''The London Prodigal'' is a play in
English Renaissance theatre, a
city comedy
City comedy, also known as citizen comedy, is a genre of comedy in the English early modern theatre.
Definition
Emerging from Ben Jonson's late-Elizabethan comedies of humours (1598–1599), the conventions of city comedy developed rapidly in ...
set in
London, in which a
prodigal son
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (also known as the parable of the Two Brothers, Lost Son, Loving Father, or of the Forgiving Father) is one of the parables of Jesus Christ in the Bible, appearing in Luke 15:11–32. Jesus shares the parable with ...
learns the error of his ways. The play was published in
quarto in 1605 by the stationer
Nathaniel Butter
Nathaniel Butter (died 22 February 1664) was a London publisher of the early 17th century. The publisher of the first edition of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'' in 1608, he has also been regarded as one of the first publishers of a newspaper in Englis ...
, and printed by
Thomas Creede. In 1664 it was one of the seven plays that publisher
Philip Chetwinde
Philip Chetwinde ( fl. 1653–1674) was a seventeenth-century London bookseller and publisher, noted for his publication of the Third Folio of Shakespeare's plays.
A rough start
Chetwinde was originally a clothworker. Through his 1637 marriag ...
added to the second impression of his
Third Folio
The earliest texts of William Shakespeare's works were published during the 16th and 17th centuries in quarto or folio format. Folios are large, tall volumes; quartos are smaller, roughly half the size. The publications of the latter are usually a ...
of
William Shakespeare's plays.
The play was not entered into the
Stationers' Register
The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including print ...
, but it is attributed to Shakespeare on the title page of the only edition. This attribution is widely and generally rejected by scholars. The title page also identifies the play as a
King's Men's play.
''The London Prodigal'' has been dated as early as c. 1591, and as late as 1603–04. It is one of a long series of "prodigal son" plays that reach back as far as the Bible for inspiration and precedent; but it is also an example of the evolving Elizabethian genre of domestic dramas, and "one of the first naturalistic dramas in English".
Individual scholars have attributed the play to
Ben Jonson,
Thomas Dekker,
John Marston, and
Michael Drayton; others have suggested
Thomas Heywood and
George Wilkins.
[Logan and Smith, ''The Popular School,'' p. 221.] None of these attributions, however, has been accepted by a significant proportion of the critical community.
Synopsis
Matthew Flowerdale, the prodigal son of a merchant, Flowerdale Senior, is a libertine, gambler, swearer, brawler, drinker and thief. Flowerdale Senior's brother, Flowerdale Junior, warns him about Matthew's dissolute behaviour but Flowerdale Senior dismisses his fear, believing that "youth must have its course" and that his son will soon make amends. In order to spy on his son, Flowerdale Senior feigns death and appears disguised as a servant. He is soon appalled by the sum of his son's vices.
Matthew Flowerdale forges a will in which he pretends to be a wealthy man bequeathing all his fortune to Sir Lancelot Spurcock. When the latter discovers the will, he decides to marry his daughter Luce with Matthew. They are quickly married but Matthew is arrested for debt on his wedding day. He becomes poorer and poorer and robs one of Luce's sisters. Although she is abominably treated by her husband (he even asks her to become a whore), Luce remains loyal to him and finally moves her dissolute husband to repentance and reform. Flowerdale Senior reveals his true identity and congratulates his son for his new resolutions.
Notes
References
* C. F. Tucker Brooke, ''The Shakespeare Apocrypha,'' Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908.
* Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, ''The Popular School: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama,'' Lincoln, Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 1975.
* Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, ''The New Intellectuals: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama,'' Lincoln, Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 1977.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:London Prodigal
Shakespeare apocrypha
English Renaissance plays
1605 plays