Albumazar (play)
Encyclopedia
Albumazar is a Jacobean era play, a comedy written by Thomas Tomkis
that was performed and published in 1615
.
to entertain King James I
during his 1615 visit to the University. College officials sought a play from alumnus Tomkis, then a lawyer in Wolverhampton
, who had written the successful Lingua
for his college a decade earlier. Gentlemen of Trinity College acted Albumazar before the King and his court on March 9, 1615 (new style
). One report on this production from an audience member survives, in a letter from John Chamberlain
to Dudley Carleton
— though Chamberlain thought it a failure.
The play was revived onstage during the Restoration
, by the Duke's Company
at their theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields
; Samuel Pepys
saw it on February 22, 1668. In 1744 playwright James Ralph adapted Tomkis's play into his The Astrologer; it was not a success, and ran for one performance only. In 1747 David Garrick
revived Tomkis's original; and in 1773 Garrick made and staged his own adaptation.
on April 28, 1615, and was published soon after in a quarto
printed by Nicholas Okes
for the bookseller Walter Burre
. (The 1615 quarto was issued in two states, which have sometimes been defined as two separate editions.) The play is anonymous in its first edition, though college records clearly assign it to Tomkis. A second edition was issued in 1634 by Nicholas Okes (also in two states); that edition claims to have been "Newly revised and corrected by a special Hand," though the changes in the text amount to little more than normal proofreading and correction of errors. A new edition was published by Thomas Dring
in 1668
to coincide with the Restoration revival. Ralph's and Garrick's adaptations both were published, in 1744 and 1773 respectively.
Though consensus scholarship accepts the attribution of Albumazar to Tomkis, a few individual commentators have proposed alternative hypotheses of authorship — one even assigning the play to Shakespeare. None of these alternatives has won scholarly approval.
, known in the West as Albumazar; he was a ninth-century mathematician and philosopher who also worked as an astrologer
(just as Johannes Kepler
cast horoscopes while revolutionizing astronomy). Tomkis based his dramatic treatment on the play L'Astrologo by Giambattista della Porta
, a work first published in Venice
in 1606
. Tomkis's play also shows debts to Ben Jonson
's The Alchemist
and Shakespeare's The Tempest
(the character name Trincalo in Tomkis's play derives from Trinculo in Shakespeare's).
When John Dryden
wrote the Prologue for the 1668 revivial of Albumazar, he got the relationship between the Tomkis and Jonson plays backwards, and accused Jonson of borrowing from Tomkis.
's revolutionary book on his astronomical discoveries, Sidereus Nuncius
, "The Starry Messenger" (1610). Galileo referred to the telescope as the "perspicillum," a term that Tomkis Anglicized into "perspicill." (The earliest English commentators on Galileo wrote before the telescope had even acquired its name; in his 1620
masque
News from the New World Discovered in the Moon
, Jonson called the instrument a "trunk," or tube.) In keeping with his satirical intent, Tomkis gives a fanciful rather than realistic portrayal of the telescope, describing it as "an engine to catch starres" and "arrest" planets in their motions. Looking through it, a man in London can allegedly see Dover
. When a character looks into the perspicill, he is amazed to view a richly-dressed crowd — which is the audience watching the performance of the play.
In a related flight of fancy, Tomkis's fraudulent astrologer produces a comparable instrument for extending the range of human hearing, which he calls the "otacousticon" — and which turns out to be an artificial pair of ass's ears. Albumazar also claims to possess a "wind instrument" that speaks ten languages.
Albumazar, however, is a fraud and confidence man, in league with a band of thieves. He bamboozles his victims with verbose gibberish ("excentricals, / Centers, concentrics, circles, and epicycles," and "with scioferical instrument, / By way of azimuth and almicantarath," and "Necro-puro-geo-hydro-cheiro-coscinomancy," and much more) while setting them up to be robbed by his confederates. Albumazar convinces Pandulfo that he can transform the tenant farmer Trincalo into a double of Antonio for twenty-four hours; while in this form, Trincalo can deliver Flavia.
The foolish Trincalo actually believes in the transformation, which gives the thieves opportunity to trick and abuse him. Matters become more complex when the genuine Antonio returns from his adventures; he is mistaken for Trincalo, much to his confusion and distress. The old man establishes his identity, though, and expresses his regret at the marriage agreement he'd entered into with Pandulfo. The young people and Antonio trick Pandulfo into agreeing to a new bargain: Antonio's son Lelio and Pandulfo's son Eugenio marry the girls in place of their fathers.
The thieves have relieved the distracted Pandulfo of three thousand pounds' worth of his property; but in their greed they cut Albumazar out of any share in the loot. The chastened astrologer turns them in; Pandulfo regains his wealth, which moderates his resentment at his loss of Flavia. Albumazar is forgiven.
(The play also contains Tomkis's Prologue, in which he states that he chose to write the work in English rather than Latin
, the language of most academic plays, because of the increasing number of women in the audience.)
borrowed one plot element (a robbery) from Albumazar for his 1772
play She Stoops to Conquer
.
Because of Tomkis's play and its adaptations, the name Albumazar came to be used as a generic term for an astrologer. It is employed in this sense in William Congreve
's Love for Love (1695
) and in Tobias Smollett
's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751
).
Thomas Tomkis
Thomas Tomkis was an English playwright of the late Elizabethan and the Jacobean eras, and arguably one of the more cryptic figures of English Renaissance drama....
that was performed and published in 1615
1615 in literature
The year 1615 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 6 - Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace....
.
Productions
The play was specially commissioned by Trinity College, CambridgeTrinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
to entertain King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
during his 1615 visit to the University. College officials sought a play from alumnus Tomkis, then a lawyer in Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, who had written the successful Lingua
Lingua (play)
Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue and the Five Senses for Superiority is an allegorical stage play of the first decade of the 17th century, generally attributed to the academic playwright Thomas Tomkis.-Publication:...
for his college a decade earlier. Gentlemen of Trinity College acted Albumazar before the King and his court on March 9, 1615 (new style
Old Style and New Style dates
Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January even though documents written at the time use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian...
). One report on this production from an audience member survives, in a letter from John Chamberlain
John Chamberlain (letter writer)
John Chamberlain was the author of a series of letters written in England from 1597 to 1626, notable for their historical value and their literary qualities. In the view of historian Wallace Notestein, Chamberlain's letters "constitute the first considerable body of letters in English history and...
to Dudley Carleton
Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester
Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester was an English art collector, diplomat and Secretary of State.-Early life:He was the second son of Antony Carleton of Brightwell Baldwin, Oxfordshire, and of Jocosa, daughter of John Goodwin of Winchendon, Buckinghamshire...
— though Chamberlain thought it a failure.
The play was revived onstage during 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...
, by the Duke's Company
Duke's Company
The Duke's Company was one of the two theatre companies that were chartered by King Charles II at the start of the English Restoration era, when the London theatres re-opened after their eighteen-year closure during the English Civil War and the Interregnum.The Duke's Company had the patronage of...
at their theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London, UK. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes...
; 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 on February 22, 1668. In 1744 playwright James Ralph adapted Tomkis's play into his The Astrologer; it was not a success, and ran for one performance only. In 1747 David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
revived Tomkis's original; and in 1773 Garrick made and staged his own adaptation.
Publication
Albumazar 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 April 28, 1615, and was published soon after 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 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 Walter Burre
Walter Burre
Walter Burre was a London bookseller and publisher of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, best remembered for publishing several key texts in English Renaissance drama....
. (The 1615 quarto was issued in two states, which have sometimes been defined as two separate editions.) The play is anonymous in its first edition, though college records clearly assign it to Tomkis. A second edition was issued in 1634 by Nicholas Okes (also in two states); that edition claims to have been "Newly revised and corrected by a special Hand," though the changes in the text amount to little more than normal proofreading and correction of errors. A new edition was published by 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...
in 1668
1668 in literature
The year 1668 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler goes into its fourth edition.*John Dryden signs a contract to produce three plays a year for the King’s Company.-New books:...
to coincide with the Restoration revival. Ralph's and Garrick's adaptations both were published, in 1744 and 1773 respectively.
Though consensus scholarship accepts the attribution of Albumazar to Tomkis, a few individual commentators have proposed alternative hypotheses of authorship — one even assigning the play to Shakespeare. None of these alternatives has won scholarly approval.
Sources
The protagonist of the play is based on a historical figure named Ja'far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma'shar al-BalkhiJa'far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi
Abū Maʿshar, Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Balkhī , was a Persian astrologer, astronomer, and Islamic philosopher, thought to be the greatest astrologer of the Abbasid court in Baghdad...
, known in the West as Albumazar; he was a ninth-century mathematician and philosopher who also worked as an astrologer
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
(just as Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican...
cast horoscopes while revolutionizing astronomy). Tomkis based his dramatic treatment on the play L'Astrologo by Giambattista della Porta
Giambattista della Porta
Giambattista della Porta , also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta and John Baptist Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation....
, a work first published in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
in 1606
1606 in literature
The year 1606 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*May 27 - The English Parliament passes An Act to Restrain Abuses of Players, which tightens the censorship controls on public theatre performances, most notably on the question of profane oaths.*December 26 - Shakespeare's King...
. Tomkis's play also shows debts to 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...
's 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...
and Shakespeare's The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
(the character name Trincalo in Tomkis's play derives from Trinculo in Shakespeare's).
When John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
wrote the Prologue for the 1668 revivial of Albumazar, he got the relationship between the Tomkis and Jonson plays backwards, and accused Jonson of borrowing from Tomkis.
The "perspicill"
In addition to purely literary sources, Tomkis also exploited Galileo GalileiGalileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
's revolutionary book on his astronomical discoveries, Sidereus Nuncius
Sidereus Nuncius
Sidereus Nuncius is a short treatise published in New Latin by Galileo Galilei in March 1610. It was the first scientific treatise based on observations made through a telescope...
, "The Starry Messenger" (1610). Galileo referred to the telescope as the "perspicillum," a term that Tomkis Anglicized into "perspicill." (The earliest English commentators on Galileo wrote before the telescope had even acquired its name; in his 1620
1620 in literature
The year 1620 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*The Book of Psalmes: Englished both in Prose and Metre with Annotations by Henry Ainsworth is the only book brought to New England by the pilgrim settlers....
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...
News from the New World Discovered in the Moon
News from the New World Discovered in the Moon
News from the New World Discovered in the Moon was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson; it was first performed before King James I on January 7, 1620, with a second performance on February 29 of the same year...
, Jonson called the instrument a "trunk," or tube.) In keeping with his satirical intent, Tomkis gives a fanciful rather than realistic portrayal of the telescope, describing it as "an engine to catch starres" and "arrest" planets in their motions. Looking through it, a man in London can allegedly see Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
. When a character looks into the perspicill, he is amazed to view a richly-dressed crowd — which is the audience watching the performance of the play.
In a related flight of fancy, Tomkis's fraudulent astrologer produces a comparable instrument for extending the range of human hearing, which he calls the "otacousticon" — and which turns out to be an artificial pair of ass's ears. Albumazar also claims to possess a "wind instrument" that speaks ten languages.
Synopsis
Two elderly gentlemen, Antonio and Pandulfo, have formed an agreement to marry each others' daughters, Flavia and Sulpitia. Prior to the marriage, Antonio sails to Barbary to access his hoard of gold; but he does not return in time for the ceremony. Pandulfo is mad to have Flavia, but is frustrated by the resistance of the girl and her brother Lelio. (Pandulfo is sixty; Flavia is sixteen.) Desperate for help, Pandulfo consults Albumazar the astrologer.Albumazar, however, is a fraud and confidence man, in league with a band of thieves. He bamboozles his victims with verbose gibberish ("excentricals, / Centers, concentrics, circles, and epicycles," and "with scioferical instrument, / By way of azimuth and almicantarath," and "Necro-puro-geo-hydro-cheiro-coscinomancy," and much more) while setting them up to be robbed by his confederates. Albumazar convinces Pandulfo that he can transform the tenant farmer Trincalo into a double of Antonio for twenty-four hours; while in this form, Trincalo can deliver Flavia.
The foolish Trincalo actually believes in the transformation, which gives the thieves opportunity to trick and abuse him. Matters become more complex when the genuine Antonio returns from his adventures; he is mistaken for Trincalo, much to his confusion and distress. The old man establishes his identity, though, and expresses his regret at the marriage agreement he'd entered into with Pandulfo. The young people and Antonio trick Pandulfo into agreeing to a new bargain: Antonio's son Lelio and Pandulfo's son Eugenio marry the girls in place of their fathers.
The thieves have relieved the distracted Pandulfo of three thousand pounds' worth of his property; but in their greed they cut Albumazar out of any share in the loot. The chastened astrologer turns them in; Pandulfo regains his wealth, which moderates his resentment at his loss of Flavia. Albumazar is forgiven.
(The play also contains Tomkis's Prologue, in which he states that he chose to write the work in English rather than Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, the language of most academic plays, because of the increasing number of women in the audience.)
Influences
Oliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
borrowed one plot element (a robbery) from Albumazar for his 1772
1772 in literature
See also: 1771 in literature, other events of 1772, 1773 in literature, list of years in literature.-Events:*May 7 - The Stadsschouwburg theatre in Amsterdam is destroyed by fire....
play She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish vicar, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a great favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in Britain and the United States. It is one of the few plays from the 18th...
.
Because of Tomkis's play and its adaptations, the name Albumazar came to be used as a generic term for an astrologer. It is employed in this sense in William Congreve
William Congreve
William Congreve was an English playwright and poet.-Early life:Congreve was born in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, England . His parents were William Congreve and his wife, Mary ; a sister was buried in London in 1672...
's Love for Love (1695
1695 in literature
The year 1695 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Antoine Lemaistre and his brother Louis Isaac Lemaistre complete their translation of the Bible into the French language ....
) and in Tobias Smollett
Tobias Smollett
Tobias George Smollett was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , which influenced later novelists such as Charles Dickens.-Life:Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part of Renton,...
's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751
1751 in literature
The year 1751 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Robert Clive conquers Arcot for the English Raj.* Death of Frederick Lewis, "Prince Frederick," the Prince of Wales and heir apparent....
).