''The Law Against Lovers'' was a dramatic adaptation of

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 natio ...

, arranged by Sir

William Davenant Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 April 1668), also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned b ...

and staged by the Duke's Company in

1662 Events January–March * January 4 – Dziaddin Mukarram Shah becomes the new Sultan of Kedah, an independent kingdom on the Malay Peninsula, upon the death of his father, Sultan Muhyiddin Mansur. * January 10 – At the ...

. It was the first of the many Shakespearean adaptations staged during 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. Davenant was not shy about changing the Bard's work; he based his text on '' Measure for Measure'', but also added Beatrice and Benedick from ''

Much Ado About Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...

'' — "resulting in a bizarre and fascinating combination." He made Angelo from the former play, and Benedick from the latter, into brothers. The comedy of Pompey the clown and Elbow the constable is excised. Angelo doesn't really try to seduce the virtuous Isabella; he merely tests her commitment to chastity and virtue, like a protagonist in a John Fletcher play. Beatrice has a little sister named Viola, who sings and dances. Samuel Pepys saw ''The Law Against Lovers'' at the theatre 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 ...

on February 18, 1662, and was pleased by it; as he recorded in his Diary, :"I went to the Opera, and saw 'the Law against Lovers', a good play and well performed, especially the little girl's, whom I never saw act before, dancing and singing...." (Female performers were still a recent innovation at that time, having first appeared on the English stage only since December 1660. The "little girl" was the popular

Moll Davis Mary "Moll" Davis (c. 1648 – 1708), also spelt Davies or Davys, was a courtesan and mistress of King Charles II of England. She was an actress and entertainer before and during her role as royal mistress. Early life Mary Davis was born in ...

, then about fourteen years old; she danced a sarabande while playing

castanets Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument (idiophone), used in Spanish, Kalo, Moorish, Ottoman, Italian, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome there was a simil ...

.) Oddly, Davenant was able to represent ''The Law Against Lovers'' as his own work; he apparently had jumbled up Shakespeare so successfully that his audience did not recognize what they were seeing and hearing. Both Pepys and

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's diary, or ...

were in the house on the same night, and both recorded their impressions of the show — but neither mentions Shakespeare in his remarks. And neither did other viewers. Davenant's adaptation was published in

1673 Events January–March * January 22 – Impostor Mary Carleton is hanged at Newgate Prison in London, for multiple thefts and returning from penal transportation. * February 10 – Molière's ''comédie-ballet'' ''The Imag ...

. As extreme as it may sound to a modern sensibility, Davenant's version was not the last word on adapting ''Measure for Measure''. In

1699 Events January–March * January 5 – A violent Java earthquake damages the city of Batavia on the Indonesian island of Java, killing at least 28 people * January 20 – The Parliament of England (under Tory dominance) limits the size ...

Charles Gildon Charles Gildon (c. 1665 – 1 January 1724), was an English hack writer who was, by turns, a translator, biographer, essayist, playwright, poet, author of fictional letters, fabulist, short story author, and critic. He provided the source for m ...

produced a re-adaptation of Davenant's adaptation: ''Measure for Measure, or Beauty the Best Advocate''. (Davenant took from Shakespeare without acknowledgement; Gildon did the same to Davenant.) Rather than conceal the Shakespearean source, Gildon advertised it, going so far as to have the ghost of Shakespeare speak the play's epilogue. Gildon simplified the whole (Beatrice and Benedick were omitted), but added a

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...

about

Dido Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in modern Tunisia), in 814 BC. In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (t ...

and

Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons ...

and the music of the lately-deceased Henry Purcell. Gildon's version was also staged at

;

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 Angelo, and Anne Bracegirdle was Isabella.

F. E. Halliday Frank Ernest Halliday (10 February 1903 – 26 March 1982) was an English academic, author and amateur painter. He wrote on a wide range of subjects, though he was best known for his books on William Shakespeare. F. E. Halliday (he preferre ...

, ''A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964,'' Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; pp. 187, 273, 309-10. Neither Davenant's nor Gildon's adaptation was a great success with its audience, and neither was revived after its initial production.

References

External links

* '' The Law Against Lovers'' text in ''The Dramatic Works of Sir William D'Avenant'' (1872) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Law Against Lovers, The 1662 plays English Restoration plays Plays and musicals based on Measure for Measure Plays and musicals based on Much Ado About Nothing Plays by William Davenant