An Image of the Times. Nils-Johan Jorgensen
head is haunted, like a house, with evil spirits and apparitions, that terrify and fright him out of himself till he stands empty and forsaken. His sleeps and his wakings are so much the same that he knows not how to distingusish them, and many times when he dreams he believes he is broad awake and sees visions … His soul lives in his body like a mole in the earth, that labours in the dark, and casts up doubts and scruples of his own imaginations to make that rugged and uneasy what was plain and open before …The temper of his brain being earthly, cold and dry, is apt to breed worms, that sink so deep into it, no medicine in art or nature is able to reach them.105
The increasing curiosity about the melancholy state of mind was part of a new interest in mental and psychological studies based on the theory of humours. No detailed study of melancholy existed in England before 1500 but many characters, among them Hamlet, entered the stage before Burton’s work.
The scholar was a man of great knowledge and learning, but rather unrefined and awkward in manners and behaviour. He was too much occupied with his studies to have time for the more pleasant sports of the courtier. He lived too long in the limited world of his College and long studies in a dark room made him unfit to face the sharp light of the world outside. He appeared shy and silly and was frequently ridiculed, but the innate qualities of the character and his intellect were qualities that weighed heavier than the outward signs. Frederick in Shirley’s The Lady of Pleasure is an appropriate representation of the scholar in comedy.
The appearance of Sordido in Jonson’s Every Man out of his Humour, fits the character sketch of the ‘Almanack-maker’, referred to as an annual author.106
The conventional sketch and the stage character have much in common. Barabas and Shylock come close to the sketch of the Usurer. Antonio displays some of the characteristics of A Worthy Merchant. The sketches of the Virgin, the Wanton Woman, the Whore, the Wife, the Widow, the Melancholy Man, the Prince, the Scholar, the King and the Hypocrite help to define the types of characters in conflict in a play like Hamlet. The interplay of Ophelia, Hamlet, Gertrude and Claudius is, at one level, a clash between qualities found in the character sketch. Ophelia is ‘of nature the Purest’ who still may appear a ‘feare of destruction’ to Hamlet. Gertrude has remarried as a widow and thus shattered the picture of ‘the purest gold’ expressed in the sketch. To Hamlet she is has become the Wanton Woman and is not the Worthy Wife. Claudius is a Hypocrite, a Usurper and an Unworthy King. Hamlet is the Melancholy Man, the Scholar and the Good Prince. Othello is the General, the Lover, the Jealous Man, and the Honest Man and Iago is the Machiavellian villain, the Soldier and the Hypocrite. Between them is the Honest Wife who appears wanton and unfaithful to the hero. The sketch of the ideal soldier creates a contrast to stage characters like Iago, Falstaff and Bobadill. Iago is sinning against the virtues of Truth and Honesty ascribed to the soldier type and Bobadill as well as Falstaff lack the courage of the ideal military man.
EARLY HUMOUR PLAYS
A closer look at two key humorous comedies shows that the playwrights fitted the four humours and their advancing variety of meanings into the very action and spirit of the plays. The four complexions were used to hilarious effect, but the comic exuberance implied a warning as it unmasked the hypocrisy and vanity of man.
George Chapman
A new play by George Chapman was first performed at the Globe on 11 May 1597 and the title page of the text, printed by Valentino Synis two years later, reads: ‘A pleasant Comedy entituled An Humorous dayes Myrth as it hath beene sundrie times publikely acted by the right honourable the Earle of Nottingham Lord high Admirall his seruants.’ Although set in France it is the humours, manners and vanities of contemporary London that Chapman unmasks.
The title links the words humorous and mirth. The display of humours during the day creates mirth and a pleasant comedy. The words humour and humorous are applied about twenty times thus giving examples of the scientific and psychological as well as of the popular cant use of the term. The play is divided into thirteen scenes and connects the life of four families during one day.
Count Labervele, his wife Forilla and Dowsecer, the melancholy son from his first marriage, is the first family in the play. The second family is Justice Foyes and his beautiful daughter Martia who resists being married off to the rich and stupid gull, Labesha. The third unit is Count Moren married to a much older Countess who suffers from a jealous disposition. The fourth family is the King and Queen of France. The King has his eyes on Martia.
Into this mix Lemot arrives, a young gentleman, gallant and trickster who plays games with all, beginning with Labervele and Florilla. A handful of gallants echo the action.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.