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XXVII. Thomas Hey Wood, D'avenant, and the Siege of Rhodes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Everyone is agreed that the historical importance of The Siege of Rhodes easily surpasses its intrinsic interest, and everyone knows that the play was one of the most influential of the pioneer works of Restoration drama—and of the heroic drama in particular. Even those who like to discount the value of “source-hunting” in general will be inclined to admit its usefulness in establishing the antecedents and relationships of a work which in so many ways marks the beginnings of a new era. It is not surprising, therefore, that the sources of the play have been studied with care and to good effect. One fact about them has been established so clearly by the several investigators that it may be dismissed here with a mere mention; namely, that D'Avenant drew chiefly upon Knolles's Historie of the Turkes (1603) for such incidents of the historical siege of Rhodes as he wished to use. As D'Avenant tells us, however, he undertook to “soften” for the sake of variety, “the martial encounters between Solyman and the Rhodians” by “intermingling the conjugal vertues of Alphonso and Ianthe.” The scholars who have looked into the matter are not altogether agreed as to where to place the ultimate blame for the softening: as to how much of the romantic story D'Avenant may have invented, or whence he may have drawn it.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1924
References
1 Campbell, Mod. Lang. Notes, XIII, 177 ff.; C. G. Child, id., XIX, 166 ff.; J. W. Tupper, Love and Honour and The Siege of Rhodes, Belles Lettres éd., pp. 180 ff.
2 Dedication, 5. of R., Tupper, p. 188.
3 See note 1. Campbell grants, however, that the romance may have given D'Avenant “a possible suggestion of the subject as affording a good dramatic plot.”
4 Since, as Campbell notes, the several members of this group repeat the story without material variation, Kyd's Soliman and Perseda will be referred to hereafter as representative of the cycle Abstracts and discussion of other members of the cycle appear in Ernst Sieper's “Geschichte von Soliman und Perseda in derneue'ren Litteratur,” Zeilschr. für Vcrgl. Litleraturgeschichte, IX, 32 ff.). Cf. Campbell, Mod. Lang. Notes, XIII, 179, notes 6 and 7.
5 See note 1.
6 Thus, for example, his Playhouse To Be Let, and Law against Lovers.
7 Cf. Schelling, English Drama, p. 243; C. G. Child (see n. 1); J. W. Tupper, P. M. L. A., XX, 584 ff.
8 This summary is based upon Campbell's, which, however, it supplements at certain points.
9 Ibrahim; ou V Illustre Bassa, Paris, 1723.
10 See below, n. 18 and text.
11 See below, pp. 632–633, 637.
12 He does grieve early in the story, when it is reported that she has married another man, and he takes hard the enforced separation later, but he is free from the sentimental jealousy of the heroic lover.
13 See helow, p. 631.
14 Op. cit., p. 181.
15 Ibrahim, I, 317, 322 ff.; my translation.
16 A contest of generosity between lovers appears in the story of Alibech, the Corsair's daughter, who offers to free her lover from his engagement so that he may avert his father's displeasure.—Later, Isabella remarks that “il est si difficile de satisfaire & l'honneur & l'amour,” and repeatedly, but vainly, urges Ibrahim to allow her to share his dangers. (Ibrahim, I, 41; II, 223, 270; IV, 384.)
17 See below, pp. 638–641. The romance served also as the source of Settle's play, Ibrahim, the illustrious Bassa (1677). Sieper (cf. n. 4), who discusses this point, argues plausibly that Yver's Le Printemps, the earliest of the Solyman and Perseda stories, was itself one of the sources of the Scudéry romance.
18 Soliman and Perseda, Act III. In Act IV, again, Solyman assures Erastus of his “friendship's constancy,” which, says he, “hath no measure and shall never end.”
19 See below, pp. 640–641.
20 S'e Soliman and Perseda, Act IV.
21 Siege of Rhodes, II,—Belles Lettres ed., p. 207; 1 Fair Maid, I, ed. Pearson, II, 264. (All later page references are to this volume.)
22 2 Fair Maid, V, p. 419.
23 Id., pp. 413,421.
24 2 Siege, V, pp. 333–35.
25 Cambridge Hist, of Engl. Lit., VI, 101.
26 1 F. M., I, p. 265; 1 Siege, I, p. 197.
27 1 F. M., LU, pp. 305–306; 1 Siege, L.pp. 198–199.
28 1 F. M., IV, p. 317; 1 Siege, II, p. 206, V, p. 235.
29 2 F. M., I and II, pp. 339–366; 2 Siege, III, p. 288.
30 1 F. M., I, II, pp. 267, 283.
31 1 F. M., 1, III, pp. 274, 303.
32 1 Siege, III, p. 215; 2 Siege, II, pp. 267, 272; III, p. 287.
33 When Bess is warned of Mullisheg's renewed infatuation, she insists that he is “gratious and kinde.” Ianthe, under the same circumstances, holds that Solyman “though a foe, is generous and true.” (2 F. M., II, p. 356; 1 Siege, IV, p. 227.)
34 1 F. M., V, p. 328.
35 2 F. M., III, pp. 383, 385; 2 Siege, V, p. 336, etc.
36 2 F. M., III, pp. 381 ff., cf. V, p. 422; 1 Siege, II, p. 204.
37 1 F. M., IV, p. 312:
Vpon the slaughtered bodies of our foes
We mount our high Tribunal …being sole
Without competitor.
Cf. 1 Siege, II, p. 205:
Fat slaves who have been lull'd to a disease,
Cramm'd out of breath and crippled by their ease!
…Hence from my anger fly,
Which is too worthy for thee, being mine.
38 1 F. M., IV, pp. 312 ff., 2 Siege, II, p. 278.
39 1 F. M., V, p. 330, 2 F. M., III, p. 385.
40 1 Siege, II, pp. 207 ff.
41 2 F. M., II, p. 355; 1 Siege, III, pp. 218 ff.
42 2 F. M., III, pp. 386 fi.; 2 Siege, V, p. 337.
43 Cf. F. M., pp. 307, 323, 368, 382, 385 ff., 404, 423, etc.; Siege, pp. 202, 235, 320, etc.
44 I.e., before the death of Queen Elizabeth. The play is full of glow-;ng praises of the Queen. Cf. Camb. Hist. Engl. Lit., VI., 560.