The Bondman
Encyclopedia
The Bondman is a later Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy
written by Philip Massinger
, first published in 1624
. The play has been called "the finest of the more serious tragicomedies" of Massinger.
, on December 3, 1623
, as The Noble Bondman, and was acted by the Lady Elizabeth's Men
at the Cockpit Theatre
, and also performed for the Court at Whitehall Palace. The play was entered into the Stationers' Register
on March 12 of the following year, 1624, and published soon after in a quarto
printed by Edward Allde
for the booksellers John Harrison and Edward Blackmore. A second quarto appearing in 1638
. Massinger dedicated the play to Philip Herbert
, then the Earl of Montgomery
and later Earl of Pembroke
and Lord Chancellor
. Massinger had an important and long-standing connection with the Herbert family through his father. (The play was a "modest success...in untying the purse strings of Philip Herbert" and winning Massinger some patronage support.)
The drama proved popular in its own era and long after. William Cartwright depended heavily upon it when writing his own drama The Royal Slave (1636
). The Bondman was revived during the Restoration
era; in the first years of the 1660s it was performed repeatedly by several companies, Killigrew's
King's Company
, Davenant's
Duke's Company
, John Rhodes
's troupe, and perhaps George Jolly
's too.
Samuel Pepys
saw the play in 1661
, and praised Thomas Betterton
's performance as Pisander. Betterton played the role at Drury Lane
as late as 1719
. Richard Cumberland
produced an adaptation that was staged at Covent Garden
in 1769
. Later, a segment of Act I, scene iii was abstracted for its patriotic message and distributed as a broadside
prior to the expected invasion of Napoleon
.
and his defense of Syracuse against Carthage
in 338 BC
. Massinger's primary source for his plot was the treatment of Timoleon in the Parallel Lives
of Plutarch
, though he also drew upon works by Herodotus
, Justin
, and Seneca the Elder
. Massinger's play includes an approving treatment of the assassination of Timoleon's older brother Timophanes for tyranny — surprising and noteworthy, given the absolutist political era in which the play appeared.
Critics have debated whether and to what degree Massinger's play was a commentary on the political climate of his own era, and its possible status as an intended work of propaganda.
to command their defensive effort. Timoleon is welcomed by prominent Syracusans, including Archidamus, his son Timagoras, and his daughter Cleora. Leosthenes, a friend of Timagoras, is Cleora's suitor (though not her only one).
In the play's early scenes, Massinger presents a picture of Syracuse as adeeply corrupt society. Cleon, a rich citizen, is a selfish glutton; the mature women are sexually rapacious, one even attempting to seduce her own stepson; and the city's slaves are badly abused. Members of the younger generation, however, are hungry for the reform that Timoleon's arrival promises. Leosthenes is a valiant but insecure and jealous young man; when he takes his leave of Cleora, he expresses his jealousy, and Cleora, resentful of his mistrust of her virtue, vows to wear a blindfold and to remain mute until Leosthenes returns from the war.
Timoleon organizes the citizens' military forces and marches them out of the city — and the city's slaves ready for revolt. They are led by Pisander, a gentleman from Thebes
who is masquerading as Marullo, a slave in Archidamus's household. The ensuing slave revolt is managed by Pisander so that the citizens, while treated roughly, are not slaughtered; it turns out that Pisander's motive in starting the revolt is to further his own suit for Cleora's hand in marriage. Aided by Cleora's personal slave Timandra, Pisander pleads his suit to the blindfolded and mute Cleora, and so effectively that she is touched by his appeal.
The forces under Timoleon are victorious over the Carthaginians; but when they march home in triumph, they find the slaves in charge of the city and the gates closed against them. Their assault on the city fails; but when the slaves venture out to attack them, the masters manage to terrify the slaves with their whips and overcome the resistance. Once they re-take the city, the Syracusans round up the rebellious slaves, including Pisander/Marullo; but Cleora causes a scandal by taking his part, against the vocal opposition of Leosthenes and Timagoras. In a trial before Timoleon, Cleora pleads her case, and Pisander reveals his true identity as a prominent, well-known, well-respected Theban noble; it is also revealed that Cleora's slave Timandra is actually Pisander's sister Statilia. Leosthenes had previously been engaged to marry Statilia, but had turned his back on her. In the play's denouement, Pisander and Cleora and Leosthenes and Statilia are united as couples, and the rebel slaves are re-absorbed into a more humanely ordered Syracusan society.
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...
written by Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The City Madam and The Roman Actor, are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and social themes.-Early life:The son of Arthur Massinger or Messenger, he was baptized at St....
, first published in 1624
1624 in literature
The year 1624 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*The King's Men perform The Winter's Tale at Whitehall Palace on January 18...
. The play has been called "the finest of the more serious tragicomedies" of Massinger.
Performance and publication
The Bondman was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the RevelsMaster of the Revels
The Master of the Revels was a position within the English, and later the British, royal household heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels" that originally had responsibilities for overseeing royal festivities, known as revels, and later also became responsible for stage censorship,...
, on December 3, 1623
1623 in literature
The year 1623 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 2 - The King's Men perform Twelfth Night at Court on Candlemas....
, as The Noble Bondman, and was acted 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...
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....
, and also performed for the Court at Whitehall Palace. The play was entered into the Stationers' Register
Stationers' 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 March 12 of the following year, 1624, and 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 Edward Allde
Edward Allde
Edward Allde was an English printer in London during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. He was responsible for a number of significant texts in English Renaissance drama, including some of the early editions of plays by William Shakespeare.-Life:Edward Allde was part of a family of professional...
for the booksellers John Harrison and Edward Blackmore. A second quarto appearing in 1638
1638 in literature
The year 1638 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 6 - Luminalia, a masque written by Sir William Davenant and designed by Inigo Jones, is staged at the English Court....
. Massinger dedicated the play to Philip Herbert
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery KG was an English courtier and politician active during the reigns of James I and Charles I...
, then the Earl of Montgomery
Earl of Montgomery
The title Earl of Montgomery was created in the Peerage of England in 1605 for Sir Philip Herbert, younger son of the 2nd Earl of Pembroke. The first Earl inherited the Earldom of Pembroke in 1630 from his brother, the 3rd Earl, and the two titles have been united ever since.* Philip Herbert, 4th...
and later Earl of Pembroke
Earl of Pembroke
Earl of Pembroke is a title created ten times, all in the Peerage of England. It was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title is associated with Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in West Wales, which is the site of Earldom's original seat Pembroke Castle...
and Lord Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
. Massinger had an important and long-standing connection with the Herbert family through his father. (The play was a "modest success...in untying the purse strings of Philip Herbert" and winning Massinger some patronage support.)
The drama proved popular in its own era and long after. William Cartwright depended heavily upon it when writing his own drama The Royal Slave (1636
1636 in literature
The year 1636 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 31 - The King's Men perform Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at St. James's Palace.*February - James Shirley's The Duke's Mistress is performed at St...
). The Bondman was revived 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...
era; in the first years of the 1660s it was performed repeatedly by several companies, Killigrew's
Thomas Killigrew
Thomas Killigrew was an English dramatist and theatre manager. He was a witty, dissolute figure at the court of King Charles II of England.-Life and work:...
King's Company
King's Company
The King's Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London at the start of the English Restoration. It existed from 1660 to 1682.-History:...
, Davenant's
William Davenant
Sir William Davenant , also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned both the Caroline and Restoration eras and who was active both before and after the English Civil...
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...
, John Rhodes
John Rhodes (17th century)
John Rhodes was a theatrical figure of the early and middle seventeenth century. He rose to a brief prominence in 1660 when the London theatres re-opened at the start of the English Restoration era.-Beginning:...
's troupe, and perhaps George Jolly
George Jolly
George Jolly, or Joliffe was an actor, an early actor-manager and a theatre impressario of the middle seventeenth century...
's too.
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 the play in 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....
, and praised Thomas Betterton
Thomas Betterton
Thomas Patrick Betterton , English actor, son of an under-cook to King Charles I, was born in London.-Apprentice and actor:...
's performance as Pisander. Betterton played the role at Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
as late as 1719
1719 in literature
The year 1719 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Nicholas Rowe's widow receives a pension from King George I in recognition of her husband's translation of Lucan's Pharsalia....
. Richard Cumberland
Richard Cumberland (dramatist)
Richard Cumberland was a British dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived...
produced an adaptation that was staged at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
in 1769
1769 in literature
See also: 1768 in literature, other events of 1769, 1770 in literature, list of years in literature.-Events:* February–April - John Wilkes is expelled from the Parliament of Great Britain three times....
. Later, a segment of Act I, scene iii was abstracted for its patriotic message and distributed as a broadside
Broadside (printing)
A broadside is a large sheet of paper printed on one side only. Historically, broadsides were posters, announcing events or proclamations, or simply advertisements...
prior to the expected invasion of Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
.
Sources
The play tells the story of TimoleonTimoleon
Timoleon , son of Timodemus, of Corinth was a Greek statesman and general.As the champion of Greece against Carthage he is closely connected with the history of Sicily, especially Syracuse.-Early life:...
and his defense of Syracuse against Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
in 338 BC
338 BC
Year 338 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Camillus and Maenius...
. Massinger's primary source for his plot was the treatment of Timoleon in the Parallel Lives
Parallel Lives
Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, written in the late 1st century...
of Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, though he also drew upon works by Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, Justin
Junianus Justinus
Justin was a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire. His name is mentioned only in the title of his own history, and there it is in the genitive, which would be M. Juniani Justini no matter which nomen he bore.Of his personal history nothing is known...
, and Seneca the Elder
Seneca the Elder
Lucius or Marcus Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Elder and Seneca the Rhetorician , was a Roman rhetorician and writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Cordoba, Hispania...
. Massinger's play includes an approving treatment of the assassination of Timoleon's older brother Timophanes for tyranny — surprising and noteworthy, given the absolutist political era in which the play appeared.
Critics have debated whether and to what degree Massinger's play was a commentary on the political climate of his own era, and its possible status as an intended work of propaganda.
Synopsis
The play is set in ancient Syracuse (though in typical Jacobean manner, Massinger gives his characters contemporaneous dress and manners: the ancient Syracusans wear ruffs around their necks and behave like Jacobeans). On the eve of a Carthaginian invasion, the citizens of the city have invited Timoleon from CorinthCorinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
to command their defensive effort. Timoleon is welcomed by prominent Syracusans, including Archidamus, his son Timagoras, and his daughter Cleora. Leosthenes, a friend of Timagoras, is Cleora's suitor (though not her only one).
In the play's early scenes, Massinger presents a picture of Syracuse as adeeply corrupt society. Cleon, a rich citizen, is a selfish glutton; the mature women are sexually rapacious, one even attempting to seduce her own stepson; and the city's slaves are badly abused. Members of the younger generation, however, are hungry for the reform that Timoleon's arrival promises. Leosthenes is a valiant but insecure and jealous young man; when he takes his leave of Cleora, he expresses his jealousy, and Cleora, resentful of his mistrust of her virtue, vows to wear a blindfold and to remain mute until Leosthenes returns from the war.
Timoleon organizes the citizens' military forces and marches them out of the city — and the city's slaves ready for revolt. They are led by Pisander, a gentleman from Thebes
Thebes, Greece
Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others...
who is masquerading as Marullo, a slave in Archidamus's household. The ensuing slave revolt is managed by Pisander so that the citizens, while treated roughly, are not slaughtered; it turns out that Pisander's motive in starting the revolt is to further his own suit for Cleora's hand in marriage. Aided by Cleora's personal slave Timandra, Pisander pleads his suit to the blindfolded and mute Cleora, and so effectively that she is touched by his appeal.
The forces under Timoleon are victorious over the Carthaginians; but when they march home in triumph, they find the slaves in charge of the city and the gates closed against them. Their assault on the city fails; but when the slaves venture out to attack them, the masters manage to terrify the slaves with their whips and overcome the resistance. Once they re-take the city, the Syracusans round up the rebellious slaves, including Pisander/Marullo; but Cleora causes a scandal by taking his part, against the vocal opposition of Leosthenes and Timagoras. In a trial before Timoleon, Cleora pleads her case, and Pisander reveals his true identity as a prominent, well-known, well-respected Theban noble; it is also revealed that Cleora's slave Timandra is actually Pisander's sister Statilia. Leosthenes had previously been engaged to marry Statilia, but had turned his back on her. In the play's denouement, Pisander and Cleora and Leosthenes and Statilia are united as couples, and the rebel slaves are re-absorbed into a more humanely ordered Syracusan society.