Renaissance Lecture & Seminar 2: The Alchemist

• In ‘Conversations with Drummond’ (1619), it is clear that Jonson was a bit of a charlatan himself!
• Blackfriars, where the house is supposedly set is an old monastic quarter of london which turned into a merchant and commerce centre, with a glassworks and a theatre, possibly the one in which this would have been shown! A very local play!

• Knocking at the door is a key signal and propels the action.

• Alchemy: represented chemicals as animals – animation inherent in the universe.
• There is a reference to fake alchemy – linked to Dr. Faustus.
• “Upon our Dol, our castle, our Cinque Port, / Our Dover Pier, or what thou wit.” Is there genuine affection for Dol? Also ambiguous word “wit” related to a woman, e.g. Shakespeare.
• Face must become the servant in the play, and Subtle becomes the sage alchemist. Note the names – deception is set lower than subtlety!
• For each client, the tricksters use different clothing and slightly different personalities.
• Clientelle can be seen as “England in miniature” – Leggatt.

• Women come to the door, but many leave again (possibly when they see others) – a hint that Subtle is also an abortionist!

• Dapper:

• Wants a talisman for gambling – luck.
• Erotic hints in the fairy queen.
• Strip him of all wealth.
• Fumigate in the lavatory with gingerbread, then they forget about him! Yet when he is finally revealed by calling out the window, he still believes in the plot!
• Pretending family members were fairies was common!

• Able Drugger:

Star actors have tended to choose to be Able Drugger! Other parts are often word heavy and of lesser interest.
Face introducing Subtle to Able Drugger: specific physicality in descriptions!
They exploit him mercilessly, take his money etc. Constantly sending him to fetch things!

• A Jonson [play] is a collection of sub-plots drawn together.
• Comic effect from the brevity in the final act – Robert Armin = Shakespeare’s Fool! Near his retirement – perhaps allowing a famous fool one bow out?
• Body comedy – many descriptions of appearance!

• Mammon:

He benefits the most, as he is allowed to dream of voluptuous fantasy.
The plot is to convince him that his unchastity of the mad sister of the Lord has caused the projection of the Philosopher’s stone to fail. (?)
II.iv = “Has he bit? Has he bit?” – fallen / interested in Dol Common.
Mammon and Surly – fat knight and lean gentleman – attention on the body.
Long-planned let down of Mammon, with the unseen ‘crack’.

• “What a brave language here is! Not to canting”… – different language which only those of common folk could understand, = the code of thieves!
• Greenblatt = “vertiginous swirl of words” – “the avoidance of depth” in his works.
• Language of appearance and clothing with the tailor.
• Biological process of alchemy, consequently allowed for eroticisation / sexualisation.
• The venter tripartite runs out of human resources – Dol is occupied as the mad lady, Surly the Spaniard also wants Dol, Face and Subtle both want to snap up Kastril’s sister.
• Once in a room with Dame Pliant, Surly does the wrong thing and consequently misses out.

• Puritans: Jonson disliked them, but why? Was there a reason?

• The humbug of alchemy = the humbug of Puritanism.

• Surly does nothing, then tries to expose them, but F & S turn the other clients on him!
• It would be a perfect medicine – Jonson distorts this in Epicure Mammon, as the perfect medicine becomes an erotic elixir, 50 times a night…
• Lovewit unexpectedly returns to his house, and is met by these actors. Face meets him at the door, saying that nothing happened.
• Ceaseless humour, e.g. in the 6th neighbour.

• Dapper and gingerbread – Face tells Lovewit that he can get a wife by merely sleeping with the woman upstairs – Surly has lost his chance – “Must I needs cheat myself”.
• See powerpoint for info. on Alchemy and comparison of the central female characters!

• Morally reduced by the close of the play.
• Yet Dol is not really condemned – as expected in a 17th C play.

Jonson, Volpone:

Useful edition = Alaster Fowler, Longman.

- Aesopian image – fox pretending to be dead, and birds incautiously coming to feed.
- Ben Jonson: 1572-1637 – autodictat (taught himself), never went to university. He was a prodigious fighter and converted to Catholicism.
- He published his “Works”, including plays (an innovation at the time), which became the model for other folios, e.g. Shakespeare.
- Famously said that he preferred simple, clear language, but wrote in the opposite to that!
- He was constantly in trouble for his political/satirical works, and although they were still comedies, the laughs were political and the plays often ended with judgement / punishment.
- Added many words to our language, e.g. ‘pig-headed’, ‘satire’.

- Volpone follows two Roman plays, both of which went very wrong. He then seems to have had a moment of inspiration, and wrote Volpone in 5 weeks.
- Many previous examples both in the text and in other contemporary works where humanity is pushed away for money – BUT in Act V, there is a glimpse of normal attatchment – “I think, she loves me…”

- Must see the birds as human beings, first and foremost.
- Sexual language in Act II. Fear of boredom and satiation in the play is prominent, e.g. how he invisiges Celia – she has to impersonate other women than herself in order to be unchaste.
- Anxiety in Celia’s speech to refuse him. Yet does it in a masochistic way. Also, authentic punctuation – breathless qualitiy due to ‘-‘.
- Volpone wins! What does this say about sex/wealth/ideology?

- Drinking prepares the way for his misjudgement.
- Mosca’s warning: honest, or reverse psychology?

Seminar:

- Theatre and morality:

o Fall of staged reactions, with make-up, costume, etc.
o Persuasion of advocates, who practice lines!
o Lines between truth and fiction are blurred. Theatre is a lie which takes us away from itself and ourself! Is he performing himself as an old man anyway?
o V.ii.28: Acting is a devil. Lie of the theatre is so powerful, it is immoral.

- Yet villains are more entertaining and are better entertained themselves. These are more convincing than the actual punishments – emphasis on rewards.
- Getting the money is the lesser factor – entertainment of it is more key. Imitated so much, they couldn’t return to themselves?
- Odd scenes: incidental:

o Didactic play – used to teach of morality (prologue), hence strange punishment.
o Rhyme with / without reason?
o Transmigration of Pythagoras’s soul:

♣ Taken from Ovid: no fear of death, as we will all return.
♣ Does Jonson burlesque this idea?
♣ Daft setup of characters
♣ A philosopher’s soul moves through many different figures, including a prostitute!

o Sir Woodby:

♣ Tricked into entering a giant tortoise shell… Farcical situation for contrast / humour?
♣ Does the shell link to ancient ideas of the creation of the world? All the world and cares on his back?

- Topos: overly common theme – not sure who came up with it first:

o Actors, playing characters who are acting, being watched by the audience – but on what layer are the audience? They also often went to see the aristocrats at the theatre, not just watching the actors themselves.

- What is the effect of animal relations – are the characters truly 3D?

o Familiar to relate names to animals.
o Gives a clue to person before the narrative begins – heightened expectation.
o Cariacture
o Play and deception as natural
o Distances audience from the stage?
o Higher classes as animalised?
o Simple, more moralistic outlook.
o Play is a 2D structure in itself – short term.

- Soliloquy adds a level of complicity with the audience.
- Connection between Iago and Mosca.
- Repetition of rhetorical structure to pursuade common in the Renaissance.

o E.g. “If you have…” (III.vii), wooing of Celia.


The Jew of Malta:

• Jonson termed it a “get-penny”
• Caricature of the jew, who wore a costumed large nose and was perceived as the personification of tyranny.

• Very famous siege of Malta by the Ottoman Turks – all were very interested in what happened. Seen as the first setback to the Ottoman empire in over 100 years.
• The Battle of Lepanto was the second setback…

• Many pamphlets about the intentions of the turks. People were very interested in slavery etc.: agitated by trade in Christian slaves.
• Play at the faultline between Christianity and Judaism.

• Typical Marvolian emphasis on naming – Barbaras is named often, but rarely named by himself –

• Seen in the Bible: Matthew 25:24-26.
• The Jew of Malta – I.ii.108-110.

• Echoed in the Merchant of Venice.

• Medieval reputation was held:

• III.vi.
• St. Domingo de Val – 13thC.
• St. William of Norwich.

• Stereotypes:

• II.iii.226-239: Bible quotes leading to stereotype. Constant jumping.
• II.iii.250-1:

• Using the Bible as justification of murder.
• Contamination of the text.

• Religion was a background, commerce was the true foreground.
• His interest rates are extortionate – a hundred for a hundred.
• J.R. Hale – “Banishment in the name of faith, restricted permission to stay in the name of the pocket.”
• Barbaras had always been there – knows of the world, e.g. “Sammites”.

• “Infinite riches in a little room” – links to Donne’s La Corona; “Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb”.
• Inversion of the Book of Job – Barbaras turns to impatient anger.
• Gold, wealth, money are repeatedly talked about. III.v. “desire for gold” drives people around the world.

• K.Minshull – Marlowe’s Sound Machiavell

• Too faithful to his beliefs
• Wants money, not power
• The true Machiavel is the Christian governor. In the RSC production in 1987, Ferneze was robed as a Machiavel.
• Vienna 2002: Peter Zadek produced JOM under a Holocaust reading.

• Greenblatt: “Barbaras is brought into being by the Christian society around him.”
• More crucially than his language to others are his asides to the audience.
• Also Barbaras often is show in in the upper-acting area, giving him close associations with the audience. V.v.42-50.
• The audience are referred to as “worldlings”.

• Challenge to the audience to recognise themselves in Jewish characters? “Faith is not – heretics(?)
• Essex used this play to popularise Lopez’s death.

Renaissance Introduction…

• One was born into a certain calling – predestined.
• Remember that the Renaissance started at different times in different places and that there were always reminders of medieval life, particularly in monasteries and rural communities.

• Many scholars would refer to Petrarch’s climbing of Mont Ventoux as the start of the Renaissance. He has an advanced and developed view of his world from the mountain, also a different perspective. He is actively seeking, eager to climb and invites his brother to climb with him as his friend. He then reads Augustine’s ‘Confessions’ from the mountain top, opens it at random and is willing to read and accept it’s meanings – willingness to learn from the classical world. However, he emphasises his faith and the fact that he is a Christian Humanist. Religious texts, Cathedrals etc. were still built, just in a different, more classical style.
• The reading of Classical works and the acceptance of their ideals.

• Poetry was a means of seeking inner understanding – self-expression via the outside world and language.

• Wyatt is arguably the first English man of the Renaissance.

Key texts:

1. The Courtier, Castiglione (1528): Danger can corrupt those in power, so always lead the prince to virtue.
2. The Prince, Machiavelli (1530) [a response?]: The prince holds all power and must remain in full control.

• More wrote to Cromwell that they should inform Henry VIII only of what he ‘ought to do’ and not of everything that he can do, otherwise he would grow uncontrollable with his power and they would lose all influence over him.

Key developments:

• Moveable type = the spread of information.
        • 1450, it was rare for a priest to have a bible.
        • 1550, it was rare for a priest not to have a bible.
        • 1650, almost all houses had a bible.
• Siege cannons:
        • Changed and centralised the influence of power.
        • Only Kings could afford them, and it meant that no noble could easily defy the King.
        • E.g. Battle of Pavia, 1525.

• The monarchy in England was never absolute – always a Parliament, even if weak!
• Constitutional monarchy!

• The sack of Rome in 1527 was termed a ‘puncture’ in the Renaissance.
• However, the island nation of England was essentially immune and continued this development – Henry VIII paid for the research and publication of a defense of the Christian faith against the Lutheran threat.

• Mary Tudor attempts to reconvert the country. Some priests had married under the reign of Edward as a way of proving their faith, yet Mary threatened many of them with death if they didn’t divorce. Known as ‘Bloody Mary’ not really due to her violence, but because of the manner in which she ruled – through threat and her devout arguments against Catholicism. Elizabeth killed more people.

• Via Media – Elizabeth I takes a middle way.

Famous women:

• Marguerite of Navarre, a sister of Francois I. Cultured, Catholic and tolerant.
• For England’s women, there was not really a renaissance but a reformation (WHAT?!)
• Generally, the famous renaissance women were Venetians!
• Aemilia Lanier – Italian by birth and brings the Renaissance to English women.
• Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (Mexico?)