![The Roman Actor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/The_Roman_Actor.jpg)
''The Roman Actor'' is a
Caroline era
The Caroline era is the period in English and Scottish history named for the 24-year reign of Charles I (1625–1649). The term is derived from ''Carolus'', the Latin for Charles. The Caroline era followed the Jacobean era, the reign of Charles's ...
stage play, a tragedy 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 ...
. It was first performed in 1626, and first published in 1629. A number of critics have agreed with its author, and judged it one of Massinger's best plays.
Performance
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 Chamberlain. ...
, on 11 October 1626, and performed later that year by the
King's Men at the
Blackfriars Theatre
Blackfriars Theatre was the name given to two separate theatres located in the former Blackfriars Dominican priory in the City of London during the Renaissance. The first theatre began as a venue for the Children of the Chapel Royal, child acto ...
.
Joseph Taylor, then the company's leading man, played the role of Paris, the title character. There is no record of another production of the play till
1692
Events
January–March
* January 24 – At least 75 residents of what is now York, Maine are killed in the Candlemas Massacre, carried out by French soldiers led by missionary Louis-Pierre Thury, along with a larger force of Abenaki and ...
, when
Thomas Betterton
Thomas Patrick Betterton (August 1635 – 28 April 1710), the leading male actor and theatre manager during Restoration England, son of an under-cook to King Charles I, was born in London.
Apprentice and actor
Betterton was born in August 16 ...
played Paris in a production by the United Company. The play was performed again in 1722 at
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
. After that date the complete play fell out of fashion, though many actors, starting with
John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble (1 February 1757 – 26 February 1823) was a British actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him on t ...
in 1781, performed Paris's defense of the acting profession in Act I, scene 3 "as a short dramatic show-piece". Kemble also cut Massinger's text down to a two-act play that concentrated on Domitia's love for Paris; he staged this in 1781–82 and 1796.
Publication
The play was first 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 1629 by the bookseller
Robert Allot
Robert Allot (died 1635) was a London bookseller and publisher of the early Caroline era; his shop was at the sign of the black bear in St. Paul's Churchyard. Though he was in business for a relatively short time – the decade from 1625 to 16 ...
. Massinger dedicated the volume to three friends and supporters, Sir Philip Knyvett, "Knight and Baronet", Sir Thomas Jay and Thomas Bellingham "of Newtimber in Essex". The
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 ...
s that prefaced the play were written by
John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
,
Thomas Goffe,
Thomas May
Thomas May (1594/95 – 13 November 1650) was an English poet, dramatist and historian of the Renaissance era.
Early life and career until 1630
May was born in Mayfield, Sussex, the son of Sir Thomas May, a minor courtier. He matriculated a ...
and Joseph Taylor.
Cast
The 1629 quarto also provides a list of the principal cast of the 1626 production:
In addition,
James Horn
James Horn (5 February 1855 – 11 December 1932) was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament from Otago, New Zealand.
Biography Early life
Horn was born in Inverkethney, Banffshire, Scotland and came to Otago in 1879. He was a storekeeper at Ba ...
and
George Vernon
George Frederick Vernon (20 June 1856 – 10 August 1902) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club. He also played one Test match for England during the first-ever Ashes tour in 1882-83.
Biog ...
played two lictors. (Several roles in the play are left off the list.) The 13-year-old John Honyman made his acting debut in this production; he played female roles for the King's Men for the next three years, to their production of Massinger's ''
The Picture'' (1629); at the age of 17 he switched to young male roles.
Sources
Massinger based his portrait of the Roman Emperor
Domitian
Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...
on the work of
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
(most likely in
Philemon Holland
Philemon Holland (1552 – 9 February 1637) was an English schoolmaster, physician and translator. He is known for the first English translations of several works by Livy, Pliny the Elder, and Plutarch, and also for translating William Camden's ...
's
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 ...
translation), supplemented by works of
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
and
Dio Cassius
Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...
, plus the second Satire of
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
and Book XIV of
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
's ''
Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the wo ...
'', among other ancient sources.
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 ...
's first Roman tragedy,
''Sejanus'', was Massinger's model "in style and in structure" and for "scene outlines"; "the trial of Paris (I,3)...is written in close imitation of the trial of Cordus in ''Sejanus'', Act III."
Synopsis
The play opens with a conversation between
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
and two actors in his troupe, Latinus and Aesopus; they discuss the poor professional prospects they face. Their one great advantage is the patronage of the Roman Emperor
Domitian
Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...
; otherwise, the current atmosphere of political uncertainty leaves them with little audience; their "amphitheatre...Is quite forsaken". Two
lictor
A lictor (possibly from la, ligare, "to bind") was a Roman civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a magistrate who held ''imperium''. Lictors are documented since the Roman Kingdom, and may have originated with the Etruscans.
Orig ...
s appear to summon Paris to the Senate, where he must "answer / What shall be urg'd against you." As Paris and his actors leave with the lictors, they are watched by three senators, Aelius Lamia,
Junius Rusticus
Quintus Junius Rusticus (c. 100 – c. 170 AD), was a Roman teacher and politician. He was probably a grandson of Arulenus Rusticus, who was a prominent member of the Stoic Opposition. He was a Stoic philosopher and was one of the teachers ...
and Palphurius Sura. The senators complain of the conditions under Domitian, and contrast the better times that prevailed under his predecessors, his father
Vespasian
Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...
and his brother
Titus
Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September 81 AD) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death.
Before becoming emperor, Titus gained renown as a mili ...
.
The play's second scene shows
Domitia, the beautiful young wife of Aelius Lamia, being sexually solicited by Parthenius, a freed slave of Domitian. Parthenius wants her not for himself, but as Domitian's mistress; Domitia's resistance is less than vigorous. Aelius Lamia enters, and is outraged at what he finds; but Parthenius has a
centurion
A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 ...
and soldiers at his back, and forces the senator to agree to a divorce.
The third scene shows Paris defending himself before the Senate. Aretinus, a cynical informer, has accused Paris of libel and treason – he complains that the actors "traduce / Persons of rank" with "satirical, and bitter jests". Paris defends himself and his profession eloquently. (It is this material that was given a life of its own in later centuries, as discussed above.) The hearing breaks up without a conclusion when word arrives that Domitian has returned to Rome.
Domitian is shown to be a braggart and a cruel egomaniac. He confronts Aelius Lamia, who has dared to be offended over losing his wife, and executes him. Domitia quickly takes to the privilege and power of being Domitian's wife, to the distress of the other women in the imperial circle: Domitilla, Caesar's cousin and former lover; Julia, Caesar's niece and another former lover; and Caenis, the concubine of Vespasian.
Parthenius and the actors stage a short play to try to influence Parthenius's father Philargus; the old man is a rich miser who scrimps on his food and wardrobe to save money. The playlet is designed to show the old miser the error of his ways, by depicting a very similar figure. The strategy fails: Philargus sympathises with the stage miser and persists in his stubborn course. Domitian, as is his way, sentences the old man to death for his recalcitrance; Parthenius's plea for mercy is ignored. The playlet fails in its purpose – but Paris's performance captivates the attention of Domitia; she quickly becomes obsessed with the actor, and begins spending her time with him and his troupe.
The situation at court provokes resentment and conspiracy; the freedman Stephanos offers to assassinate the emperor for Julia and Domitilla. Parthenius earns Domitian's ire by suggesting caution in the treatment of two senators and friends of Lamia, Junius Rusticus and Palphurius Sura. Domitian has had them arrested; the two men are tortured onstage, but their
Stoic philosophy
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that th ...
empowers them to resist the torture with equanimity. Domitian is shaken by their imperviousness to suffering.
Domitia's extravagant responses to Paris's acting reveals her emotional state to everyone except Domitian. Aretinus joins with the imperial women to inform Domitian of his wife's infatuation. They lead the emperor to spy on Domitia and Paris. Domitia uses both love and intimidation to try to seduce Paris; the actor resists at first, but equivocates to the point of kissing the empress. Domitian breaks in upon them, and has Domitia arrested; but he also orders Aretinus killed and the imperial women exiled, for showing him what he did not want to know.
Domitian confronts Paris alone; Paris humbly acknowledges his fault, and accepts his inevitable fate so sincerely that he almost seems able to talk his way out of his dire predicament. Domitian has Paris and his actors play a scene from a drama called ''The False Servant'', that parallels their present situation; Domitian himself plays the injured husband. When the time comes for the emperor to play his part, he kills Paris, stabbing him with his real sword instead of the "foil, / The point and edge rebutted", that the actors use for their pretend fights. Domitian grants Paris a noble funeral.
Domitian sees the ghosts of the two Stoics Rusticus and Sura in his sleep; the figures wave bloody swords over their heads and remove a statue of
Minerva
Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...
, Domitian's divine patroness. When Domitian awakes, he finds the statue gone in fact. Thunder and lightning tell him that
Jove
Jupiter ( la, Iūpiter or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus " sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove ( gen. ''Iovis'' ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religio ...
has turned against him.
Resentment at Domitian's capricious tyranny grows; Parthenius and Stephano plan his assassination. An astrologer has predicted the emperor's death; Domitian executes the soothsayer, but surrounds himself with soldiers as he fearfully waits the time appointed for his death. Parthenius convinces Domitian that the appointed time has passed; the emperor dismisses his guards – and is stabbed to death by a crowd of his enemies, including Parthenius, Stephano, Domitilla, Julia, Caenis – and Domitia as well.
Modern productions
''The Roman Actor'' received a noteworthy modern production in 2002, by the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
at the Swan Theatre in
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
, directed by Sean Holmes. It was also revived as part of the 2010 Actors' Renaissance Season at the
American Shakespeare Center
The American Shakespeare Center (ASC) is a regional theatre company located in Staunton, Virginia, that focuses on the plays of William Shakespeare; his contemporaries Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Christopher Marlowe; and works related ...
in
Staunton, Virginia
Staunton ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 25,750. In Virginia, independent cities a ...
.
References
;Citations
;Bibliography
* Garrett, Martin. ''Massinger: The Critical Heritage''. London, Routledge, 1991.
* Gibson, Colin, ed. ''The Selected Plays of Philip Massinger''. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1978.
* Hartley, Andrew James. "Philip Massinger's ''The Roman Actor'' and the Semiotics of Censored Theater", ''Journal of English Literary History'' Vol. 68 No. 2 (Summer 2001), pp. 359–76.
* Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. ''The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama''. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978.
* Reinheimer, David A. "''The Roman Actor'', Censorship, and Dramatic Autonomy". ''SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900'', Vol. 38 No. 2 (Spring, 1998), pp. 317–32.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roman Actor, The
English Renaissance plays
1626 plays
Plays by Philip Massinger
Cultural depictions of Domitian
Cultural depictions of Domitia Longina