Love's Cruelty is a Caroline-era stage play, a tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 written by 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...

, and first published in 1640

1640 in literature

The year 1640 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 21 - Salmacida Spolia, a masque written by Sir William Davenant and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace — the final royal masque of the Caroline era.*March 17 - Henry Burnell's play Landgartha...

.

The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels

Master of the Revels

The Master of the Revels was a position within the English, and later the British, royal household heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels" that originally had responsibilities for overseeing royal festivities, known as revels, and later also became responsible for stage censorship,...

, on November 14, 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....

. Like the majority of Shirley's dramas, it was acted by Queen Henrietta's Men

Queen Henrietta's Men

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

 at the Cockpit Theatre

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 christened The Phoenix....

. The play 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 April 25, 1639

1639 in literature

The year 1639 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*May 21 - The King's Men act John Fletcher's The Mad Lover.*Blaise Pascal's family move to Rouen.*François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer is elected to the Académie Française....

 by the booksellers Andrew Crooke and William Cooke

Andrew Crooke and William Cooke

Andrew Crooke and William Cooke were London publishers of the mid-17th-century. In partnership and individually, they issued significant texts of English Renaissance drama, most notably of the plays of James Shirley....

, along with three other Shirley plays. (The three were The Opportunity

The Opportunity

The Opportunity is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by James Shirley, published in 1640. The play has been called "a capital little comedy, fairly bubbling over with clever situations and charming character."...

, The Coronation

The Coronation

The Coronation is the title of*a 1630s play, The Coronation *a 2000 novel, The Coronation...

, and The Night Walker

The Night Walker

The Night Walker, or The Little Thief is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and later revised by his younger contemporary James Shirley. It was first published in 1640.-Authorship:...

.) The play was published the next year, 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 by Thomas Cotes

Thomas Cotes

Thomas Cotes was a London printer of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, best remembered for printing the Second Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays in 1632.-Life and work:...

 — though only Andrew Crooke's name is on the title page.

Shirley based his plot on material from two sources: novel 36 of the Heptameron

Heptameron

The Heptameron is a collection of 72 short stories written in French by Marguerite of Navarre, published in 1558. It has the form of a frame narrative and was inspired by The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio...

of Marguerite of Navarre

Marguerite de Navarre

Marguerite de Navarre , also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Margaret of Navarre, was the queen consort of Henry II of Navarre...

, and novel 6, decade 3, of the Hecatomithi of Cinthio

Giovanni Battista Giraldi

Giovanni Battista Giraldi was an Italian novelist and poet. He appended the nickname Cinthio to his name and is commonly referred to by that name .Born at Ferrara, he was educated at the university there, and in 1525 became its professor of natural philosophy...

. Shirley may have accessed Marguerite's tale in English translation in The Palace of Pleasure by 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...

. Shirley's work also bears a significant resemblance to 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:...

's A Woman Killed with Kindness

A Woman Killed with Kindness

A Woman Killed with Kindness is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragedy written by Thomas Heywood. Acted in 1603 and first published in 1607, the play has generally been considered Heywood's masterpiece, and has received the most critical attention among Heywood's works...

.

Among its other features, Love's Cruelty contains a noteworthy indication of the influence of the masque

Masque

The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...

 on the mind of the contemporary audience. The masque — which Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...

, probably its greatest artistic innovator, termed "pictures with light and motion" — was the seventeenth century's closest analogue to the modern cinema spectacular. In Shirley's play, the character Hippolito offers a contemporaneous response to the spectacles of the form:

A scene to take your eye with wonder, now to see a forest move, and the pride of summer brought into a walking wood; in the instant, as if the sea had swallowed up the earth, to see waves capering about tall ships...In the height of this rapture, a tempest so artificial and sudden in the clouds, with a general darkness and thunder, so seeming made to threaten, that you would cry out with the mariners in the work, you cannot escape drowning.

Not long after, Shirley would himself write perhaps the most successful masque of his generation in The Triumph of Peace

The Triumph of Peace

The Triumph of Peace was a Caroline era masque, "invented and written" by James Shirley, performed on February 3, 1634 and published the same year. The production was designed by Inigo Jones.-Inspiration:...

(1634

1634 in literature

The year 1634 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The King's Men perform Cymbeline at the court of King Charles I of England.*January 22 - The King's Men perform Davenant's The Wits at the Blackfriars Theatre....

).

As a boy player

Boy player

Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the mainstream companies and performed the female roles, as women did not perform on the English stage in this period...

, Nicholas Burt

Nicholas Burt

Nicholas Burt , or Birt or Burght among other variants, was a prominent English actor of the seventeenth century. In a long career, he was perhaps best known as the first actor to play the role of Othello in the Restoration era.A "Nicholas Bert" was christened on 27 May 1621, in Norwich; the record...

 was noted for his performance as Clariana; Michael Mohun

Michael Mohun

Michael Mohun was a leading British actor both before and after the 1642—60 closing of the theatres.Mohun began his stage career as a boy player filling female roles; he was part of Christopher Beeston's theatrical establishment at the Cockpit Theatre, "eventually becoming a key member of Queen...

 took the role of Bellamente both before and after the theatre closure of 1642–60. Love's Cruelty was revived early in 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; it was acted at the Red Bull Theatre

Red 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...

 on Thursday, November 15, 1660

1660 in literature

The year 1660 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* January 1 - Samuel Pepys starts his diary.* February - John Rhodes reopens the old Cockpit Theatre in London, forms a company of young actors and begins to stage plays...

. Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

 saw another performance of the play on December 30, 1667

1667 in literature

-Events:* The Roman Catholic Church places the works of René Descartes on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.* Molière's play, Tartuffe, is banned.* Edmund Castell is imprisoned for debt....

; he judged it "a very silly play."

Synopsis

The play is set in the northern Italian city of Ferrara

Ferrara

Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...

. Bellamente and Clariana are engaged to be married. She is interested to meet Bellamente's close and highly-praised friend Hippolito. She visits him in disguise; he is called away to answer a summons from the city's Duke, and locks her in his room. Delayed longer than he expected, Hippolito sends his friend Bellamente to release the mysterious woman; Bellamente is astonished to find this fiancée, but accepts her explanation, and eventually married her. Clariana, however, commits adultery with Hippolito. They are caught by a servant, who informs Bellamente—who, after an internal debate, lets the pair off unpunished, largely to conceal his own dishonor.

The Duke of Farrara is attempting to seduce a young woman named Eubella; he employs Hippolito as his advocate. Yet Hippolito feels guilty about his betrayal of Bellamente's trust, and is charmed by Eubella's innocence and virtue; he proposes marriage to the girl. The Duke learns of this, but his own guilt leads him to bless their intended marriage. Clariana doesn't feel the same way: desrious to break up the marriage, Clariana summons Hippolito to her chamber under a false pretext on the morning of his intended wedding. Hippolito has no interest in Clariana, and rejects her attempted interference; but they are caught together, once more. Clariana stabs Hippolito, who in turn wounds her with his sword. Clariana confesses her fault to her husband, then dies; and Hippolito also dies after seeing Eubella one last time. Bellamente dies of shock; the Duke marries Eubella himself.