The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron
Encyclopedia
The 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
. It tells the story of Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron
, executed for treason in 1602.
through The Tragedy of Chabot, Admiral of France
.
's A General Inventory of the History of France, was first published in 1607
. The plays were first acted by the Children of the Chapel
(by 1608 known as the Children of the Blackfriars), one of the troupes of boy actors
popular in the first decade of the 17th century.
, Antoine Lefèvre de la Boderie, who complained to the King. The Ambassador was particularly irritated by a scene in which the French Queen slapped the face of her husband's mistress (a scene that was censored out of the printed texts of the plays).
The plays were duly suppressed; but when the Court left London in the summer, the boys performed the plays again, in their original versions with the offending material included. James was incensed when he learned of this, and swore that he would punish the players severely. He stopped all dramatic performances in London for a time; three of the Children of the Blackfriars were sent to prison, and the troupe was ejected from the Blackfriars Theatre
. (In a surviving letter to George Buc, the Master of the Revels
, Chapman blames the actors for playing a scene that Buc himself had previously censored from the plays.) Fortunately, James's passion for drama got the better of his anger; the boys were eventually forgiven, and even performed at Court in the ensuing Christmas season.
on June 5, 1608, and were published together later in the year, in a quarto
printed by George Eld
for the bookseller Thomas Thorpe
. (Thorpe had previously published other works by Chapman, All Fools
, 1605
, and The Gentleman Usher
, 1606
, as well as works by his Eastward Hoe
collaborators Ben Jonson
and John Marston
. Thorpe the stationer and Eld the printer would be responsible for the first edition of Shakespeare's
Sonnets
in the following year, 1609
.) The printed text was "ruthlessly censored," particularly in Part I, Act IV (Byron's visit to England), and Part II, Act II (the mistress-slapping scene). The masque in II,i of The Tragedy is thought to have been inserted to fill the hole left by censorship.
Thorpe issued a second quarto in 1625
. King Charles I
owned a copy of this edition, and filled it with notes that compared the political situation in the plays with that of England in the 1630s.
, Alexander the Great, Curtius
, even Orpheus
. His vanity leaves him deeply vulnerable to manipulation by enemies of the King of France, who want to exploit Byron for their own schemes; and Byron allows himself to be drawn in. The King becomes aware of Byron's treason; yet valuing his past service and his great potential, the King attempts to reform Byron, even sending him to England so that the Marshall can witness firsthand a properly functioning monarchical state. At the end of The Conspiracy, Byron manages to curb his pride and submit to the King. Yet his ego is too great to remain restrained indefinitely; Byron returns to plotting, and in the conclusion of The Tragedy he is apprehended, tried, convicted, and executed.
As is usual with Chapman, the two parts of Byron are rich with allusions to classic literature. In addition to those noted above, the French courtier and plotter Picoté uses the rebellion of Catiline
as a precedent for Byron's planned uprising against his king. References to Augustus
, Nero
, and other ancient figures abound.
Later scenes in The Tragedy twice compare Byron's plotting with the rebellion of the Earl of Essex
against Elizabeth in 1601. It has been suggested that the face-slapping scene that caused so much trouble was inspired not by anything in French monarchical history, but by a rumored incident in which Elizabeth struck Essex.
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
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...
, a two-part play or double play first performed and published in 1608
1608 in literature
The year 1608 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 10 - Ben Jonson's The Masque of Beauty is performed by Queen Anne and her retinue at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, a sequel to The Masque of Blackness....
. It tells the story of Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron
Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron
Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron was a French soldier.-Biography:He was the son of Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron, under whose command he fought for the royal party against the Catholic League in the later stages of the Wars of Religion in France. His efforts won him the name “Thunderbolt of...
, executed for treason in 1602.
Genre
The two plays that comprise the larger work, The Conspiracy of Byron and The Tragedy of Byron, can also be described as "contemporary history;" they form the second and third installments in a series of dramas that Chapman wrote on French politics and history in his time, from Bussy D'AmboisBussy D'Ambois
The Tragedy of Bussy D'Ambois is a Jacobean stage play written by George Chapman. Classified as either a tragedy or "contemporary history," Bussy D'Ambois is widely considered Chapman's greatest play, and is the earliest in a series of plays that Chapman wrote about the French political scene in...
through The Tragedy of Chabot, Admiral of France
The Tragedy of Chabot, Admiral of France
The Tragedy of Chabot, Admiral of France is an early seventeenth-century play, generally judged to be a work of George Chapman, later revised by James Shirley...
.
Date and performance
In all likelihood, Chapman composed both parts of Byron in 1607-8; his primary source on the political events portrayed in the plays, Edward GrimestonEdward Grimeston
Edward Grimeston was an English sergeant-at-arms and one of the most active translators of his day.-Life:He was sworn in as sergeant-at-arms to assist the Speaker in the Parliament of England on March 17, 1609/10. He married a daughter of Armiger Strettly. He had a son, Edward, and Sir Harbottle...
's A General Inventory of the History of France, was first published in 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....
. The plays were first acted by the Children of the Chapel
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....
(by 1608 known as the Children of the Blackfriars), one of the troupes of boy actors
Boy player
Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the mainstream companies and performed the female roles, as women did not perform on the English stage in this period...
popular in the first decade of the 17th century.
Suppression
The original production offended the French Ambassador to the Court of King James IJames 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...
, Antoine Lefèvre de la Boderie, who complained to the King. The Ambassador was particularly irritated by a scene in which the French Queen slapped the face of her husband's mistress (a scene that was censored out of the printed texts of the plays).
The plays were duly suppressed; but when the Court left London in the summer, the boys performed the plays again, in their original versions with the offending material included. James was incensed when he learned of this, and swore that he would punish the players severely. He stopped all dramatic performances in London for a time; three of the Children of the Blackfriars were sent to prison, and the troupe was ejected from 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...
. (In a surviving letter to George Buc, the Master of the Revels
Master 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,...
, Chapman blames the actors for playing a scene that Buc himself had previously censored from the plays.) Fortunately, James's passion for drama got the better of his anger; the boys were eventually forgiven, and even performed at Court in the ensuing Christmas season.
Publication
The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Byron were 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 June 5, 1608, and were published together later in the 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 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....
for the bookseller Thomas Thorpe
Thomas Thorpe
Thomas Thorpe was an English publisher, most famous for publishing Shakespeare's sonnets and several works by Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. His publication of the sonnets has long been controversial...
. (Thorpe had previously published other works by Chapman, All Fools
All Fools
All Fools is an early Jacobean era stage play, a comedy by George Chapman that was first published in 1605. The play has often been considered Chapman's highest achievement in comedy: "not only Chapman's most flawless, perfectly balanced play," but "also his most human and large-minded." "Chapman...
, 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....
, and The Gentleman Usher
The Gentleman Usher
The Gentleman Usher is an early 17th-century stage play, a comedy written by George Chapman that was first published in 1606. It is noted as the only play in which Chapman takes a positive view of women.-Date and publication:...
, 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...
, as well as works by his Eastward Hoe
Eastward Hoe
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...
collaborators 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...
. Thorpe the stationer and Eld the printer would be responsible for the first edition of Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
Sonnets
Shakespeare's sonnets
Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. All but two of the poems were first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.: Never before imprinted. Sonnets 138 and 144...
in the following year, 1609
1609 in literature
The year 1609 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - the Children of the Blackfriars perform Middleton's A Trick to Catch the Old One at Court....
.) The printed text was "ruthlessly censored," particularly in Part I, Act IV (Byron's visit to England), and Part II, Act II (the mistress-slapping scene). The masque in II,i of The Tragedy is thought to have been inserted to fill the hole left by censorship.
Thorpe issued a second quarto in 1625
1625 in literature
The year 1625 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The King's Men act Henry IV, Part 1 at Whitehall Palace....
. King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
owned a copy of this edition, and filled it with notes that compared the political situation in the plays with that of England in the 1630s.
Synopsis
Chapman's Byron, a formidable soldier and commander, is marred by one major fault, his overweening pride. He loves to compare himself to the heroes of antiquity—HerculesHercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
, Alexander the Great, Curtius
Curtius
Curtius is a Roman nomen which may refer to:* Quintus Curtius Rufus, 1st century CE historian* Lacus Curtius, a mysterious hole in the ground in the Roman Forum* Curtius Curtius may also refer to:...
, even Orpheus
Orpheus
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
. His vanity leaves him deeply vulnerable to manipulation by enemies of the King of France, who want to exploit Byron for their own schemes; and Byron allows himself to be drawn in. The King becomes aware of Byron's treason; yet valuing his past service and his great potential, the King attempts to reform Byron, even sending him to England so that the Marshall can witness firsthand a properly functioning monarchical state. At the end of The Conspiracy, Byron manages to curb his pride and submit to the King. Yet his ego is too great to remain restrained indefinitely; Byron returns to plotting, and in the conclusion of The Tragedy he is apprehended, tried, convicted, and executed.
As is usual with Chapman, the two parts of Byron are rich with allusions to classic literature. In addition to those noted above, the French courtier and plotter Picoté uses the rebellion of Catiline
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.-Family background:Catiline was born in 108 BC to...
as a precedent for Byron's planned uprising against his king. References to Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
, Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
, and other ancient figures abound.
Later scenes in The Tragedy twice compare Byron's plotting with the rebellion of the Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599...
against Elizabeth in 1601. It has been suggested that the face-slapping scene that caused so much trouble was inspired not by anything in French monarchical history, but by a rumored incident in which Elizabeth struck Essex.