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The Dutch Courtesan

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title The Dutch Courtesan
Authors and Contributors      By (author) John Marston
Edited by David Crane
SeriesNew Mermaids
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:120
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 126
Category/GenrePlays, playscripts
Literary studies - c 1500 to c 1800
Literary studies - plays and playwrights
ISBN/Barcode 9780713644753
ClassificationsDewey:822.3
Audience
A / AS level
Undergraduate
General
Illustrations c 5 photographs/line drawings

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint Methuen Drama
Publication Date 30 September 1997
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Although it was written shortly before or after Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603 and performed by the boy company at Blackfriars, this play foreshadows the light ladies and callous gallants of Restoration comedy. Passion is a scourge, love is humiliation, and friends might as well be enemies. Freevill discards his concubine Franceschina and, for a joke, sets his straight-laced friend Malheureux on to her, who falls for her and promises to carry out her revenge on Freevill by killing him. The play in the theatre, which is fully imagined in the introduction to this edition, impresses on the audience the spuriousness of rigid moral persuasions, especially when they are tried by fits of sexual passion.

Author Biography

John Marston (c. 1575-1634) was an English playwright who wrote thirteen plays between 1599 and 1609, his two finest being the tragicomedy The Malcontent (1604) and the comedy The Dutch Courtesan (1605). He is noted for his violent imagery and his preoccupation with mankind's failure to uphold Christian virtues. Other plays include the tragedies Antonio's Revenge and Antonio and Mellida (both 1599) and the comedy What You Will (1601). At the turn of the century Marston became involved in the so-called war of the theatres, a prolonged feud with his rival Ben Jonson. Jonson repeatedly satirized him in such plays as Every Man Out of His Humour (1599) and The Poetaster (1601), while Marston replied in Satiromastix (with Thomas Dekker; 1601). Their squabble ended in time for the two to collaborate with George Chapman on the ill-fated Eastward Ho! (1605), which resulted in all three authors being briefly imprisoned. Marston was later imprisoned for offending James I with his tragedy The Insatiate Countess (1610). After his release he took holy orders and wrote no more plays.