''The Sun's Darling'' is 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 mas ...

, or masque-like play, written by

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), better known as John Ford, was an American film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and w ...

and Thomas Dekker, and first published in 1656. ''The Sun's Darling'' 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 Chamberla ...

, on 3 March 1624. It was probably composed not long before; nineteenth-century speculations that the text was an old play of Dekker's, revised by Ford, have fallen out of favor. The original text may have been revised c. 1638–39; material in the early portion of Act V reflects the dominant political situation at that time. Cyrus Hoy has suggested that the play was revised and revived at that time, as a response to Thomas Nabbes's ''Microcosmus'' ( 1636; published 1637). Several attempts have been made by individual commentators to identify the shares of the two collaborators, though no general agreement on the question has been reached. The first edition was a

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 ...

printed by T. Bell for the bookseller Andrew Pennycuicke. The 1656 title page states that the play was "often presented" by

Queen Henrietta's Men Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors of the Caroline era in London, England. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men. Beginnin ...

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 s ...

; but it also makes the questionable claim that the play was "often presented" at Whitehall Palace — a claim dropped from the title page of the second quarto of

1657 Events January–March * January 8 – Miles Sindercombe and his group of disaffected Levellers are betrayed in their attempt to assassinate Oliver Cromwell by blowing up the Palace of Whitehall in London and are arrested. * Ja ...

. If the work had a Court performance, it would in all likelihood have been once or at most twice, not "often." Pennycuicke dedicated Q1 to Lady Newton, wife of Sir Henry Newton. Q2 was dedicated to Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton; that dedication is signed by Pennycuicke and the actor Theophilus Bird. Both the 1656 and 1657 editions include prefatory verses by John Tatham. The title pages describe the work as a "moral masque" — an accurate description, in that the drama combines the traits and characteristics of the traditional

morality play The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...

with those of the 17th-century masque.Logan and Smith, p. 137. Featuring standard masque-style personifications, like Youth, Health, Delight, Time, Detraction, Fortune, etc., and rich in songs, dances, and May-Day games, the play has some obvious crowd appeal to explain its popularity in its own era. The protagonist is Raybright, who is the child and "darling" of the Sun. To treat his melancholy, he is given a year to experience the earthly pleasures of the four seasons. He falls, however, under the deceptive influences of Humor (in the Elizabethan sense) and Folly, and his search for satisfaction is unfulfilled. In the end the Sun warns Raybright that he must resist Folly and Humor to attain harmony. Some critics have praised the "vitality and beauty" of some of the lyrics in the play; others have judged the work more harshly.

Notes

References

* 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. * Stavig, Mark. ''John Ford and the Traditional Moral Order''. Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 1968. * Waith, Eugene M. ''Patterns and Perspectives in English Renaissance Drama.'' Newark, DE, University of Delaware Press, 1988. {{DEFAULTSORT:Suns Darling, The English Renaissance plays 1624 plays Masques Plays by Thomas Dekker (writer) Plays by John Ford (dramatist)