Eastward Hoe
Encyclopedia
Eastward Hoe or Eastward Ho, is an early Jacobean era stage play, a satire
and city comedy
written by George Chapman
, Ben Jonson
, and John Marston
, printed in 1605
. The play was written in response to Westward Ho
, an earlier satire by Thomas Dekker and John Webster
. Eastward Ho offended King James I
with its anti-Scottish comedy, which caused Jonson and Chapman to be arrested for a time, and which made their play one of the famous dramatic scandals of its era.
after Quicksilver has robbed the goldsmith. During this time, the provident and careful Golding has become a deputy alderman. Quicksilver and Petronel are shipwrecked on the Isle of Dogs
and are brought up on charges for their actions. They come before Golding. After time in prison, where they repent of their schemes and dishonesty, Golding has them released.
on September 4, 1605, and printed later that year in a quarto
issued by the bookseller William Aspley
, printed by George Eld
. The three authors are identified on the title page, as is the playing company
that staged the work, the Children of the Queen's Revels
. Aspley issued a second quarto in the same year, 1605.
Scholars who have tried to determine the respective contributions of the three authors have not reached a full consensus of opinion. Marston is normally assigned Act I; Chapman's hand is seen in Acts II and III; Jonson is usually associated with Act V. Individual scholars, from F. G. Fleay
to T. M. Parrott
to Percy Simpson, have produced their own specific and unmatching divisions of authorship. Scholars generally do agree, however, that scene III,iii, the scene with the Scots reference that caused the trouble, was written by Chapman; yet Chapman blamed Marston for the lines that caused offense: "if Chapman spoke the truth, Marston must have interpolated the obnoxious clauses".
The printed text of 1605 does not represent the full and offensive stage production of that year, though critics have disagreed as to whether the hostile official reaction was provoked more by the stage version or by the text. Eastward Ho borrows from and alludes to the dramas of the popular theatre in knowing ways, as plays of the fashionable boys' companies often did; scholars have traced references to The Spanish Tragedy
, Tamburlaine
, and especially Hamlet
. Eastward Ho has been called "one of the best made of Elizabethan comedies", with a "clear-cut strength and simplicity of structure" rare in dramas of its time.
The play has also inspired the Industry and Idleness series by William Hogarth which also contrasts two apprentices and their lives
reference in Act III. Because of the scandal, a significant body of documentation exists regarding the play, including personal letters written by both Chapman and Jonson while they were in prison. In 1619, William Drummond of Hawthornden
recalled Ben Jonson explaining how he got into trouble "for writing something against the Scots in a play, Eastward Ho, and voluntary imprisoned himself with Chapman and Marston who had written it amongst them. The report was that they should have had their ears cut and noses". In actuality Marston fled and escaped arrest. Jonson and Chapman were out of jail by November 1605; Chapman's commendatory poem in the first edition of Jonson's Sejanus (1605) appears to indicate that the Earl of Suffolk
was influential in obtaining their release and resolving the matter.
The play was never entirely banned or suppressed. It was revived by the Lady Elizabeth's Men
in 1613
; and on January 25, 1614
, that company performed Eastward Ho at Court.
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
and city comedy
City comedy
City comedy, also called Citizen Comedy, is a common genre of Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline comedy on the London stage from the last years of the 16th century to the closing of the theaters in 1642...
written by George Chapman
George Chapman
George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...
, 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...
, and John Marston
John Marston
John Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...
, printed in 1605
1605 in literature
The year 1605 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The Queen's Revels Children perform George Chapman's All Fools at Court....
. The play was written in response to Westward Ho
Westward Ho (play)
Westward Ho is an early Jacobean era stage play, a satire and city comedy by Thomas Dekker and John Webster that was first published in 1607...
, an earlier satire by Thomas Dekker and John Webster
John 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...
. Eastward Ho offended 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...
with its anti-Scottish comedy, which caused Jonson and Chapman to be arrested for a time, and which made their play one of the famous dramatic scandals of its era.
Synopsis
The play deals with a goldsmith and his household. He has two apprentices and two daughters. One apprentice, Golding, is industrious and temperate; the other, Quicksilver, is rash and ambitious. One daughter, Mildred, is mild and modest; the other, Gertrude, is vain. Mildred and Golding marry. Gertrude marries the fraudulent Sir Petronel Flash, a man who possesses a title but no money. Sir Petronel promises Gertrude a coach and six and a castle. Sir Petronel takes her dowry and sends her off in a coach for an imaginary castle while he and Quicksilver set off for VirginiaVirginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
after Quicksilver has robbed the goldsmith. During this time, the provident and careful Golding has become a deputy alderman. Quicksilver and Petronel are shipwrecked on the Isle of Dogs
Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs is a former island in the East End of London that is bounded on three sides by one of the largest meanders in the River Thames.-Etymology:...
and are brought up on charges for their actions. They come before Golding. After time in prison, where they repent of their schemes and dishonesty, Golding has them released.
Production
Eastward Ho 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 September 4, 1605, and printed later 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"...
issued by the bookseller William Aspley
William Aspley
William Aspley was a London publisher of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline eras. He was a member of the publishing syndicates that issued the First Folio and Second Folio collections of Shakespeare's plays, in 1623 and 1632.-Career:...
, printed by George Eld
George Eld
George Eld was a London printer of the Jacobean era, who produced important works of English Renaissance drama and literature, including key texts by William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Middleton....
. The three authors are identified on the title page, as is the playing company
Playing company
In Renaissance London, playing company was the usual term for a company of actors. These companies were organized around a group of ten or so shareholders , who performed in the plays but were also responsible for management. The sharers employed "hired men" — that is, the minor actors and...
that staged the work, the Children of the Queen's Revels
Children of the Chapel
The Children of the Chapel were the boys with unbroken voices, choristers, who formed part of the Chapel Royal, the body of singers and priests serving the spiritual needs of their sovereign wherever they were called upon to do so....
. Aspley issued a second quarto in the same year, 1605.
Scholars who have tried to determine the respective contributions of the three authors have not reached a full consensus of opinion. Marston is normally assigned Act I; Chapman's hand is seen in Acts II and III; Jonson is usually associated with Act V. Individual scholars, from F. G. Fleay
Frederick Gard Fleay
Frederick Gard Fleay was an influential and prolific nineteenth-century Shakespeare scholar.Fleay, the son of a linen draper, graduated from King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge , where he received mathematical training that was key to his later achievements...
to T. M. Parrott
Thomas Marc Parrott
Thomas Marc Parrott was a prominent twentieth-century American literary scholar, long a member of the faculty of Princeton University in New Jersey....
to Percy Simpson, have produced their own specific and unmatching divisions of authorship. Scholars generally do agree, however, that scene III,iii, the scene with the Scots reference that caused the trouble, was written by Chapman; yet Chapman blamed Marston for the lines that caused offense: "if Chapman spoke the truth, Marston must have interpolated the obnoxious clauses".
The printed text of 1605 does not represent the full and offensive stage production of that year, though critics have disagreed as to whether the hostile official reaction was provoked more by the stage version or by the text. Eastward Ho borrows from and alludes to the dramas of the popular theatre in knowing ways, as plays of the fashionable boys' companies often did; scholars have traced references to The Spanish Tragedy
The Spanish Tragedy
The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent...
, Tamburlaine
Tamburlaine (play)
Tamburlaine the Great is the name of a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur 'the lame'...
, and especially Hamlet
Hamlet
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...
. Eastward Ho has been called "one of the best made of Elizabethan comedies", with a "clear-cut strength and simplicity of structure" rare in dramas of its time.
The play has also inspired the Industry and Idleness series by William Hogarth which also contrasts two apprentices and their lives
Scandal
The play resulted in Jonson, Marston and Chapman being thrown in jail for a time, for offending the King with the anti-ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
reference in Act III. Because of the scandal, a significant body of documentation exists regarding the play, including personal letters written by both Chapman and Jonson while they were in prison. In 1619, William Drummond of Hawthornden
William Drummond of Hawthornden
William Drummond , called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet.-Life:Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, Midlothian. His father, John Drummond, was the first laird of Hawthornden; and his mother was Susannah Fowler, sister of William Fowler, poet and courtier...
recalled Ben Jonson explaining how he got into trouble "for writing something against the Scots in a play, Eastward Ho, and voluntary imprisoned himself with Chapman and Marston who had written it amongst them. The report was that they should have had their ears cut and noses". In actuality Marston fled and escaped arrest. Jonson and Chapman were out of jail by November 1605; Chapman's commendatory poem in the first edition of Jonson's Sejanus (1605) appears to indicate that the Earl of Suffolk
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk
Admiral Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, KG, PC was a son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk by his second wife Margaret Audley, Duchess of Norfolk, the daughter and heiress of the 1st Baron Audley of Walden....
was influential in obtaining their release and resolving the matter.
The play was never entirely banned or suppressed. It was revived by the Lady Elizabeth's Men
Lady Elizabeth's Men
The Lady Elizabeth's Men, or Princess Elizabeth's Men, was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was called The Queen of Bohemia's Men, after Elizabeth and her husband the Elector Palatine had...
in 1613
1613 in literature
The year 1613 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*English poet Francis Quarles becomes cupbearer to Princess Elizabeth....
; and on January 25, 1614
1614 in literature
The year 1614 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Sir Francis Bacon's dual role as MP and attorney-general is objected to by Parliament.*Izaak Walton owns an ironmonger's shop in Fleet Street, London.*Lope de Vega becomes a priest....
, that company performed Eastward Ho at Court.
See also
- The Isle of DogsThe Isle of Dogs (play)The Isle of Dogs is a play by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson which was performed in 1597. It was immediately suppressed, and no copy of it is known to exist.-The Play:...
- The Isle of GullsThe Isle of GullsThe Isle of Gulls is a Jacobean era stage play written by John Day, a comedy that caused a scandal upon its premiere in 1606.The play was most likely written in 1605; it was acted by the Children of the Revels at the Blackfriars Theatre in February 1606. It was published later in 1606, in a quarto...
- The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of ByronThe Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of ByronThe Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron, Marshall of France is a Jacobean tragedy by George Chapman, a two-part play or double play first performed and published in 1608...
- A Game at ChessA Game at ChessA Game at Chess is a comic satirical play by Thomas Middleton, first staged in August 1624 by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre, notable for its political content.-The play:...
- The Court BeggarThe Court BeggarThe Court Beggar is a Caroline era stage play written by Richard Brome. It was first performed by the acting company known as Beeston's Boys at the Cockpit Theatre. It has sometimes been identified as the seditious play, performed at the Cockpit in May 1640, which the Master of the Revels moved to...