''Sir Thomas Wyatt'' is a

history play History is one of the three main genres in Western theatre alongside tragedy and comedy, although it originated, in its modern form, thousands of years later than the other primary genres. For this reason, it is often treated as a subset of trage ...

published in 1607 and written in collaboration by

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 car ...

and Thomas Dekker. It was probably first performed in 1602.

Plot

The play opens with the death of King

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

. Under the will of King

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

, his daughter

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

was due to succeed, but, under an Act of Parliament later in the reign of Edward VI,

Lady Jane Grey Lady Jane Grey ( 1537 – 12 February 1554), later known as Lady Jane Dudley (after her marriage) and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553. Jane was ...

was entitled to take the throne. Her father-in-law,

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1504Loades 2008 – 22 August 1553) was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Ja ...

, proclaims Jane Grey Queen and forces her to accept, though she is reluctant.

Thomas Wyatt the Younger Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger (152111 April 1554) was an English politician and rebel leader during the reign of Queen Mary I; his rising is traditionally called " Wyatt's rebellion". He was the son of the English poet and ambassador Sir Thom ...

goes to Mary, who rejoices at the death of her half-brother Edward VI, and encourages her to move fast to assert her claim. Support for Jane Grey vanishes away and the Duke of Northumberland is arrested and charged with treason. Jane Grey and her husband

Guildford Dudley Lord Guildford Dudley (also spelt Guilford) ( 1535 – 12 February 1554) was an English nobleman who was married to Lady Jane Grey. King Edward VI had declared her his heir, and she occupied the English throne from 10 July until 19 Ju ...

are also arrested. Mary, now acknowledged Queen, accepts a marriage proposal from the future

Philip II of Spain Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from ...

. Wyatt protests vehemently and leaves the court to mount a rebellion based in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. When London does not let his forces in, they scatter, leaving Wyatt to be captured. In the last part of the play, Jane Grey, Guildford Dudley and Thomas Wyatt are executed.

Characteristics of the play

The play consists of a series of short episodes with relatively little emphasis on detailed characterisation. It is not divided into Acts or Scenes. The style is plain, with little use of metaphor. Much of the play is in

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and P ...

. Jane Grey and her husband are presented as a loving couple caught up in the machinations of others. Despite the title of the play, Jane Grey's role is as central as that of Sir Thomas Wyatt. Wyatt himself is shown as someone loyal to the wishes of Henry VIII and opposed to foreign influence in English affairs.

Stephen Gardiner Stephen Gardiner (27 July 1483 – 12 November 1555) was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip. Early life Gardiner was b ...

, Bishop of

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, makes several appearances and is portrayed as a harsh supporter of Mary who is uncompromising in his treatment of those who oppose her or her policies. In the second half of the play there is some anti-Spanish sentiment, reflecting the state of hostility between England and Spain when the play was written and in the preceding decades. As in many plays of the period, there are passages featuring a clown. These give light relief but contribute little to the main plot.

Sources

The play may have drawn heavily on a previous play called ''Lady Jane'', thought to have been written by

Henry Chettle Henry Chettle (c. 1564 – c. 1606) was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era, best known for his pamphleteering. Early life The son of Robert Chettle, a London dyer, he was apprenticed in 1577 and became a me ...

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'', a ...

and

Wentworth Smith Wentworth Smith (1571 – in or after 1614), was a minor England, English dramatist of the Elizabethan period who may have been responsible for some of the plays in the Shakespeare Apocrypha, though no work known to be his is extant. Life ...

. This earlier work has not survived.

Publishing history

The play was first published in 1607, and there is a copy of this edition in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. It was not published again until its inclusion in an 1830 edition of the works of John Webster which was put together by

Alexander Dyce Alexander Dyce (30 June 1798 – 15 May 1869) was a Scottish dramatic editor and literary historian. He was born in Edinburgh and received his early education at the high school there, before becoming a student at Exeter College, Oxford, where ...

.British Library BLL01014831826 Most recently, it can be found in ''Delphi Complete Works of John Webster'', an eBook issued by Delphi Classics in 2015, which reproduces the Dyce introduction and text.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Sir Thomas Wyatt''
- online text in the Oxford Text Archive. English Renaissance plays 1602 plays Plays about English royalty Plays set in the 16th century Plays set in England Cultural depictions of Lady Jane Grey Plays by John Webster Plays by Thomas Dekker (writer)