The Captain is the title of a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy

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 Francis Beaumont

Francis Beaumont

Francis Beaumont was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher....

 and 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...

. It was originally published in 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...

.

Performance and publication

The play was acted at Court by 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...

 during the Christmas season of 1612–13 (the season that saw the lavish celebration of the wedding of King James I's

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...

 daughter Princess Elizabeth

Elizabeth of Bohemia

Elizabeth of Bohemia was the eldest daughter of King James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, Ireland, and Anne of Denmark. As the wife of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, she was Electress Palatine and briefly Queen of Bohemia...

 with Frederick V, Elector Palatine

Frederick V, Elector Palatine

Frederick V was Elector Palatine , and, as Frederick I , King of Bohemia ....

); the company performed the play again at Court in May 1613. The partial cast list published with the play in the second 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 1679 mentions Richard Burbage

Richard Burbage

Richard Burbage was an English actor and theatre owner. He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage. They were both actors in drama....

, Henry Condell

Henry Condell

Henry Condell was an actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing the First Folio, the collected plays of Shakespeare, published in 1623....

, William Ostler

William Ostler

William Ostler was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a member of the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare....

, and Alexander Cooke

Alexander Cooke

Alexander Cooke was an actor in the King's Men, the acting company of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage.Edmond Malone introduced the hypothesis, still current though far from certain, that Cooke originated Shakespeare's principal female roles...

. Since Ostler joined the King's Men almost certainly in 1609, the play is judged to have originated in the 1609–12 period.

The play was revived 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, but does not seem to have been particularly popular, or to have been staged often.

Authorship

The consensus of scholarship agrees on the authorship of the play. Unlike some other Beaumont and Fletcher

Beaumont and Fletcher

Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I ....

 plays such as A King and No King

A King and No King

A King and No King is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher and first published in 1619. It has traditionally been among the most highly-praised and popular works in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators.The play's title became almost...

, The Maid's Tragedy

The Maid's Tragedy

The Maid's Tragedy is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It was first published in 1619.The play was one of the earliest works in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators that was acted by the King's Men; Fletcher would spend most of his career as that company's regular playwright...

, and The Woman Hater

The Woman Hater

The Woman Hater is an early Jacobean era stage play, a comedy by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. One of the earliest of their collaborations, it was the first of their plays to appear in print, in 1607.-Date and publication:...

, in which Beaumont is the dominant partner, The Captain shows Fletcher's hand predominating. Cyrus Hoy

Cyrus Hoy

Cyrus Hoy was a literary scholar of the English Renaissance stage who taught at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, and was the John B. Trevor Professor of English at the University of Rochester...

, in his survey of authorship problems in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators, produced this breakdown between the two playwrights' respective shares:

Fletcher — Acts I, II, and III; Act IV, scenes 1-3; Act V, 1-2;

Beaumont — Act IV, 4;

Beaumont and Fletcher — Act V, 3-5

— a schema that agrees with the conclusions of earlier critics.

The play

Commentators who object to the ethical and moral tone of works in the Beaumont/Fletcher canon have found The Captain to be a prime offender. Critic Robert Ornstein castigated the incest scene in The Captain for its "disgusting prurience."

The Captain tells a story with clear general resemblances to the earlier The Woman Hater; the earlier play might be considered Beaumont's version, and the later one Fletcher's, of the same dramatic concept. Jacomo, the title character of The Captain, is another misogynist

Misogyny

Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...

, and the heroine Frank loves him and finds a way to reform him and win him. (In each play, the misogynistic protagonist gets bound to a chair by the play's coterie of female characters.) In the parallel plot, Julio and Angelo are both in love with the "cunning wanton widow" Lelia.

The play is notable for its overt challenge to its audience's expectations and sense of plausibility. At the end, Julio engages in a surprise marriage to Frank's witty friend Clora; and his boon companion Angelo comments wryly:

If a marriage

Should be thus slobber'd up in a play,

Ere almost anybody had taken notice

You were in love, the spectators would take it

To be ridiculous. (V,v)