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The Comedy of Humours

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  • The Comedy of Humours

  • Dramatic genre inspired by the medieval medical theory of humours humours (ancients) = bodily fluids that permeated body & influenced its health/ personality balance - a determining factor of human health eucrasiaimbalance directly caused diseases - dyscrasia "temperament" - Galen bodily dispositions (susceptibility to particular diseases) psychlogical dispositions, behavioural and emotional inclinations

  • balanced mixture of the four qualities >> ideal temperament predominance of each of these 4 secretions within the body (earth, air, fire, and water) >> specific temperamentblood 'sanguine'phlegm 'phlegmatic'choler (or yellow bile) 'choleric'black bile 'melancholic'

  • c. 400 B.C. Hippocrates's four humours yellow bile black bile phlegm blood seasonsummerautumnwinterspringelementfireearthwaterairorganliverbrain/lungsgall bladderspleenqualitydry & hot dry & coldwet & coldwet & hotcharacteristiceasily angered, bad tempered despondent, sleepless, irritablecalm, unemotionalcourageous, hopeful, amorous c. 325 B.C. Aristotle's four sources of happinesshedone (sensuous pleasure)propraitari (acquiring assets) ethikos (moral virtue) dialogike (logical investigation) c. 190 A.D.' Galen's four temperamentscholeric melancholic phlegmatic sanguine Paracelsus's four totem spirits changeable salamanders industrious gnomes inspired nymphs curious sylphs

  • Comedies of humour vehicles for satire popularised in England in 1598 by Ben Jonsons Every Man in His Humourportrayal of the follies & vices of societyindividual eccentricities of characters - distorted temperaments characters natures = source of the actionstock characters (stereotypes) - humours out of balancethe miles gloriosus swaggering warriorthe senex iratus angry fatherthe dolosus servus crafty servantthe greedy miserthe foolish spendthriftthe jealous husband, etc. people - ruled by single passions (greed / anger / self-righteousness)pretensions to abilities (wit / learning / fashion / social prestige)

  • Ben Jonson, c. 15731637

  • Baroque artist more than 35 masques and entertainments & 14 complete comedies - extraordinarily varied - satires, comedies of manners, comedies of humours and farcesexperimented with approach, point of view, characterization, language & plottingestablish drama as a legitimate literary form - raise the status of his art (not mere acting vehicles)1616 The Workes of Benjamin Jonson (collection of his plays, masques & poems - printed in folio)first English dramatist to publish collected edition of his own works right of plays to be considered as literature - promoted the cause of drama as high art

  • Literary career bestrode the Stuart drama world as a prime playwright and as a theorist - greatest of Shakespeare's dramatic contemporarieslow birth (son of a Scottish minister)formidable learning - Westminster School - studied with William Camden (perhaps the greatest classicist and antiquarian of the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages - interest in classical & English languages & literatures, care in constructing what he wrote, and respect for learning)bricklayer and soldiertravelling actor (performed as Hieronimo in Thomas Kyds The Spanish Tragedy)Twice imprisoned 1597 - partial authorship of The Isle of Dogs (politically subversive) 1598 - killed Gabriel Spencer, a fellow actor, in a duel - capital offence - pled benefit of clergy (able to recite a biblical verse in Latin)

  • dramatist as well as a masterful poetdedicated classicist, emphasized clarity of form and phrase over expression of emotionstudied the poetic forms of classical Greek and Latin literature & of later European literature diverse body of poetry elegies, epistles, homilies, Pindaric odes, epigrams, love-poems, epitaphscollected his poems - Epigrams (1616), The Forest (1616), & The Underwood (16401641)

  • 1597 - Theatrical career translator (Ars poetica)Horatian dictum- poetry should entertain & instruct the audience1. INSTRUCTstrong satirical bent - didacticismaim of comedy = expose vices and follies which weaken society & disrupt the web of human relationships necessary to a commonwealthindividual failings + failures of the age (foolishness, greed, pretentiousness, hypocrisy, self-deception)major function of comedy = moral edification (shame them out of their vices and follies)

  • 2. ENTERTAIN rigid moralist ( preach)comedys primary responsibility = amuse - e.g. Prologue to Volpone:"In all his poemes, still, hath been this measure, / To mixe profit, with your pleasure" most effective way to teach through art = clothe the lesson in a delightful fableJonsons concern with entertaining makes most of his comedies delightful and attractive to audiences; his effort to instruct makes his plays substantial and meaningful

  • Neoclassicism of Jonson's comediesadapts classical ideals to contemporary materialclassical unities of time, place, & action + sense of decoruminternal unity and coherence disciplined structure, concentrated action, and serious purposecharacters & situations = carefully integrated - fabric of the whole playloose ends are resolved, subplot and main plot are interwoven so that each enhances the other, and the conclusion of each play resolves the basic issues brought up during the action

  • Every Man in His Humour (1598) applies the classical theory of the humours to social behaviour complex interweaving of plots - atmosphere of comic frenzyfools are duped, husbands fear cuckolding, wives suspect their husbands of having mistresses, fathers spy on sons, a servant plays tricks on everyone, and myriad disguises and social games confuse the characterscharacter typology suspicious father (Edward Knowell) errant son (Edward Knowell) soldier (Bobadill) - the miles gloriosus from classical comedies wily servant (Brainworm) Downright - shatterer of illusionswould-be poet (Matthew), gull (Stephen)Kitely, Dame Kitely, Cob and Tib - reflect the ridiculousness of the behavior of the main characters

  • Every Man Out Of his Humour (1599) expounds his theories of drama - how humours govern characterboth plays = comedies of correction (by the end of the plays - taken 'out of their humour) - ridiculed or shocked, cured into realizing their folly satiric targets sins--pride, luxury, ambition and greed, moral idiocy, deception, self-deception, vanity and disguise the real selfreplacement of spiritual ideals with materialistic ones

  • turned to satire 1601: Cynthias Revels ; The Poetasterstrongly criticized life at court targeted fellow playwrights Thomas Dekker & John Marston (had also attacked Jonson in the so-called War of the Theatres) 1603 - 2 classical historical dramas / tragedies (accurate re-creations of Roman life)Sejanus His Fall failure lack of action & great number of similar charactersCatiline studies - effects of ambition, corruption and power-lust in the Statecharacters - powerfully & clearly drawn, but verbose & staticclassical background - closely follows Latin models - subject matter & style

  • firm dramatic footing - great triumph - Volpone: Or, The Fox - premiered in 1605 straightforward moral judgment: the evil (vice, deceit and greed) one commits brings with it a suitable punishmentcomedy of humours - subplot characters in the grip of obsessions (love / money)farcical build-up of the --- climax of deceit and trickery Epicoene (1609)The Alchemist (1610) Bartholomew Fair (1614)plays written after Bartholomew Fair dismissed - dotages (by John Dryden): The Devil Is an Ass, The Staple of News, A Tale of a Tub (1633)

  • Volpone, or The Fox (1605)

  • Venetian magnifico - Volpone ("fox") - imminent death (feigns gout, catarrh, palsy, and consumption - no heirs) - mental agility and showmanship accomplice, Mosca (fly) - convinces each victim that he is favored above all others in Volpones will - delight in perpetrating perversities - malicious and witty parasite - frequent instigator of additional pranks, keeps the plot moving three birds of prey stumble over one another in their haste to devour the supposed carcass - Mosca and Volpone simply bring out the worst in them; they do not plant it lawyer Voltore (the vulture, ruthless and voracious scavenger)elderly Corbaccio (the crow, aged miser, feeble, deaf, pathologically greedy)merchant and husband of Celia, Corvino (the raven, insanely jealous of his beautiful wife, greed - sufficient to counteract his jealousy)

  • Volpones gold-centered world - victims include innocentsBonario, disinherited by his fatherheavenly Celia, Corvinos virtuous wife, faces her slander and perils with noble fortitudeunderlying the gold-centered world is uglinessunder Volpones dashing personality is bestialityunder Moscas wit is spiritual paucityVolpone - pretends to be physically degenerated, yet the pretense mirrors the spiritual reality - his performance becomes more extreme; eventually, he pretends to be nearly a corpse - trapped in his world of gold his feigned physical degeneration emerges in his spiritual self, and he is doomedgold turns the world upside downa husband gives his wife to another mana father displaces his sonthe just are made to look falsea servant becomes master

  • Volpone becomes enamoured of his own ability to schemevoluptuous nature - lust for Celia, Corvinos virtuous young wife - attempted rape - play's first catastropheaverts public exposure - high opinion of his cleverness soars - opportunity for the parasite Mosca to seize his fortune - rivalry of master and servant - second and complete catastrophe

  • Performance versus reality Volpone - near-rape of Celia - ensuing trial - presented to the court as a nearly dead old man Voltore - public mask of respectability Corbaccio - acts the part of the kindly old gentlemanCorvino plays the honest merchantVolpones exuberant exterior of covers a decayed spiritthe public personalities of Corbaccio, Corvino, and Voltore belie their evilin a world in which gold is of paramount importance, such people can seem goodlikewise, the truly honest and chaste Bonario and Celia can be made to seem conniving, greedy, and concupiscentending reveals the falseness in the principal characters lays bare the emptiness of Volpones world

  • Sources Petronius Satiricon & Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead plot of Volpone = based on a Roman fortune-hunting theme (Horace, Juvenal, Pliny, Lucian, and Petronius)Volpone's Venice = a city of dissemblers o pretend to infirmity in order to attract gifts o feign friendship and generosity in order to attract inheritancesthe tale of Eumolpos - shipwrecked wayfarer - gets rich in a foreign land - poses as a childless old man - speaks only of his wealth - rewrites his testament between fits of coughing

  • medieval beast fable - tale of the death-feigning fox - mythological substructure of the playo Latin bestiary - 12th century - recounts a version of the tale of the hungry fox who besmears himself with red mud to resemble blood - lies on his back holding his breath in order to attract carrion birds - grabs and devoursprimordial trickster - audacious cunning fox - portrayal of greed in contemporary society

  • Double plot Aristotelian unities of time, place, and actiononly one day (the unity of time)entirely in contemporary Venice (place)city's dual natureboth a city of great beauty, prominent reputation for art and wealthcity of sin, extensive population of courtesans - lust associated with excessive sexual freedomaction unified structurally - centred on the machinations of Volpone, his follower, and the greedy dupes - (exception - Peregrine and Sir Politic Would-Be)

  • Subplotcomedy of humours in miniature - ameliorate the tension of the major plot expatriate English couple, humour characters (pretenders to that which they do not have)Sir Politic Would-Be gullible, nave traveller, eager to be thought a member of the inner circle of state knowledge, ridiculous English tourist on the Continent, full of assumed dignity, self-importanceLady Politic Would-Be , shallow-brained Englishwoman - beauty, intelligence, and fashion - ridiculousness - havoc she wreaks on her mother tonguePeregrine sophisticated traveller, amusement & contempt - credulities and foibles of Sir Politic structural contrastSir Politic Would-be - innocence of the Englishman abroadjuxtaposed with the duplicity - Venetian men

  • Volpone's opening speechhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_QMk_bHyOo Goodmorningtotheday;andnext,mygold! Opentheshrine,thatImayseemysaint.... Hailtheworld'ssoul,andmine!Moregladthanis Theteemingearthtoseethelong'd-forsun PeepthroughthehornsofthecelestialRam, AmI,toviewthysplendourdarkeninghis; Thatlyinghere,amongstmyotherhoards, Show'stlikeaflamebynight;orliketheday Struckoutofchaos,whenalldarknessfled Untothecentre...

  • religious imagery (saint, adoration, & soul) > something irreligious & mean - perversion of religious images Christian & humanistic values exalts the eternal over the temporalthe spiritual over the worldlydebased world in which these values are reverseddisproportion, transvaluation of values main pursuit of men = acquisition of richesVolpone's morning hymn -- new metaphysic and a new ethic = point for point the reverse of the ChristianGold = new god, the world's soul, and its own saint

  • Imitationimportant theme - distortion of normal realitycharacters - constantly assuming either literal or figurative disguises Sir Politic Would-Be seeks to imitate Volpone, an imitation of a dying manMosca - ability to make what his dupes see before their eyes conform to whatever fabrication he has led them to acceptLady Would-Be - cover her mental deformities with physical cosmetics Volpone pretends to be a mountebank - foxlike trickery, delights in acting, both onstage and off fooling others, disguises, makeup, & changes of voiceHow one can distinguish between a real imitator and an imitation imitator?

  • T. S. Eliot - "No theory of humours could account for Jonson's best plays" Northrop Frye - Volpone "is exceptional in being a kind of comic imitation of a tragedy, with the point of Volpone's hybris carefully marked"