The Wedding is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy 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...

. Published 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....

, it was the first of Shirley's plays to appear in print. An early comedy of manners

Comedy of manners

The comedy of manners is a genre of play/television/film which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young...

, it is set in the fashionable world of genteel London society in Shirley's day.

The play is thought to date from c. 1626. It was published in 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"...

 in 1629, printed by Nicholas Okes

Nicholas Okes

Nicholas Okes was an English printer in London of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, remembered for printing works of English Renaissance drama...

 for the bookseller John Grove. This first edition contained commendatory verses, including one by John Ford

John Ford (dramatist)

John Ford was an English Jacobean and Caroline playwright and poet born in Ilsington in Devon in 1586.-Life and work:...

; the play was dedicated to William Gowre, Esq., a personal friend of the author. A second quarto was published in 1632

1632 in literature

The year 1632 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*On February 14, Tempe Restored, a masque written by Aurelian Townshend and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace....

; the title page of Q2 states that the play was "lately 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....

 (also called the Phoenix) in Drury Lane

Drury Lane

Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....

. The Wedding was included among eight of Shirley's plays that were published in one volume in 1640. Another individual edition appeared in 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...

, at the start of 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, published by William Leake

William Leake

William Leake, father and son , were London publishers and booksellers of the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries...

.

The scholar and critic Alfred Harbage

Alfred Harbage

Alfred Bennett Harbage was an influential Shakespeare scholar of the mid-20th century. He was born in Philadelphia and received his undergraduate degree and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. He lectured on Shakespeare both there and at Columbia before becoming a professor at Harvard...

 argued that Shirley's play alludes to the 1625 wedding of Sir Kenelm Digby

Kenelm Digby

Sir Kenelm Digby was an English courtier and diplomat. He was also a highly reputed natural philosopher, and known as a leading Roman Catholic intellectual and Blackloist. For his versatility, Anthony à Wood called him the "magazine of all arts".-Early life and career:He was born at Gayhurst,...

 and Venetia Stanley

Venetia Stanley

Venetia Anastasia Stanley Digby was a celebrated beauty of the Stuart period , renowned for her racy good looks and mysterious death...

. Their nuptials were the "celebrity wedding" of the day, and nobody in London society, Harbage maintained, could have seen or read the play "without thinking of the affair of Sir Kenelm Digby and Venetia Stanley."

Cast

The Wedding is one of the rare plays in English Renaissance drama

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...

 for which cast information for the early productions survives. (Only five cast lists are extant for the whole history of Queen Henrietta's Men. The others are for The Fair Maid of the West

The Fair Maid of the West

The Fair Maid of the West, or a Girl Worth Gold, Parts 1 and 2 is a work of English Renaissance drama, a two-part play written by Thomas Heywood that was first published in 1631.-Date:...

, Hannibal and Scipio

Hannibal and Scipio

Hannibal and Scipio is a Caroline era stage play, a classical tragedy written by Thomas Nabbes. The play was first performed in 1635 by Queen Henrietta's Men, and was first published in 1637...

, King John and Matilda

King John and Matilda

King John and Matilda is a Caroline era stage play, a historical tragedy written by Robert Davenport. It was initially published in 1655; the cast list included in the first edition is provides valuable information on some of the actors of English Renaissance theatre.-Performance and publication:No...

, and The Renegado

The Renegado

The Renegado, or The Gentleman of Venice is a late Jacobean stage play, a tragicomedy written by Philip Massinger and first published in 1630...

.) The actors and their roles were:

Role	Actor
Sir John Belfare	Richard Perkins Richard Perkins (17th-century actor) Richard Perkins was a prominent early seventeenth-century actor, most famous for his performance in the role of Barabas in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta...
Beauford	William Bowyer William Bowyer William Bowyer was an English printer.Born in London, he was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and in 1722 became a partner in his father's business. In 1729 he was appointed printer of the votes of the British House of Commons, and in 1736 printer to the Society of Antiquaries, of which...
Marwood	John Sumner John Sumner (17th-century actor) John Sumner was an English theatre actor during the Caroline era .-Career:He was a long-time member of the Queen Henrietta's Men, one of the prime playing companies or acting troupes of the time and named for Henrietta Maria of France, the queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife...
Rawbone	William Robbins William Robbins (actor) William Robbins , also Robins, Robinson, or Robson, was a prominent comic actor in the Jacobean and Caroline eras....
Lodam	William Shearlock
Justice Landby	Anthony Turner Anthony Turner Anthony Turner was a noted English actor in the Caroline era. For most of his career he worked with Queen Henrietta's Men, one of the leading theatre companies of the time....
Captain Landby	William Allen William Allen (actor) William Allen was a prominent English actor in the Caroline era. He belonged to both of the most important theatre companies of his generation, Queen Henrietta's Men and the King's Men....
Isaac	William Wilbraham
Haver	John Young
Camelion	John Dobson
Gratiana	Hugh Clark Hugh Clark Hugh Clark was a prominent English actor of the Caroline era. He worked in both of the main theatre companies of his time, Queen Henrietta's Men and the King's Men....
Jane	John Page
Lucibel/Millicent	Edward Rogers
Cardona	Timothy Read Timothy Read Timothy Read was a comic actor of the Caroline era, and one of the most famous and popular performers of his generation....

Synopsis

The play's protagonist, Beauford, is about to marry the heroine, Gratiana, when Beauford's cousin Marwood claims that he has been Gratiana's lover. The two men duel over the matter, and Marwood loses — but as he dies he maintains the truth of his accusation. At the house where the ceremony is about to occur, Beauford takes Gratiana aside and tells her of the matter; though Gratiana denies Marwood's allegations, Beauford does not believe her. As Beauford waits to be arrested for Marwood's killing, Gratiana is offered concealment by Captain Landby, who also delivers a letter from Gratiana to her estranged fiance. The letter tells Beauford that by the time he reads it, she will have drowned herself. Gratiana's page Millicent advises her to confront her waiting woman Cardona about the whole matter.

Millicent has a trunk delivered to Beauford's lodging, telling him that the trunk contains Marwood's corpse. Claiming to be Marwood's relative, Millicent demands satisfaction for the death — but he first has Beauford listen to Cardona, who affirms that Marwood had sex not with Gratiana but with Cardona's daughter Lucibel (a version of the "bed trick

Bed trick

The bed trick is a plot device in traditional literature and folklore; it involves a substitution of one partner in the sex act with a third person...

" that occurs in a number of plays in English Renaissance drama). Realizing his error, Beauford opens the trunk, and finds not a dead Marwood but a living Gratiana — but then the officers arrive to arrest him for Marwood's death. Brought before a Justice Landby (the uncle of the Captain who befriended Gratiana), Marwood is revealed to be still alive, and Millicent turns out to be the missing Lucibel.

The play's subplot involves the suitors who seek the hand of Jane, the daughter of Justice Landby. One, Lodam, is fat and gluttonous; a second, Rawbone, is a usurer and miser; and the third, Haver, is a young gentleman of worth but no fortune. Jane and her cousin the Captain favor Haver, but the Justice, testing his daughter, pretends to favor Rawbone. As a result, Haver masquerades as a servant named Jasper who carries Rawbone's messages to Jane. Haver/Jasper provokes a duel between Lodam and the equally cowardly Rawbone, promising to take Rawbone's place in the combat; Lodam, despite many boasts, yields to Haver/Jasper/Rawbone at the first pass. Captain Landby, spying on the duel, has all the participants arrested and brought before the Justice — who insists that Jane and "Rawbone" (Haver, still in disguise) marry immediately. The ceremony is carried out before the ruse is discovered.

So the play ends with three newly married couples: Beauford and Gratiana, Haver and Jane, and the repentant Marwood and Lucibel.