The City Wit
Encyclopedia
The City Wit, or the Woman Wears the Breeches is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy
written by Richard Brome
that is sometimes classed among his best works. It was first published when it was included in the Five New Plays of 1653
, the collection of Brome works published by Humphrey Moseley
, Richard Marriot
, and Thomas Dring
.
one of Brome "earliest survivng" plays. It probably dates from c. 1629–32. The acting company
that premiered it is similarly unknown — though early in his career Brome was writing for the King's Men
, the troupe that staged his The Northern Lass
in 1629
. City Wit, like Northern Lass, is unusually rich in music: in the former drama the boy player
filling the role of Crack sings no less than a dozen times. The title role of Constance in Northern Lass shows a comparable richness in music. It is not impossible that both plays were staged by the King's Men, and even that both musical roles were acted by the same vocally-talented boy actor.
, and draws upon the rich tradition of earlier city comedies for many of its elements. One obvious debt is to Thomas Dekker and John Webster
's Westward Ho
(c. 1604). In that play, the London merchant Justiniano faces business difficulties and a rocky marriage; he pretends to leave London but in fact remains in the city to assume various disguises to manipulate the other characters. Brome adopts this plot wholesale for City Wit.
Given Brome's strong allegiance to the comedy of Ben Jonson
, it is not surprising to find Jonsonian elements in the play too. In fact, City Wit has been termed Brome's "most overtly Jonsonian comedy." In Act III, scene i, Crack specifically compares the play's three charlatan characters, Master Crasy, himself, and Mistress Tryman, to Subtle, Face, and Doll in The Alchemist
.
In turn, Brome's derivative play spawned a derivation of its own: Restoration
playwright George Powell's comedy A Very Good Wife, staged and printed in 1693, borrowed heavily from The City Wit and from Brome's The Court Beggar
.
and The Sparagus Garden
, of exploiting the actual locations of London for the settings of his scenes. In City Wit he carries this tendency to a surprisingly bold extreme, setting one scene (IV, ii) in the presence chamber at the court of King Charles I
, where he has his characters argue and brawl.
Crasy's departure, however, is a ruse; he remains in London to seek his revenge and the restoration of his credit. Disguised as a crippled ex-soldier, he robs Sarpego at sword-point and recovers the ten pounds the pedant owes him. Crasy's next disguise is more subtle: with a false beard and a gown, he masquerades as a physician, "Pulsefeel," who seeks out Josina as his new patient. She shows no remorse over her husband's fall, and is ready to move on to new fortunes and pleasures. Josina is handicapped by her illiteracy: she cannot read the love-letters and solicitations that Rufflit and Ticket send her. Crasy, as "Pulsefeel," promises to send a confidential servant to help her.
Crasy the phony doctor is approached by Crack, a boy pimp in the service of a young woman calling herself Mistess Tryman. Tryman is a fallen woman who masquerades as a wealthy young widow, just come to town from Cornwall; she is instantly the target of fortune hunters, and has found a residence in the house of Mr. Linsey-Wolsey. A woman in her position can use a doctor as a confdiant; and Crasy quickly joins with Tryman and Crack, three allies in confidence trick
s and chicanery.
Linsey-Wolsey plans to marry Tryman himself, and lays out money in pursuit of that goal; but his neighbor Pyannet Sneakup barges in to disrupt things, with a goal of winning the supposedly wealthy widow for her son Toby. Tryman feigns sickness, and tempts her would-be exploiters with the bequests of her last will and testament. Toby Sneakup has recently won a place at Court; Crasy masquerades as a Court messenger to send false messages back and forth among the characters, playing on their greed and ambition. The talkative Pyannet admits to have cheated Crasy of valuable jewels; the disguised Crasy manages to reclaim them as they pass as intended bribes and gratuities.
Crasy manages yet another disguise: Doctor "Pulsefeel" sends "Footwell" (Crasy-as-dancing-master) to Josina as her servant. Josina is eager to have a courtly lover, and is willing to accept either Ticket or Rufflit; "Footwell" pretends to be her go-between, but actually works to frustrate the intentions of all concerned. He inspires Josina to send gems and jewelry to the courtiers, and vice versa...only to intercept the gifts himself. He helps Ticket climb to Josina's balcony for an assignation...only to supend him in mid-air, so that Rufflit can beat him with a stick. He deludes Pyannet into believing that her husband Sneakup is cheating on her, making her a "cucquean" (a female cuckold); she goes to court to find Sneakup and beat him with a truncheon.
The tangle of confusion and trickery comes to a head in the final act. Linsey-Wolsey, irate at losing the widow Tryman, apprehends Crack and threatens to turn the boy over to the beadle
s for whipping; and Crack agrees to expose all. At the Sneakup house, a marriage contract between Tryman and Toby Sneakup is arranged, and a marriage masque
is rehearsed in which the real situation is revealed, to everyone's discomfort. Linsey-Wolsey bursts in with Crack, planning to expose Tryman as a fraud — but the exposé is even more extreme than expected, when Tryman lifts "her" skirts to show his trousers underneath. "Tryman" is actually Crasy's apprentice Jeremy in disguise, and Crack the supposed boy pimp is Jeremy's brother; they have been acting their roles to help Crasy recover his fortune and reputation. (It is in this sense that the play's subtitle, "the woman wears the breeches," applies.)
Neither Linsey-Wolsey, nor Toby and the Sneakups, want to face public embarrassment over courting a boy in disguise; for all concerned, it is best to let the matter drop. Crasy has cheated his debtors out of the funds they owed him to begin with, and so has evened his score. Josina has not actually committed adultery with either of her would-be lovers, so that a reconciliation with her husband is possible; and Crasy the City Wit has managed to restore himself to his old prosperity once more.
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 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...
that is sometimes classed among his best works. It was first published when it was included in the Five New Plays of 1653
1653 in literature
The year 1653 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* James Shirley's masque Cupid and Death is performed on March 26.* Pierre Corneille retires from the theatre for six years.* John Evelyn buys Sayes Court, Deptford....
, the collection of Brome works published by Humphrey Moseley
Humphrey Moseley
Humphrey Moseley was a prominent London publisher and bookseller in the middle seventeenth century.Possibly a son of publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley became a "freeman" of the Stationers Company, the guild of London booksellers, on 7 May 1627; he was selected a Warden of the Company on...
, Richard Marriot
John and Richard Marriot
John Marriot and his son Richard Marriot were prominent London publishers and booksellers in the seventeenth century. For a portion of their careers, the 1645–57 period, they were partners in a family business....
, and Thomas Dring
Thomas Dring
Thomas Dring was a London publisher and bookseller of the middle seventeenth century. He was in business from 1649 on; his shop was located "at the sign of the George in Fleet Street, near St...
.
Date and performance
There is no firm evidence on the date of The City Wit; scholars and critics have generally judged the play to beone of Brome "earliest survivng" plays. It probably dates from c. 1629–32. The acting company
Playing company
In Renaissance London, playing company was the usual term for a company of actors. These companies were organized around a group of ten or so shareholders , who performed in the plays but were also responsible for management. The sharers employed "hired men" — that is, the minor actors and...
that premiered it is similarly unknown — though early in his career Brome was writing for 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...
, the troupe that staged his The Northern Lass
The Northern Lass
The Northern Lass is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy by Richard Brome that premiered onstage in 1629 and was first printed in 1632. A popular hit with its audience, and one of his earliest successes, the play provided a foundation for Brome's career as a dramatist.-Performance and...
in 1629
1629 in literature
The year 1629 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*April 6 - Tommaso Campanella is released from custody in Rome, and gains the confidence of Pope Urban IV....
. City Wit, like Northern Lass, is unusually rich in music: in the former drama the 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...
filling the role of Crack sings no less than a dozen times. The title role of Constance in Northern Lass shows a comparable richness in music. It is not impossible that both plays were staged by the King's Men, and even that both musical roles were acted by the same vocally-talented boy actor.
Genre and influences
The City Wit fits securely into the sub-genre of city comedyCity 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...
, and draws upon the rich tradition of earlier city comedies for many of its elements. One obvious debt is to Thomas Dekker and John Webster
John Webster
John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...
's Westward Ho
Westward Ho
Westward Ho can refer to:In fiction:* Westward Ho , a 1604 play by John Webster and Thomas Dekker* Westward Ho! , an 1855 novel by Charles Kingsley* Westward Ho , a 1935 film starring John Wayne...
(c. 1604). In that play, the London merchant Justiniano faces business difficulties and a rocky marriage; he pretends to leave London but in fact remains in the city to assume various disguises to manipulate the other characters. Brome adopts this plot wholesale for City Wit.
Given Brome's strong allegiance to the comedy of Ben Jonson
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...
, it is not surprising to find Jonsonian elements in the play too. In fact, City Wit has been termed Brome's "most overtly Jonsonian comedy." In Act III, scene i, Crack specifically compares the play's three charlatan characters, Master Crasy, himself, and Mistress Tryman, to Subtle, Face, and Doll in The Alchemist
The Alchemist (play)
The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature...
.
In turn, Brome's derivative play spawned a derivation of its own: 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...
playwright George Powell's comedy A Very Good Wife, staged and printed in 1693, borrowed heavily from The City Wit and from Brome's The Court Beggar
The Court Beggar
The Court Beggar is a Caroline era stage play written by Richard Brome. It was first performed by the acting company known as Beeston's Boys at the Cockpit Theatre. It has sometimes been identified as the seditious play, performed at the Cockpit in May 1640, which the Master of the Revels moved to...
.
"Place realism"
The City Wit shows the same tendency that Brome displays in other works, like The Weeding of Covent GardenThe Weeding of Covent Garden
The Weeding of the Covent Garden, or the Middlesex Justice of Peace, alternatively titled The Covent Garden Weeded, is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome that was first published in 1659...
and The Sparagus Garden
The Sparagus Garden
The Sparagus Garden is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy by Richard Brome. It was the greatest success of Brome's career, and one of the major theatrical hits of its period.-Performance and publication:...
, of exploiting the actual locations of London for the settings of his scenes. In City Wit he carries this tendency to a surprisingly bold extreme, setting one scene (IV, ii) in the presence chamber at the court of King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, where he has his characters argue and brawl.
Synopsis
Master Crasy is a London merchant who has suffered a decline in fortune; he is honest and generous to a fault, and has encumbered himself with a load of debt. In the play's opening scene, a dinner is being held at his house for his debtors and creditors; the plan is that the two sides will reach an agreement that will keep Crasy from bankruptcy. Crasy himself, however, hesitates to join the dinner; he sits poring over his "empty Money-bags, Bills, Bonds, & Bookes of accomptes, &c." and brooding on his decline. His apprentice Jeremy then brings him news that the dinner has turned into a disaster: Crasy's mother-in-law Pyannet Sneakup, a shrew and harridan, has denounced him to the assembled company as a hopeless case: "Her mischievous tongue has over-thrown the good / Was meant to you." The woman herself enters, and reveals herself to be a ceaseless talker who browbeats her husband Sneakup into silence in her presence. Several of Crasy's debtors linger, including the pedant Sarpego, the courtiers Rufflit and Sir Andrew Ticket, and the merchant Mr. Linsey-Wolsey. Crasy makes a last attempt to get them to pay what they owe him, but without success. Crasy announces that he is leaving on a journey, a final attempt to restore his fortunes; he gives his apprentice Jeremy his freedom. Crasy's wife Josina returns to her parents' home.Crasy's departure, however, is a ruse; he remains in London to seek his revenge and the restoration of his credit. Disguised as a crippled ex-soldier, he robs Sarpego at sword-point and recovers the ten pounds the pedant owes him. Crasy's next disguise is more subtle: with a false beard and a gown, he masquerades as a physician, "Pulsefeel," who seeks out Josina as his new patient. She shows no remorse over her husband's fall, and is ready to move on to new fortunes and pleasures. Josina is handicapped by her illiteracy: she cannot read the love-letters and solicitations that Rufflit and Ticket send her. Crasy, as "Pulsefeel," promises to send a confidential servant to help her.
Crasy the phony doctor is approached by Crack, a boy pimp in the service of a young woman calling herself Mistess Tryman. Tryman is a fallen woman who masquerades as a wealthy young widow, just come to town from Cornwall; she is instantly the target of fortune hunters, and has found a residence in the house of Mr. Linsey-Wolsey. A woman in her position can use a doctor as a confdiant; and Crasy quickly joins with Tryman and Crack, three allies in confidence trick
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
s and chicanery.
Linsey-Wolsey plans to marry Tryman himself, and lays out money in pursuit of that goal; but his neighbor Pyannet Sneakup barges in to disrupt things, with a goal of winning the supposedly wealthy widow for her son Toby. Tryman feigns sickness, and tempts her would-be exploiters with the bequests of her last will and testament. Toby Sneakup has recently won a place at Court; Crasy masquerades as a Court messenger to send false messages back and forth among the characters, playing on their greed and ambition. The talkative Pyannet admits to have cheated Crasy of valuable jewels; the disguised Crasy manages to reclaim them as they pass as intended bribes and gratuities.
Crasy manages yet another disguise: Doctor "Pulsefeel" sends "Footwell" (Crasy-as-dancing-master) to Josina as her servant. Josina is eager to have a courtly lover, and is willing to accept either Ticket or Rufflit; "Footwell" pretends to be her go-between, but actually works to frustrate the intentions of all concerned. He inspires Josina to send gems and jewelry to the courtiers, and vice versa...only to intercept the gifts himself. He helps Ticket climb to Josina's balcony for an assignation...only to supend him in mid-air, so that Rufflit can beat him with a stick. He deludes Pyannet into believing that her husband Sneakup is cheating on her, making her a "cucquean" (a female cuckold); she goes to court to find Sneakup and beat him with a truncheon.
The tangle of confusion and trickery comes to a head in the final act. Linsey-Wolsey, irate at losing the widow Tryman, apprehends Crack and threatens to turn the boy over to the beadle
Beadle
Beadle, sometimes spelled "bedel," is a lay official of a church or synagogue who may usher, keep order, make reports, and assist in religious functions; or a minor official who carries out various civil, educational, or ceremonial duties....
s for whipping; and Crack agrees to expose all. At the Sneakup house, a marriage contract between Tryman and Toby Sneakup is arranged, and a marriage 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...
is rehearsed in which the real situation is revealed, to everyone's discomfort. Linsey-Wolsey bursts in with Crack, planning to expose Tryman as a fraud — but the exposé is even more extreme than expected, when Tryman lifts "her" skirts to show his trousers underneath. "Tryman" is actually Crasy's apprentice Jeremy in disguise, and Crack the supposed boy pimp is Jeremy's brother; they have been acting their roles to help Crasy recover his fortune and reputation. (It is in this sense that the play's subtitle, "the woman wears the breeches," applies.)
Neither Linsey-Wolsey, nor Toby and the Sneakups, want to face public embarrassment over courting a boy in disguise; for all concerned, it is best to let the matter drop. Crasy has cheated his debtors out of the funds they owed him to begin with, and so has evened his score. Josina has not actually committed adultery with either of her would-be lovers, so that a reconciliation with her husband is possible; and Crasy the City Wit has managed to restore himself to his old prosperity once more.
External links
- Richard Brome Online http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/brome/ contains a scholarly edition of this play, including textual and critical introductions.
- The City Wit online.