''The Example'' is a
Caroline
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era stage play, a
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...
written by
James Shirley, first published in
1637. The play has repeatedly been acclaimed both as one of Shirley's best comedies and one of the best works of its generation. And it provides one of the clearest demonstrations in Shirley's canon of the influence of the works 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 ...
on the younger dramatist's output.
The play 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 Chamberlai ...
, on 24 June
1634. Like the majority of Shirley's plays, ''The Example'' was acted by
Queen Henrietta's Men at the
Cockpit Theatre. The 1637
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 ...
was printed by John Norton for the booksellers
Andrew Crooke and William Cooke
Andrew Crooke (died 20 September 1674) and William Cooke (died 1641?) were London publishers of the mid-17th-century. In partnership and individually, they issued significant texts of English Renaissance drama, most notably of the plays of James ...
, the stationers who issued five plays by Shirley in that year alone. The quarto shows signs of having been printed from the author's working drafts or "foul papers," making it highly unusual among the early printed editions of Shirley's plays.
Synopsis
The drama portrays a profligate lord named Fitzavarice, and his involvement with Sir Walter Peregrine and his wife. Pressed by massive debts, especially to Lord Fitzavarice, Sir Walter takes up soldiering and becomes a captain. While Captain Peregrine is absent on his military service, Fitzavarice attempts to seduce Mistress Peregrine, offering to discharge her husband's debts if she submits to him. She resists his importunities, and faints when he tries to force her. Guilt and embarrassment work a reformation on him: Fitzavarice presents her with the mortgage, and adds a precious jewel in admiration of her steadfastness.
At this critical juncture Sir Walter returns, having travelled home clandestinely, risking arrest for debt. Learning about the surrender of the mortgage, he assumes the worst and challenges Fitzavarice to a duel. The Lord accepts, but his second, a follower named Confident Rapture, arranges for the Captain to be apprehended for debt and so save his master the risks of single combat. Fitzavarice, however, pays the Captain's remaining debts and arranges for his release from prison. Peregrine now realizes his error and accepts his wife's virtue; but when he attempts to reconcile with Fitzavarice, the Lord refuses him, and insists that they meet on the "field of honor." When both are wounded in their combat, the demands of honor are satisfied; the two men become friends.
''The Example'' employs the multiple-plot structure typical of Shirley's plays. The secondary plot (or first subplot) involves the comical suitors that are a fixture of Shirley's comic domain. Jacinta has two ridiculous rival suitors, Vainman and Pumicestone. She playfully torments them, insisting that Vainman never speak in her presence, while Pumicestone must do the opposite of whatever she commands. Jacinta is also courted by Confident Rapture, who has a sinister plan to prostitute her to Lord Fitzavarice; and by the Lord himself, who loves her sincerely.
The third-level plot concerns the uncle of Mistress Peregrine and Jacinta, Sir Solitary Plot, "a character compounded of Jonson's Morose in
''Epicene'' and Jonson's Sir Politic Would-Be in ''
Volpone
''Volpone'' (, Italian for "sly fox") is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first produced in 1605–1606, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-perfor ...
.''"
[Arthur Huntington Nason, ''James Shirley, Dramatist: A Biographical and Critical Study,'' New York, 1915; reprinted New York, Benjamin Blom, 1967; pp. 258-9.] The result is an interesting study of paranoia in a 17th-century context: Sir Solitary sees enemies everywhere, and hides in his residence for safety. His servants Dormant and Oldrat are similar Jonsonian
"humors" characters. Sir Solitary is jolted out of his obsession by a real but beneficent plot, engineered by Jacinta.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Example, The
English Renaissance plays
1634 plays
Plays by James Shirley