''Northward Ho'' (or ''Ho!'', or ''Hoe'') is an early
Jacobean era stage play, a
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
and
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 ...
written by
Thomas Dekker and
John Webster
John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies '' The White Devil'' and '' The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and c ...
, and first published in
1607
Events
January–June
* January 13 – The Bank of Genoa fails, after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
* January 19 – San Agustin Church, Manila, is officially completed; by the 21st century it will be th ...
. ''Northward Ho'' was a response to ''
Eastward Ho
''Eastward Hoe'' or ''Eastward Ho!'' is an early Jacobean-era stage play written by George Chapman, Ben Jonson and John Marston. The play was first performed at the Blackfriars Theatre by a company of boy actors known as the Children of t ...
'' (1605) by
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
,
George Chapman
George Chapman (Hitchin, Hertfordshire, – London, 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been speculated to be the Rival Poet of Shakesp ...
, and
John Marston, which in its turn was a response to ''
Westward Ho'' (c. 1604), an earlier play by Dekker and Webster. Taken together, the three dramas form a trilogy of "directional plays" that show the state of satirical and social drama in the first decade of the 17th century.
Date
''Northward Ho'' could not have been staged prior to ''Eastward Ho,'' which was in existence by September
1605
Events
January–June
* January 16 – The first part of Miguel de Cervantes' satire on the theme of chivalry, ''Don Quixote'' (''El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha'', "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha"), is publ ...
.
John Day's play ''
The Isle of Gulls,'' onstage in February
1606
Events
January–June
* January 24 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators, for plotting against Parliament and James I of England, begins.
* January 29 – Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers the Pi ...
, refers to all three of the directional plays. This suggests that the last of them, ''Northward Ho,'' must have been performed during the last half of 1605.
Publication
''Northward Ho'' was entered into the
Stationers' Register on 6 August 1607, and was published later that year in
quarto
Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...
by the printer
George Eld
George Eld (died 1624) was a London printer of the Jacobean era, who produced important works of English Renaissance drama and literature, including key texts by William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Middleton.
Eld w ...
. The title page of the first edition identifies the two authors, as well as the
playing company
Play is a range of intrinsically motivated activities done for recreational pleasure and enjoyment. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other higher-functio ...
that staged the work, the
Children of Paul's
The Children of Paul's was the name of a troupe of boy actors in Elizabethan and Jacobean London. Along with the Children of the Chapel, they were an important component of the companies of boy players that constituted a distinctive feature of E ...
– the same troupe that performed ''Westward Ho.''
Authorship
Scholars agree that Dekker is the predominant partner in the authorship of ''Northward Ho'' as in ''Westward Ho,'' while Webster in the minority contributor; yet as with the earlier play, scholars disagree on the proportions of the two authors' shares. Peter Murray's argument, that Webster wrote about 40% of each play, is the high-end estimate; other commentators give him less. Webster's hand has been perceived most often in Act I and in Act III, scene i.
Sources
The plot device of the ring that is employed in ''Northward Ho'' can be found in at least two collections of stories, the ''Ducento Novelle'' of Celio Malespini and ''Les Cent nouvelles Nouvelles'' of
Antoine de la Sale
Antoine de la Sale (also ''la Salle'', ''de Lasalle''; 1385/861460/61) was a French courtier, educator and writer.
He participated in a number of military campaigns in his youth and he only began writing when he had reached middle age, in the late ...
.
Critical responses
Commentators from
Algernon Charles Swinburne to Fredson Bowers have regarded ''Northward Ho'' as superior in quality to ''Westward Ho.'' According to Bowers, "Critical opinion is unanimous in thinking ''Northward Ho'' to be the better of the two Dekker/Webster plays...."
F. G. Fleay's argument that the character Bellamont in ''Northward Ho'' represents George Chapman has been accepted by some critics.
Synopsis
The play's opening scene, set in the town of
Ware
Ware may refer to:
People
* Ware (surname)
* William of Ware (), English Franciscan theologian
Places Canada
* Fort Ware, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* Ware, Devon
*Ware, Hertfordshire
* Ware, Kent
United States
* Ware, Elmore County ...
north of London, introduces two "gallants," Featherstone and Greenshield, and portrays their situation. The men have long been trying to seduce a citizen's wife, Mistress Mayberry, without success (a type of situation often depicted in the city comedy of the period). In consequence, they have decided to play a malicious prank on her husband. They encounter Mayberry and his friend Bellamont, seemingly by chance, and tell the two men a story of how they (Featherstone and Greenshield) have both seduced the wife of a London tradesman; they keep her name secret at first, but then let it slip as if by accident. Most critically, they possess a ring that Mayberry recognizes as his wife's.
The two pairs part; Mayberry is deeply distressed at the idea that his wife has been unfaithful to him. His older and wiser friend Bellamont protests, and points out the obvious unlikelihood of the encounter: that the two gallants should just happen to have seduced the same woman, who just happens to be Mayberry's wife, strains credulity. Bellamont suggests that Mayberry is clearly being manipulated, and manages to salve the other man's wounded pride. Back in London, Mayberry confronts his wife; she is stung by his suspicion, but explains how Greenshield, while courting and pestering her in the Mayberrys' shop, slipped her ring from her finger and escaped with it. (This idea, of citizens' wives being courted by gentlemen while they staff their husbands' businesses, is another staple of the literature of the era.) Mayberry's suspicions are allayed – but he has a strong desire for revenge against the two gallants.
Bellamont has a son named Philip who, like many young men, enjoys the pursuit of drink, women, and gambling. In his first scene he is shown being arrested by sergeants in the outer room of a tavern, over an unpaid debt of £80. His friends Leverpool and Chartley and the prostitute Doll witness the arrest and are tempted to intervene, but Philip stops them; he sends a tavern servant to his father for bail. Doll and company decide to set up a confidence game, what was then called "coney-catching." They rent a house and present Doll as a wealthy young countrywoman, very eligible for marriage, who has just come to the city. Leverpool and Chartley masquerade as her servants. She is courted by, and exploits, various potential suitors, including a Dutch visitor named Hans van Belch, a local grocer called
Allum, and a Welsh soldier, Captain Jenkins. (In ''Westward Ho,'' the character Justiniano has an Italian name but speaks and acts like an Englishman. ''Northward Ho,'' in contrast, employs blatant
stereotypical ethnic and dialect humor.)
In pursuit of his revenge, Mayberry maintains a friendly relationship with Featherstone and Greenshield. Greenshield's "sister" has just arrived in London from
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, and Mayberry offers the three of them lodging at his summer house. There, a conversation between two young servingmen, Featherstone's servant Leapfrog and Mayberry's servant Squirrel, reveals the true circumstances of the threesome. Greenshield's "sister" Kate is actually his wife; and Kate is having a clandestine romantic affair with her husband's friend Featherstone. She fools Greenshield by pretending to suffer from
sleepwalking
Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism or noctambulism, is a phenomenon of combined sleep and wakefulness. It is classified as a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. It occurs during slow wave stage of sleep, in a state of lo ...
; on her nighttime rambles she often ends up in Featherstone's room.
Philip, playing a joke on his father, has Doll summon Bellamont for a potential commission. (Bellamont is a poet, and provides verses for fees.) Bellamont comes to Doll's establishment, but quickly penetrates the ruse and understands the nature of Doll's profession and her current activities. When Doll asks Bellamont what he thinks of her, he calls her "a most admirable, brave, beautiful whore." Once Bellamont leaves, Doll reveals that she is attracted to him. Captain Jenkins comes to Bellamont to commission a
madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance music, Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque music, Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The Polyphony, polyphoni ...
for Doll. While he's there, Doll herself arrives; Bellamont has Jenkins hide behind the
arras, and Doll reveals the truth about herself. Jenkins exposes her to her other "gulls," and Doll and company find it expedient to leave the city; they flee northwards.
Featherstone, in pursuing his own sexual and financial goals, has set himself and the Greenshields on a trip to Ware; Bellamont and the Mayberrys travel along as part of their revenge plan. Along the way, the group stops at
Bethlem Royal Hospital, or "Bedlam," to view the madmen; the others play a joke on Bellamont, and make the keeper think that the poet is a lunatic who has been fooled into coming to the hospital. Bellamont has a fit of temper and hits the keeper before the others come to his rescue. At Ware, the play's schemes bear their final fruit: a disguised Greenshield is tricked into offering his masked wife to Mayberry's amorous attentions...only to have their true identities exposed to each other. Featherstone's adultery with Kate is also exposed – but Featherstone is not left to triumph, since he is fooled into marrying a disguised Doll. Featherstone is appalled to learn that he has married a prostitute; but Doll asserts that she's reformed and promises to be a good and faithful wife.
[In these particulars, the conclusion of the play resembles the ending of '' A Trick to Catch the Old One,'' which ]Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...
would write around the time of ''Northward Ho'' or shortly after. The would-be adulterers and seducers receive their just punishment; the others are none the worse for wear.
In ''Westward Ho,'' the trio of citizens' wives, Mistresses Tenterhook, Honeysuckle, and Wafer, are largely indistinguishable and interchangeable. The three female characters in the sequel are far more distinct, extending along the full range of morality: Mrs. Mayberry being the chaste and virtuous wife, Kate Greenshield the "bad" adulterous wife, and Doll the professional prostitute.
Notes
References
* Brooke, Rupert. ''John Webster and the Elizabethan Drama.'' London, John Lane, 1916.
*
Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
* Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. ''The Popular School: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama.'' Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1975.
* Murray, Peter B. "The Collaboration of Dekker and Webster" in ''Northward Ho'' and ''Westward Ho''. ''Papers of the Bibliographic Society of America'' 56 (1962), pp. 482–6.
* Pierce, Frederick Erastus. ''The Collaboration of Dekker and Webster.'' New York, Henry Holt, 1909.
External links
{{John Webster
English Renaissance plays
1605 plays
Plays by Thomas Dekker (writer)
Plays by John Webster