The Elder Brother
Encyclopedia
The Elder Brother is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a comedy
written by John Fletcher
and Philip Massinger
. Apparently dating from 1625
, it may have been the last play Fletcher worked on before his August 1625 death.
on 25 April 1635; and it was staged at Hampton Court Palace
on 5 January 1637. The play was revived during Restoration
era, like many other popular plays in the Fletcher canon; it was performed as early as Friday 23 November 1660
, and Samuel Pepys
saw it on 6 September 1661
, but thought it "ill acted." The play remained in the repertory for years, and was a "principal old stock play" of the era.
, in a quarto
printed by Felix Kingston for the booksellers John Benson
and John Waterson
, with a title-page attribution to Fletcher. The first quarto exists in two states, with minor typographical differences between them. A second quarto was issued in 1651
by bookseller Humphrey Moseley
. (The rights to the play were transferred to Moseley in Oct. 1646, according to the Stationers' Register; the recording entry cites the playwright's name as "Mr. Fflesher" — one of the odder vagaries in the famously flexible orthography of the English Renaissance.) A third quarto followed in 1661
, with a fourth in 1678
The Elder Brother was omitted from the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio
of 1647
, like other previously-printed Fletcher plays; it was included in the second folio of 1679
. The title pages of all the quartos agree that the play was staged by the King's Men
at the Blackfriars Theatre
.
The play also exists in a manuscript, part of the collection MS. Egerton 1994
in the collection of the British Museum
. The text of the MS. shows a range of small differences from the printed texts (mainly single words, and a few lines).
. Q3 returns to the original attribution to Fletcher alone; but Q4 reverts to Beaumont and Fletcher. (The play dates from long after Beaumont's
retirement from the stage in 1613 and his death in 1616.)
, in his comprehensive study of authorship problems in Fletcher's canon, agrees with other commentators in assigning Acts I and V to Massinger, and Acts II, III, and IV to Fletcher — the same division of shares displayed in The False One
, another of their collaborative efforts. Hoy judged The Elder Brother to be a work originally by Fletcher alone, "the first and last acts of which have been virtually rewritten by Massinger."
They face a problem, however: under the rules of primogeniture
, Charles is heir to his father's estates, while Eustace is merely a younger son with no independent income. The two fathers scheme to oust Charles from his privileged place and convey his birthright to Eustace. The protests of Brisac's brother Miramount, who favors Charles and admires his intellectual pursuits, are dismissed. Brisac promises Charles an income that will provide for his bookish life; and Charles is naive enough to accept the offer — until he meets Angellina in person. He is instantly swept away by her, as she is with him; and he is inspired to defend his rights, knowing that he needs an estate to support a wife. He refuses to sign the legal documents that Brisac and Lewis have prepared, documents that would effectively disinherit him.
Brisac and Lewis are both outraged at the failure of their plan. Brisac orders Charles out of his house, as Lewis does Angellina; but the young couple find refuge with Miramount. Angellina is at first concerned about her honor and reputation — but Charles assures her that he will treat her with respect and discretion. Eustace and two of his courtier friends, Cowsy and Egremont, go to confront Charles; but the newly emboldened young man seizes Eustace's sword and drives the three of them out. Brisac and Lewis, meanwhile, have a falling-out over the bad outcome of their scheme.
In conversation with Cowsy and Egremont, Eustace is disillusioned by their frank cowardice and their self-centered disregard for considerations of honor; he obtains one of their swords, then chases them away and goes to confront his brother once again. The two brothers begin a duel
over Angellina and their disrupted inheritance. Miramount tries to stop them, and they are interrupted by the news that Brisac has taken legal action over the matter, seizing both Lewis and Angellina. Miramount, Charles, and Eustace go to prevent this. The childless Miramount makes an offer that pacifies all concerned: he will make Eustace the heir to his estates and support the young man in finding a wife. Charles and Angellina can then proceed to the altar without hindrance.
Being written in prose rather than verse, the play lacks the embellishments of style normal for Fletcher and Massinger; it compensates with vigorous and entertaining vollies of invective. At one point, Miramount calls his brother Brisac "a flat dull piece of phlegm, shap'd like a man" (II,1). Other characters are described as "gaudy glow-worms," "a hair-brain'd puppy," "running ulcers," "owls," "mungrils," and many other imaginative insults.
The play also contains a noteworthy reference to Galileo Galilei
, as "Galateo, the Italian star-wright" (II,4).
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...
and 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....
. Apparently dating from 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....
, it may have been the last play Fletcher worked on before his August 1625 death.
Date
Both the Prologue and the Epilogue of the play mention Fletcher's passing; the Prologue refers to him as "now dead," indicating, perhaps, a recent event. The Elder Brother is unusual in the canons of both Fletcher and Massinger in being almost entirely in prose rather than verse. (Only the Prologue, the Epilogue, and a lyric in III,v are in verse; and the Prologue and Epilogue are of uncertain authorship, in this play as in others.) A prose play was logically easier and quicker to compose that a work in verse. It is possible that The Elder Brother was a "rush job" done in the final weeks and months of Fletcher's life.Performance
The early performance history of the play is unknown. The first recorded performance occurred at the Blackfriars TheatreBlackfriars 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...
on 25 April 1635; and it was staged at Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London; it has not been inhabited by the British royal family since the 18th century. The palace is located south west of Charing Cross and upstream of Central London on the River Thames...
on 5 January 1637. The play was revived during 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, like many other popular plays in the Fletcher canon; it was performed as early as Friday 23 November 1660
1660 in literature
The year 1660 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* January 1 - Samuel Pepys starts his diary.* February - John Rhodes reopens the old Cockpit Theatre in London, forms a company of young actors and begins to stage plays...
, and 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 6 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....
, but thought it "ill acted." The play remained in the repertory for years, and was a "principal old stock play" of the era.
Publication
The play was first published in 16371637 in literature
The year 1637 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 24 - Hamlet is performed before King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria at Hampton Court Palace....
, 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 Felix Kingston for the booksellers John Benson
John Benson (publisher)
John Benson was a London publisher of the middle seventeenth century, best remembered for a historically important publication of the Sonnets and miscellaneous poems of William Shakespeare in 1640....
and 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:...
, with a title-page attribution to Fletcher. The first quarto exists in two states, with minor typographical differences between them. A second quarto was issued in 1651
1651 in literature
The year 1651 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*August 22 - Execution of Protestant preacher, Christopher Love, whose sermons were later published.-New books:...
by bookseller 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...
. (The rights to the play were transferred to Moseley in Oct. 1646, according to the Stationers' Register; the recording entry cites the playwright's name as "Mr. Fflesher" — one of the odder vagaries in the famously flexible orthography of the English Renaissance.) A third quarto followed 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....
, with a fourth in 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....
The Elder Brother 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...
, like other previously-printed Fletcher plays; it 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 title pages of all the quartos agree that the play was staged 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...
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...
.
The play also exists in a manuscript, part of the collection MS. Egerton 1994
MS. Egerton 1994
MS. Egerton 1994 is a manuscript collection of English Renaissance plays, now in the Egerton Collection of the British Library. Probably prepared by the actor William Cartwright around 1642, and later presented by him to Dulwich College, the collection contains unique copies of several...
in the collection of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. The text of the MS. shows a range of small differences from the printed texts (mainly single words, and a few lines).
Attributions
The play was originally assigned to Fletcher alone; but Q2 assigned The Elder Brother to Beaumont and FletcherBeaumont 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 ....
. Q3 returns to the original attribution to Fletcher alone; but Q4 reverts to Beaumont and Fletcher. (The play dates from long after Beaumont's
Francis Beaumont
Francis Beaumont was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher....
retirement from the stage in 1613 and his death in 1616.)
Authorship
Given Fletcher's highly distinctive literary style, it has not been difficult for scholars to delineate the respective shares of the two authors. Cyrus HoyCyrus 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 comprehensive study of authorship problems in Fletcher's canon, agrees with other commentators in assigning Acts I and V to Massinger, and Acts II, III, and IV to Fletcher — the same division of shares displayed in The False One
The False One
The False One is a late Jacobean era stage play, written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. Generally categorized as a "classical history," the play tells part of the story of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra....
, another of their collaborative efforts. Hoy judged The Elder Brother to be a work originally by Fletcher alone, "the first and last acts of which have been virtually rewritten by Massinger."
Synopsis
Lewis is a French nobleman who lives on his country estates, where he raises his only child, Angellina. He takes care to guide the girl away from the sybaritic sloth in which many aristocratic women indulge, encouraging her to "rise with the sun, walk, dance, or hunt, and learn the virtues of plants and simples" (Act I, scene 1). Yet now that she is fourteen years old, he judges it appropriate that she be married to a fitting husband. Lewis looks toward his neighbor Brisac, who has two eligible sons. The older, Charles (the play's title character), is a scholar, who ignores everyday concerns and prefers his books; the younger, Eustace, is a courtier, fashionable and worldly. Both Lewis and Brisac decide that Eustace is the right match for Angellina.They face a problem, however: under the rules of primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
, Charles is heir to his father's estates, while Eustace is merely a younger son with no independent income. The two fathers scheme to oust Charles from his privileged place and convey his birthright to Eustace. The protests of Brisac's brother Miramount, who favors Charles and admires his intellectual pursuits, are dismissed. Brisac promises Charles an income that will provide for his bookish life; and Charles is naive enough to accept the offer — until he meets Angellina in person. He is instantly swept away by her, as she is with him; and he is inspired to defend his rights, knowing that he needs an estate to support a wife. He refuses to sign the legal documents that Brisac and Lewis have prepared, documents that would effectively disinherit him.
Brisac and Lewis are both outraged at the failure of their plan. Brisac orders Charles out of his house, as Lewis does Angellina; but the young couple find refuge with Miramount. Angellina is at first concerned about her honor and reputation — but Charles assures her that he will treat her with respect and discretion. Eustace and two of his courtier friends, Cowsy and Egremont, go to confront Charles; but the newly emboldened young man seizes Eustace's sword and drives the three of them out. Brisac and Lewis, meanwhile, have a falling-out over the bad outcome of their scheme.
In conversation with Cowsy and Egremont, Eustace is disillusioned by their frank cowardice and their self-centered disregard for considerations of honor; he obtains one of their swords, then chases them away and goes to confront his brother once again. The two brothers begin a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
over Angellina and their disrupted inheritance. Miramount tries to stop them, and they are interrupted by the news that Brisac has taken legal action over the matter, seizing both Lewis and Angellina. Miramount, Charles, and Eustace go to prevent this. The childless Miramount makes an offer that pacifies all concerned: he will make Eustace the heir to his estates and support the young man in finding a wife. Charles and Angellina can then proceed to the altar without hindrance.
Being written in prose rather than verse, the play lacks the embellishments of style normal for Fletcher and Massinger; it compensates with vigorous and entertaining vollies of invective. At one point, Miramount calls his brother Brisac "a flat dull piece of phlegm, shap'd like a man" (II,1). Other characters are described as "gaudy glow-worms," "a hair-brain'd puppy," "running ulcers," "owls," "mungrils," and many other imaginative insults.
The play also contains a noteworthy reference to Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
, as "Galateo, the Italian star-wright" (II,4).