A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed
Encyclopedia
A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed is a Jacobean era stage play, often classified as a city comedy
. Its authorship was traditionally attributed to William Rowley
, though modern scholarship has questioned Rowley's sole authorship; Thomas Heywood
and George Wilkins
have been proposed as possible contributors.
A New Wonder was entered into the Stationers' Register
on 24 November 1631
, and was first printed in quarto
in 1632
by the bookseller Francis Constable
. The 1632 quarto was the only edition in the seventeenth century. The play's date of authorship is uncertain; it is often assigned to the 1610–14 period. Rowley may have revised an earlier play by Heywood called The Wonder of a Woman (1595
).
The play was adapted and revived by James Robinson Planché in 1824
.
prison for his debts, and Old Foster has fallen out with his son Robert over the son's efforts to alleviate the prisoner's condition. The Foster family situation is complicated by Old Foster's recent marriage to a wealthy widow; the new Mistress Foster is no friend of her brother-in-law and son-in-law. Alderman Bruin tries vainly to patch up the Foster quarrel; he is the play's consistent voice of forbearance and Christian charity. But Old Foster is unyielding, and soon disowns his son for the young man's consistent efforts in favor of the uncle.
The play's second scene introduces the title character, the woman, otherwise unnamed, known as the Widow, or "the rich widow of Cornhill." The Widow is the friend and "gossip" of Mistress Foster; her servant Roger is the play's Clown, who provides much of its comic material. (In the play's final two acts, the Widow and Mistress Foster are not merely friends but sisters. This plot inconsistency may be one indication of multiple authorship.) In conversation with a clergyman, the Widow expresses her strange predicament: she has lived the first 37 years of her life with no significant troubles — she a woman who has never been "vexed." She confeses to a bit of unhappiness when her husband died...which ended when she thought of him as "stellified in heaven." Her good fortune is illustrated by a folklore motif: her wedding ring slips off her finger while she is crossing the Thames — but the ring turns up in the salmon served for her dinner. The Widow is dissatisfied with the sheer magnitude of her happiness; her life is too good.
Robert Foster manages to free his uncle from Ludgate; but Stephen Foster quickly returns to dicing and brawling in a gambling house. Mistress Foster, accompanied by the Widow, follows son-in-law Robert to the gaming house; while there, the Widow strikes up an odd conversation with Stephen Foster. She presents him with a plan to repair his decayed fortunes: he should marry a rich widow. The rich widow she has in mind is herself: she hopes that marrying the ne'er-do-well Stephen will provide the vexation missing from her life.
Alderman Bruin looks forward to devoting his mercantile profits to charitable purposes; he plans to build a hostel for poor travellers. When their ships reach Dover
on their way to London, Old Foster offers to buy out Bruin's share in their venture. This will give Bruin immediate cash for his charity, and maximize Foster's profits. Bruin agrees, and sells his share in the venture for £25,000. When the ships reach the mouth of the Thames, however, they are sunk by a sudden storm, and Old Foster meets abrupt financial ruin. He seeks refuge from his creditors in Ludgate prison; the brothers' fortunes at the start of the play are now completely reversed.
The Widow is surprised to find that Stephen gives up his wastrel ways once married. He studies her accounts, and learns that she is owed funds by various debtors; he sets out in pursuit of the moneys. Old Foster remains hostile to both his brother and son, and the son now tries to relieve his father's sufferings as he previously did his uncle's. Stephen Foster pretends a persistent hostility to his brother, though it is feigned as a way of testing and reforming his difficult relative. Stephen's reversal of fortune carries him to a new height when he is selected as the next sheriff of London.
The play's subplot involves Alderman Bruin's daughter Jane; she is a sensible virgin pestered by foolish suitors, a type that recurs in plays of the period. (For other examples of the type, see Moll Bloodhound in A Match at Midnight
, and Aemilia Littlegood in A Fine Companion
.) In her case, the foolish suitors are Innocent Lambskin, a silly young man, and Sir Godfrey Speedwell, a quarrelsome old knight. Jane has a preference for Robert Foster; and his uncle Stephen is able to scare off Speedwell and Lambskin to his son's advantage, since both are among the Widow's debtors. Stephen offers to two hapless suitors a chance to redeem their debts for only 10% of what they owe; and Robert uses the money to support his father in prison. This act of generosity wins over Old Foster at last.
In the play's final scene, King Henry III
and his courtiers come to celebrate the establishment of Alderman Bruin's charity. Stephen Foster uses the occasion to work a general reconciliation among his family and achieve a happy ending.
City comedy
City comedy, also called Citizen Comedy, is a common genre of Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline comedy on the London stage from the last years of the 16th century to the closing of the theaters in 1642...
. Its authorship was traditionally attributed to William Rowley
William Rowley
William Rowley was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626...
, though modern scholarship has questioned Rowley's sole authorship; Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood was a prominent English playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre.-Early years:...
and George Wilkins
George Wilkins
George Wilkins was an English dramatist and pamphleteer best known for his probable collaboration with Shakespeare on the play Pericles, Prince of Tyre. By profession he was an inn-keeper, but he was also apparently involved in criminal activities.-Life:Wilkins was an inn-keeper in Cow-Cross,...
have been proposed as possible contributors.
A New Wonder was entered into the Stationers' Register
Stationers' Register
The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...
on 24 November 1631
1631 in literature
The year 1631 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 9 - Love's Triumph Through Callipolis, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is staged at Whitehall Palace....
, and was first printed in quarto
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
in 1632
1632 in literature
The year 1632 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*On February 14, Tempe Restored, a masque written by Aurelian Townshend and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace....
by the bookseller Francis Constable
Francis Constable
Francis Constable was a London bookseller and publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, noted for publishing a number of stage plays of English Renaissance drama....
. The 1632 quarto was the only edition in the seventeenth century. The play's date of authorship is uncertain; it is often assigned to the 1610–14 period. Rowley may have revised an earlier play by Heywood called The Wonder of a Woman (1595
1595 in literature
-Events:*Lope de Vega leaves the service of the Duke of Alba and returns to Madrid.* December 9 - Shakespeare's Richard II is possibly acted at a private performance at the Canon Row house of Sir Edward Hoby; Sir Robert Cecil attends.-New books:...
).
The play was adapted and revived by James Robinson Planché in 1824
1824 in literature
The year 1824 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Julia Beckwith Hart becomes the first Canadian female writer to be published....
.
Synopsis
The play opens with two London merchants and partners, Old Foster and the Alderman Bruin, anticipating major profits from their successful trading voyages. Their conversation quickly turns to personal matters: Old Foster's reprobate brother Stephen is in LudgateLudgate
Ludgate was the westernmost gate in London Wall. The name survives in Ludgate Hill, an eastward continuation of Fleet Street, and Ludgate Circus.-Etymology:...
prison for his debts, and Old Foster has fallen out with his son Robert over the son's efforts to alleviate the prisoner's condition. The Foster family situation is complicated by Old Foster's recent marriage to a wealthy widow; the new Mistress Foster is no friend of her brother-in-law and son-in-law. Alderman Bruin tries vainly to patch up the Foster quarrel; he is the play's consistent voice of forbearance and Christian charity. But Old Foster is unyielding, and soon disowns his son for the young man's consistent efforts in favor of the uncle.
The play's second scene introduces the title character, the woman, otherwise unnamed, known as the Widow, or "the rich widow of Cornhill." The Widow is the friend and "gossip" of Mistress Foster; her servant Roger is the play's Clown, who provides much of its comic material. (In the play's final two acts, the Widow and Mistress Foster are not merely friends but sisters. This plot inconsistency may be one indication of multiple authorship.) In conversation with a clergyman, the Widow expresses her strange predicament: she has lived the first 37 years of her life with no significant troubles — she a woman who has never been "vexed." She confeses to a bit of unhappiness when her husband died...which ended when she thought of him as "stellified in heaven." Her good fortune is illustrated by a folklore motif: her wedding ring slips off her finger while she is crossing the Thames — but the ring turns up in the salmon served for her dinner. The Widow is dissatisfied with the sheer magnitude of her happiness; her life is too good.
Robert Foster manages to free his uncle from Ludgate; but Stephen Foster quickly returns to dicing and brawling in a gambling house. Mistress Foster, accompanied by the Widow, follows son-in-law Robert to the gaming house; while there, the Widow strikes up an odd conversation with Stephen Foster. She presents him with a plan to repair his decayed fortunes: he should marry a rich widow. The rich widow she has in mind is herself: she hopes that marrying the ne'er-do-well Stephen will provide the vexation missing from her life.
Alderman Bruin looks forward to devoting his mercantile profits to charitable purposes; he plans to build a hostel for poor travellers. When their ships reach Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
on their way to London, Old Foster offers to buy out Bruin's share in their venture. This will give Bruin immediate cash for his charity, and maximize Foster's profits. Bruin agrees, and sells his share in the venture for £25,000. When the ships reach the mouth of the Thames, however, they are sunk by a sudden storm, and Old Foster meets abrupt financial ruin. He seeks refuge from his creditors in Ludgate prison; the brothers' fortunes at the start of the play are now completely reversed.
The Widow is surprised to find that Stephen gives up his wastrel ways once married. He studies her accounts, and learns that she is owed funds by various debtors; he sets out in pursuit of the moneys. Old Foster remains hostile to both his brother and son, and the son now tries to relieve his father's sufferings as he previously did his uncle's. Stephen Foster pretends a persistent hostility to his brother, though it is feigned as a way of testing and reforming his difficult relative. Stephen's reversal of fortune carries him to a new height when he is selected as the next sheriff of London.
The play's subplot involves Alderman Bruin's daughter Jane; she is a sensible virgin pestered by foolish suitors, a type that recurs in plays of the period. (For other examples of the type, see Moll Bloodhound in A Match at Midnight
A Match at Midnight
A Match at Midnight is a Jacobean era stage play first printed in 1633, a comedy that represents a stubborn and persistent authorship problem in English Renaissance drama.-Publication:...
, and Aemilia Littlegood in A Fine Companion
A Fine Companion
A Fine Companion is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Shackerley Marmion that was first printed in 1633. It is one of only three surviving plays by Marmion....
.) In her case, the foolish suitors are Innocent Lambskin, a silly young man, and Sir Godfrey Speedwell, a quarrelsome old knight. Jane has a preference for Robert Foster; and his uncle Stephen is able to scare off Speedwell and Lambskin to his son's advantage, since both are among the Widow's debtors. Stephen offers to two hapless suitors a chance to redeem their debts for only 10% of what they owe; and Robert uses the money to support his father in prison. This act of generosity wins over Old Foster at last.
In the play's final scene, King Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
and his courtiers come to celebrate the establishment of Alderman Bruin's charity. Stephen Foster uses the occasion to work a general reconciliation among his family and achieve a happy ending.