like Francis Beaumont, or as in this case, Philip Massinger. Scholars can therefore agree on a breakdown of the two authors' contributions with near unanimity:[4]

Massinger — Act I, scenes i and ii; Act II, scene i; Act III, scenes ii, v, and vi; Act IV, scenes iv and v; Act V, scene i (except middle portion).
Fletcher — Act I, scene iii; Act II, scenes ii-vi; Act III, scenes i, iii, and iv; Act IV, scenes i-iii; Act V, scene i (middle portion, from exit of Ambassadors to exit of Provost) and scenes ii and iii.

The manuscript also contains mentions of some of the King's Men in the cast, under their own names. "R. Gough" is mentioned, and so are "Rice" (John Rice), "T. Po." (Thomas Pollard), "Rob," "Nick," and others. "Nick" played Barnavelt's wife; some scholars have assumed that this was Nicholas Tooley — but Tooley was about 40 years old in 1619. "Nick" was possibly Nick Underwood or another boy active in the company at the time.[5]

The play has a range of noteworthy and remarkable features. The beheading of Barnavelt was acted out onstage, which raises obvious questions of how this was done in Jacobean stagecraft.[6] In addition to its portrayal of English soldiers in Holland, the play includes an Englishwoman who disputes with Dutch Arminian women about the proper role of women in society. (The Englishwoman is traditional in outlook, while her Dutch counterparts think that women should rule.) Some readers, like Algernon Charles Swinburne, recognized this as anti-feminist satire. The authors appear to have been influenced by the similar contemporary histories of George Chapman, especially his two-part play The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Kamps, p. 142.
  2. ^ Auchter, p. 335.
  3. ^ Kastan, p. 426.
  4. ^ Logan and Smith, p. 72.
  5. ^ Regarding the vexed question of boys vs. men in women's roles in English Renaissance drama, see: boy player.
  6. ^ Gurr, p. 184. In the play the headsman chops off not only Barnavelt's head, but a few of his fingers; as the text puts it, "you have struck his fingers too / but we forgive your haste."

[edit] References

  • Auchter, Dorothy. Dictionary of Literary and Dramatic Censoship in Tudor and Stuart England. Westport, CT, Greenwood Press, 2001.
  • Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642. Third edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  • Hoenselaars, A. J. Images of Englishmen and Foreigners in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaies. Rutherford, NJ, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1992.
  • Howard-Hill, T. H. "Buc and the Censorship of Sir John van Olden Barnavelt in 1619." Review of English Studies 39 (Feb. 1988), pp. 39-63.
  • Kamps, Ivo. Historiography and Ideology in Stuart Drama. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  • Kastan, David Scott. A Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 1999.
  • Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith. The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978.