Palamon and Arcite (Edwardes)

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Palamon and Arcite is a play by Richard Edwardes . It wasperformedfor Elizabeth I at Oxford in 1566. The story is based on Chaucer's The Knight's Tale . Although the text is lost, there are extensive accounts of its contents. The performance at Oxford by Oxford University staff and students was spectacular and is attested by contemporary accounts.

The circumstances of the performance

The piece was written for a visit by the Queen to Christ Church, Oxford . As Master of the Childern, its author was the choirmaster of the royal choir, the Chapel Royal and was entrusted with the organization of festivities. Although Edwardes is commonly believed to be the play's car, there is evidence of third party co-authorship and translation from Latin. However, no Latin version of the story has survived. Other authors suspect that this reference refers to other pieces given for the occasion in Latin. The performance took place on September 2nd and 4th, 1566. Edwardes's biographer Albert Cook reports that the piece emphasized the virgin purity of the heroine Emilia in order to flatter the queen. However, at that time it was still expected that Elisabeth - like the heroine - would marry. In any case, Elisabeth rewarded the actors of Emilia and Hippolyta with gold coins (Angel) after the performance . Hippolyta was portrayed by John Rainolds . He later belonged to the translators of the King James Bible and became one of the leading Puritans of the Elizabethan period.

The performers in the play were students and professors from the university. Their performance was interrupted several times. Visitors tried to stop the actors, believing they were burning valuable objects; one of the actors, John Dalapar, forgot his lines and apologized to the queen on stage, who called him a rogue. Three spectators were killed during the performance and five others were injured when they fell from a building. Despite the misfortune, the performance continued.

Edwardes “outwitting” the virgin queen was a complete success: “... the visitors rewarded the marriage scene with violent applause ('incredibili spectatorum clamore et plausu'), and the queen gave Emilia eight angels (gold coins) as a reward” Queen is said to have been particularly impressed by a scene in which Emilia “was ... gathering her flowers prettily in ye garden and singing sweetlie in ye pryme of March.” (In the garden picked flowers and sang delightfully).

Content of the piece

Although the piece was never printed and the text is lost, the contents are preserved in a Latin summary by John Bereblock, a fellow of Exeter College. He reports in detail on all the events of the royal visit. It also reproduced the comments from visitors and passed down the Queen's comments on the play.

Albert S. Cook summarizes Bereblock's report as follows:

Part 1

  • Palamon and Arcite, in prison, they see Emilia and quarrel over her love for her.
  • The escape from Arcite.
  • Arcite returns, he lives as a servant in Emilie's house
  • Escape from Palamon, he meets Arcite in the forest and fights with him
  • Intervention by Theseus, he orders a tournament within 40 days

Part 2

  • Arrival of the two knights with their friends and their entourage.
  • The prayers of Palamon, Arcite and Emilia.
  • The victorious battle of Arcite.
  • The argument of the gods.
  • Saturn meets Arcite with subterranean fire
  • Burial of Arcite and marriage of Emilia and Palamon.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ WY Durand, pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. 20. 512.
  2. ^ A b c Albert S. Cook, The Life and Poems of Richard Edwards. Contributors , Yale University Press , 1927, p. 76.
  3. ^ FE Halliday : A Shakespeare Companion, 1550-1950 , Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1952, p. 2.
  4. ↑ Eugene M. Waith (Ed.): The Two Noble Kinsmen , Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989, p. 28.
  5. ↑ Kirby Farrell, Kathleen M. Swaim, The Mysteries of Elizabeth I: Selections from English Literary Renaissance , Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 2003, p. 37.
  6. ^ Siobhan Keenan: Spectator and Spectacle: Royal Entertainments at the Universities in the 1560s , in Jayne Elisabeth Archer: The Progresses, Pageants, and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth I , Oxford University Press , New York, 2007, p. 100
  7. ↑ Milton Waldman: Elizabeth and Leicester , Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1945, p. 143.