The Country Captain
Encyclopedia
The Country Captain, alternatively known as Captain Underwit, is a Caroline era stage play written by William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle
, and first published in 1649
. It has attracted critical attention primarily for the question of James Shirley's
participation in its authorship.
by the King's Men
, and is plausibly dated to c. 1639–40.
The Country Captain was revived early in the Restoration
period. Samuel Pepys
saw it performed on October 21, 1661. In his Diary he called it "so silly a play as in all my life I never saw" — though this negative verdict did not prevent Pepys from seeing the play again on November 25 of that year, and on August 14, 1667, and on May 14, 1668.
volume that included Newcastle's play The Variety, issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley
and Humphrey Robinson
in 1649. That first edition attributes the plays only to "a person of honor," though Newcastle's authorship is stated in 17th-century sources. The Country Captain also exists in a manuscript, Harleian MS. 7650 in the collection of the British Museum
; the MS. is judged to be in the hand of Edward Knight
, the prompter of the King's Men. The two texts are very similar though not identical; the manuscript appears to be the original authorial version, while the printed text shows the cuts and changes that adjusted the play for stage performance.
edited the play, from the manuscript, for the second volume of his series Old English Plays (1883) — apparently unaware of the 1649 printed text. Bullen followed J. O. Halliwell-Philips in titling the play Captain Underwit, and attributed the work to James Shirley. Subsequent critics and scholars have almost universally concluded that Bullen went too far to assigning the entire play to Shirley, and have judged that Newcastle "is almost certainly the author of this comedy." But most have accepted the view that Shirley had some hand in helping Newcastle to write the play. Some have speculated a connection with a lost play by Shirley titled Look to the Lady, which was entered into the Stationers' Register
on March 11, 1640
but never published — "Look to the Lady" being a reasonable alternative title for the drama (see the Synopsis below).
The relationship between Cavendish and Shirley is clear from 17th-century sources. In his Athenae Oxoniensis, Anthony à Wood
wrote that "our author Shirley did also much assist his generous patron William duke of Newcastle in the composition of certain plays, which the duke afterwards published." Shirley also dedicated his tragedy The Traitor
to Newcastle upon its 1635
publication. The signs of Shirley's hand in The Country Captain are abundant and varied; they range from parallels of plot device and characterization to specific phrasings. For examples of the latter: The Country Captain employs the phrase "feather-footed Hours," which also occurs in two of Shirley's masque
s, The Triumph of Beauty
and The Triumph of Peace
. The line "That snorts at Spain by an instinct of Nature" can be found both in The Country Captain and in Shirley's The Bird in a Cage
. A verse beginning "Come let us throw the dice," which is used as a drinking song in the play, is printed in Shirley's Poems (1646
).
Sir Francis arranges a meeting with Lady Huntlove; he fakes indisposition when Sir Richard goes hunting. Sir Richard returns unexpectedly and catches the two together — but Lady Huntlove manages to convince her husband that she is sleepwalking. The would-be lovers try for a second assignation: the Lady pretends to be pacing the floor with a toothache, and when her husband is asleep Dorothy slips into bed in her place and Lady Huntlove goes to Sir Francis. But the gentleman, tired of waiting, has fallen asleep. For their third attempt, Sir Francis intends to fake a riding accident while he and Sir Richard are going to London, and so return to the estate without the husband. He falls off his horse in reality, though, and injures himself seriously; and he takes this as a bad omen and turns penitent.
The younger Courtwell has better luck in courting Lady Huntlove's Sister — though at first she mocks and ridicules him, and he responds in kind. Paradoxically, the Sister is provoked by Courtwell's subsequent coolness; the two end up married. Dorothy sends a false letter to Sir Richard, indicating that she, Dorothy, is a runaway, and the daughter of a rich knight. Captain Underwit marries her in the belief that she's a good catch...and later finds out the truth.
A supply of more blatant comedy is provided by Engine, who has to feign lunacy to escape the consequences of his previous financial manipulations and swindles.
In addition to a wide range of commonalities with Shirley's plays, The Country Captain shows debts to the drama of Ben Jonson
. This is unsurprising, since Newcastle was a patron and friend of Jonson, and on the basis of his plays is often included in the so-called Sons of Ben, the group of self-styled imitators of the master.
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne KG KB PC was an English polymath and aristocrat, having been a poet, equestrian, playwright, swordsman, politician, architect, diplomat and soldier...
, and first published in 1649
1649 in literature
The year 1649 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - Local authorities raid the four remaining London theatres to suppress clandestine play-acting...
. It has attracted critical attention primarily for the question of James Shirley's
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...
participation in its authorship.
Date and performance
The play's date of authorship and its performance history are not known in detail; it was performed at the Blackfriars TheatreBlackfriars 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...
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...
, and is plausibly dated to c. 1639–40.
The Country Captain 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...
period. 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 performed on October 21, 1661. In his Diary he called it "so silly a play as in all my life I never saw" — though this negative verdict did not prevent Pepys from seeing the play again on November 25 of that year, and on August 14, 1667, and on May 14, 1668.
Texts
The play was first printed in a duodecimoBook 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"...
volume that included Newcastle's play The Variety, issued by the booksellers 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...
and Humphrey Robinson
Humphrey Robinson
Humphrey Robinson was a prominent London publisher and bookseller of the middle seventeenth century.Robinson was the son of a Bernard Robinson, a clerk from Carlisle; other members of his family were important clergymen and church office-holders. Humphrey Robinson became a "freeman" of the ...
in 1649. That first edition attributes the plays only to "a person of honor," though Newcastle's authorship is stated in 17th-century sources. The Country Captain also exists in a manuscript, Harleian MS. 7650 in the collection of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
; the MS. is judged to be in the hand of Edward Knight
Edward Knight (King's Men)
Edward Knight was the prompter of the King's Men, the acting company that performed the plays of William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, and other playwrights of Jacobean and Caroline drama.In English Renaissance theatre, the prompter managed the company's performances, ensuring that they...
, the prompter of the King's Men. The two texts are very similar though not identical; the manuscript appears to be the original authorial version, while the printed text shows the cuts and changes that adjusted the play for stage performance.
Authorship
A. H. BullenArthur Henry Bullen
Arthur Henry Bullen, often known as A. H. Bullen, was an English editor and publisher, a specialist in 16th and 17th century literature, and founder of the Shakespeare Head Press, which for its first decades was a publisher of fine editions in the tradition of the Kelmscott Press.His father George...
edited the play, from the manuscript, for the second volume of his series Old English Plays (1883) — apparently unaware of the 1649 printed text. Bullen followed J. O. Halliwell-Philips in titling the play Captain Underwit, and attributed the work to James Shirley. Subsequent critics and scholars have almost universally concluded that Bullen went too far to assigning the entire play to Shirley, and have judged that Newcastle "is almost certainly the author of this comedy." But most have accepted the view that Shirley had some hand in helping Newcastle to write the play. Some have speculated a connection with a lost play by Shirley titled Look to the Lady, which 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 March 11, 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...
but never published — "Look to the Lady" being a reasonable alternative title for the drama (see the Synopsis below).
The relationship between Cavendish and Shirley is clear from 17th-century sources. In his Athenae Oxoniensis, Anthony à Wood
Anthony Wood
Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...
wrote that "our author Shirley did also much assist his generous patron William duke of Newcastle in the composition of certain plays, which the duke afterwards published." Shirley also dedicated his tragedy The Traitor
The Traitor
The Traitor is a Caroline era stage play, a tragedy written by James Shirley. Along with The Cardinal, The Traitor is widely considered to represent the finest of Shirley's efforts in the genre, and to be among the best tragedies of its period...
to Newcastle upon its 1635
1635 in literature
The year 1635 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 22 - In Paris, the Académie française is founded.*May 6 - The King's Men perform Othello at the Blackfriars Theatre.*Birth of René Descartes' daughter, Francine....
publication. The signs of Shirley's hand in The Country Captain are abundant and varied; they range from parallels of plot device and characterization to specific phrasings. For examples of the latter: The Country Captain employs the phrase "feather-footed Hours," which also occurs in two of Shirley's 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...
s, The Triumph of Beauty
The Triumph of Beauty
The Triumph of Beauty is a Caroline era masque, written by James Shirley and first published in 1646. The masque shows a strong influence of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream....
and 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:...
. The line "That snorts at Spain by an instinct of Nature" can be found both in The Country Captain and in Shirley's The Bird in a Cage
The Bird in a Cage
The Bird in a Cage, or The Beauties is a Caroline era comedy written by James Shirley, first published in 1633. The play is notable, even among Shirley's plays, for its lushness — what one critic has called "gay romanticism run mad."-History:...
. A verse beginning "Come let us throw the dice," which is used as a drinking song in the play, is printed in Shirley's Poems (1646
1646 in literature
The year 1646 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*March 24 - The King's Men petition Parliament for three and a half years' back pay; this is despite the London theatres officially remaining closed through the middle 1640s...
).
Synopsis
Sir Richard Huntlove is an elderly aristocrat who is jealous of his beautiful and vivacious young wife. His jealousy is more valid than he realizes, for Lady Huntlove is planning an affair with a gentleman named Sir Francis Courtwell. To distance his wife from the temptations of London, Sir Richard moves his household to his country estate — along with a gaggle of followers and hangers-on, including: Lady Huntlove's otherwise-unnamed Sister; Sir Francis Courtwell and his nephew, the younger Courtwell being in love with the Sister; Captain Underwit, Sir Richard's stepson by his first wife; Engine, a "projector" or speculator; Device, a "fantastical gallant;" and Captain Sacksbury, a drunken old soldier. Captain Underwit has just received a commission in the local militia, and Captain Sacksbury is his mentor. Lady Huntlove's maid Dorothy is also present; she intends to become Mrs. Capt. Underwit.Sir Francis arranges a meeting with Lady Huntlove; he fakes indisposition when Sir Richard goes hunting. Sir Richard returns unexpectedly and catches the two together — but Lady Huntlove manages to convince her husband that she is sleepwalking. The would-be lovers try for a second assignation: the Lady pretends to be pacing the floor with a toothache, and when her husband is asleep Dorothy slips into bed in her place and Lady Huntlove goes to Sir Francis. But the gentleman, tired of waiting, has fallen asleep. For their third attempt, Sir Francis intends to fake a riding accident while he and Sir Richard are going to London, and so return to the estate without the husband. He falls off his horse in reality, though, and injures himself seriously; and he takes this as a bad omen and turns penitent.
The younger Courtwell has better luck in courting Lady Huntlove's Sister — though at first she mocks and ridicules him, and he responds in kind. Paradoxically, the Sister is provoked by Courtwell's subsequent coolness; the two end up married. Dorothy sends a false letter to Sir Richard, indicating that she, Dorothy, is a runaway, and the daughter of a rich knight. Captain Underwit marries her in the belief that she's a good catch...and later finds out the truth.
A supply of more blatant comedy is provided by Engine, who has to feign lunacy to escape the consequences of his previous financial manipulations and swindles.
In addition to a wide range of commonalities with Shirley's plays, The Country Captain shows debts to the drama 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...
. This is unsurprising, since Newcastle was a patron and friend of Jonson, and on the basis of his plays is often included in the so-called Sons of Ben, the group of self-styled imitators of the master.
Sources
- Davis, Joe Lee. The Sons of Ben: Jonsonian Comedy in Caroline England. Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1967.
- Forsythe, Robert Stanley. The Relations of Shirley's Plays to the Elizabethan Drama. New York, Columbia University Press, 1914.
- Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists, Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978;
- Nason, Arthur Huntington. James Shirley, Dramatist: A Biographical and Critical Study. New York, 1915; reprinted New York, Benjamin Blom, 1967.
- Perry, Henry Ten Eyck. The First Duchess of Newcastle and Her Husband as Figures in Literary History. Boston, Ginn and Co., 1918.