Bed trick
Encyclopedia
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 the standard and most common form of the bed trick, a man goes to a sexual assignation with a certain woman, and without his knowledge that woman's place is taken by a substitute.
: in Genesis Chapter 29 Laban
substitutes Leah
for Rachel
on Jacob
's wedding night, as Jacob discovers the following morning. Other examples range throughout the Western canon (several occur in Arthurian romance) and can be paralleled by instances in non-Western cultures.
, primarily due to the uses of the bed trick by Shakespeare
in his two dark comedies, All's Well That Ends Well
and Measure for Measure
. In All's Well That Ends Well, Bertram thinks he is going to have sex with Diana, the woman he is trying to seduce; Helena, the protagonist, takes Diana's place in the darkened bedchamber, and so consummates their arranged marriage. In this case, the bed trick derives from Shakespeare's non-dramatic plot source, the ninth story of the third day in the Decameron of Boccaccio (which Shakespeare may have accessed through an English-language intermediary, the version in William Painter
's Palace of Pleasure). In Measure for Measure, Angelo expects to have sex with Isabella, the heroine; but the Duke substitutes Mariana, the woman Angelo had engaged to marry but abandoned. In this case the bed trick was not present in Shakespeare's sources, but was added to the plot by the poet.
(Related plot elements can be found in two other Shakespearean plays. In the final scene of Much Ado About Nothing
, the bride at Claudio's wedding turns out to be Hero instead of her cousin, as expected; and in The Two Noble Kinsmen
, the Wooer pretends to be Palamon to sleep with and marry the Jailer's Daughter.)
The two uses of the bed trick by Shakespeare are the most famous in the drama of his era; they are accompanied by more than forty other uses, however, and virtually every major successor of Shakespeare down to the closing of the theatres in 1642
employed the plot element at least once. The use of the bed trick in Middleton
and Rowley's
The Changeling
, in which Diaphanta takes Beatrice-Joanna's place on the latter's wedding night, is probably the most famous instance outside of Shakespeare. Rowley also provides a gender-reversed instance of the bed trick in his All's Lost by Lust
, in which it is the male rather than the female partner in the sexual pair who is substituted. (Male versions of the bed trick are rarer but not unprecedented; a classical instance occurs when Zeus
disguises himself as Amphitryon
to impregnate Alcmene
with the future Hercules
. Similarly in Arthurian legend, Uther Pendragon
takes the place of Gorlois
to impregnate Igraine
with the future King Arthur
.)
Multiple uses of the bed trick occur in the works of Thomas Middleton, John Marston
, John Fletcher
, James Shirley
, Richard Brome
, and Thomas Heywood
. Shakespeare employs the bed trick to yield plot resolutions that largely conform to traditional morality, as do some of his contemporaries; in the comic subplot to The Insatiate Countess
(c. 1610), Marston constructs a double bed trick in which two would-be adulterers sleep with their own wives. Shakespeare's successors, however, tend to use the trick in more sensational and salacious ways. In Rowley's play cited above, it leads to the mistaken murder of the substituted man. Middleton's Hengist, King of Kent
features an extreme version of the bed trick, in which a woman is kidnapped and raped in darkness, by a man she doesn't realize is her own husband.
era, the bed trick made sporadic appearances in plays by Elkanah Settle
and Aphra Behn
, and perhaps reached its culmination in Sir Francis Fane's
Love in the Dark (1675); but in time it passed out of fashion in drama.
Modern critics, readers, and audience members tend to find the bed trick highly artificial and lacking in credibility (though scholar Marliss Desens cites one alleged real-life instance of its employment in Shakespeare's era).
.
In Richard Strauss
's 1932 opera Arabella
, Zdenka/Zdenko, the daughter consigned to live as a boy because of family finances, contrives to pretend she is her sister Arabella in order to sleep with Matteo, with whom she is secretly in love.
Wendy Doniger
Wendy Doniger is an American Indologist and Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee on Social Thought...
, "going to bed with someone whom you mistake for someone else"). In the standard and most common form of the bed trick, a man goes to a sexual assignation with a certain woman, and without his knowledge that woman's place is taken by a substitute.
In traditional literature
Instances of the bed trick exist in the traditional literatures of many human cultures. It can be found in the Old TestamentOld Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
: in Genesis Chapter 29 Laban
Laban (Bible)
Laban is the son of Bethuel, brother of Rebekah and the father of Leah and Rachel and Bilhah and Zilpah as described in the Book of Genesis. As such he is brother-in-law to Isaac and both father-in-law and uncle to Jacob...
substitutes Leah
Leah
Leah , as described in the Hebrew Bible, is the first of the two concurrent wives of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob and mother of six of sons whose descendants became the Twelve Tribes of Israel, along with at least one daughter, Dinah. She is the daughter of Laban and the older sister of Rachel, whom...
for Rachel
Rachel
Rachel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, is a prophet and the favorite wife of Jacob, one of the three Biblical Patriarchs, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife...
on Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
's wedding night, as Jacob discovers the following morning. Other examples range throughout the Western canon (several occur in Arthurian romance) and can be paralleled by instances in non-Western cultures.
Renaissance
For modern readers and audiences, the bed trick is most immediately and most closely associated with English Renaissance dramaEnglish Renaissance theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre, refers to the theatre of England, largely based in London, which occurred between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642...
, primarily due to the uses of the bed trick by Shakespeare
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"...
in his two dark comedies, All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well is a play by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1604 and 1605, and was originally published in the First Folio in 1623....
and Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
. In All's Well That Ends Well, Bertram thinks he is going to have sex with Diana, the woman he is trying to seduce; Helena, the protagonist, takes Diana's place in the darkened bedchamber, and so consummates their arranged marriage. In this case, the bed trick derives from Shakespeare's non-dramatic plot source, the ninth story of the third day in the Decameron of Boccaccio (which Shakespeare may have accessed through an English-language intermediary, the version in William Painter
William Painter
William Painter was an English author and translator.William Painter was a native of Kent. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1554. In 1561 he became clerk of the ordnance in the Tower of London, a position in which he appears to have amassed a fortune out of the public funds...
's Palace of Pleasure). In Measure for Measure, Angelo expects to have sex with Isabella, the heroine; but the Duke substitutes Mariana, the woman Angelo had engaged to marry but abandoned. In this case the bed trick was not present in Shakespeare's sources, but was added to the plot by the poet.
(Related plot elements can be found in two other Shakespearean plays. In the final scene of Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
, the bride at Claudio's wedding turns out to be Hero instead of her cousin, as expected; and in The Two Noble Kinsmen
The Two Noble Kinsmen
The Two Noble Kinsmen is a Jacobean tragicomedy, first published in 1634 and attributed to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. Its plot derives from "The Knight's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales....
, the Wooer pretends to be Palamon to sleep with and marry the Jailer's Daughter.)
The two uses of the bed trick by Shakespeare are the most famous in the drama of his era; they are accompanied by more than forty other uses, however, and virtually every major successor of Shakespeare down to the closing of the theatres in 1642
1642 in literature
The year 1642 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*May - John Milton marries Marie Powell.*September 2 - The theatres in London are closed by the Puritan government; the "lascivious mirth and levity" of stage plays are to "cease and be forborn" for the next eighteen years, during...
employed the plot element at least once. The use of the bed trick in Middleton
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...
and Rowley's
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...
The Changeling
The Changeling (play)
The Changeling is a Jacobean tragedy written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. Widely regarded as "among the best" tragedies of the English Renaissance, the play has accumulated a significant body of critical commentary....
, in which Diaphanta takes Beatrice-Joanna's place on the latter's wedding night, is probably the most famous instance outside of Shakespeare. Rowley also provides a gender-reversed instance of the bed trick in his 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:...
, in which it is the male rather than the female partner in the sexual pair who is substituted. (Male versions of the bed trick are rarer but not unprecedented; a classical instance occurs when Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
disguises himself as Amphitryon
Amphitryon
Amphitryon , in Greek mythology, was a son of Alcaeus, king of Tiryns in Argolis.Amphitryon was a Theban general, who was originally from Tiryns in the eastern part of the Peloponnese. He was friends with Panopeus....
to impregnate Alcmene
Alcmene
In Greek mythology, Alcmene or Alcmena was the mother of Heracles.-Background:Alcmene was born to Electryon, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Tiryns and Mycenae or Medea in Argolis. Her mother was Anaxo, daughter of Alcaeus and Astydamia, daughter of Pelops and Hippodameia...
with the future Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
. Similarly in Arthurian legend, Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in...
takes the place of Gorlois
Gorlois
Gorlois was a Duke of Cornwall and Igraine's first husband before her marriage to Uther Pendragon, according to the Arthurian legend...
to impregnate Igraine
Igraine
Igraine , in Arthurian legend, is the mother of King Arthur. She is also known in Latin as Igerna, in Welsh as Eigyr, in French as Igerne, in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as Ygrayne— often modernized as Igraine—and in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival as Arnive...
with the future King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
.)
Multiple uses of the bed trick occur in the works of Thomas Middleton, John Marston
John Marston
John Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...
, John Fletcher
John Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's...
, James Shirley
James Shirley
James Shirley was an English dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly...
, Richard Brome
Richard Brome
Richard Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.-Life:Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity...
, and 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:...
. Shakespeare employs the bed trick to yield plot resolutions that largely conform to traditional morality, as do some of his contemporaries; in the comic subplot to The Insatiate Countess
The Insatiate Countess
The Insatiate Countess is an early Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy first published in 1613. The play is a problematic element in John Marston's dramatic canon.-Publication:...
(c. 1610), Marston constructs a double bed trick in which two would-be adulterers sleep with their own wives. Shakespeare's successors, however, tend to use the trick in more sensational and salacious ways. In Rowley's play cited above, it leads to the mistaken murder of the substituted man. Middleton's Hengist, King of Kent
Hengist, King of Kent
Hengist, King of Kent, or The Mayor of Quinborough is a Jacobean stage play by Thomas Middleton, first published in 1661.-Date:The date of authorship of the play is uncertain, though it is usually dated to c. 1615–20...
features an extreme version of the bed trick, in which a woman is kidnapped and raped in darkness, by a man she doesn't realize is her own husband.
Post-Renaissance
After theatres re-opened with the start of the RestorationEnglish 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, the bed trick made sporadic appearances in plays by Elkanah Settle
Elkanah Settle
Elkanah Settle was an English poet and playwright.He was born at Dunstable, and entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1666, but left without taking a degree. His first tragedy, Cambyses, King of Persia, was produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1667...
and Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
, and perhaps reached its culmination in Sir Francis Fane's
Francis Fane (dramatist)
Sir Francis Fane, of Fulbeck, in the county of Lincoln, K.B. was a writer of stage plays and poems and a courtier in the Restoration court of Charles II of England.-Biography:...
Love in the Dark (1675); but in time it passed out of fashion in drama.
Modern critics, readers, and audience members tend to find the bed trick highly artificial and lacking in credibility (though scholar Marliss Desens cites one alleged real-life instance of its employment in Shakespeare's era).
Some other bed-trick plays
- Blurt, Master ConstableBlurt, Master ConstableBlurt, Master Constable is a late Elizabethan comedy, interesting for the authorship problem it presents.The play is subtitled "The Spaniards' Night Walk," and an allusion to the Spanish in Ireland in the play's final scene — there was a Spanish raid on Ireland in September 1601 — helps...
- The English MoorThe English MoorThe English Moor, or the Mock Marriage is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome, noteworthy in its use of the stage device of blackface make-up...
- The Family of Love
- A Game at ChessA Game at ChessA Game at Chess is a comic satirical play by Thomas Middleton, first staged in August 1624 by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre, notable for its political content.-The play:...
- The GamesterThe GamesterThe Gamester is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy of manners written by James Shirley, premiered in 1633 and first published in 1637. The play is noteworthy for its realistic and detailed picture of gambling in its era....
- Grim the Collier of CroydonGrim the Collier of CroydonGrim the Collier of Croyden; or, The Devil and his Dame: with the Devil and Saint Dunston is a seventeenth-century play of uncertain authorship, first published in 1662. The play's title character is an established figure of the popular culture and folklore of the time who appeared in songs and...
- The Lady of PleasureThe Lady of PleasureThe Lady of Pleasure is a Caroline era comedy of manners written by James Shirley, first published in 1637. It has often been cited as among the best, and sometimes as the single best, the "most brilliant," of the dramatist's comic works....
- Love's Last ShiftLove's Last ShiftLove's Last Shift, or The Fool in Fashion is an English Restoration comedy by Colley Cibber from 1696.The play is regarded as an early herald of a shift in audience tastes away from the intellectualism and sexual frankness of Restoration comedy and towards the conservative certainties and gender...
- A Mad Couple Well-Match'dA Mad Couple Well-Match'dA Mad Couple Well-Match'd is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. It was first published in the 1653 Brome collection Five New Plays, issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring....
- The NovellaThe Novella (play)The Novella is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. It was first published in the 1653 Brome collection Five New Plays, issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring.-Date and Performance:...
- The Parliament of LoveThe Parliament of LoveThe Parliament of Love is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by Philip Massinger. The play was never printed in the seventeenth century, and survived only in a defective manuscript — making it arguably the most problematical work in the Massinger canon.The Parliament of Love was...
- The Queen of CorinthThe Queen of CorinthThe Queen of Corinth is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.-Date:...
- The WeddingThe Wedding (1629 play)The Wedding is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by James Shirley. Published in 1629, it was the first of Shirley's plays to appear in print. An early comedy of manners, it is set in the fashionable world of genteel London society in Shirley's day....
- The Widow's TearsThe Widow's TearsThe Widow's Tears is an early Jacobean era play, a comedy written by George Chapman. It is often considered the last of Chapman's comedies, and sometimes his most problematic, "the most provocative and the most paradoxical of any of his dramatic works."...
- The WitchThe WitchThe Witch is a Jacobean play, a tragicomedy written by Thomas Middleton. The play was acted by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. It is thought to have been written sometime between 1609 and 1616; it was not printed in its own era, and existed only in manuscript until it was published by...
- The Wonder of WomenThe Wonder of WomenThe Wonder of Women, or The Tragedy of Sophonisba is an early Jacobean stage play written by the satiric dramatist John Marston. It was first performed by the Children of the Revels, one of the troupes of boy actors popular at the time, in the Blackfriars Theatre.The play was entered into the...
In other media
In literature, the bed trick can be seen in Love in Excess, a novel by Eliza HaywoodEliza Haywood
Eliza Haywood , born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. Since the 1980s, Eliza Haywood’s literary works have been gaining in recognition and interest...
.
In Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's 1932 opera Arabella
Arabella
Arabella is a lyric comedy or opera in 3 acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration. It was first performed on 1 July 1933, at the Dresden Sächsisches Staatstheater....
, Zdenka/Zdenko, the daughter consigned to live as a boy because of family finances, contrives to pretend she is her sister Arabella in order to sleep with Matteo, with whom she is secretly in love.