The Woman in the Moon
Encyclopedia
The Woman in the Moon is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy
written by John Lyly
. Its unique status in that playwright's dramatic canon — it is the only play Lyly wrote in blank verse
rather than prose
— has presented scholars and critics with a range of questions and problems.
on September 22, 1595
, and was first published in quarto
in 1597
by the bookseller William Jones. The title page of the quarto states that the play was presented before Queen Elizabeth I
, though no specific performance is known. The playing company
that acted the work is also a mystery.
The play's Prologue maintains that the work "is but a poet's dream, / The first he had in Phoebus'
holy bower, / But not the last...." Nineteenth-century critics took this statement at face value, and considered The Woman in the Moon the first of Lyly's plays, written sometime in the early 1580s. As such, it would have been an important early development in English dramatic blank verse. Later critics, however, disputed this conclusion, arguing that the Prologue may only mean that this was Lyly's first play in verse, and that in style "The blank verse is that of the nineties, rather than the early eighties." The modern critical consensus tends to favor the view that The Woman in the Moon, far from being Lyly's first play, was likely his last, written in the 1590–95 period.
In this view, Lyly, who started out as a novelist rather than a poet like most dramatists of his era, wrote his plays in prose as long as they were being performed by the Children of Paul's
, the company of child actors
that staged most of his works. Once that company was banned from dramatic performance in 1590
, Lyly tried to adapt to the style of popular drama being staged by the adult companies. The Woman in the Moon was Lyly's first venture in this new direction; but its apparent lack of success (there is no evidence that the play was popular) brought a close to Lyly's playwriting career.
, at the time of the very beginning of the human race, when the first woman was not yet created. A personified goddess of Nature, accompanied by Concord
and Discord
("For Nature works her will from contraries"), descends to a pastoral Earth inhabited by four shepherds. At their petition, Nature breathes life into a clothed statue of the first woman. Concord seals her soul to her body with an embrace, and the new woman is given the best gifts of the seven planets of traditional astronomy
and astrology
. She is named Pandora
.
The seven planets, however, are unhappy that Pandora has been given their best qualities, and decide to spite Nature with a malevolent demonstration of their power. Saturn
, the eldest, goes first: seating himself on a throne, he afflicts Pandora with his characteristic melancholy
. The shepherds meet Pandora when she is suffering this baleful influence; when one tries to kiss her hand, she hits him across the lips. She treats the rest as badly, then runs away. Saturn leaves his throne at the end of the first act, pleased with the mess he's made.
Jupiter
assumes the throne at the start of Act II. He inspires Pandora with ambition, vanity, and superciliousness — so much so that she obtains his sceptre and tosses it to Juno
when the queen of the gods comes in search of her husband (he hides himself in a cloud). Pandora inflicts her pride upon the hapless shepherds: she orders them to behead a wild boar, promising her glove to the man who brings the trophy to her. Mars
takes over from Jupiter, turning Pandora into a "vixen martialist." The shepherds fight over the dead boar and the right to Pandora's glove — but she grabs a spear and bests them all.
Sol
, the Sun, takes over at the start of Act III; for a change, his influence is largely beneficial. Pandora becomes "gentle and kind," and chooses Stesias, one of the shepherds, as her husband. But then comes Venus's
turn: Joculus inspires dancing, Cupid
shoots his arrows, and romantic disruptions follow. Mercury
succeeds Venus in Act IV; he makes Pandora "false and full of sleights, / Thievish and lying, subtle, eloquent...." By Act V, under the influence of Luna
, Pandora simply runs mad. Stesias is fed up by now, and the other shepherds want nothing to do with Pandora, even when the seven planetary deities have restored her sanity. With no place for her on Earth, the planets vie for the distinction of taking Pandora up to their individual spheres; Pandora chooses Luna, since they are both inherently changeable.
— though dissent from this view can also be found in the critical literature. Lyly's use of astrology has been seen in the context of the craze for horoscope
-casting that typified the Elizabethan era.
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 Lyly
John Lyly
John Lyly was an English writer, best known for his books Euphues,The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England. Lyly's linguistic style, originating in his first books, is known as Euphuism.-Biography:John Lyly was born in Kent, England, in 1553/1554...
. Its unique status in that playwright's dramatic canon — it is the only play Lyly wrote in blank verse
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
rather than prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
— has presented scholars and critics with a range of questions and problems.
Date and Publication
The Woman in the Moon was 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 September 22, 1595
1595 in literature
-Events:*Lope de Vega leaves the service of the Duke of Alba and returns to Madrid.* December 9 - Shakespeare's Richard II is possibly acted at a private performance at the Canon Row house of Sir Edward Hoby; Sir Robert Cecil attends.-New books:...
, and was first published in 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"...
in 1597
1597 in literature
-Events:*February - Pembroke's Men contract with Francis Langley to play the next year at his new Swan Theatre. Their season goes disastrously wrong in July, when they stage the scandalous play The Isle of Dogs, which provokes the authorities to close all of the London theatres for the remainder of...
by the bookseller William Jones. The title page of the quarto states that the play was presented before Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, though no specific performance is known. The playing company
Playing company
In Renaissance London, playing company was the usual term for a company of actors. These companies were organized around a group of ten or so shareholders , who performed in the plays but were also responsible for management. The sharers employed "hired men" — that is, the minor actors and...
that acted the work is also a mystery.
The play's Prologue maintains that the work "is but a poet's dream, / The first he had in Phoebus'
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
holy bower, / But not the last...." Nineteenth-century critics took this statement at face value, and considered The Woman in the Moon the first of Lyly's plays, written sometime in the early 1580s. As such, it would have been an important early development in English dramatic blank verse. Later critics, however, disputed this conclusion, arguing that the Prologue may only mean that this was Lyly's first play in verse, and that in style "The blank verse is that of the nineties, rather than the early eighties." The modern critical consensus tends to favor the view that The Woman in the Moon, far from being Lyly's first play, was likely his last, written in the 1590–95 period.
In this view, Lyly, who started out as a novelist rather than a poet like most dramatists of his era, wrote his plays in prose as long as they were being performed by the Children of Paul's
Children of Paul's
The Children of Paul's was the name of a troupe of boy actors in Elizabethan and Jacobean London. Along with the Children of the Chapel, the Children of Paul's were the most important of the companies of boy players that constituted a distinctive feature of English Renaissance theatre.St...
, the company of child 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...
that staged most of his works. Once that company was banned from dramatic performance in 1590
1590 in literature
-Events:*The Children of Paul's perform at Court twice in the first week of January; one of the plays they acted may have been John Lyly's Midas. Later in the year, however, they are banned from performing because of the involvement of their chief script-writer, Lyly, in the Marprelate...
, Lyly tried to adapt to the style of popular drama being staged by the adult companies. The Woman in the Moon was Lyly's first venture in this new direction; but its apparent lack of success (there is no evidence that the play was popular) brought a close to Lyly's playwriting career.
Synopsis
The play is set in the world of Greek mythologyGreek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, at the time of the very beginning of the human race, when the first woman was not yet created. A personified goddess of Nature, accompanied by Concord
Concordia (mythology)
In Roman religion, Concord was the goddess of agreement, understanding, and marital harmony. Her Greek version is Harmonia, and the Harmonians and some Discordians equate her with Aneris. Her opposite is Discordia ....
and Discord
Eris (mythology)
Eris is the Greek goddess of strife and discord, her name being translated into Latin as Discordia. Her Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona...
("For Nature works her will from contraries"), descends to a pastoral Earth inhabited by four shepherds. At their petition, Nature breathes life into a clothed statue of the first woman. Concord seals her soul to her body with an embrace, and the new woman is given the best gifts of the seven planets of traditional astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
and astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
. She is named Pandora
Pandora
In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts...
.
The seven planets, however, are unhappy that Pandora has been given their best qualities, and decide to spite Nature with a malevolent demonstration of their power. Saturn
Saturn (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Saturn was a major god presiding over agriculture and the harvest time. His reign was depicted as a Golden Age of abundance and peace by many Roman authors. In medieval times he was known as the Roman god of agriculture, justice and strength. He held a sickle in...
, the eldest, goes first: seating himself on a throne, he afflicts Pandora with his characteristic melancholy
Melancholia
Melancholia , also lugubriousness, from the Latin lugere, to mourn; moroseness, from the Latin morosus, self-willed, fastidious habit; wistfulness, from old English wist: intent, or saturnine, , in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression,...
. The shepherds meet Pandora when she is suffering this baleful influence; when one tries to kiss her hand, she hits him across the lips. She treats the rest as badly, then runs away. Saturn leaves his throne at the end of the first act, pleased with the mess he's made.
Jupiter
Jupiter (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....
assumes the throne at the start of Act II. He inspires Pandora with ambition, vanity, and superciliousness — so much so that she obtains his sceptre and tosses it to Juno
Juno (mythology)
Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...
when the queen of the gods comes in search of her husband (he hides himself in a cloud). Pandora inflicts her pride upon the hapless shepherds: she orders them to behead a wild boar, promising her glove to the man who brings the trophy to her. Mars
Mars (mythology)
Mars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions...
takes over from Jupiter, turning Pandora into a "vixen martialist." The shepherds fight over the dead boar and the right to Pandora's glove — but she grabs a spear and bests them all.
Sol
Helios
Helios was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
, the Sun, takes over at the start of Act III; for a change, his influence is largely beneficial. Pandora becomes "gentle and kind," and chooses Stesias, one of the shepherds, as her husband. But then comes Venus's
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
turn: Joculus inspires dancing, Cupid
Cupid
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...
shoots his arrows, and romantic disruptions follow. Mercury
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
succeeds Venus in Act IV; he makes Pandora "false and full of sleights, / Thievish and lying, subtle, eloquent...." By Act V, under the influence of Luna
Selene
In Greek mythology, Selene was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. In Roman mythology, the moon goddess is called Luna, Latin for "moon"....
, Pandora simply runs mad. Stesias is fed up by now, and the other shepherds want nothing to do with Pandora, even when the seven planetary deities have restored her sanity. With no place for her on Earth, the planets vie for the distinction of taking Pandora up to their individual spheres; Pandora chooses Luna, since they are both inherently changeable.
Interpretation
Most crticis have judged the play as "a satire on women," an expression of traditional male chauvinism and sexismSexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
— though dissent from this view can also be found in the critical literature. Lyly's use of astrology has been seen in the context of the craze for horoscope
Horoscope
In astrology, a horoscope is a chart or diagram representing the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, the astrological aspects, and sensitive angles at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person's birth. The word horoscope is derived from Greek words meaning "a look at the hours" In...
-casting that typified the Elizabethan era.