Reprieve Denied: Dekker’s Debt to Castiglione

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1 The sole early text of Blurt, Master-Constable is the 1602 printing by Edward Aldee, from which all quotations are taken. PDFs of the text are available on EEBO. For readers’ convenience, in addition to the signatures, act, scene, and line numbers are given to the A. H. Bullen edition. Until the 1920s this comedy was usually attributed to Thomas Middleton alone.2 The sole early text of Measure for Measure is the Folio edition of 1623, where it is listed as a comedy, may incorporate later interpolations, revisions, and excisions by several hands including Thomas Middleton. Quotations, stage directions, speech prefixes, and line numbers for are to the Stanley Wells, Gary Taylor, et al. edition of The Complete Works.3 See Blurt, sig. H2r; 5. 3. 81–82 for the Duke’s surprising revelation, which makes sense of Camillo’s earlier rant about Fontinelle’s dishonorable behavior (see Blurt, sig. G2r; 5. 1. 8–12). The harsh law cited by the Duke is clearly a deterrent to married men who might otherwise patronize Venice’s brothels.4 See Sir Thomas Hoby’s translation of Il Libro del Cortegiano di Conte Baldassare Castiglione. His translation went through at least four separate printings during Elizabeth’s reign: 1561, 1577, 1588, and 1603, see STC (2nd ed.)/4778, 4779, 4780, and 4781. PDFs of these texts are available on EEBO.5 This court anecdote involves real people: Alonso Carillo has been identified as a nephew of Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña, Archbishop of Toledo (1410–1482) and Maistresse Boadilla was probably Beatriz de Bobadilla, Marchioness of Moya (1440–1504), a close confidant of Queen Isabella of Castille.6 There are numerous variants of obligatory unions going back to Jacob, Leah, and Rachel in Genesis 29, which is also an early example of the “bed-trick” used by many playwrights. But in these late Elizabethan and early Jacobean dramas, three obligatory matrimonial unions in particular come to mind: The mythical “harlot’s reprieve,” where a common prostitute pleads for the condemned and will take him as husband if he is spared the gallows.The literary “dishonorable union,” where under poetic justice an offending party is forced into matrimony with someone from a much inferior social station—usually an obnoxious rich merchant or nobleman matched to the most wretched of harlots.The “shotgun wedding,” where the parent or guardian of the ruined unmarried woman promises to murder the culprit if he does not immediately marry her. None of these arrangements are likely to result in a companionate union, and only in the first does the woman have any say in the matter. Variants of all three appear in literature, with the shotgun wedding more prevalent in real life than society will admit. The harlot’s reprieve is ridiculous—what sort of highwayman would not be able to find a doxie to plead for him?7 Peter Burke finds no evidence that Shakespeare or Middleton possessed Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano or Hoby’s translation, but he notes a reference in Dekker’s Westward Ho! (1604). Mistress Birdlime in her opening lines says, “the young Gentlewoman hath … red in the Italian Courtyer, that it is a speciall ornament to gentlewomen to have skill in painting.” Her allusion—to a passage near the end of Book I where Count Lodovico teases Lady Fregosa about how men find heavy makeup most unattractive—is an insider’s jest: Mistress Birdlime gets it wrong (The Courtier, Bk I, sigs. G4v–H2v). Demonstrating that a playwright must have used a certain source is a formidable task, but it would be a remarkable creative coincidence if the concluding scene of Dekker’s comedy was not an allusion to Castiglione’s early sixteenth-century anecdote (see Burke, Appendix 2, 163–78).8 Dekker gives no date for this war with France. The sixteenth century was dominated by conflicts between France and Spain over their influence among the independent city states of northern Italy. These states frequently sought alliances with Hapsburg Spain. Hence the billeting of Spanish forces in Venice where Dekker’s story is set. Lazarillo refers to his general; see Blurt, sig. B2v: 1. 2. 95–96).9 Taken prisoner in battle, Fontinelle has given his parole and in honorable confinement patiently awaits payment of the ransom. A jealous rival in love, Camillo’s throwing of him into prison is an injustice.10 Dekker raises two topical matters pursued by hardliners within the Church of England—a monopoly over solemnization of matrimony and enactment of the Old Testament punishments for adultery. Fontinelle’s marriage to Violetta at the end of 3.2 is irregular: it takes place outside the canonical hours of eight in the morning until noon and is conducted without witnesses.11 The opening stage directions for 5.2, “Enter Fontinelle and Imperia, arm in arm” are sufficiently abbreviated to be ambiguous: from where do they enter “A room in Imperia’s house”? This and other stage business can be used to indicate whether Imperia has just consummated her wooing of Fontinelle and completely satisfied herself that he is much more than just a “lovely face” (see Blurt, sig. C4v; 2. 2.138–40).12 Here again the stage directions are incomplete or deliberately ambiguous. Imperia orders Fontinelle to go “Into that little roome” (Blurt, sig. G3v; 5. 2. 84–85). But does he go off-stage by the same doorway from which they entered “arm in arm”? Later, when Violetta requests the use of Imperia’s bedchamber (Blurt, sig, G4v; 5. 2.129–31), Imperia orders Simperina to escort her, but immediately, in an aside to Frisco, she orders his silence and laughs. One interpretation is that Imperia deliberately foils Violetta’s intended bed trick, ensuring that she is never alone in the same room as her bridegroom.13 Violetta, aware of the prohibition, says to Imperia, “Good sweetness/have you not a property here improper to your house, my husband?” (Blurt, sig. G4r; 5. 2. 95–97). From the ensuing laughter from Imperia, her attendant punks, and Frisco, this prohibition is more honored in the breach and breech (see Blurt, sig. G4r; 5.2. 98–106).14 See Blurt, B2r; 1. 2. 75–78: the constable and his watch may also be responsible for informing on those who frequent these houses of pleasure.15 For these incidents involving first Imperia and then Violetta, see Blurt, sigs. C4v and H2v; 2. 2. 152–60 and 5. 3. 104–21.16 See Blurt, sig. G2v; 5. 1. 27–33; this threatened course of action would transform Dekker’s comedy back into a Thomas Kyd–style revenge tragedy.17 See Creizenach 268–70 for a general discussion on the triumph of poetic justice in the closing scenes of early seventeenth-century comedies, and in particular a miscreant being obliged to enter into a dishonorable marriage to escape severe punishment, he also comments on Castiglione’s Spanish court anecdote in Blurt.18 Imperia is not a common prostitute; she is a “bona roba”—renowned for fabulous attire—and she is a very exclusive and expensive courtesan. Much sought after, she will consort intimately with courtiers of her choosing but not with the hoi polloi. At that time, the term whore rarely meant common prostitute, for which the usual and pejorative term was punk. Whore referred more to fornicatresses and adulteresses for whom carnal adventures before or outside of marriage were motivated more by a quest for influence and pleasure rather than economic necessity—a disposition rather than a profession. In her Introduction to A Trick to Catch the Old One, Valery Wayne remarks on this distinction (Taylor and Lavagnino 373–76).19 Despite the printer’s punctuation and capitalization lapses, strict grammarians will recognize line 142 as a predictive conditional. Imperia’s status and profession place her outside of the Duke’s patriarchy. He cannot deny her sole agency in choosing whom she beds or weds.20 The author acknowledges the assurance of Dr. Andrea K. McKenzie, Department of History, University of Victoria, that widespread popular belief in the harlot’s reprieve persisted will into the eighteenth century, there was never a legal basis for this belief, nor do any contemporary court records substantiate such gallows pardons. Possibly in England this reprieve was a satirical allusion to benefit of clergy and other perversions of justice obtained through the Ecclesiastical Courts. The reprieve has a deserving place in literature but none in law: but if a plea to the Bishop of Winchester will get a felonious cleric off scot free, why not a plea from one of the Bishop’s well-trodden geese?21 Imperia immediately embellishes the jest by indicating that she will disobey the Duke—by not offering to marry Curvetto—and will accept the treason sentence prescribed for women—burning at the stake (Blurt, sig. H3r; 5. 3. 143).22 Book I of John Gower’s late fourteenth-century Confessio Amantis comes to mind. But Curvetto is no Florent and Imperia no hag—but for all her charms, she is not quite the king of Sicily’s daughter.23 Thomas Middleton’s A Trick to Catch the Old One (1605) is a good example where the “courtesan” (we never learn her real name) assumes three personas: Jane, mistress to Witgood; the rich widow Jane Medler; and eventually Mistress Jane, spouse to Hoard.24 See Blurt, sig. D4r–D4v; 3. 1. 55–63, where Hippolito explains that although Imperia is a bona-roba, she is from an old and noble Venetian family and independently wealthy in addition to “comings in” of her own. Moreover, as reported by Frisco, she is completely besotted, and barring discovery of erectile dysfunction, she will do anything to procure Fontinelle as her husband no matter what the cost to her estate (Blurt, sig. C4v; 2. 2. 138–40).25 Angellica Bianca, Aphra Behn’s vivacious and exclusive Neapolitan courtesan in The Rover (1677) has many antecedents, including Dekker’s only thinly developed character, Imperia. Not without our sympathies, both women successfully commodify lust, yet remain susceptible to love.26 In England it was not until 1754 that Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Bill: An Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriages (26 George II c. 33) declared that to be legally binding, all marriage ceremonies must be conducted by a minister in a Church of England parish church or chapel.27 Leviticus 20:10–16 and 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 give hardliners grist over which to mill all manner of fire and brimstone punishments. The Old Testament proscriptions against adultery were unequivocal—both parties were put to death—but reliable witnesses were required, not just a presumption of guilt by those with an axe to grind. A similar Biblical proscription against fornication is more difficult to find. No matter: early seventeenth-century hardliners threw all sexual activities before or outside of marriage from bestiality to incest into the same cauldron, demanding mutilation or capital punishment for all offenders.28 In an era when opportunities for young men to socialize with unchaperoned young women of similar station were severely restricted if anything more than genteel congress was desired, the avenues for these pursuits were with punks or whores.29 See Blurt, sig. E2v; 3. 2. 4–6, where Frisco passes on Imperia’s invitation, “I left her at cards:/she’ll sit up till you come, because she’ll have you play/a game at noddy.” Noddy, a Tudor card game for two players, was a popular among the well-to-do, but the actual rules of play were lost for several centuries. During the seventeenth century noddy developed into five-card cribbage, a game requiring some skill rather than just turn-of-card luck.30 Why Shakespeare adopts Italian names for his characters in Measure for Measure is not immediately obvious, unless, as has been suggested by some scholars, Vienna is a late interpolation or revision for the Italian seaport named in some earlier version of the drama.31 The Duke’s first name (Vincentio) is never used on stage. We first learn the Friar’s name (Lodowick) during the final scene (5. 1. 127). But if coincidences are just explanations waiting to happen, the playwright’s choice of name for the duke in disguise demands one. Ludovic Stuart, second duke of Lennox (1574–1624) was a favored courtier and close relative of James I. Alternative spellings of this name include Louis (French), Lodovico (Italian), Ludwig (German), and Lewis (Scots). Another coincidence perhaps, Count Lodovico da Canossa (1476–1532), a diplomat and later bishop of Bayeux, features as a principal interlocutor in Il Cortegiano and dominates the discussions in Book I.32 The Duke knew Mariana’s brother Frederick, and as Friar Lodowick he tells Isabella the story of Mariana’s dowry being lost when he was shipwrecked (Measure, 3. 1. 210–32).33 It is Friar Lodowick who suggests that Isabella should pretend to agree to the assignation (Measure, 3. 1. 241–60) and later ensures that Mariana will complete the bed-trick by taking Isabella’s place (Measure, 4. 1. 69–74).34 The Friar listens to Lucio callously brag about this or another equally naïve and quickly discarded carnal conquest (Measure, 4. 3. 163–67).35 Lucio views serial deflowering of young women and even impregnating them as a mere game of tick-tack. Lying to elicit sexual favors and subsequently ruining a young woman’s prospects when he ensures she becomes known as a fornicatress is a world apart from enjoying conjugal relations with an enthusiastic married woman blissfully mindless of becoming an adulteress, but happy to cuckold her husband (1. 2. 198). Later that century, for a more permissive audience, Dorimant, in George Etherege’s The Man of Mode (1676), admits he has “known many Women make a difficulty of losing a Maidenhead, who have afterwards made none of making a Cuckold” (Man of Mode, 2. 2. 532–35).36 See scene 15, the conclusion, of Thomas Dekker’s The Honest Whore. The Duke of Milan orders Matteo to marry Bellafronte, a prostitute, on the grounds that it was he, Matteo, who purchased her virginity, thus beginning her downfall. This command has elements of both a “shotgun wedding” to right his wronging of her and a “dishonorable union” as a punishment.37 This accusation is made in front of Friar Lodowick (Measure, 3. 1. 457–62).38 Of the thirty-six plays published in the First Folio, eighteen—one half of the canon, which includes Measure for Measure—appear in print for the first time, leaving scholars to speculate over the extent of additions, deletions, and interpolations by Shakespeare and other hands over almost two decades of performance.39 Whereas the fornicator, Claudio, was to be executed, Shakespeare’s drama does not stipulate the same punishment for the fornicatress. In Shakespeare’s only use of the word “fornicatress,” when referring to Julietta’s labor pains, Angelo says, See you the fornicatress be removed.Let her have needful, but not lavish means (Measure, 2. 2. 23–24) 40 Julietta admits to Friar Lodowick that they broke the law, but that it was mutually consensual (Measure, 2. 3. 26–38).41 “She … that you wronged,” is ambiguous. Does the Duke mean “wronged” by engaging in premarital intercourse or “wronged” by not going through with the nuptials in face of her parental disapproval and an uncertain dowry award—or perhaps both? Of the three unions, this shotgun wedding variant appears the most likely to prove companionate and enduring (Measure, 1. 2. 143–153 and 5. 1. 128).42 Pompey, a pimp, makes this same pragmatic point when arguing with Escalus, “Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of the city?” and continues with a prophesy about Vienna becoming depopulated if such morality laws were enforced (Measure, 2. 1. 219–32). Pompey’s clients pay for their pleasures, but to create and refresh her stable, Mistress Overdone, a procuress, befriends disadvantaged or ruined young women to turn into the punks she needs. Lucio, arguing with Friar Lodowick remarks, “Yes in good sooth, the vice [fornication] is of a great kindred, it is well allied; but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down” (Measure, 3. 1. 364–366).

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