The Chances
Encyclopedia
The Chances is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy
written by John Fletcher
. It was one of Fletcher's great popular successes, "frequently performed and reprinted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."
The play's Prologue assigns the play to Fletcher alone; since his distinctive pattern of stylistic and textual features
is continuous through the play, scholars and critics regard Fletcher's sole authorship as clear and unambiguous.
, one of his regular sources; The Chances borrows from "La Señora Cornelia," one of the Novelas ejemplares, first published in Spain in 1613
and translated into French in 1615
. (Fletcher exploited another of the Novelas for his Love's Pilgrimage
.) The play must have originated between this period (scholars dispute Fletcher's knowledge of Spanish) and the dramatist's death in 1625. Current scholarship assigns the play to 1617
(it refers to Jonson's
The Devil is an Ass
, performed the previous year), as a work staged by the King's Men
at the Blackfriars Theatre
.
and the Interregnum
when the London theatres were officially closed to full-length plays (1642–60), material from The Chances was extracted to form a droll
titled The Landlady, which was later printed by Francis Kirkman
in his collection The Wits (1672
).
The play was revived early in the Restoration
era; Samuel Pepys
saw it in 1660, 1661, and 1667. Like many Fletcherian works, the play was adapted during the Restoration; one popular adaptation by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
was first staged in 1682, and was a hit for its star, Charles Hart
. David Garrick staged another popular adaptation in 1773. In 1821, Frederic Reynolds
staged a musical version of The Chances under the title Don Juan, or The Two Violettas.
of 1647
, and was included in the second folio of 1679
. Adapted versions were printed to accompany Restoration
productions: Buckingham's text in 1682, 1692, 1705, 1780, 1791, and after; Garrick's in 1773, 1774, and 1777.
, Act I scene ii for a famously verbose example), Fletcher forces the audience to piece together the plot through a series of short action scenes. (There are fully eleven scenes in Act I.)
The play is set in Bologna
. The opening scene introduces Don John and Don Frederick, two Spanish gentlemen visiting the city; they have come to view a famous beauty, but so far without success. The two friends agree to meet on the city's high street at evening — but when the time comes they manage to miss each other. As the city's other houses are being shut up for the night, John sees one that remains open and well-lit; curious, he looks in, and is confronted by a woman who thrusts a mysterious bundle into his arms. He leaves with the bundle, naively hoping that it contains a treasure of gold and jewels; instead he finds that it encloses...a baby. He takes the infant back to his lodgings; his landlady is outraged, assuming that he has brought home his own bastard. With a gift of a bottle of wine and the application of its contents, the landlady is mollified, and she agrees to find care and a wet-nurse for the child. Don John leaves, once again in search of his friend.
Don Frederick, meanwhile, is still out in the city's streets, looking for Don John. A strange woman accosts him, mistaking him for the man she hopes to meet; when she discovers her error, she appeals to his sense of honor to protect her and guide her to safety. Being an honorable fellow, Frederick agrees, and takes her back to his lodging. (The woman turns out to be Costantia, the famous beauty they came to see.) The streets clearly are not safe; two bands of armed men are prowling the city. One is led by the Duke of Ferrara
, the man Costantia was expecting to meet; the other is led by Petrucchio, the governor of Bologna and Costantia's brother. The parties meet, and fight; Don John stumbles upon the Duke as he is beset by Petrucchio and his men. Offended by the unfair odds, John draws his sword, fights on the Duke's side, and drives off the attackers, wounding Petrucchio's kinsman Antonio.
It is gradually revealed that Petrucchio is looking for revenge against the Duke for seducing and impregnating his sister Costantia; the mystery baby is their son. John and Frederick are caught up in the affair — but they manage to ascertain that the Duke and Costantia are pre-contracted
to marry, which palliates Petrucchio's offended honor. Further complications ensue, however. Costantia confesses her situation to the landlady, and the two women realize that the mystery baby is her son; the landlady takes Costantia to see the baby — which means that both are missing when John and Frederick return. The two friends overhear a young musician named Francisco talking about a woman named Costantia, and they assume he means the Costantia they know — which leads them to doubt the woman's truthfulness and chastity. The situation causes the two friends to begin to suspect each other, and Petrucchio and the Duke to suspect them in turn. The muddle is eventually straightened out, when the four men track down this Costantia and learn that she is another woman of the same name — she is Antonio's courtezan, who has robbed him of gold and jewels, expecting him to die of his wounds.
The four men are still seeking the aristocratic Costantia; they consult a scholar who has a reputation for conjuring devils and using them to find hidden things and people. The four witness a display of ersatz magic that evokes Costantia and the baby; in the end they learn that the conjuring was staged, and all the parties are re-united for a happy ending.
at the Chichester Festival Theatre
.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
written by 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...
. It was one of Fletcher's great popular successes, "frequently performed and reprinted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."
The play's Prologue assigns the play to Fletcher alone; since his distinctive pattern of stylistic and textual features
Stylometry
Stylometry is the application of the study of linguistic style, usually to written language, but it has successfully been applied to music and to fine-art paintings as well.Stylometry is often used to attribute authorship to anonymous or disputed documents...
is continuous through the play, scholars and critics regard Fletcher's sole authorship as clear and unambiguous.
Source and date
For the plot of his play, Fletcher depended upon Miguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
, one of his regular sources; The Chances borrows from "La Señora Cornelia," one of the Novelas ejemplares, first published in Spain in 1613
1613 in literature
The year 1613 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*English poet Francis Quarles becomes cupbearer to Princess Elizabeth....
and translated into French in 1615
1615 in literature
The year 1615 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 6 - Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace....
. (Fletcher exploited another of the Novelas for his Love's Pilgrimage
Love's Pilgrimage (play)
Love's Pilgrimage is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. The play is unusual in their canon, in that its opening scene contains material from Ben Jonson's 1629 comedy The New Inn.-The problem:...
.) The play must have originated between this period (scholars dispute Fletcher's knowledge of Spanish) and the dramatist's death in 1625. Current scholarship assigns the play to 1617
1617 in literature
The year 1617 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*March 4 - Shrovetide riot of the London apprentices damages the Cockpit Theatre...
(it refers to Jonson's
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
The Devil is an Ass
The Devil is an Ass
The Devil is an Ass is a Jacobean comedy by Ben Jonson, first performed in 1616 and first published in 1631.The Devil is an Ass followed Bartholomew Fair , one of the author's greatest works, and marks the start of the final phase of his dramatic career...
, performed the previous year), as a work staged by the King's Men
King's Men (playing company)
The King's Men was the company of actors to which William Shakespeare belonged through most of his career. Formerly known as The Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it became The King's Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne and became the company's patron.The...
at the Blackfriars Theatre
Blackfriars Theatre
Blackfriars Theatre was the name of a theatre in the Blackfriars district of the City of London during the Renaissance. The theatre began as a venue for child actors associated with the Queen's chapel choirs; in this function, the theatre hosted some of the most innovative drama of Elizabeth and...
.
After 1642
During the years of the English Civil WarEnglish Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
and the Interregnum
English Interregnum
The English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and military rule by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the Commonwealth of England after the English Civil War...
when the London theatres were officially closed to full-length plays (1642–60), material from The Chances was extracted to form 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...
titled The Landlady, which was later printed by Francis Kirkman
Francis Kirkman
Francis Kirkman appears in many roles in the English literary world of the second half of the seventeenth century, as a publisher, bookseller, librarian, author and bibliographer...
in his collection The Wits (1672
1672 in literature
The year 1672 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* In London, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is destroyed by fire. The King's Company moves into the theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields, which their rivals the Duke's Company left the previous year.* During the 1672–73 theatre...
).
The play 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; 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 it in 1660, 1661, and 1667. Like many Fletcherian works, the play was adapted during the Restoration; one popular adaptation by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, PC, FRS was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...
was first staged in 1682, and was a hit for its star, Charles Hart
Charles Hart (17th-century actor)
Charles Hart was a prominent British Restoration actor.A Charles Hart was christened on 11 December 1625, in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate, in London. It is not absolutely certain that this was the actor, though the name was not common at the time...
. David Garrick staged another popular adaptation in 1773. In 1821, Frederic Reynolds
Frederic Reynolds
Frederic Reynolds was a British playwright and theatrical producer in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries....
staged a musical version of The Chances under the title Don Juan, or The Two Violettas.
Publication
The play was originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folioBeaumont and Fletcher folios
The Beaumont and Fletcher folios were two large folio collections of the stage plays of John Fletcher and his collaborators. The first was issued in 1647, and the second in 1679. The two collections were important in preserving many works of English Renaissance drama.-The first folio, 1647:The 1647...
of 1647
1647 in literature
The year 1647 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Thomas Hobbes becomes tutor to the future Charles II of England.* Plagiarist Robert Baron publishes his Deorum Dona, a masque, and Gripus and Hegio, a pastoral, which draw heavily on the poems of Edmund Waller and John Webster's...
, and was included in the second folio of 1679
1679 in literature
This article lists some of the most significant events of the year 1679 in literature.-Events:*John Locke returns to England from France.*Étienne Baluze becomes almoner to King Louis XIV of France....
. Adapted versions were printed to accompany 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...
productions: Buckingham's text in 1682, 1692, 1705, 1780, 1791, and after; Garrick's in 1773, 1774, and 1777.
Synopsis
The playwright chose an unusual and rather modern-seeming approach for the opening of this play: in place of the type of exposition common in English Renaissance plays (see The TempestThe Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
, Act I scene ii for a famously verbose example), Fletcher forces the audience to piece together the plot through a series of short action scenes. (There are fully eleven scenes in Act I.)
The play is set in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
. The opening scene introduces Don John and Don Frederick, two Spanish gentlemen visiting the city; they have come to view a famous beauty, but so far without success. The two friends agree to meet on the city's high street at evening — but when the time comes they manage to miss each other. As the city's other houses are being shut up for the night, John sees one that remains open and well-lit; curious, he looks in, and is confronted by a woman who thrusts a mysterious bundle into his arms. He leaves with the bundle, naively hoping that it contains a treasure of gold and jewels; instead he finds that it encloses...a baby. He takes the infant back to his lodgings; his landlady is outraged, assuming that he has brought home his own bastard. With a gift of a bottle of wine and the application of its contents, the landlady is mollified, and she agrees to find care and a wet-nurse for the child. Don John leaves, once again in search of his friend.
Don Frederick, meanwhile, is still out in the city's streets, looking for Don John. A strange woman accosts him, mistaking him for the man she hopes to meet; when she discovers her error, she appeals to his sense of honor to protect her and guide her to safety. Being an honorable fellow, Frederick agrees, and takes her back to his lodging. (The woman turns out to be Costantia, the famous beauty they came to see.) The streets clearly are not safe; two bands of armed men are prowling the city. One is led by the Duke 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...
, the man Costantia was expecting to meet; the other is led by Petrucchio, the governor of Bologna and Costantia's brother. The parties meet, and fight; Don John stumbles upon the Duke as he is beset by Petrucchio and his men. Offended by the unfair odds, John draws his sword, fights on the Duke's side, and drives off the attackers, wounding Petrucchio's kinsman Antonio.
It is gradually revealed that Petrucchio is looking for revenge against the Duke for seducing and impregnating his sister Costantia; the mystery baby is their son. John and Frederick are caught up in the affair — but they manage to ascertain that the Duke and Costantia are pre-contracted
Handfasting
Handfasting is a traditional European ceremony of betrothal or wedding. It usually involved the tying or binding of the right hands of the bride and groom with a cord or ribbon for the duration of the wedding ceremony.-Etymology:...
to marry, which palliates Petrucchio's offended honor. Further complications ensue, however. Costantia confesses her situation to the landlady, and the two women realize that the mystery baby is her son; the landlady takes Costantia to see the baby — which means that both are missing when John and Frederick return. The two friends overhear a young musician named Francisco talking about a woman named Costantia, and they assume he means the Costantia they know — which leads them to doubt the woman's truthfulness and chastity. The situation causes the two friends to begin to suspect each other, and Petrucchio and the Duke to suspect them in turn. The muddle is eventually straightened out, when the four men track down this Costantia and learn that she is another woman of the same name — she is Antonio's courtezan, who has robbed him of gold and jewels, expecting him to die of his wounds.
The four men are still seeking the aristocratic Costantia; they consult a scholar who has a reputation for conjuring devils and using them to find hidden things and people. The four witness a display of ersatz magic that evokes Costantia and the baby; in the end they learn that the conjuring was staged, and all the parties are re-united for a happy ending.
Modern performances
The Chances received a rare twentieth-century production in 1962, when it was staged by Laurence OlivierLaurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
at the Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....
.