A Shoemaker a Gentleman
Encyclopedia
A Shoemaker a Gentleman is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by William Rowley. It may be Rowley's only extant solo comedy.
(Nineteenth-century scholars and critics generally classified four plays as solo Rowley works — the tragedy All's Lost by Lust
and the comedies A Shoemaker a Gentleman, A Match at Midnight
, and A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed
. Twentieth-century researchers have questioned Rowley's sole authorship of the latter two dramas.)
on 28 November 1637
, and first appeared in print in 1638
, in a quarto
printed and published by John Okes and sold by the stationer
John Cooper (or Cowper). This 1638 quarto was the only edition of the play in the seventeenth century. Authorship is assigned to "W. R." on the title page.
and other theaters, with general and good applause." Okes' dedication of the play to the guild of shoemakers also mentions the play's popularity, and states that "some twenty years agone, it was in the fashion." This suggests a date c. 1618 for the play's origin, though the "twenty years" figure could be only an approximation. Commentators have suggested dates of authorship as early as c. 1608.
The comic subplot of the play was extracted and performed as a "droll
," and was often staged at Bartholomew Fair and Southwark Fair during the middle and later decades of the seventeenth century. The play was revived at least once during the Restoration
era.
's The Golden Legend and Thomas Deloney
's The Gentle Craft. (Deloney's work also inspired Thomas Dekker's famous play The Shoemaker's Holiday
.) Rowley depended on the Chronicles of Raphael Holinshed
for his account of the early Christian martyr St. Alban
("Albon" in the play).
A Shoemaker a Gentleman shares a range of resemblances and common features with other plays of its era. Its general ambience is strongly similar to Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday. Its setting in ancient Britain, and its plot device of the two British princes living humble lives in disguise and under assumed names, suggests Shakespeare's
Cymbeline
. The play also bears a significant inter-relationship with The Birth of Merlin
, another play in the Rowley canon.
drama of the later Middle Ages. The saints' plays that characterized that era had largely passed out of fashion by Rowley's generation, though they could still exert some influence — Dekker and Massinger's
The Virgin Martyr
(1622
) being the obvious example. Rowley includes a comparable religious subplot in The Birth of Merlin.
, during the reign of Diocletian
and Maximian
. (The latter is called "Maximinus" in the play.) The opening scene shows the Roman army in battle with the fictitious British king Allured. Allured is killed in the fighting, and his Queen (otherwise unnamed) insists that her sons, Elred (or Eldred) and Offa, flee the field to avoid death or capture. The two princes reluctantly comply; the Queen is apprehended by the Romans. Her speeches to the two emperors reveal that she is a Christian.
Elred and Offa assume humble disguises, Elred calling himself Crispianus, and Offa, Crispinus or Crispin. They make for Faversham
in Kent
become apprentices for the (otherwise unnamed) Shoemaker and his wife. This couple and their other apprentices, Barnaby and Raphe, provide much of the play's overt comedy. The Shoemaker supplies footwear to the princess Leodice, the daughter of Maximinus; it is through this connection that Leodice meets, and quickly falls in love with, Offa/Crispin. Conversations between Leodice and her Nurse (who resembles the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet
) reveal the princess's infatuation; they also specify that both Diocletain and Maximinus climbed to their present high stations from humble beginnings. Crispin's touching and measuring Leodice's feet provides risqué humor. Soon enough, Leodice reveals her feelings to Crispin, and the two enter into a secret marriage.
While Crispin is out with Leodice, a press gang from the Roman army comes to the Shoemaker's shop looking for new soldiers; Elred/Crispianus, motivated by his innate princely valor, is willingly drafted. The military action has shifted from Britain to northern Germany, where the Romans are fighting the Goths and Vandals. Crispianus fights bravely and distinguishes himself in combat. When Diocletian and the Romans' eagle insignia are captured by Huldrick, king of the Goths, Crispianus rescues the emperor and the eagle; he kills Huldrick and captures Roderick the Vandal king, making himself the great hero of the victory.
Among the Roman force is an officer called Albon. Under the influence of the Christian hermit Amphiabel
, Albon converts to Christianity. The emperors discover his conversion, and capture and torture both Albon and Amphiabel. Both go to martyrdom true to their faith.
When the Roman army returns to Britain they are mistaken for an invading force; a public panic ensues. Leodice is by now expecting her first child with husband Crispin; amid a good deal of rushing about with the Nurse and hostile comments from the Shoemaker's wife, the princess gives birth. By the play's end, both Crispin and Crispianus are recognized as the royal princes they are. In light of Crispianus' military heroism and Crispin's marriage with Leodice, the emperors accept them as client kings, Offa/Crispin ruling the north of Britain and Elred/Crispianus ruling the south. Their mother the Queen is released from captivity; their Christianity, despite previous persecutions, is accepted.
The play's subplot relates the story of St. Winifred
, though Rowley places it three centuries earlier than historical accuracy would dictate. Winifred is a young noblewoman pursued by suitors, most prominently a Welsh nobleman called Sir Hugh; but Winifed desires to follow her religious vocation in preference to marriage. Her choice is validated when an angel
appears to her at St. Winifred's Well
. Sir Hugh agrees to a three-month suspension of his suit; but even after that time, Winifred is determined to refuse him. Discouraged by the Britons' military defeat and his own rejection, Hugh abandons his high station to pursue a humble life; he too becomes an apprentice in the Shoemaker's shop. Eventually Winifred is apprehended by the Romans and martyred; Sir Hugh loyally remains by her side and joins her in martyrdom, dying apparently from grief. Sir Hugh's status as nobleman, shoemaker, and martyr earns the trade of shoemaking the honorific of "the gentle craft," and the shoemakers' tools are from then on known as "St. Hugh's bones."
(Nineteenth-century scholars and critics generally classified four plays as solo Rowley works — the tragedy All's Lost by Lust
All's Lost by Lust
All's Lost by Lust is a Jacobean tragedy by William Rowley. A "tragedy of remarkable frankness and effectiveness," "crude and fierce," it was written between 1618 and 1620.-Publication:...
and the comedies A Shoemaker a Gentleman, 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 A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed
A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed
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...
. Twentieth-century researchers have questioned Rowley's sole authorship of the latter two dramas.)
Publication
A Shoemaker a Gentleman was entered into the Stationers' RegisterStationers' 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 28 November 1637
1637 in literature
The year 1637 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 24 - Hamlet is performed before King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria at Hampton Court Palace....
, and first appeared in print in 1638
1638 in literature
The year 1638 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 6 - Luminalia, a masque written by Sir William Davenant and designed by Inigo Jones, is staged at the English Court....
, in a 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"...
printed and published by John Okes and sold by the stationer
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
John Cooper (or Cowper). This 1638 quarto was the only edition of the play in the seventeenth century. Authorship is assigned to "W. R." on the title page.
Date and performance
The date of the play is not known with certainty, and its early performance history is largely a blank. The title page of the 1638 quarto states that the work was "sundry times acted at the Red BullRed Bull Theatre
The Red Bull was a playhouse in London during the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the northern suburbs, developing a reputation for rowdy, often disruptive audiences...
and other theaters, with general and good applause." Okes' dedication of the play to the guild of shoemakers also mentions the play's popularity, and states that "some twenty years agone, it was in the fashion." This suggests a date c. 1618 for the play's origin, though the "twenty years" figure could be only an approximation. Commentators have suggested dates of authorship as early as c. 1608.
The comic subplot of the play was extracted and performed as a "droll
Droll
A droll is a short comical sketch of a type that originated during the Puritan Interregnum in England. With the closure of the theatres, actors were left without any way of plying their art. Borrowing scenes from well-known plays of the Elizabethan theatre, they added dancing and other...
," and was often staged at Bartholomew Fair and Southwark Fair during the middle and later decades of the seventeenth century. The play was revived at least once during the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
era.
Sources and influences
Rowley drew upon several sources for the plot of his play, notably William CaxtonWilliam Caxton
William Caxton was an English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer. As far as is known, he was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England...
's The Golden Legend and Thomas Deloney
Thomas Deloney
Thomas Deloney was an English novelist and balladist.He appears to have worked as a silk-weaver in Norwich, but was in London by 1586, and in the course of the next ten years is known to have written about fifty ballads, some of which got him into trouble, and caused him to keep a low profile for...
's The Gentle Craft. (Deloney's work also inspired Thomas Dekker's famous play The Shoemaker's Holiday
The Shoemaker's Holiday
The Shoemakers' Holiday, or the Gentle Craft is an Elizabethan play written by Thomas Dekker. It was first performed in 1599 by the Admiral's Men. It falls into the sub-genre of city comedy.The play was first published in 1600 by the printer Valentine Simmes...
.) Rowley depended on the Chronicles of Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays....
for his account of the early Christian martyr St. Alban
Saint Alban
Saint Alban was the first British Christian martyr. Along with his fellow saints Julius and Aaron, Alban is one of three martyrs remembered from Roman Britain. Alban is listed in the Church of England calendar for 22 June and he continues to be venerated in the Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox...
("Albon" in the play).
A Shoemaker a Gentleman shares a range of resemblances and common features with other plays of its era. Its general ambience is strongly similar to Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday. Its setting in ancient Britain, and its plot device of the two British princes living humble lives in disguise and under assumed names, suggests Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
Cymbeline
Cymbeline
Cymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
. The play also bears a significant inter-relationship with The Birth of Merlin
The Birth of Merlin
The Birth of Merlin, or, The Child Hath Found his Father is a Jacobean play, first performed in 1622 at the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch. It contains a comic depiction of the birth of the fully grown Merlin to a country girl, and also features figures from Arthurian legend, including Uther...
, another play in the Rowley canon.
Genre
A Shoemaker a Gentleman is securely in the tradition of the popular realistic comedy of its era. Additionally, its serious subplot shows the influence of the religious and hagiographicHagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
drama of the later Middle Ages. The saints' plays that characterized that era had largely passed out of fashion by Rowley's generation, though they could still exert some influence — Dekker and Massinger's
Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger 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 political and social themes.-Early life:The son of Arthur Massinger or Messenger, he was baptized at St....
The Virgin Martyr
The Virgin Martyr
The Virgin Martyr is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by Thomas Dekker and Philip Massinger, and first published in 1622. It constitutes a rare instance in Masssinger's canon in which he collaborated with a member of the previous generation of English Renaissance dramatists —...
(1622
1622 in literature
The year 1622 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 28 - Loiola, a Latin comedy mocking the Jesuits, is acted at Cambridge; the performance is repeated before King James I on March 12.*March 12 - Teresa of Ávila The year 1622 in literature involved some significant...
) being the obvious example. Rowley includes a comparable religious subplot in The Birth of Merlin.
Synopsis
The play is set in Roman Britain in the period around 300 CECommon Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
, during the reign of Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
and Maximian
Maximian
Maximian was Roman Emperor from 286 to 305. He was Caesar from 285 to 286, then Augustus from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn. Maximian established his residence at Trier but spent...
. (The latter is called "Maximinus" in the play.) The opening scene shows the Roman army in battle with the fictitious British king Allured. Allured is killed in the fighting, and his Queen (otherwise unnamed) insists that her sons, Elred (or Eldred) and Offa, flee the field to avoid death or capture. The two princes reluctantly comply; the Queen is apprehended by the Romans. Her speeches to the two emperors reveal that she is a Christian.
Elred and Offa assume humble disguises, Elred calling himself Crispianus, and Offa, Crispinus or Crispin. They make for Faversham
Faversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
become apprentices for the (otherwise unnamed) Shoemaker and his wife. This couple and their other apprentices, Barnaby and Raphe, provide much of the play's overt comedy. The Shoemaker supplies footwear to the princess Leodice, the daughter of Maximinus; it is through this connection that Leodice meets, and quickly falls in love with, Offa/Crispin. Conversations between Leodice and her Nurse (who resembles the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
) reveal the princess's infatuation; they also specify that both Diocletain and Maximinus climbed to their present high stations from humble beginnings. Crispin's touching and measuring Leodice's feet provides risqué humor. Soon enough, Leodice reveals her feelings to Crispin, and the two enter into a secret marriage.
While Crispin is out with Leodice, a press gang from the Roman army comes to the Shoemaker's shop looking for new soldiers; Elred/Crispianus, motivated by his innate princely valor, is willingly drafted. The military action has shifted from Britain to northern Germany, where the Romans are fighting the Goths and Vandals. Crispianus fights bravely and distinguishes himself in combat. When Diocletian and the Romans' eagle insignia are captured by Huldrick, king of the Goths, Crispianus rescues the emperor and the eagle; he kills Huldrick and captures Roderick the Vandal king, making himself the great hero of the victory.
Among the Roman force is an officer called Albon. Under the influence of the Christian hermit Amphiabel
Amphibalus
Saint Amphibalus was formerly venerated as the Christian priest traditionally sheltered by Saint Alban, who was converted by him, as a consequence of which Alban was martyred....
, Albon converts to Christianity. The emperors discover his conversion, and capture and torture both Albon and Amphiabel. Both go to martyrdom true to their faith.
When the Roman army returns to Britain they are mistaken for an invading force; a public panic ensues. Leodice is by now expecting her first child with husband Crispin; amid a good deal of rushing about with the Nurse and hostile comments from the Shoemaker's wife, the princess gives birth. By the play's end, both Crispin and Crispianus are recognized as the royal princes they are. In light of Crispianus' military heroism and Crispin's marriage with Leodice, the emperors accept them as client kings, Offa/Crispin ruling the north of Britain and Elred/Crispianus ruling the south. Their mother the Queen is released from captivity; their Christianity, despite previous persecutions, is accepted.
The play's subplot relates the story of St. Winifred
Winefride
thumb|right|300px|St Winifred's Well, [[Woolston, north Shropshire|Woolston]], ShropshireSaint Winefride was a legendary 7th-century Welsh noblewoman who was canonized after dying for the sake of her chastity...
, though Rowley places it three centuries earlier than historical accuracy would dictate. Winifred is a young noblewoman pursued by suitors, most prominently a Welsh nobleman called Sir Hugh; but Winifed desires to follow her religious vocation in preference to marriage. Her choice is validated when an angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
appears to her at St. Winifred's Well
St Winefride's Well
St Winefride's Well is a holy well located in Holywell, in Flintshire in North Wales. It is the oldest continually visited pilgrimage site in Great Britain....
. Sir Hugh agrees to a three-month suspension of his suit; but even after that time, Winifred is determined to refuse him. Discouraged by the Britons' military defeat and his own rejection, Hugh abandons his high station to pursue a humble life; he too becomes an apprentice in the Shoemaker's shop. Eventually Winifred is apprehended by the Romans and martyred; Sir Hugh loyally remains by her side and joins her in martyrdom, dying apparently from grief. Sir Hugh's status as nobleman, shoemaker, and martyr earns the trade of shoemaking the honorific of "the gentle craft," and the shoemakers' tools are from then on known as "St. Hugh's bones."