The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll
Encyclopedia
The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll is a later Elizabethan stage play, an anonymous comedy
first published in 1600
. It is illustrative of the type of drama staged by the companies of child actors
when they returned to public performance in that era.
on October 7, 1600, and was published before the end of that year, in a quarto
printed by Thomas Creede
for the bookseller Richard Olive. This was the only edition of the play prior to the nineteenth century. The title page states the drama had been acted by the Children of Paul's
, the troupe of boy actors that had resumed public dramatic performances in 1599 or 1600 after a decade's absence.
Various internal features in the play point to a date of authorship in the 1599–1600 interval. Like many plays of the children's companies, Doctor Dodypoll parodies the works of the established adult companies, including those of William Shakespeare
. In Act III of Dodypoll occurs the line "Then reason's fled to animals I see," which parodies the famous "O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, / And men have lost their reason" in Julius Caesar
(c. 1599), Act III, scene ii, lines 104-5. (Ben Jonson
parodies the same line, as "Reason long since is fled to animals, you know," in his 1599 play Every Man Out of His Humour
, III,iv,33.) The comic character Doctor Dodypoll, with his thick French accent, resembles Doctor Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor
(c. 1597–99); and Dodypoll also borrows from A Midsummer Night's Dream
(c. 1595; printed 1600).
and George Peele
, and each has been suggested as the author of Dodypoll. The song "What thing is love?" is used in Act I of Dodypoll; that song is thought to derive from Peele's play The Hunting of Cupid. Yet Peele died in 1596, and Lyly had retired from playwriting in the early 1590s, making both of them problematic candidates for the authorship of Dodypoll. Ernest Gerrard proposed a complex scheme, in which Dodypoll was an old play by Lyly, written c. 1592, and then revised by Thomas Dekker and collaborators (perhaps Henry Chettle
, John Day
, and/or William Haughton
) in 1599. Lack of supporting evidence has prevented most scholars from accepting such a genesis for the play.
Marshall Nyvall Matson, a modern editor of Dodypoll, has argued that no convincing case for any given author, for revision, or for derivation from a previous source, has yet been made. The scholarly consensus tends, at least for the time being, to accept the play as an anonymous work.
, the aristocrat Earl Lassingbergh masquerades as the humble painter Cornelius, to be near his love Lucilia. The opening scene shows the two of them together. Lassingbergh exalts her beauty as he paints; Lucilia modestly demurs. They are interrupted by the clown character Haunce, who is followed by Lucilia's elder sister Cornelia. Cornelia sings the song "What thing is Love?" while gazing at a cameo of the Saxon prince Alberdure. Cornelia in turn is followed by a merchant named Albertus and by Doctor Dodypoll. The two men are rival suitors for Cornelia's hand in marriage; each tries to court her, largely by insulting the other's occupation and extolling his own.
The jeweller Flores, the father of Cornelia and Lucilia, enters; in an aside, he reveals that he plans to marry Cornelia to Alberdure, the duchy's prince and heir, in order to raise his family "to our ancient states again" – his family derives from the nobility but has declined in fortune over time. Flores has obtained a love potion from Dodypoll, and orders Cornelia to administer it to Alberdure at a coming banquet. Cornelia disapproves, but agrees to comply. Alberdure loves Hyanthe, the daughter of Lord Cassimere; but the banquet arrives and Cornelia does as commanded. Dodypoll has miscalculated the dose of his potion, however; Alberdure reacts to an overdose with a fit of frenzy, complaining of "smoke and fire...Etna, sulphur...I burn, I burn...." He races from the banquet.
The nobles of the court, on visiting Flores, see the paintings of "Cornelius" and recognize the style of Earl Lassingbergh; and when they meet the artist they recognize the Earl. Flores is at first indignant at the Earl's masquerade, suspecting that Lassingbergh has seduced, or tried to seduce, his daughter. Lassingbergh protests that his intentions are honorable, and that he wants to marry Lucilia. Flores is mollified by this; but Lassingbergh is struck by a deep fit of melancholia
at this slight to his honor. The wedding takes place, but Lassingbergh is unable to shake off his melancholy; he leaves his bride to wander off into the countryside, and she loyally follows him.
Alberdure is not alone in his infatuation with Hyanthe; the prince's father, Duke Alphonso, also wishes to marry her, even though he is contracted to the dowager Duchess of Brunswick
. The Duke makes feeble excuses for delaying his planned marriage with the Duchess, claiming sinister portents and foreboding dreams. His attempt to court Hyanthe is disrupted by the mad Alberdure, who eventually escapes his would-be guardians and makes off into the countryside...so that he, and Lassingbergh and Lucilia, are discontentedly roaming about. The resemblance to A Midsummer Night's Dream is accentuated by the appearance of a troupe of fairies
; they set out a banquet, and mistakenly give a precious bejewelled cup to a passing peasant. The Enchanter who controls the fairies appears, and reproves them for misplacing the cup; then he sees Lassingbergh and Lucilia, and has his fairies bind and abduct them. Confused by his spells, Lucilia forgets both herself and her husband; the Enchanter tries to convince her that he is her husband — but Lucilia's true love is too strong to be deceived by the trick.
The play depicts a series of comings and goings, meetings and partings and misunderstandings among Alberdure, his pursuers, Lassingbergh and Lucilia, and the peasant. Costumes are switched, and the fairies' cup and Alberdure's cameo portrait change hands. Alberdure falls into a cold stream; he is fished out by pursuers, but presumed drowned. The shock of the cold plunge cures his fit; he awakens alone, and returns to the court to be re-united with Hyanthe. A party from the court of Brunswick arrives, including the present Duke and the dowager Duchess (the widow of the Duke's late brother) who is betrothed to Duke Alphonso. They discover their nephew the Earl Lassingbergh sleeping in the woods, with Lucilia sitting, disconsolately but faithfully, nearby. Once they obtain her story, the Duke and Duchess bring her to the Saxon court with them. Lassingbergh awakens alone; though he has previously scorned and neglected his wife, he is now shocked to find her gone. Fearing for her safety, he sets off in search of her — and heads back to court himself.
The characters are now gathering for the final resolution — though it does not come about smoothly. Duke Alphonso expresses his remorse for his past actions and longs for his son's return — the type of repentance that often prefigures and motivates the denouement of an Elizabethan comedy. Yet when Alberdure is revealed to him, the Duke recants his repentance and insists that he will have Hyanthe for his wife. It is only when the visitors from Brunswick arrive that Alphonso, to save face, accepts the Duchess (who is reportedly even more beautiful than Hyanthe) as his bride, and permits the marriage of Alberdure and Hyanthe. Lassingbergh, now jolted out of his melancholy, is re-united with Lucilia. Doctor Dodypoll comes in for some final fooling and mockery at the play's end.
.
Individual scholars have proposed that two characters in the play were based on real people of the Elizabethan age. Abraham Feldman argued that the character Haunce was based on the artist Hans Ewouts
. (While the stage Dutchman in Elizabethan drama is normally a drunkard and a contemptuous figure, Haunce is clever and speaks English well.) Hersch Zitt proposed that the Doctor Dodypoll character derives from Dr. Roderigo Lopez
, the physician who was executed for treason in 1594 — even though Dodypoll is not Jewish, Lopez was not French, and there was nothing particularly funny about Lopez or his case.
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...
first published in 1600
1600 in literature
The year 1600 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The Admiral's Men perform Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday at Court....
. It is illustrative of the type of drama staged by the companies of child actors
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...
when they returned to public performance in that era.
Date, performance, publication
The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll was entered into the Stationers' RegisterStationers' 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 October 7, 1600, and was published before the end of that year, 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 Creede
Thomas Creede
Thomas Creede was a printer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, rated as "one of the best of his time." Based in London, he conducted his business under the sign of the Catherine Wheel in Thames Street from 1593 to 1600, and under the sign of the Eagle and Child in the Old Exchange from 1600 to...
for the bookseller Richard Olive. This was the only edition of the play prior to the nineteenth century. The title page states the drama had been acted by the Children of Paul's
Children of Paul's
The Children of Paul's was the name of a troupe of boy actors in Elizabethan and Jacobean London. Along with the Children of the Chapel, the Children of Paul's were the most important of the companies of boy players that constituted a distinctive feature of English Renaissance theatre.St...
, the troupe of boy actors that had resumed public dramatic performances in 1599 or 1600 after a decade's absence.
Various internal features in the play point to a date of authorship in the 1599–1600 interval. Like many plays of the children's companies, Doctor Dodypoll parodies the works of the established adult companies, including those of William Shakespeare
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"...
. In Act III of Dodypoll occurs the line "Then reason's fled to animals I see," which parodies the famous "O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, / And men have lost their reason" in Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
(c. 1599), Act III, scene ii, lines 104-5. (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...
parodies the same line, as "Reason long since is fled to animals, you know," in his 1599 play Every Man Out of His Humour
Every Man Out of His Humour
Every Man out of His Humour is a satirical comedy written by English playwright Ben Jonson, acted in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It is a conceptual sequel to his 1598 comedy Every Man in His Humour...
, III,iv,33.) The comic character Doctor Dodypoll, with his thick French accent, resembles Doctor Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
(c. 1597–99); and Dodypoll also borrows from A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
(c. 1595; printed 1600).
Authorship
The matter of the play's date impinges on the question of its authorship. There is no external evidence for any specific author; the style of the play is reminiscent of the works of John LylyJohn 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 George Peele
George Peele
George Peele , was an English dramatist.-Life:Peele was christened on 25 July 1556. His father, who appears to have belonged to a Devonshire family, was clerk of Christ's Hospital, and wrote two treatises on bookkeeping...
, and each has been suggested as the author of Dodypoll. The song "What thing is love?" is used in Act I of Dodypoll; that song is thought to derive from Peele's play The Hunting of Cupid. Yet Peele died in 1596, and Lyly had retired from playwriting in the early 1590s, making both of them problematic candidates for the authorship of Dodypoll. Ernest Gerrard proposed a complex scheme, in which Dodypoll was an old play by Lyly, written c. 1592, and then revised by Thomas Dekker and collaborators (perhaps Henry Chettle
Henry Chettle
Henry Chettle was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era.The son of Robert Chettle, a London dyer, he was apprenticed in 1577 and became a member of the Stationer's Company in 1584, traveling to Cambridge on their behalf in 1588. His career as a printer and author is...
, John Day
John Day (dramatist)
John Day was an English dramatist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.-Life:He was born at Cawston, Norfolk, and educated at Ely. He became a sizar of Caius College, Cambridge, in 1592, but was expelled in the next year for stealing a book...
, and/or William Haughton
William Haughton
William Haughton was an English playwright in the age of English Renaissance theatre. During the years 1597 to 1602 he collaborated in many plays with Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, John Day, Richard Hathwaye and Wentworth Smith....
) in 1599. Lack of supporting evidence has prevented most scholars from accepting such a genesis for the play.
Marshall Nyvall Matson, a modern editor of Dodypoll, has argued that no convincing case for any given author, for revision, or for derivation from a previous source, has yet been made. The scholarly consensus tends, at least for the time being, to accept the play as an anonymous work.
Synopsis
In the Duchy of SaxonyDuchy of Saxony
The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...
, the aristocrat Earl Lassingbergh masquerades as the humble painter Cornelius, to be near his love Lucilia. The opening scene shows the two of them together. Lassingbergh exalts her beauty as he paints; Lucilia modestly demurs. They are interrupted by the clown character Haunce, who is followed by Lucilia's elder sister Cornelia. Cornelia sings the song "What thing is Love?" while gazing at a cameo of the Saxon prince Alberdure. Cornelia in turn is followed by a merchant named Albertus and by Doctor Dodypoll. The two men are rival suitors for Cornelia's hand in marriage; each tries to court her, largely by insulting the other's occupation and extolling his own.
The jeweller Flores, the father of Cornelia and Lucilia, enters; in an aside, he reveals that he plans to marry Cornelia to Alberdure, the duchy's prince and heir, in order to raise his family "to our ancient states again" – his family derives from the nobility but has declined in fortune over time. Flores has obtained a love potion from Dodypoll, and orders Cornelia to administer it to Alberdure at a coming banquet. Cornelia disapproves, but agrees to comply. Alberdure loves Hyanthe, the daughter of Lord Cassimere; but the banquet arrives and Cornelia does as commanded. Dodypoll has miscalculated the dose of his potion, however; Alberdure reacts to an overdose with a fit of frenzy, complaining of "smoke and fire...Etna, sulphur...I burn, I burn...." He races from the banquet.
The nobles of the court, on visiting Flores, see the paintings of "Cornelius" and recognize the style of Earl Lassingbergh; and when they meet the artist they recognize the Earl. Flores is at first indignant at the Earl's masquerade, suspecting that Lassingbergh has seduced, or tried to seduce, his daughter. Lassingbergh protests that his intentions are honorable, and that he wants to marry Lucilia. Flores is mollified by this; but Lassingbergh is struck by a deep fit of melancholia
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
at this slight to his honor. The wedding takes place, but Lassingbergh is unable to shake off his melancholy; he leaves his bride to wander off into the countryside, and she loyally follows him.
Alberdure is not alone in his infatuation with Hyanthe; the prince's father, Duke Alphonso, also wishes to marry her, even though he is contracted to the dowager Duchess of Brunswick
Brunswick-Lüneburg
The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , or more properly Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was an historical ducal state from the late Middle Ages until the late Early Modern era within the North-Western domains of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, in what is now northern Germany...
. The Duke makes feeble excuses for delaying his planned marriage with the Duchess, claiming sinister portents and foreboding dreams. His attempt to court Hyanthe is disrupted by the mad Alberdure, who eventually escapes his would-be guardians and makes off into the countryside...so that he, and Lassingbergh and Lucilia, are discontentedly roaming about. The resemblance to A Midsummer Night's Dream is accentuated by the appearance of a troupe of fairies
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
; they set out a banquet, and mistakenly give a precious bejewelled cup to a passing peasant. The Enchanter who controls the fairies appears, and reproves them for misplacing the cup; then he sees Lassingbergh and Lucilia, and has his fairies bind and abduct them. Confused by his spells, Lucilia forgets both herself and her husband; the Enchanter tries to convince her that he is her husband — but Lucilia's true love is too strong to be deceived by the trick.
The play depicts a series of comings and goings, meetings and partings and misunderstandings among Alberdure, his pursuers, Lassingbergh and Lucilia, and the peasant. Costumes are switched, and the fairies' cup and Alberdure's cameo portrait change hands. Alberdure falls into a cold stream; he is fished out by pursuers, but presumed drowned. The shock of the cold plunge cures his fit; he awakens alone, and returns to the court to be re-united with Hyanthe. A party from the court of Brunswick arrives, including the present Duke and the dowager Duchess (the widow of the Duke's late brother) who is betrothed to Duke Alphonso. They discover their nephew the Earl Lassingbergh sleeping in the woods, with Lucilia sitting, disconsolately but faithfully, nearby. Once they obtain her story, the Duke and Duchess bring her to the Saxon court with them. Lassingbergh awakens alone; though he has previously scorned and neglected his wife, he is now shocked to find her gone. Fearing for her safety, he sets off in search of her — and heads back to court himself.
The characters are now gathering for the final resolution — though it does not come about smoothly. Duke Alphonso expresses his remorse for his past actions and longs for his son's return — the type of repentance that often prefigures and motivates the denouement of an Elizabethan comedy. Yet when Alberdure is revealed to him, the Duke recants his repentance and insists that he will have Hyanthe for his wife. It is only when the visitors from Brunswick arrive that Alphonso, to save face, accepts the Duchess (who is reportedly even more beautiful than Hyanthe) as his bride, and permits the marriage of Alberdure and Hyanthe. Lassingbergh, now jolted out of his melancholy, is re-united with Lucilia. Doctor Dodypoll comes in for some final fooling and mockery at the play's end.
Critical responses
Several aspects of the play have drawn special attention from scholars and critics. The portrayal of Earl Lassingbergh as an admirable and aristocratic painter is noteworthy, in a historical era in which artists had not yet fully shaken off their Medieval status as mere artisans or craftsmen. (Lucilia notes that the Earl has humbled his dignity by masquerading as a simple "mercenary painter.") The play's fairies and Enchanter have also drawn attention from critics interested in the occult aspects of English Renaissance theatreEnglish 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...
.
Individual scholars have proposed that two characters in the play were based on real people of the Elizabethan age. Abraham Feldman argued that the character Haunce was based on the artist Hans Ewouts
Hans Eworth
Hans Eworth was a Flemish painter active in England in the mid-16th century. Along with other exiled Flemings, he made a career in Tudor London, painting allegorical images as well as portraits of the gentry and nobility. About 40 paintings are now attributed to Eworth, among them portraits of...
. (While the stage Dutchman in Elizabethan drama is normally a drunkard and a contemptuous figure, Haunce is clever and speaks English well.) Hersch Zitt proposed that the Doctor Dodypoll character derives from Dr. Roderigo Lopez
Rodrigo Lopez (physician)
Rodrigo Lopez was physician to Queen Elizabeth, and may have been an inspiration for Shakespeare's Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.He was born in Crato, Portugal and raised as a New Christian...
, the physician who was executed for treason in 1594 — even though Dodypoll is not Jewish, Lopez was not French, and there was nothing particularly funny about Lopez or his case.