Monsieur Thomas
Encyclopedia
Monsieur Thomas is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy
written by John Fletcher
that was first published in 1639
.
, which was first published in 1610
. It is true that, like many other literary works of the era, Astrée circulated in manuscript form prior to its appearance in print; William Drummond of Hawthornden
read Part 1 of the novel in manuscript in February 1607
, and it is possible that Fletcher similarly saw Part 2 before 1610. Yet there is no direct evidence of this; and the simplest hypothesis is that Fletcher used the 1610 printed text of Astrée, Part 2 as his source. (Fletcher also used D'Urfé's novel as a source for his The Mad Lover
and Valentinian
, other plays of the same era.) Monsieur Thomas was "probably written by 1616
."
on 22 January 1639, and published later that year in a quarto
printed by Thomas Harper for the bookseller John Waterson
. The 1639 quarto bears a commedatory poem written by Richard Brome
, and an Epistle to Fletcher's admirer Charles Cotton
, also signed by Brome. The title page of the quarto states that the play was acted at the Blackfriars Theatre
, without mentioning the company involved. Both the Register entry and the quarto assign the play's authorship to Fletcher alone, a verdict that is confirmed by the internal evidence of the text.
A second quarto, from the stationer Robert Crofts, is undated but is thought to have appeared c. 1661.
Like other previously-printed Fletcher plays, Monsieur Thomas was omitted from the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio
of 1647
, but was included in the second folio of 1679
. The play's plot resembles that of another Fletcher play, Wit Without Money
; the two dramas share some characters' names (Francisco, Valentine, and Launce).
for another instance of Fletcher revising his earlier work.)
The hypothesis of revision is supported by other external evidence. The King's Men
revived Monsieur Thomas early in the Restoration
era; Samuel Pepys
saw it on 28 September 1661
. The revival probably inspired the drama's re-publication in a Croft's second quarto. In Q2, the play is titled Father's Own Son. A play by this title was in possession of the Cockpit Theatre
in 1639. The total implication of these facts is the existence of two versions of the same Fletcher play. Fletcher appears to have written Father's Own Son, perhaps for the Children of the Queen's Revels
, c. 1610, or the Lady Elizabeth's Men
a few years later; and that play descended to Beeston's Boys
at the Cockpit Theatre
three decades later, as various early plays did. Fletcher later produced a revised version of his play titled Monsieur Thomas, likely for the King's Men.
during the period of the English Civil War
and the Interregnum
(1642–60) when the London theatres were officially closed for full-length plays. The droll was called The Doctors of Dull-Head College, and was printed in the second volume of Francis Kirkman
's collection The Wits (1673). And like many plays in Fletcher's canon, Monsieur Thomas was adapted into a new form in the Restoration; Thomas D'Urfey
produced an edited and simplified version called Trick for Trick, or The Debauch'd Hypocrite (1678
), with a new beginning and ending. Charles Hart
played the title role in D'Urfey's version.
The opening scene introduces Valentine, a middle-aged man who has just returned home from foreign travels. He is somewhat anxious to see if his much younger fiancée, Cellide, has waited for him, and is relieved to learn that she is faithful. Valentine has brought home with him a young man he met on his travels, named Francisco; he feels an unusually strong bond for the young man, a strangely intense affection. (The opening scene's conversations also reveal that Valentine is a widower who, years before, had lost a child "at sea / Among the Genoa
gallies.")
Francisco barely arrives at Valentine's home when he falls ill. (The play contains some satire on doctors and their treatments; it was this material that was abstracted to form the droll described above.) It soon becomes clear that Francisco's sickness is largely lovesickness: he had fallen in love with Cellide. When Valentine realizes this, he magnanimously resigns his interest in Cellide and consigns her to the younger man — though Cellide is not very pleased at being handed off in this way. The three characters enter into a tangle of complex emotions over their predicament: Valentine is torn between his affections for Cellide and for Francisco; Francisco is caught between his passion for Cellide, his friendship for Valentine, and his innate nobility of character. In the end, the problem is resolved by the revelation that Francisco is Valentine's long-lost son — which explains the older man's irrational bond with the younger. Valentine is content to lose a fiancée to gain a son and a daughter-in-law.
The play, however, derives its title from the protagonist of its secondary plot. Charles Kingsley
would later call Thomas "the spiritual father of all Angry lads, Rufflers, Blades, Bullies, Mohocks, Corinthians, and Dandies...." Thomas is a typical Jacobean wild young man, a scapegrace and a ne'er-do-well...but with a difference. Out of sheer willfulness and sport, he torments Mary, the woman who loves him, with outrageous behavior; she hopes he will abandon "his mad-cap follies." Yet toward his father, who is more than tolerant of young men sowing their wild oats, Thomas puts on a mask of sanctimony, merely to irritate and provoke. Mary eventually learns that she has to fight fire with fire, and submits Thomas to pranks and manipulations (including an instance of the "bed trick" famous from plays of the era) to teach him his lesson. Once his lesson has been learned, the reformed Thomas can make Mary a suitable husband.
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...
written by John Fletcher
John Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's...
that was first published in 1639
1639 in literature
The year 1639 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*May 21 - The King's Men act John Fletcher's The Mad Lover.*Blaise Pascal's family move to Rouen.*François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer is elected to the Académie Française....
.
Date and Source
Scholars date the play to the 1610–16 period. Fletcher's source for the play's plot was the second part of the novel Astrée by Honoré d'UrféHonoré d'Urfé
Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer.- Life :...
, which was first published in 1610
1610 in literature
The year 1610 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Thomas Bodley makes an agreement with the Stationers' Company of London to put a copy of every book registered with them into his new Bodleian.-New books:...
. It is true that, like many other literary works of the era, Astrée circulated in manuscript form prior to its appearance in print; 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...
read Part 1 of the novel in manuscript in February 1607
1607 in literature
The year 1607 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 2 - The King's Men perform Barnes's The Devil's Charter at Court.*June 5 - John Hall marries Susanna, daughter of William Shakespeare....
, and it is possible that Fletcher similarly saw Part 2 before 1610. Yet there is no direct evidence of this; and the simplest hypothesis is that Fletcher used the 1610 printed text of Astrée, Part 2 as his source. (Fletcher also used D'Urfé's novel as a source for his The Mad Lover
The Mad Lover
The Mad Lover is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy by John Fletcher that was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647....
and Valentinian
Valentinian (play)
Valentinian is a Jacobean era stage play, a revenge tragedy written by John Fletcher was that originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. The play dramatizes the story of Valentinian III, one of the last of the Roman Emperors, as recorded by the classical historian...
, other plays of the same era.) Monsieur Thomas was "probably written by 1616
1616 in literature
The year 1616 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus is placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by the Roman Catholic Church....
."
Publication
The play 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 22 January 1639, and published 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"...
printed by Thomas Harper for the bookseller John Waterson
John Waterson
John Waterson was a London publisher and bookseller of the Jacobean and Caroline eras; he published significant works in English Renaissance drama, including plays by William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, John Webster, and Philip Massinger.-Beginning:Waterson was the scion of a family of publishers:...
. The 1639 quarto bears a commedatory poem written by Richard Brome
Richard Brome
Richard Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.-Life:Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity...
, and an Epistle to Fletcher's admirer Charles Cotton
Charles Cotton
Charles Cotton was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to The Compleat Angler, and for the highly influential The Compleat Gamester which has been attributed to him.-Early life:He was born at Beresford Hall...
, also signed by Brome. The title page of the quarto states that the play was acted at the Blackfriars Theatre
Blackfriars Theatre
Blackfriars Theatre was the name of a theatre in the Blackfriars district of the City of London during the Renaissance. The theatre began as a venue for child actors associated with the Queen's chapel choirs; in this function, the theatre hosted some of the most innovative drama of Elizabeth and...
, without mentioning the company involved. Both the Register entry and the quarto assign the play's authorship to Fletcher alone, a verdict that is confirmed by the internal evidence of the text.
A second quarto, from the stationer Robert Crofts, is undated but is thought to have appeared c. 1661.
Like other previously-printed Fletcher plays, Monsieur Thomas was omitted from the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio
Beaumont and Fletcher folios
The Beaumont and Fletcher folios were two large folio collections of the stage plays of John Fletcher and his collaborators. The first was issued in 1647, and the second in 1679. The two collections were important in preserving many works of English Renaissance drama.-The first folio, 1647:The 1647...
of 1647
1647 in literature
The year 1647 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Thomas Hobbes becomes tutor to the future Charles II of England.* Plagiarist Robert Baron publishes his Deorum Dona, a masque, and Gripus and Hegio, a pastoral, which draw heavily on the poems of Edmund Waller and John Webster's...
, but was included in the second folio of 1679
1679 in literature
This article lists some of the most significant events of the year 1679 in literature.-Events:*John Locke returns to England from France.*Étienne Baluze becomes almoner to King Louis XIV of France....
. The play's plot resembles that of another Fletcher play, Wit Without Money
Wit Without Money
Wit Without Money is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher, and first published in 1639.-Date and authorship:Scholars have dated the play to c. 1614, based on allusions to contemporary events — notably to the dragon that was reportedly seen in Sussex in August 1614...
; the two dramas share some characters' names (Francisco, Valentine, and Launce).
Revision
Though no sign of a second author or collaborator is present, the play does display the types of internal discontinuity that suggest revision — in this case, Fletcher's revision of his own earlier work. In the play's final scene, a character is addressed as "Francisco, now no more young Callidon" — which makes no sense, since the character in question has been identified as "Frank" throughout the play. The nickname "Wild-oats" is applied to two different characters in two separate scenes; the Dorothea of the first three Acts becomes Dorothy in the final two; other similar problems occur. This suggests that an earlier version of the play existed, in which Francisco was called Callidon, as in D'Urfé's novel. (See Women PleasedWomen Pleased
Women Pleased is a late Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy by John Fletcher that was originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.-Date and performance:...
for another instance of Fletcher revising his earlier work.)
The hypothesis of revision is supported by other external evidence. The King's Men
King's Men (playing company)
The King's Men was the company of actors to which William Shakespeare belonged through most of his career. Formerly known as The Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it became The King's Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne and became the company's patron.The...
revived Monsieur Thomas early in 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; 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 28 September 1661
1661 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....
. The revival probably inspired the drama's re-publication in a Croft's second quarto. In Q2, the play is titled Father's Own Son. A play by this title was in possession of 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....
in 1639. The total implication of these facts is the existence of two versions of the same Fletcher play. Fletcher appears to have written Father's Own Son, perhaps for 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....
, c. 1610, or 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...
a few years later; and that play descended to Beeston's Boys
Beeston's Boys
Beeston's Boys was the popular and colloquial name of The King and Queen's Young Company, a troupe of boy actors of the Caroline period, active mainly in the years 1637–1642.-Origin:...
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....
three decades later, as various early plays did. Fletcher later produced a revised version of his play titled Monsieur Thomas, likely for the King's Men.
Adaptations
Material from Monsieur Thomas was transformed into a drollDroll
A droll is a short comical sketch of a type that originated during the Puritan Interregnum in England. With the closure of the theatres, actors were left without any way of plying their art. Borrowing scenes from well-known plays of the Elizabethan theatre, they added dancing and other...
during the period of the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
and the Interregnum
English Interregnum
The English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and military rule by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the Commonwealth of England after the English Civil War...
(1642–60) when the London theatres were officially closed for full-length plays. The droll was called The Doctors of Dull-Head College, and was printed in the second volume of 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...
's collection The Wits (1673). And like many plays in Fletcher's canon, Monsieur Thomas was adapted into a new form in the Restoration; Thomas D'Urfey
Thomas d'Urfey
Thomas D'Urfey was an English writer and wit. He composed plays, songs, and poetry, in addition to writing jokes. He was an important innovator and contributor in the evolution of the Ballad opera....
produced an edited and simplified version called Trick for Trick, or The Debauch'd Hypocrite (1678
1678 in literature
The year 1678 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Thomas Otway, escaping from an unhappy love affair, obtains a commission in the army.*Printer Joseph Moxon becomes the first tradesman to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society....
), with a new beginning and ending. Charles Hart
Charles Hart (17th-century actor)
Charles Hart was a prominent British Restoration actor.A Charles Hart was christened on 11 December 1625, in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate, in London. It is not absolutely certain that this was the actor, though the name was not common at the time...
played the title role in D'Urfey's version.
Synopsis
The play's main plot, borrowed from the French novel, tells a tale of a romantic conflict between two men for one woman. The characters Thamyre, Calydon, and Celidée of Astrée become Fletcher's Valentine, Francisco, and Cellide.The opening scene introduces Valentine, a middle-aged man who has just returned home from foreign travels. He is somewhat anxious to see if his much younger fiancée, Cellide, has waited for him, and is relieved to learn that she is faithful. Valentine has brought home with him a young man he met on his travels, named Francisco; he feels an unusually strong bond for the young man, a strangely intense affection. (The opening scene's conversations also reveal that Valentine is a widower who, years before, had lost a child "at sea / Among the Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
gallies.")
Francisco barely arrives at Valentine's home when he falls ill. (The play contains some satire on doctors and their treatments; it was this material that was abstracted to form the droll described above.) It soon becomes clear that Francisco's sickness is largely lovesickness: he had fallen in love with Cellide. When Valentine realizes this, he magnanimously resigns his interest in Cellide and consigns her to the younger man — though Cellide is not very pleased at being handed off in this way. The three characters enter into a tangle of complex emotions over their predicament: Valentine is torn between his affections for Cellide and for Francisco; Francisco is caught between his passion for Cellide, his friendship for Valentine, and his innate nobility of character. In the end, the problem is resolved by the revelation that Francisco is Valentine's long-lost son — which explains the older man's irrational bond with the younger. Valentine is content to lose a fiancée to gain a son and a daughter-in-law.
The play, however, derives its title from the protagonist of its secondary plot. Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley was an English priest of the Church of England, university professor, historian and novelist, particularly associated with the West Country and northeast Hampshire.-Life and character:...
would later call Thomas "the spiritual father of all Angry lads, Rufflers, Blades, Bullies, Mohocks, Corinthians, and Dandies...." Thomas is a typical Jacobean wild young man, a scapegrace and a ne'er-do-well...but with a difference. Out of sheer willfulness and sport, he torments Mary, the woman who loves him, with outrageous behavior; she hopes he will abandon "his mad-cap follies." Yet toward his father, who is more than tolerant of young men sowing their wild oats, Thomas puts on a mask of sanctimony, merely to irritate and provoke. Mary eventually learns that she has to fight fire with fire, and submits Thomas to pranks and manipulations (including an instance of the "bed trick" famous from plays of the era) to teach him his lesson. Once his lesson has been learned, the reformed Thomas can make Mary a suitable husband.