The Deserving Favourite
Encyclopedia
The Deserving Favourite is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy
written by Lodowick Carlell
that was first published in 1629
. The earliest of Carlell's plays "and also the best," it is notable for its influence on other plays of the Caroline era.
issued by the stationer
Matthew Rhodes. (The work was not entered into the Stationers' Register
prior to publication. This violation of the rules was unusual, though not unprecedented; the same is true of a few other plays of the era, like Greene's Tu Quoque
in 1614
, and A Fair Quarrel
in 1617
.) The title page states that the play had "lately" been acted, first at Court before King Charles I
and then "publicly" at the Blackfriars Theatre
, by the King's Men
.
Carlell dedicated the first edition to two personal friends, Thomas Carey, second son to the Earl of Monmouth
, and William Murray. Both were gentlemen of the King's Bedchamber.
A second quarto was issued in 1659
by the stationer Humphrey Moseley
.
they staged more plays by courtiers like Carlell, William Cartwright, Sir John Suckling
, and Thomas Killigrew
. At least some of these productions were subsidized in varying ways. The plays were sometimes published soon after their premieres in vanity editions, the folio
printing of Suckling's Aglaura
being the extreme example.
For these courtiers, playwriting "was one of many fields in which one might emerge in virtuoso self-display, and the lengths to which Suckling and others were prepared to go, following the fashion set by Lodowick Carlell's The Deserving Favourite (c. 1629), to have their works publicly performed, is an indication of the new importance of the theater for an aspiring wit."
Carlell's first play served as a model for the courtly tragicomedies that followed it in the 1630s, plays like Sir William Davenant
's The Platonick Lovers
(1636
) and The Fair Favourite (1638
) among others, which show the influence of the cult of Platonic love
at the court of Queen Henrietta Maria
. In his The Unfortunate Lovers (also 1638), Davenant borrows the names of Carlell's lovers, Lysander and Clarinda, for his similar pair of characters.
The list yields insight into the workings of the company at the time of the production.
[For other King's Men cast lists of the 1625–35 period, see: The Picture, The Roman Actor
, The Swisser
.]
(The three express their feelings in long passionate speeches, consumed with high-flown notions of love and honour. At one point, even the King gets tired of it all, and urges the Duke to resist his love-sickness: "Call back for shame then / That judgement which had wont to govern all / Your actions...")
Through self-interest and malice, the bad servant Iacomo is motivated to interfere. Lysander tries to drive Clarinda into the Duke's arms by displaying his own unworthiness: he suggests that they can maintain a clandestine love affair after she and the Duke are married. Clarinda is not fooled; she pretends to second the idea and exposes Lysander's manipulation. Iacomo has brought the Duke to eavesdrop, however; and the Duke, hearing the first half of the talk, is outraged. His challenges Lysander to a duel.
The two meet in the forest (one of the forest scenes that are a hallmark of Carlell's drama). In the fight, both are seriously wounded. The princess Cleonarda, the King's sister and an avid huntress, comes upon their bodies; she falls in love with Lysander, and takes him to her hunting lodge to nurse him back to health. She believes the other man is dead; but his body mysteriously disappears when her servants search for it.
Rumor spreads that Lysander has killed the Duke, and the King offers rewards for his capture. Cleonarda nurses Lysander in hiding, and learns that her loves Clarinda; she is torn between her love for him and her admiration for his loyalty to his first affection. Clarinda is called to Lysander's side; she naively tells Iacomo of the plan. Disguised as a boy, Clarinda goes to the forest, guided by Iacomo; but the servant binds her hands and threatens to rape her. She escapes into the woods, and Iacomo goes to tell the King of Lysander's whereabouts.
The bound and boy-disguised Clarinda is rescued by a man she meets in the woods. She fails to recognize that he is the Duke, who has also recovered from his wounds under the care of a forest-dwelling Hermit. Acting on Iacomo's information, the King and his men capture Lysander. Cleonarda reveals her love for him, and tries to obtain her brother's pardon; but the King is determined to execute the man that he believes killed the Duke. On the day of execution, the Duke shows himself still alive.
Lysander is pardoned, and about to marry Clarinda — when the Hermit demands a halt to the wedding. The two young people cannot marry, because they are brother and sister. The Hermit is actually Count Orsinio, Lysander's father — but not his father, since Orsinio informs everyone that Lysander is Clarinda's brother, stolen in infancy. This explains the strong attraction they feel for each other. Since all four characters have been impressed with each others' nobility and honor, they accept the obvious resolution of their difficulties: the Duke and Clarinda agree to marry, as do Lysander and Cleonarda. The King resists the prospect of his sister marrying a subject; but when the two threaten to kill each other over the matter, he relents.
As the Hermit turned out to be Count Orsinio, so Iacomo turns out to be his brother the villainous uncle. He is sent to prison for the rest of his life.
In the Epilogue to the play, Carlell acknowledges that his audience might consider the drama "only full / Of gross absurdities...."
— see The Antipodes
, A Mad Couple Well-Match'd
, and The Queen's Exchange
. James Shirley
's The Bird in a Cage
contains a comparable element.
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 Lodowick Carlell
Lodowick Carlell
Lodowick Carlell , also Carliell or Carlile, was a seventeenth-century English playwright, active mainly during the Caroline era and the Commonwealth period.-Courtier:...
that was first published in 1629
1629 in literature
The year 1629 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*April 6 - Tommaso Campanella is released from custody in Rome, and gains the confidence of Pope Urban IV....
. The earliest of Carlell's plays "and also the best," it is notable for its influence on other plays of the Caroline era.
Performance and publication
The play was first printed in 1629 in a quartoBook 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 stationer
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
Matthew Rhodes. (The work was not 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...
prior to publication. This violation of the rules was unusual, though not unprecedented; the same is true of a few other plays of the era, like Greene's Tu Quoque
Greene's Tu Quoque
Greene's Tu Quoque, also known as The City Gallant, is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Cooke. The play was a major popular success upon its premier, and became something of a legend in the theatre lore of the seventeenth century.-Performance:Cooke's play was performed by Queen...
in 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....
, and A Fair Quarrel
A Fair Quarrel
A Fair Quarrel is a Jacobean tragicomedy, a collaboration between Thomas Middleton and William Rowley that was first published in 1617.-Performance and Publication:...
in 1617
1617 in literature
The year 1617 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*March 4 - Shrovetide riot of the London apprentices damages the Cockpit Theatre...
.) The title page states that the play had "lately" been acted, first at Court before 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...
and then "publicly" 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...
, 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...
.
Carlell dedicated the first edition to two personal friends, Thomas Carey, second son to the Earl of Monmouth
Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth
Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth was an English nobleman and courtier. He was the youngest son of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and Anne Morgan, daughter of Sir Thomas Morgan and Anne Whitney.As a young man he accompanied several diplomatic missions abroad and took part in military expeditions...
, and William Murray. Both were gentlemen of the King's Bedchamber.
A second quarto was issued in 1659
1659 in literature
The year 1659 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Andrew Marvell becomes a member of Parliament.* Méric Casaubon edits John Dee's journal of angel magic.-New books:*Richard Baxter - The Holy Commonwealth...
by the stationer Humphrey Moseley
Humphrey Moseley
Humphrey Moseley was a prominent London publisher and bookseller in the middle seventeenth century.Possibly a son of publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley became a "freeman" of the Stationers Company, the guild of London booksellers, on 7 May 1627; he was selected a Warden of the Company on...
.
"Vanity"
There is no indication just how recent a production that word "lately" might mean, though it could have been in the same year, 1629. This play was an early instance of a phenomenon that came to distinguish the final phase of the King's Men's existence: what can be called "vanity" productions of plays written by courtiers. Previously, the King's Men had chosen their plays on the basis of their appeal to the popular audience; but in the Caroline eraCaroline era
The Caroline era refers to the era in English and Scottish history during the Stuart period that coincided with the reign of Charles I , Carolus being Latin for Charles...
they staged more plays by courtiers like Carlell, William Cartwright, Sir John Suckling
John Suckling (poet)
Sir John Suckling was an English poet and one prominent figure among those renowned for careless gaiety, wit, and all the accomplishments of a Cavalier poet; and also the inventor of the card game Cribbage...
, and Thomas Killigrew
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:...
. At least some of these productions were subsidized in varying ways. The plays were sometimes published soon after their premieres in vanity editions, the folio
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"...
printing of Suckling's Aglaura
Aglaura (play)
Aglaura is a late Caroline era stage play, written by Sir John Suckling. Several aspects of the play have led critics to treat it as a key development and a marker of the final decadent phase of English Renaissance drama.-Performance:...
being the extreme example.
For these courtiers, playwriting "was one of many fields in which one might emerge in virtuoso self-display, and the lengths to which Suckling and others were prepared to go, following the fashion set by Lodowick Carlell's The Deserving Favourite (c. 1629), to have their works publicly performed, is an indication of the new importance of the theater for an aspiring wit."
Carlell's first play served as a model for the courtly tragicomedies that followed it in the 1630s, plays like Sir William Davenant
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...
's The Platonick Lovers
The Platonick Lovers
The Platonick Lovers is a Caroline era stage play which blends the genres of tragicomedy, satire, and comedy of manners. It was written by Sir William Davenant and first printed in 1636...
(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...
) and The Fair Favourite (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....
) among others, which show the influence of the cult of Platonic love
Platonic love
Platonic love is a chaste and strong type of love that is non-sexual.-Amor Platonicus:The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino. Platonic love in this original sense of the term is examined in Plato's dialogue the Symposium, which has...
at the court of Queen Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria of France
Henrietta Maria of France ; was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I...
. In his The Unfortunate Lovers (also 1638), Davenant borrows the names of Carlell's lovers, Lysander and Clarinda, for his similar pair of characters.
Source
Carlell based the plot of his play on a Spanish novel titled La duquesa de Mantua by the popular author Don Alonzo del Castillo Solorzano, first published in 1628 or 1629 (the dates in copies of the first edition vary). The close conjunction of dates suggests that the play's authorship, performances, and publication all followed each other closely in a brief span of time, 1628–29.The cast
The 1629 quarto provides a cast list of the original production.| Role | Actor |
|---|---|
| King | Robert Benfield Robert Benfield Robert Benfield was a seventeenth-century actor, noted for his longtime membership in the King's Men in the years and decades after William Shakespeare's retirement and death.Nothing is known of Benfield's early life... |
| Duke | Joseph Taylor Joseph Taylor (17th-century actor) Joseph Taylor was a 17th-century actor. As the successor of Richard Burbage with the King's Men, he was arguably the most important actor in the later Jacobean and the Caroline eras.... |
| Iacomo | John Lowin John Lowin John Lowin was an English actor born in the St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, the son of a tanner. Like Robert Armin, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. While he is not recorded as a free citizen of this company, he did perform as a goldsmith, Leofstane, in a 1611 city pageant written by... |
| Lysander | Richard Sharpe Richard Sharpe (actor) Richard Sharpe was an actor with the King's Men, the leading theatre troupe of its time and the company of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage... |
| Count Utrante | Eliard Swanston Eliard Swanston Eliard Swanston , alternatively spelled Heliard, Hilliard, Elyard, Ellyardt, Ellyaerdt, and Eyloerdt, was an English actor in the Caroline era. He became a leading man in the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage, in the final phase of its existence.-Career:Swanston... |
| Count Orsinio (the Hermit) | Richard Robinson Richard Robinson (17th-century actor) Richard Robinson was an actor in English Renaissance theatre and a member of Shakespeare's company the King's Men.Robinson started out as a boy player with the company; in 1611 he played the Lady in their production of The Second Maiden's Tragedy. He was cast in their production of Ben Jonson's... |
| Gerard | Anthony Smith King's Men personnel King's Men personnel were the people who worked with and for the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men from 1594 to 1642... |
| Clarinda | John Honyman John Honyman John Honyman , also Honeyman, Honiman, Honnyman, or other variants, was an English actor of the Caroline era. He was a member of the King's Men, the most prominent playing company of its era, best known as the company of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage.Honyman belonged to the generation... |
| Cleonarda | John Thompson John Thompson (actor) John Thompson was a noted boy player acting women's roles in English Renaissance theatre. He served in the King's Men, the acting troupe formerly of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage.Thompson's career is notable for his length... |
| Mariana | Edward Horton King's Men personnel King's Men personnel were the people who worked with and for the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men from 1594 to 1642... |
The list yields insight into the workings of the company at the time of the production.
[For other King's Men cast lists of the 1625–35 period, see: The Picture, The Roman Actor
The Roman Actor
The Roman Actor is a Caroline era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger; it was first performed in 1626, and first published in 1629...
, The Swisser
The Swisser
The Swisser is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Arthur Wilson. It was performed by the King's Men in the Blackfriars Theatre in 1631, and is notable for the light in throws on the workings of the premier acting company of its time....
.]
Synopsis
In an unnamed country, ruled by an unnamed King, a love triangle prevails among three passionate people. Lysander and Clarinda are deeply in love; but the Duke, the King's powerful cousin, also loves Clarinda and seeks her hand in marriage. (The Duke is the King's "favourite," the prime courtier in his court. He is the "deserving favourite" of the title.) Lysander is indebted to the Duke for the preservation of his "life and fortune" — when Lysander's villainous uncle tried to cheat his nephew of his patrimony, the Duke prevented the injustice. His sense of honor drives Lysander to try to step aside and let the Duke prevail with Clarinda — but the young woman resists this; Lysander is her choice.(The three express their feelings in long passionate speeches, consumed with high-flown notions of love and honour. At one point, even the King gets tired of it all, and urges the Duke to resist his love-sickness: "Call back for shame then / That judgement which had wont to govern all / Your actions...")
Through self-interest and malice, the bad servant Iacomo is motivated to interfere. Lysander tries to drive Clarinda into the Duke's arms by displaying his own unworthiness: he suggests that they can maintain a clandestine love affair after she and the Duke are married. Clarinda is not fooled; she pretends to second the idea and exposes Lysander's manipulation. Iacomo has brought the Duke to eavesdrop, however; and the Duke, hearing the first half of the talk, is outraged. His challenges Lysander to a duel.
The two meet in the forest (one of the forest scenes that are a hallmark of Carlell's drama). In the fight, both are seriously wounded. The princess Cleonarda, the King's sister and an avid huntress, comes upon their bodies; she falls in love with Lysander, and takes him to her hunting lodge to nurse him back to health. She believes the other man is dead; but his body mysteriously disappears when her servants search for it.
Rumor spreads that Lysander has killed the Duke, and the King offers rewards for his capture. Cleonarda nurses Lysander in hiding, and learns that her loves Clarinda; she is torn between her love for him and her admiration for his loyalty to his first affection. Clarinda is called to Lysander's side; she naively tells Iacomo of the plan. Disguised as a boy, Clarinda goes to the forest, guided by Iacomo; but the servant binds her hands and threatens to rape her. She escapes into the woods, and Iacomo goes to tell the King of Lysander's whereabouts.
The bound and boy-disguised Clarinda is rescued by a man she meets in the woods. She fails to recognize that he is the Duke, who has also recovered from his wounds under the care of a forest-dwelling Hermit. Acting on Iacomo's information, the King and his men capture Lysander. Cleonarda reveals her love for him, and tries to obtain her brother's pardon; but the King is determined to execute the man that he believes killed the Duke. On the day of execution, the Duke shows himself still alive.
Lysander is pardoned, and about to marry Clarinda — when the Hermit demands a halt to the wedding. The two young people cannot marry, because they are brother and sister. The Hermit is actually Count Orsinio, Lysander's father — but not his father, since Orsinio informs everyone that Lysander is Clarinda's brother, stolen in infancy. This explains the strong attraction they feel for each other. Since all four characters have been impressed with each others' nobility and honor, they accept the obvious resolution of their difficulties: the Duke and Clarinda agree to marry, as do Lysander and Cleonarda. The King resists the prospect of his sister marrying a subject; but when the two threaten to kill each other over the matter, he relents.
As the Hermit turned out to be Count Orsinio, so Iacomo turns out to be his brother the villainous uncle. He is sent to prison for the rest of his life.
In the Epilogue to the play, Carlell acknowledges that his audience might consider the drama "only full / Of gross absurdities...."
Distaff sex
When Cleonarda and Clarinda meet for the first time, the two women praise each other's beauty, in terms that (to a modern ear at least) sound surprisingly erotic. Lysander later tells Clarinda that after he is executed "You and the Princess may together make / A kind of marriage...." Suggestions of lesbianism crop up curiously in Caroline-era plays, in contrast to earlier phases of English Renaissance drama; they recur in plays by Richard BromeRichard 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...
— see The Antipodes
The Antipodes
The Antipodes is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome c. 1640. Many critics have ranked The Antipodes as "his best play...Brome's masterpiece," and one of the best Caroline comedies — "gay, imaginative, and spirited...;" "the most sophisticated and ingenious of Brome's...
, A Mad Couple Well-Match'd
A Mad Couple Well-Match'd
A Mad Couple Well-Match'd is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. It was first published in the 1653 Brome collection Five New Plays, issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring....
, and The Queen's Exchange
The Queen's Exchange
The Queen's Exchange is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Richard Brome.-Publication and performance:The Queen's Exchange was first published in 1657, in a quarto issued by the bookseller Henry Brome...
. James Shirley
James Shirley
James Shirley was an English dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly...
's The Bird in a Cage
The Bird in a Cage
The Bird in a Cage, or The Beauties is a Caroline era comedy written by James Shirley, first published in 1633. The play is notable, even among Shirley's plays, for its lushness — what one critic has called "gay romanticism run mad."-History:...
contains a comparable element.