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Maeve Hammond
Sex & Betrayal: Renaissance Taboo
VanWagoner
14 July 2014

The Maids Tragedy Taboo: Undermining & Overcoming the Power of Kings
The Maids Tragedy by Jacobean playwrights Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher is
constructed by taboos of moral neglect. The plays characters are influenced directly by the
unconditional power vested in the King of Rhodes; friends and foes of the King are tempted and
affected by the taboos of corruption, unscrupulous political advantages, and lust. Disdain
towards the King is not personal: it is based on his title and designated absolute power.
Undermining and overcoming the power of the King by the characters in The Maids Tragedy
are planned fear of possible retaliation, political repercussions, and ruined reputations.
Contempt towards the King in The Maids Tragedy festers in the citizens of a corrupt
king as they live under his unstoppable control. The power of the King portrayed in The Maids
Tragedy is omnipotent; character Lysippus even remarks The breath of kings is like the breath
of gods (I.i.15). As presented in the play, anyone of lower political or socioeconomic status
wanted to share a piece of the Kings power. The Kings mistress, Evadne, even tells him she is
only sleeping with him because of his title in Rhodes. She remarks to the King, I swore indeed
that I would never love/A man of lower place, but if your fortune/Should throw you from this
height, I bade you trust/I would forsake you and would bend to him/That won your throne. I love
with my ambition,/Not with my eyes (III.i.170-175). Evadne blatantly states she would move
on to the next king without question or care. The realization of a kings unparalleled influence
and automatic title of prestige fuels the taboo conversion from loyal royalist to misobasilist.
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The Kings authority overreaches from court rooms to bedrooms: he arranges the
marriage of characters Evadne and Amintor (I.i.80-82). The King also sees the value of
preserving and protecting a good reputation over the benefits of people who arent him. The
King handpicked Evadnes pseudo-spouse based on his value; surely, he could not have his
mistress sleeping with someone of a lowly status! When Amintor asks But why...did you
choose out me/To make thus wretched? There were thousands (III.i.250-252), Evadne brazenly
responds I would not have a fool; It were no credit for me (III.i.254). Although Evadne set the
most very basic boundaries of value, the King ultimately chose her pseudo-spouse, as he replies
with For I believed thee honest/As thou wert valiant (III.i.262). Subsequently, to hush
Amintor about the affair, the King bribes him in the line Thou mayst live, Amintor,/Free as thy
king, if thou wilt wink at this,/And be a means that we may meet in secret (III.i.268-269). In
exchange keeping silent about the affair, the King will allow Amintor equal power of a King
his granted freedom of sexual liberty and promiscuity without repercussion. The King abuses
his overreaching amount of power to set forth his unscrupulous means of controlling his citizens.
During the Jacobean era, there was no way of mobilizing action against kings or
expressing unpopular opinion because of potential threat of being accused of treason. Amintor
cannot denounce his marriage because of the Kings involvement. When Amintor is told by
Evadne of her affair, he realizes he can never directly exact his revenge: the King is untouchable.
As Amintor says, O, thou hast named a word that wipes away/All thoughts revengeful; in that
sacred name/The King there lies a terror. What frail man/Dares lift his hand against it?
(II.ii.307-310). In the line Nor let the King/Know I conceive he wrongs me (II.ii.339-340),
Amintor begs Evadne that she does not tell the King of his disloyalty. He accepts his subservient
status, as he tells the King there is/Divinity about you, that strikes dead/My rising passions. As
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you are my king,/I fall before you and present my sword/To cut mine own flesh if it be your will
(III.i.238-242). Likewise, Amintors disposition regarding their marital status changes
dramatically from threatening Evadne, I will drag thee to my bed, and make thy tongue/Undo
this wicked oath, or on thy flesh/Ill print a thousand wounds to let out life (II.i.277-279) to
gently reassuring her upon thy chamber floor/Ill rest tonight (II.ii.351-352).
The fury expressed in Amintor can be paralleled to acts of indirect violence by Melantius.
Melantius plansbut never fulfillsto kill the King. Melantius forces Evadne to exact his
revenge for him; he does this to preserve his reputation and unlink him from any acts of crime
against the King. Melantius threatens to murder Evadnehis own sisterif she does not kill the
King (II.ii.339-340). Melantius warns Evadne be wise and lay him open (IV.i.47) or thou hast
death upon thee (IV.i.83). Melantius draws his sword and commands Evadne to kneel and
swear to conduct regicide or thou shalt not live/To breathe a full hour longer, not a thought
(IV.i.161-164). Melantiuss actions set a domino effect of ruin in Act V: passions overflow in
the isle of Rhodes, and the deaths of characters Aspatia, Evadne, and Amintor follow the King.
The Maids Tragedy by playwrights Beaumont and Fletcher is a cultural representation of
the English citizen and government dynamic during the Jacobean era. As exhibited by characters
Amintor and Melantius, citizens living under the rule of an omnipotent king were fully aware of
his part in a corrupt government. However, critics of kings opposed them silently in fear: they
carried on in life and disconnected themselves from the realm of tyrannyboth acts are
portrayed respectfully by Amintor and Melantius. The Maids Tragedy can be interpreted as
both a call-to-action by Beaumont and Fletcher against the corruption of kings and as a warning
against practicing the taboo of undermining or overcoming a kingdom.