''The Emperor of the East'' is a Caroline era stage play, a

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...

written by

Philip Massinger Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including ''A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', ''The City Madam'', and '' The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their politi ...

and first published in

1632 Events January–March * January – The Holland's Leguer, a brothel in London, is closed after having been besieged for a month. * February 22 – Galileo's ''Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems'' is pub ...

. The play provides an interesting example of the treatment of the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

sacrament of

confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...

English Renaissance theatre English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson ...

Performance

''The Emperor of the East'' was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the

Master of the Revels The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberlain. ...

, on 11 March

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 ...

. The play was performed by the King's Men at both of their theatres, the

Blackfriars Blackfriars, derived from Black Friars, a common name for the Dominican Order of friars, may refer to: England * Blackfriars, Bristol, a former priory in Bristol * Blackfriars, Canterbury, a former monastery in Kent * Blackfriars, Gloucester, a f ...

and the

Globe A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...

; the company also acted the play at Court.

Publication

The play was published 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 ...

in 1632, printed by Thomas Harper for the bookseller John Waterson. Massinger dedicated the play to John Lord Mohun, Baron of Okehampton, one of his patrons. Mohun was the uncle of Massinger's friend Sir Aston Cockayne, who contributed a

commendatory poem 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. Orig ...

to the 1632 edition. Mohun was also the son-in-law of Lady Katherine Stanhope, to whom Massinger dedicated his play ''

The Duke of Milan ''The Duke of Milan'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger. First published in 1623, the play is generally considered among the author's finest achievements in drama. Performance Massinger's play was first perform ...

'' in 1623.

Sources

Massinger's primary source for the historical background of his plot was Sir Thomas Hawkins's ''The Holy Court'' (1626), a translation of Nicholas Caussin's ''La cour sainte.''

The plot

In the play, Massinger dramatises the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

Emperor

Theodosius II Theodosius II ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος, Theodosios; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450) was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed ''Augustus (title), augustus'' as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after ...

, his elder sister and regent

Pulcheria Aelia Pulcheria (; grc-gre, Πουλχερία; 19 January 398 or 399 – July 453) was an Eastern Roman empress who advised her brother emperor Theodosius II during his minority and then became wife to emperor Marcian from November 450 to he ...

, and his wife and empress

Eudocia Eudoxia ( grc, Εὐδοξία, ''Eudoxía''), Eudokia (, ''Eudokía'', anglicized as Eudocia) or Evdokia is a feminine given name, which originally meant "good fame or judgement" or "she whose fame or judgement is good" in Greek. The Slavic forms ...

; specifically, he deals with Eudocia's rumoured infidelity with the courtier Paulinus. Since the play is a tragicomedy and therefore concludes with a happy ending, Masssinger resolves his plot difficulties by having Theodosius masquerade as clergy and hear his wife's confession, which convinces him that she is innocent of infidelity. Given that Massinger was reputedly a Catholic, it might be considered surprising that he would exploit such a plot device; yet his contemporary dramatist

James Shirley James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English dramatist. He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so m ...

, another reputed Catholic, employs the same trick of clerical disguise and sacrament violation in his later play '' The Gentleman of Venice'' (

1639 Events January–March * January 14 – Connecticut's first constitution, the Fundamental Orders, is adopted. * January 19 – Hämeenlinna ( sv, Tavastehus) is granted privileges, after it separates from the Vanaja parish, ...

). ''The Emperor of the East'' is among the Massinger plays in which the influence of, and borrowing from,

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

is most abundant.Maxwell, p. 66.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emperor of the East, The 1631 plays English Renaissance plays Byzantine Empire in fiction Plays by Philip Massinger Plays set in the 5th century