The Thracian Wonder
Encyclopedia
The Thracian Wonder is a stage play of English Renaissance drama
, a work that constitutes a long-standing and persistent problem for scholars and historians of the subject.
publication, in a quarto
printed by Thomas Johnson for the bookseller Francis Kirkman
— the only edition of the play in the seventeenth century. The quarto's title page states that the drama "hath been several times acted with great applause," though no hard evidence of the play's date of origin or early productions has survived.
, termed it a "tragical-comical-historical-pastoral play." The Thracian Wonder is in fact a pastoral
comedy
; critics have noted its general resemblances with Shakespeare's
The Winter's Tale
. Both plays derive from the prose romances of Robert Greene
, Shakespeare's from Pandosto
(1588
), and The Thracian Wonder from Menaphon (1589
).
More broadly, The Thracian Wonder reveals debts to the works of Edmund Spenser
and John Lyly
, and can be classed with plays that show the influence of Sidneyan
pastoral, like Shirley's
The Arcadia
.
and William Rowley, though critical opinion has been essentially unanimous in denying Webster any hand in the play. It is possible that Kirkman may have confused the play with the genuine Webster/Rowley work A Cure for a Cuckold
, which he also published in 1661.
Nineteenth-century scholars proposed Thomas Heywood
as a possible author, and the cases for Rowley and for Heywood have been debated pro and con in the critical literature. Editor Michael Nolan, in his 1997 edition of the play, accepted the work as a Rowley/Heywood collaboration.
(If valid, this attribution would constrain the play's possible date of authorship to the period of Rowley's playwriting career, roughly 1607 to 1625.)
In a 1908 study, O. L. Hatcher pointed out resemblances between The Thracian Wonder and Greene's dramatization of Orlando Furioso in addition to Menaphon, and on that basis argued for Greene's authorship of The Thracian Wonder — a hypothesis that has not found other support among critics.
The play's second scene introduces the characters of the subplot, a group of Thracian shepherds. Among them is Palemon, who is deeply in love with Serena. She spurns his affections; his lack of success in love affects his mental balance, leaving him a "mad lover." His brother Tityrus represents the opposite viewpoint, expressing cynical misogyny (until he himself falls in love later in the play). The scene also introduces the clown Muscod, who provides the play's comic relief
in this and subsequent subplot scenes.
Act I closes with a dumbshow
, which shows a storm-tossed Ariadne and Ragadon separately rescued by shepherds; a Chorus and a personified Time comment on the action.
Pheander's brother Sophos comes to court to protest his brother's conduct regarding Ariadne; Sophos bears a letter from the princess that explains her marriage. But the intemperate king refuses to listen, and banishes his brother from the kingdom. Thrace is struck by a plague, with many fatalities. Pheander sends to the oracle at Delphi
for guidance about the plague, but dislikes the Pythia
's dismal and cryptic answer. The king of Sicily invades with his army; Pheander is at first determined to resist, but his military weakness gives him second thoughts. He negotiates a truce with the Sicilians to search for their missing prince Radagon, and takes up the life of a wandering pilgrim while a Sicilian viceroy rules the kingdom.
Both Radagon and Ariadne live among the shepherds under assumed identities, he as "Menalchas" and she as "Mariana." At one point they are elected the king and queen of a shepherds' festival, but fail to recognize each other. (This inability of characters to recognize their friends and loved ones in changed circumstances can strike modern readers as absurd and imbecilic; but it is a recurring element in the popular literature and drama of the era. To select only one of many possible examples, Heywood's The Four Prentices of London features characters with the same handicap.) "Menalchas" does fall in love with "Mariana," however, because she so strongly resembles the supposedly dead Ariadne.
The scene shifts to Africa, where Sophos is shown with the King of Africa and his daughter and courtiers. In his exile, Sophos has won the friendship of the ruler of the Moors
, who is now prepared to intervene in Thracian affairs. Also present is Eusanius, the son of Ariadne and Radagon. An infant at the start of the play, he is now a young man of twenty, eager for military adventure. He and the king's daughter, Lillia Guida, are attracted to each other; when the king realizes this he grows irate, and exiles Eusanius. The young man returns to Thrace, and he too falls in with the shepherds, meeting both Ariadne and Radagon — without knowing they are his parents. Ariadne feels a strong emotional bond toward both men, who react jealously to each other.
While wandering in his pilgrim guise, Pheander also arrives on the scene, and is struck by Ariadne/Mariana, the "shepherds' queen." He abducts her and returns to court to resume his rule. The shepherds rise up in rebellion to rescue their "queen" — but then join forces with Pheander when the armies of Sicily and Africa arrive. The final scenes depict a confusion of battle among the assembled forces. Eusanius captures his unknown grandfather, the Sicilian king, and turns his prisoner over to the shepherds' commander, his unknown father Radagon. Radagon, however, knows his own father, and switches sides to defend him.
The conflict eventually boils down to a single combat between Radagon and Eusanius; but before they can kill each other, their true identities are revealed, and the differences among the principals are resolved. Eusanius, the lost child who triumphantly returns as heir to the kingdom, is the "Thracian wonder" of the title. (Obscure plot points, such as the reason for Eusanius's presence in Africa with Sophos, are also elucidated.) Among the shepherds, Palemon is wounded in the battle; the shock helps to cure his love-madness, and also helps Serena realize that she actually loves him. Palemon and Serena are happily united at the play's end, as are Radagon and Ariadne, and Eusanius and Lillia Guida; peace and amity are restored.
English 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...
, a work that constitutes a long-standing and persistent problem for scholars and historians of the subject.
Publication
The Thracian Wonder enters the historical record with its initial 16611661 in literature
The year 1661 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* The Book of Kells is presented to Trinity College, Dublin.* Controversial author James Harrington is arrested on a charge of conspiracy....
publication, 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 Johnson for the bookseller 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...
— the only edition of the play in the seventeenth century. The quarto's title page states that the drama "hath been several times acted with great applause," though no hard evidence of the play's date of origin or early productions has survived.
Genre and source
The title page of the original edition describes the play as a "comical history." Scholar Marvin T. Herrick, borrowing from Polonius in HamletHamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, termed it a "tragical-comical-historical-pastoral play." The Thracian Wonder is in fact a pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
comedy
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...
; critics have noted its general resemblances with Shakespeare's
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"...
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...
. Both plays derive from the prose romances of Robert Greene
Robert Greene (16th century)
Robert Greene was an English author best known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, widely believed to contain a polemic attack on William Shakespeare. He was born in Norwich and attended Cambridge University, receiving a B.A. in 1580, and an M.A...
, Shakespeare's from Pandosto
Pandosto
Pandosto: The Triumph of Time is a prose romance written by the English author Robert Greene, first published in 1588. A later edition of 1607 was re-titled Dorastus and Fawnia. Popular during the time of William Shakespeare, the work's plot was an inspiration for that of Shakespeare's play The...
(1588
1588 in literature
-Events:*January 1 - The Children of Paul's perform at the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England, probably acting Lyly's Gallathea.*February 2 - The Children of Paul's return to the English court, probably with Lyly's Endymion....
), and The Thracian Wonder from Menaphon (1589
1589 in literature
-Events:*The Children of Paul's perform twice at the English royal court during the first two weeks of January.-New books:*"Jane Anger" - Protection for Women*Giovanni Botero - Della ragione di Stato ...
).
More broadly, The Thracian Wonder reveals debts to the works of Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
and John Lyly
John Lyly
John Lyly was an English writer, best known for his books Euphues,The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England. Lyly's linguistic style, originating in his first books, is known as Euphuism.-Biography:John Lyly was born in Kent, England, in 1553/1554...
, and can be classed with plays that show the influence of Sidneyan
Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
pastoral, like 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...
The Arcadia
The Arcadia (play)
The Arcadia is James Shirley's dramatization of the prose romance, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney — one expression of the enormous influence that Sidney's work exercised during the 17th century. Shirley's stage version was first published in 1640.The 1640 quarto was...
.
Authorship
Kirkman's 1661 quarto assigned the authorship of the play to John WebsterJohn 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...
and William Rowley, though critical opinion has been essentially unanimous in denying Webster any hand in the play. It is possible that Kirkman may have confused the play with the genuine Webster/Rowley work A Cure for a Cuckold
A Cure for a Cuckold
A Cure for a Cuckold is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Webster and William Rowley. The play was first published in 1661, though composed some four decades earlier.-Date and performance:...
, which he also published in 1661.
Nineteenth-century scholars proposed 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:...
as a possible author, and the cases for Rowley and for Heywood have been debated pro and con in the critical literature. Editor Michael Nolan, in his 1997 edition of the play, accepted the work as a Rowley/Heywood collaboration.
(If valid, this attribution would constrain the play's possible date of authorship to the period of Rowley's playwriting career, roughly 1607 to 1625.)
In a 1908 study, O. L. Hatcher pointed out resemblances between The Thracian Wonder and Greene's dramatization of Orlando Furioso in addition to Menaphon, and on that basis argued for Greene's authorship of The Thracian Wonder — a hypothesis that has not found other support among critics.
Synopsis
The play begins with a scene of dramatic action, as the Thracian princess Ariadne, her infant son in her arms, flees the violent threat of her father Pheander; the Thracian king, his sword drawn, pursues his daughter with the intent of punishing her apparent unchastity. Radagon, the infant's father, bursts in upon the scene to protect Ariadne; but he is the son of the king of Sicily, an enemy of Thrace, and his presence only incenses Pheander more. The king's pursuing courtiers try to palliate Pheander's rage, and succeed to the degree that the king spares the young couple's lives; he decrees that they be set adrift at sea in small boats, and left to the mercy of the winds and waves. (In his impatience the king refuses to listen to his daughter's explanation, which is that she and Radagon are in fact married.)The play's second scene introduces the characters of the subplot, a group of Thracian shepherds. Among them is Palemon, who is deeply in love with Serena. She spurns his affections; his lack of success in love affects his mental balance, leaving him a "mad lover." His brother Tityrus represents the opposite viewpoint, expressing cynical misogyny (until he himself falls in love later in the play). The scene also introduces the clown Muscod, who provides the play's comic relief
Comic relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.-Definition:...
in this and subsequent subplot scenes.
Act I closes with a dumbshow
Dumbshow
Dumbshow, also dumb show or dumb-show, is a traditional term for pantomime in drama, actions presented by actors onstage without spoken dialogue. It is similar to the masque...
, which shows a storm-tossed Ariadne and Ragadon separately rescued by shepherds; a Chorus and a personified Time comment on the action.
Pheander's brother Sophos comes to court to protest his brother's conduct regarding Ariadne; Sophos bears a letter from the princess that explains her marriage. But the intemperate king refuses to listen, and banishes his brother from the kingdom. Thrace is struck by a plague, with many fatalities. Pheander sends to the oracle at Delphi
Delphi
Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
for guidance about the plague, but dislikes the Pythia
Pythia
The Pythia , commonly known as the Oracle of Delphi, was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. The Pythia was widely credited for her prophecies inspired by Apollo. The Delphic oracle was established in the 8th century BC...
's dismal and cryptic answer. The king of Sicily invades with his army; Pheander is at first determined to resist, but his military weakness gives him second thoughts. He negotiates a truce with the Sicilians to search for their missing prince Radagon, and takes up the life of a wandering pilgrim while a Sicilian viceroy rules the kingdom.
Both Radagon and Ariadne live among the shepherds under assumed identities, he as "Menalchas" and she as "Mariana." At one point they are elected the king and queen of a shepherds' festival, but fail to recognize each other. (This inability of characters to recognize their friends and loved ones in changed circumstances can strike modern readers as absurd and imbecilic; but it is a recurring element in the popular literature and drama of the era. To select only one of many possible examples, Heywood's The Four Prentices of London features characters with the same handicap.) "Menalchas" does fall in love with "Mariana," however, because she so strongly resembles the supposedly dead Ariadne.
The scene shifts to Africa, where Sophos is shown with the King of Africa and his daughter and courtiers. In his exile, Sophos has won the friendship of the ruler of the Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
, who is now prepared to intervene in Thracian affairs. Also present is Eusanius, the son of Ariadne and Radagon. An infant at the start of the play, he is now a young man of twenty, eager for military adventure. He and the king's daughter, Lillia Guida, are attracted to each other; when the king realizes this he grows irate, and exiles Eusanius. The young man returns to Thrace, and he too falls in with the shepherds, meeting both Ariadne and Radagon — without knowing they are his parents. Ariadne feels a strong emotional bond toward both men, who react jealously to each other.
While wandering in his pilgrim guise, Pheander also arrives on the scene, and is struck by Ariadne/Mariana, the "shepherds' queen." He abducts her and returns to court to resume his rule. The shepherds rise up in rebellion to rescue their "queen" — but then join forces with Pheander when the armies of Sicily and Africa arrive. The final scenes depict a confusion of battle among the assembled forces. Eusanius captures his unknown grandfather, the Sicilian king, and turns his prisoner over to the shepherds' commander, his unknown father Radagon. Radagon, however, knows his own father, and switches sides to defend him.
The conflict eventually boils down to a single combat between Radagon and Eusanius; but before they can kill each other, their true identities are revealed, and the differences among the principals are resolved. Eusanius, the lost child who triumphantly returns as heir to the kingdom, is the "Thracian wonder" of the title. (Obscure plot points, such as the reason for Eusanius's presence in Africa with Sophos, are also elucidated.) Among the shepherds, Palemon is wounded in the battle; the shock helps to cure his love-madness, and also helps Serena realize that she actually loves him. Palemon and Serena are happily united at the play's end, as are Radagon and Ariadne, and Eusanius and Lillia Guida; peace and amity are restored.