''The Wedding'' is a

Caroline Caroline may refer to: People * Caroline (given name), a feminine given name * J. C. Caroline (born 1933), American college and National Football League player * Jordan Caroline (born 1996), American (men's) basketball player Places Antarctica * ...

era stage play, a comedy written by

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 ...

. Published in

1629 Events January–March * January 7– Henry Frederick, Hereditary Prince of the Palatinate, the 15-year-old son of the German Palatinate elector, Frederick V, drowns in an accident while sailing to Amsterdam. * January 19&nd ...

, it was the first of Shirley's plays to appear in print. An early

comedy of manners In English literature, the term comedy of manners (also anti-sentimental comedy) describes a genre of realistic, satirical comedy of the Restoration period (1660–1710) that questions and comments upon the manners and social conventions of a gre ...

, it is set in the fashionable world of genteel London society in Shirley's day. The play is thought to date from c. 1626. It 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 1629, printed by

Nicholas Okes Nicholas Okes (died 1645) was an English printer in London of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, remembered for printing works of English Renaissance drama. He was responsible for early editions of works by many of the playwrights of the period, i ...

for the bookseller John Grove. This first edition contained

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, including one 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 ...

; the play was dedicated to William Gowre, Esq., a personal friend of the author. A second quarto was 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 title page of Q2 states that the play was "lately 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 ...

(also called the Phoenix) in

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks ...

. ''The Wedding'' was included among eight of Shirley's plays that were published in one volume in 1640. Another individual edition appeared in

1660 Events January–March * January 1 ** At daybreak, English Army Colonel George Monck, with two brigades of troops from his Scottish occupational force, fords the River Tweed at Coldstream in Scotland to cross the border into England ...

, at the start of the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

era, published by

William Leake William Leake, father (died 1633) and son (died 1681), were London publishers and booksellers of the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. They were responsible for a range of texts in English Renaissance drama and poetry, including work ...

. The scholar and critic

Alfred Harbage Alfred Bennett Harbage (July 18, 1901 – May 1976) was an influential Shakespeare scholar of the mid-20th century. Life He was born in Philadelphia and received his undergraduate degree and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. ...

argued that Shirley's play alludes to the 1625 wedding of Sir

Kenelm Digby Sir Kenelm Digby (11 July 1603 – 11 June 1665) was an English courtier and diplomat. He was also a highly reputed natural philosopher, astrologer and known as a leading Roman Catholic intellectual and Blackloist. For his versatility, he is d ...

and

Venetia Stanley Venetia Anastasia Digby (née Stanley) (December 1600 – 1 May 1633) was a celebrated beauty of the Stuart period and the wife of a prominent courtier and scientist, Kenelm Digby. She was a granddaughter of Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of North ...

. Their nuptials were the "celebrity wedding" of the day, and nobody in London society, Harbage maintained, could have seen or read the play "without thinking of the affair of Sir Kenelm Digby and Venetia Stanley."Alfred Harbage, "Shirley's ''The Wedding'' and the Marriage of Sir Kenelm Digby," ''

Philological Quarterly The ''Philological Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on medieval European and modern literature and culture. It was established in 1922 by Hardin Craig. The inaugural issue of the journal was made available at sixty ...

'' 16 (1937), pp. 35-40.

Cast

''The Wedding'' is one of the rare plays in English Renaissance drama for which cast information for the early productions survives. (Only five cast lists are extant for the whole history of Queen Henrietta's Men. The others are for ''

The Fair Maid of the West ''The Fair Maid of the West, or a Girl Worth Gold, Parts 1 and 2'' is a work of English Renaissance drama, a two-part play written by Thomas Heywood that was first published in 1631. Date The dates of authorship of the two parts of ''The Fai ...

'', ''

Hannibal and Scipio ''Hannibal and Scipio'' is a Caroline era stage play, a classical tragedy written by Thomas Nabbes. The play was first performed in 1635 by Queen Henrietta's Men, and was first published in 1637. The first edition of the play contained a cast l ...

'', ''

King John and Matilda ''King John and Matilda'' is a Caroline era stage play, a historical tragedy written by Robert Davenport. It was initially published in 1655; the cast list included in the first edition provides valuable information on some of the actors of En ...

'', and ''

The Renegado ''The Renegado, or The Gentleman of Venice'' is a late Literature in English#Jacobean literature, Jacobean stage play, a tragicomedy written by Philip Massinger and first published in 1630 in literature, 1630. The play has attracted critical atte ...

''.) The actors and their roles were:

Synopsis

The play's protagonist, Beauford, is about to marry the heroine, Gratiana, when Beauford's cousin Marwood claims that he has been Gratiana's lover. The two men duel over the matter, and Marwood loses — but as he dies he maintains the truth of his accusation. At the house where the ceremony is about to occur, Beauford takes Gratiana aside and tells her of the matter; though Gratiana denies Marwood's allegations, Beauford does not believe her. As Beauford waits to be arrested for Marwood's killing, Gratiana is offered concealment by Captain Landby, who also delivers a letter from Gratiana to her estranged fiance. The letter tells Beauford that by the time he reads it, she will have drowned herself. Gratiana's page Millicent advises her to confront her waiting woman Cardona about the whole matter. Millicent has a trunk delivered to Beauford's lodging, telling him that the trunk contains Marwood's corpse. Claiming to be Marwood's relative, Millicent demands satisfaction for the death — but he first has Beauford listen to Cardona, who affirms that Marwood had sex not with Gratiana but with Cardona's daughter Lucibel (a version of the "

bed trick The bed trick is a plot device in traditional literature and folklore; it involves a substitution of one partner in the sex act with a third person (in the words of Wendy Doniger, "going to bed with someone whom you mistake for someone else"). In ...

" that occurs in a number of plays in English Renaissance drama). Realizing his error, Beauford opens the trunk, and finds not a dead Marwood but a living Gratiana — but then the officers arrive to arrest him for Marwood's death. Brought before a Justice Landby (the uncle of the Captain who befriended Gratiana), Marwood is revealed to be still alive, and Millicent turns out to be the missing Lucibel. The play's subplot involves the suitors who seek the hand of Jane, the daughter of Justice Landby. One, Lodam, is fat and gluttonous; a second, Rawbone, is a usurer and miser; and the third, Haver, is a young gentleman of worth but no fortune. Jane and her cousin the Captain favor Haver, but the Justice, testing his daughter, pretends to favor Rawbone. As a result, Haver masquerades as a servant named Jasper who carries Rawbone's messages to Jane. Haver/Jasper provokes a duel between Lodam and the equally cowardly Rawbone, promising to take Rawbone's place in the combat; Lodam, despite many boasts, yields to Haver/Jasper/Rawbone at the first pass. Captain Landby, spying on the duel, has all the participants arrested and brought before the Justice — who insists that Jane and "Rawbone" (Haver, still in disguise) marry immediately. The ceremony is carried out before the ruse is discovered. So the play ends with three newly married couples: Beauford and Gratiana, Haver and Jane, and the repentant Marwood and Lucibel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wedding, The English Renaissance plays 1620s plays Plays by James Shirley