Shackerley Marmion (January 1603 – 1639), also Shakerley, Shakerly, Schackerley, Marmyon, Marmyun, or Mermion, was an early 17th-century
dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
, often classed among the
Sons of Ben, the followers of
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 ...
who continued his style of comedy. He was also a friend and perhaps a protégé of
Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece '' A Woman Killed with Kindness'', ...
.
Background
The playwright's father, Shackerley Marmion (son of a London lawyer
and member of a junior line of the
Marmion Barons of Tamworth), held the manor at
Aynho in
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
but was habitually in debt; in time he would pass his debts on to his son. Shakerley Jnr was baptised on 21 Jan 1603 in Aynho church.
After
Lord Williams's School at
Thame
Thame is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms part of the county border wi ...
in Oxfordshire, Marmion graduated from
Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road.
Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...
, with an M.A. in July 1624. (During his years at Oxford, his father Shackerley Marmion was forced to sell his estate an Aynho to pay his debts.) Details of his life after university are unclear, though there are intimations of legal troubles, disorderly affairs, dodging creditors. He fought in the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
during this period, apparently under Sir
Sigismund Alexander according to
Anthony à Wood
Anthony Wood (17 December 1632 – 28 November 1695), who styled himself Anthony à Wood in his later writings, was an English antiquary. He was responsible for a celebrated ''Hist. and Antiq. of the Universitie of Oxon''.
Early life
Anthony W ...
, and in 1629 was indicted for assaulting one Edward Moore with his sword and wounding the man's head. He was arrested and released on bail, but did not surrender at the next session; further records of the incident have not been found.
Plays
Marmion's first known play was ''
Holland's Leaguer'', produced in
1631
Events
January–March
* January 23 – Thirty Years' War: Sweden and France sign the Treaty of Bärwalde, a military alliance in which France provides funds for the Swedish army invading northern Germany.
* February 5 &ndash ...
at the Salisbury Court theatre and acted six days in succession, "one of the longest known
unsin the Elizabethan, Jacobean, or Caroline theatre," though perhaps due more to the meagreness of the repertory of
Prince Charles's Men
Prince Charles's Men (known as the Duke of York's Men from 1608 to 1612) was a playing company or troupe of actors in Jacobean and Caroline England.
The Jacobean era troupe
The company was formed in 1608 as the Duke of York's Men, under the titu ...
than to the play's unusual popularity. Marmion's second play, ''
A Fine Companion
''A Fine Companion'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Shackerley Marmion that was first printed in 1633. It is one of only three surviving plays by Marmion.
The play was published in 1633 in a quarto printed by Augustine Matthe ...
'', was staged in 1632 or 1633 and published in the latter year, after being performed by the Prince Charles's Men at
Salisbury Court Theatre
The Salisbury Court Theatre was a theatre (structure), theatre in 17th-century London. It was in the neighbourhood of Salisbury Court, which was formerly the London residence of the Bishop of Salisbury, Bishops of Salisbury. Salisbury Court was ...
. ''
The Antiquary
''The Antiquary'' (1816), the third of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott, centres on the character of an antiquary: an amateur historian, archaeologist and collector of items of dubious antiquity. He is the eponymous character and for all p ...
'' (c. 1634–36), his third and last play, was acted by
Queen Henrietta's Men Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era in London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men.
Beginnings
The company ...
at the
Cockpit Theatre
The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was named The Phoenix.
History
The original building was an actual cockpit; that is, a st ...
, and published in
1641
Events
January–March
* January 4 – The stratovolcano Mount Parker in the Philippines) has a major eruption.
* January 18 – Pau Claris proclaims the Catalan Republic.
* February 16 – King Charles I of England gi ...
.
[James Maidment and William Hugh Logan, eds., ''The Dramatic Works of Shakerley Marmion, with Prefatory Memoir, Introductions, and Notes,'' Edinburgh, William Paterson, 1875.]
All comedies, Marmion's plays show the influence of Ben Jonson. Marmion adapted Jonsonian comedy to his own preoccupation with
Platonic love. And while he is often classified by critics as a limited talent and a figure of at best secondary importance, his knack with satire has frequently been praised.
Other works
Besides his comedies, Marmion wrote a 2000-line verse epic, ''Cupid and Psyche'' (
1637
Events
January–March
* January 5 – Pierre Corneille's tragicomedy '' Le Cid'' is first performed, in Paris, France.
* January 16 – The siege of Nagpur ends in what is now the Maharashtra state of India, as Kok Sha ...
), a translation and expansion of the
Cupid and Psyche
Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from ''Metamorphoses'' (also called '' The Golden Ass''), written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (or Platonicus). The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between P ...
story in Apuleius's ''
The Golden Ass
The ''Metamorphoses'' of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as ''The Golden Ass'' (''Asinus aureus''), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety.
The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of the no ...
'' in heroic couplets. He also wrote various minor poems, including an elegy on Jonson, published in
1638
Events January–March
* January 4 –
**A naval battle takes place in the Indian Ocean off of the coast of Goa at South India as a Netherlands fleet commanded by Admiral Adam Westerwolt decimates the Portuguese fleet.
**A fleet of 80 ...
, titled "A Funeral Sacrifice, to the Sacred Memory of his Thrice-Honored Father, Ben Jonson."
Commendatory verse
The epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory, or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric as outlined in Aristotle's ''Rhetoric'', to be used to praise or blame during ceremonies.
Origin ...
s that he wrote for others, or that others wrote for him, associate Marmion with Heywood,
Thomas Nabbes
Thomas Nabbes (1605 – buried 6 April 1641) was an English dramatist.
He was born in humble circumstances in Worcestershire, was educated at as a King's scholar at the King's School, Worcester (1616–1620), and entered Exeter College, Oxfo ...
,
Richard Brome
Richard Brome ; (c. 1590? – 24 September 1652) was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.
Life
Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's '' Bartholomew Fair'', in ...
, and the actor
Joseph Taylor.
Last years
In 1638 Marmion joined
Sir John Suckling's privately organized military incursion against the
Scottish Covenanters
Covenanters ( gd, Cùmhnantaich) were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name is derived from ''Covenan ...
; but he fell out along the route due to illness and returned in London, where he died the following year.
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marmion, Shackerley
English dramatists and playwrights
People educated at Lord Williams's School
1603 births
1639 deaths
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male poets