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John Marston's Fawn: A Saturnalian Satire Author(s): Joel Kaplan Source: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 9, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1969), pp. 335-350 Published by: Rice University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/449784 . Accessed: 10/07/2013 21:43
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John Marston's Fawn: A Saturnalian Satire

JOEL KAPLAN The initial situation of John Marston's Fawn resembles that of the playwright'searlier Malcontent.Each centers about an incognitoduke who exposes a lascivious court.Yet in its course of action and resolution The Fawn seems closer to The Dutch Courtesan, in which Marston's raillerygives way to a type of curative exuberance. The Fawn, in fact, might be called a saturnalian satire, in which a process of suppling replaces the satirist's more traditional lancet and invective is superseded by a rhetoricof increase. Duke Hercules, the play's protagonist, appropriatelyspans both modes, and in purging Gonzago's court while assuring the perpetuationof his own royal line, the Duke symbolically completes two Herculean labors that held particular significance for Marston: the cleansing of the Augean stables and the creation of a royal line in Beotia. There is, however,an overall unity to Hercules's dual function-his satiric and saturnalian roles-as those who have crimes against procreation. defiledthe courthave done so by committing This helps to explain the play's concludingmasque, in which devices fromthe traditionsof formalsatire and holiday revelryformthe backdrop for Hercules's ultimatetriumph.

the dramas of JohnMarstonhave not generallyreceivedthe that theircomplexity criticalattention and meritwould seem The Fawn, quite possiblyMarston'slast comedy, to demand.1 is a play that has been especiallyneglected.In part at least this appears to be the resultof its resemblance to The Malcontent. Both are dramas of the "disguise plot" variety,2

WITH THE EXCEPTION of The Malcontent,

each dominated by an incognito duke who exposes the follies of a courtstewedin corruption. On the basis of thissimilarity, The Fawn has oftenbeen dismissedas a feeble attempton
'I would like to thank David A. Blostein of Victoria College, University of Toronto,for permissionto cite passages from his excellent edition of The Fawn now in the final stages of preparation as a University of Toronto doctoral dissertation.Because of the lack of an acceptably accurate edition of Marston's completeworks I have used the following editionsof individualworks for citationin this article: The Poems of John Marston, ed. Arnold Davenport (Liverpool, 1961); Antonio's Revenge, ed. G. K. Hunter (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1965), [Regents Renaissance Drama Series]; The Malcontent,ed. M. L. Wine (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1964), [Regents Renaissance Drama Series] The Wonder of WomenOr The Tragedie of Sophonisba,Q1606, a facsimileof a copy now in the HuntingtonLibrary. 2This classificationis discussed fullyin AnthonyCaputi's JohnMarston, Satirist (Ithaca, New York, 1961).

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Marston'spart to wringone moreplay froma successful plot or has beenjudged by the light (or darkness) of its predecessor and foundwanting.3 The presentarticle will attemptto deal with The Fawn on its own merits, revealing in the process its precise relationship to The Malcontent. We must begin, however,with a more general considerationof the satiric railer, a figure that appears throughout Marston's dramaticand non-dramatic writings. The split betweenthe public and private personalitiesof the satiric persona apparentlyfascinated Marston.4In his versesatires written in the late 1590's as well as in the plays he composedfor the children'scompaniesat Paul's and the Chapel, our attentionis directedtowards an inherentconin the satiristfigure: an affinity tradiction for filththat is at odds witha professed desireto cleansesociety. The "satyr," in brief,runs the risk of contamination through too intimate an acquaintance with vice. This is the dilemma that lies verynear the heart of The Malcontent, as the banishedAltofrontohaunts his formerduchy in the guise of the foulmouthedrailer, Malevole. The duke must maintainhis own identityand sanity while he spews the venom of the malcontentupon the debauchedcourtat Genoa. His passion for his role, however,comes dangerouslyclose to the type of emotionalentanglement that destroysVindice in The Revenger's Tragedy,and makes possible, for many of Marston's readers,onlythe mosthesitantacceptanceof the play's comic In The Dutch CourtesanMarstonproposesa soluresolution. of role and identity. tionto this problem Freevill,the "roman"a knavishly tic" lead of the piece,and Cocledemoy, wittyCity in manipulatcompanion"in the subplot,display a dexterity ing both verbal and physical disguises that enables each to ';cure" other charactersin the play. They remain,nonetheless, always conscious of their roles and avoid the impasof Marston'ssatirists.Rejectingraillery sioned involvements theyoperateby means of a saturnalianexuberance(especially notable in Cocledemoy) that subordinatesreason to the raw energyof non-logical language and action,replacingin'For an exceptionto this apparent consensus see A. J. Axelrad's symof the play in his Un MalcontentElizabe'than: John pathetictreatment Marston (1576-1634), (Paris, 1955). 'See Alvin B. Kernan's excellent study of this phenomenonin The CankeredMuse: Satire of the English Renaissance (New Haven, 1969).

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towards sanity throughrelease.5 vectiveby a movement that of The If the initialsituationin The Fawn resembles bringit closer its courseof action and resolution Malcontent, to The Dutch Courtesan.In this respectits veryresemblance to The Malcontentserves to underscorethe differentapas great as a difference proachesof Marston'sprotagonists, that betweensatire and saturnalia. The Fawn in fact might be called a saturnalian satire, and its title appropriately spans both modes. Fawn, or Faunus, the role assumed by figure,suggests not only "flatterer" the play's controlling but botha varietyof the savage man and Faunus (or Pan) and abundance.Equally significant, himself, god of fertility and also spanning both modes, is the name of Marston's duke in his own person-Hercules. For Marstonthe figureof Hercules served more oftenas a prototype of the satiristthan as the modelof a fierceand audaciouslyheroicman. The cleansingof the Augean stables in particularwas an action to which the satyr's fascination its removal might be compared. with filth and, ostensibly, In The Scourge of Villanie (1598) we hear of Hercules's "farming Oxe-staules" (Satire V, 6), while the reception given Antonio by the Venetian senators at the close of Antonio'sRevenge, "Thou art another Hercules to us / In ridding huge pollutionfrom our state" (V.iii.129-130) implies an associationforthe son of Zeus more in line with the tumbrilthan the club. There is, however,anotheraspect of Hercules that takes on an even greater importancein Marston's canon. labor, the impregnation The hero's apocryphalthirteenth proof King Thespius's fiftydaughtersin a single night,6 vided Marstonwith a comic patternof virilityand creative In CertaineSatyres (1598), Marston'sfirstliterexuberance.
5Saturnalia is here used to define what C. L. Barber describes as a process of "clarification through release" in Shakespeare's Festive Comedy: A Study of Dramatic Form and its Relationship to Social Cutstom (Princeton,1959). 'The legend survives in many versions. Marston follows Pausanias in assigning but one night for the achievement, apparentlyrejecting (as Pausanias himself did) the account of a single reluctant daughter sentenced to perpetual virginity for her refusal (Descriptions of Greece, IX, xxvii). This also is the version adopted by Natalis Comes, althoughhe retains the virgin daughter (Mythologiae.. . Libri Dece7n,

VII, i).

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ary venture, we hear how: backtHerculesin one poorenight strong Withgreat,greatease, and wondrous delight In strength of lustand Venussurquedry Rob'd fifty wenches of virginity. (Satire V, 47-50) The Scourge of Villanie tells us of "Alcides thirteenth act" (Satire IV, 89) and the "fiftiemore Beotian gerles [who] will sue / To haue thy loue, (so that thy back be true.)" (Satire VIII, 70-71). This conceptof Hercules also appears in the plays. The prologueto Antonio'sRevengerefersto the "sweat of Hercules [that] can ne'er beget / So blest an issue" (11-12), while the charactersof The Malcontentare so familiarwith the storythat Pietro can correctMalevole whenthe lattertellshimthat"Hercules... got forty wenches with child in one night" (IV.v.58-59). Mendoza,in the same work,comparesthe hapless Ferneze to the worthy, concluding that "He that attemptsa princess' lawless love / Must wise Hercules whom Syphax calls upon in his designs upon Sophonisba: "boue all 0 Hercules / Let not thy backe be incidentin fact accountsfor more references to Hercules in Marston's works than the remaininglabors combined.For Marston,then, the figure of Hercules, first at the Augean stalls and then in the bedroomsof Beotia, was associated with both the carting of filthand the creationof progeny. Appropriately these acts are, in the broadest sense of the terms, the respective domains of renaissance satire and comedy; the realms of the satirist and what we may call the saturnaliancharacter. Marston's Duke Hercules fulfillsboth functions. He is at the same time a satiric and saturnalian figure, cleansing Gonzago's polluted court at Urbin while perpetuatinghis own house at Ferrara. His satire, however,is itself saturnalian. Raillery and diatribe,the verbal tools of the malcontent, give place to a techniqueof exposingabsurdityby intensification, curingfollyin the mannerof a Cocledemoy or a Lord of Misrule.But there is an overall unityto Hercules's dual purpose: those who have defiledthe court have done so by committing crimes against the procreativeprocess. This helps to explain the curious combination of the Court of Love and Ship of Fools motifsin the masque that
wanting . . ." (The Tragedie of Sophonisba, sig. E,1). This have . . . [the] back of Hercules . . ." (II.v.6-8). It is like-

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concludesthe play. Devices in the spirit of holiday revelry7 and "formal"satire are juxtaposedas Herculesat one stroke of love and spoilersof the court. the perverters condemns of the satiric and Yet beforesuch a general reconciliation a more personal reconsaturnalian modes can be effected, ciliationmusttake place withinHerculeshimself.This is accomplishedby the end of Act I, and for the remainderof the play Hercules is free to realize the widest implications of the synthesishe achieves. During the last four acts of The Fawn we are not so much concernedwith Hercules as withhis labors-the purgingof Gonzago'scourtand the perpetuationof Ferrara's royal line. Far from being a structural weakness,the duke's own resolutionearly in the play and anticipationof the greater may be seen as a microcosm he workstowards in the remainingacts. harmony As The Fawn opens we firstsee Hercules taking leave of Renaldo, on the outskirtsof Urbin. He has enhis brother, trustedRenaldo with the rule of his own Duchy of Ferrara, and is about to enterUrbinin disguise.Whenhis motivesare "only the duke repliesthat he can give his brother questioned and to he leaves of proceeds Ferrara, some glimpses" why to his son, Tiberio, explain how he never could persuade marry: myson,as youcan well witnesswithme,couldI never persuade to marriage,althoughmyselfwas then an widower,and thoughI proposedto him ever-resolved thisveryladyto whomhe is gonein myrightto negotiate. Now how his coolerbloodwill behaveitselfin this businesswouldI have an onlytestimony. (I.i.20-25) this passage Previousreadingsof The Fawn have understood to mean that Herculeshopes to trickhis son into a marriage that will secure his line at Ferrara.8 "Then" in line 22 is as "even then" to support this conclusion.Yet interpreted althoughsuch congenial deceptionis Hercules's plan from to it the end of I. ii onwards,there is no specificreference
7Philip J. Finkelpearl argues very persuasively for the annual Christmas Revels of the Middle Temple as the specific source for Marston's Court of Cupid. See "The Use of Middle Temple's Christmas Revels in Marston's The Fawne," SP, LXIV, April 1967,199-209. 8Caputi, 205; Philip J. Finkelpearl "The Works of John Marston: A Critical Study," Unpub. diss. (Harvard, 1954), 264; Alvin B. Kernan, "John Marston's Concept and Use of Satire," Unpub. diss. (Yale, 1954), 249.

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in this initialscene."Then" may also be read as "previously" and the entirepassage construedin the followingmanner: decidedto take Herculesat the outsetof the play has himself a wife and has sent Tiberio to negotiatethe marriage. In widower," the past, when Hercules was "an ever-resolved he had proposed this very same princess for his son but Tiberio's blood was too cold for the match. Now Hercules, enough,wishes to see withhis own eyes how a son naturally who would not woo on his own behalf will woo in behalf of his father. This reading is consistentwith Hercules's soliloquyabout his own "appetite of blood" that concludes I. i, presentingus with a ruler whose "exorbitantaffects" gottenthe better and "wild longings"have, for the moment, of him. The plot to interestTiberio in Dulcimel would then begin with Hercules's second soliloquy at the end of I, ii, after the duke is made to realize how old he is (I.ii.297). given and abandonshis originalplan. In brief,the inflection of meaning not only the 22 determine will to "then" in I. i. entire of the plot but the the passage in which it occurs comedy, and it can be read eitherway. No wonder Marston cautionsus that "Comediesare writ to be spoken,not read: the life of these thingsconsistsin action" (To My remember Equal Reader,62-63). Yet in the end we mustmake a choice if we are to approach the work at all, and under the circumstancesour only crieria will have to be both aesthetic and subjective; we must simply choose whicheverreading play. Perhaps, then,this is the gives us a more satisfactory place to point out that at least two extremelyperceptive readingand place the beginnings criticswho adoptthe former of Hercules'splan to wed Tiberioto Dulcimelin I. i findtheir ineffective. of the play dramatically own interpretations Thus Philip J. Finkelpearl,who tells us that Hercules in [Dulcimel], and . . . "wants Tiberio to becomeinterested has gone to Urbin to watch and assist his son in this act of "a laments Marston's abandonment of filial disloyalty," than he had eitherthe energyor inclinalarger conception tion to pursue." Finkelpearlthen makes specific reference of what he which] Hercules gives a totallyfalse impression is goingto do. He claims [in the soliloquyat the end of I. i] a life and thathe is goingto free thathe has led too restricted
himself from his self-imposed regimen . . . [but] curiously to "the creaky, irrelevant beginning of the play
.

. . [in

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nothingcomes of it."" Yet the opening of the play is only "creaky" and "irrelevant"if we assume that Hercules's moIf Hercules's originalplan is to wed tives remainunchanged. Dulcimel himself,the duke's "breaking out of blood" is in keepingwith his desire for the princess."Nothingcomes of in I. ii. Alvin it" onlybecause of the disabuseHerculessuffers undramatic B. Kerman also imposesa static and admittedly upon Hercules and then complainsthat Hercules personality one is a major characterin whom"thereis no development," who "takes into the action [of the play] . . . the view of Like Finkelpearl,he human nature . . . he emergeswith."'10 too is unable to account for Hercules's soliloquythat immewithRenaldo.If we delay the diatelyfollowshis conversation "nuptialplot" to I. ii, however,this passage can be seen as of Hercules's character link in the development an important and the progressof Marston'splay. JustbeforeHercules and Renaldo part companythe duke confessesother "contents"" and "sufficings"that have figuredin his decisionto visit Urbin.WhenRenaldoleaves,these latter "sufficings"become the subject of a lengthyverse soliloquy.Hercules's attentionis first occupiedby the price he has paid for maintainingthe decorum of his office,a decorumthat has robbedhim of "exorbitantaffects,/ Wild longings, [and] the least of disranked shapes" (I.i.44-45). He now feels a breakingout of "the appetiteof blood" that is at odds with the austerityof his public image, and, believing for the while that his "blood" is closer to his true Herculesresolvesto descend naturethan is his "sovereignty," in station and put his belief to the test. A decline in social positionis paralleled,then,by a descentin the chain of being froma creatureof reason to one of appetite. The procurementof a young wife is linked with this downward Herculesnow leaves in a social and naturalhierarchy. motion the symbolic vantagepoint fromwhichhe observesthe "far"The Worksof JohnMarston,"283-284. 9Finkelpearl, "Kerman, "JohnMarston'sConceptand Use of Satire," 260. "The wording here is dificult,for these "other contents" may mean either specious reasons which Hercules expects to use at Gonzago's court to conceal his true reason for the visit, or merely additional reasons for going which he enumerates for Renaldo's benefit. If we choose this second alternativethe phrasing will seem somewhatstilted in accepting the formerreading and a bit curious, yet the difficulties are still greater. Why, for example, would Hercules need to explain away his presenceat Urbin if he is going there in disguise?

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appearing spires [that] rise from the city" (I.i.1-2) and assuring us that "the bottomof gravityis nothinglike the top" (I.i.34-35) comes down to the city itself. Once in Gonzago's court Hercules is disabused. He conof himselfthat destroy frontstwo "flattering"counterfeits his new faith in blood and appetite. As he observes the initial interviewbetweenhis son and the princess,his inhe had sent her and asks tendedbride producesa miniature Tiberio if it is his father's "true proportion" (I.ii.102). of Tiberio replies that it is rather"the perfectcounterfeit" the duke (I.ii.103), but adds that if the princess is disappointedwith it, she may behold in him his father's"true form/ And livelierimage; such [as] my fatherhath been" (I.ii.111-112). Dulcimel, however, fixes upon this "hath been," and shows Tiberio in the fullnessof his youthto be than Hercules's portrait. an even more deceptivecounterfeit of the duke's true likeBoth are exposed as base flatterers ness, whichthe princessreveals to be neitherfair nor youthful. Herculesto medileavingthe distraught The courtretires, and fawns.His openingwords flatterers, tate on counterfeits, bringhomethe impactof this confrontation-"I neverknew of till now how old I was" (I.ii.297). He accuses flatterers all degrees for his previousblindnessto his own faults and limitations(R05-308), and for the firsttime reconcileshimself to the genre of satire as a possible antidote: I nowrepent to somesharpstyles; Severeindictions Freeness,so't grownotto licentiousness, (I.ii.308-311) to just states. Is grateful Evidently as Duke of Ferrara Herculeshad suppressedlegitithe"sharp style"of satire, or morespecifically matecriticism, and as a result remainedignorantof his natural passions is analogous withthe lesson Herand failings.The discovery cules draws fromhis disabuse at Urbin.When we were first to the duke he had already discoveredthat the introduced demandsof blood could not simplybe ignored.Having prowhen no outletat all fora healthy"freeness," vided,however, such freenesscame it first took the form of a "licentious" desire: his wish to wed Dulcimel.This soliloquyis a turning point,as Hercules adopts new attitudestowardshimselfand satire. His original desire is modifiedby a plan to wed the

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with both princessto his son, a course of action consistent his "repentance"and evident desire for heirs. In addition, the dukeintosuch straits whichhad firstbrought the flattery and appropriatemeans of channelwill providea convenient ing the heat, mostprodigious flames That fallsinto [his] age likescorching (I.ii.329-331) December, In depthof numbed He now intendsto expendhis unseasonableenergy all in flattering viciousness, In all oftheirextremest Till in theirownlovedrace theyfallmostlame, And meetfullbuttthecloseof vice's shame. (I.ii.331-334) By the end of the firstact, then,Herculeshas made a major decisionthatsets his soul at peace and enableshimto manipulate various roles or masks withoutplacing his own identity in jeopardy. in this respectto compareMarston's be interesting It might in The Malof Herculeswith that of Altofronto presentation content.In the earlier work,in which the duke's manipulation of masks is less adept and the danger of contamination in his role of Maleoftenimminent, Altofronto is introduced in his own capacity. Thus vole beforehe is even mentioned discordantmalcontent remains the portraitof a struggling, in our minds,shaping our attitudestowards Altoforemost frontowhen we finallydo meethim. In The Fawn, however, Marston makes sure that there is to be no such confusion. are told in his opening We firstsee Duke Herculesas himself, speech that he is Ferrara's proper ruler, and watch him don the disguise that others will later meet as "Faunus." between these two manners of presentation The difference calculatedeffectsreis verysimple indeed,yet the carefully are most likelyto refer We bothplays. throughout verberate The Malcontent, of character central to "Malevole" as the dominant as the not figure "Faunus," but thinkof Hercules, The in Fawn. Restoredto his senses, Hercules is ready to undertakehis labors: to cleanse Gonzago's house and assure his own a The methodhe chooses is not vilificameasure of posterity. as becomesa parasitasteror false fawn; he but tion flattery the lancet is replaced by a "suppling" that causes sores to

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burst and drain of theirown accord: Shouldone rail And cometo sear12a vice,bewareleg-rings hand if softer keyon thee,when, And theturned Supplinga sorethatitches(whichshouldsmart)stealtheheart. Free speechgains foes,base fawnings members, tillyouburst; Swell,youimpostumed on I'll thrust, Since 'tis in vain to hinder, hence, And whenin shameyoufall,I'll laughfrom impudence." And cry,"So end all desperate (II.i.537-545) "benevolence," by an excessof energetic propelled The process, no less saturis one of inducinga catharticover-abundance, Herculesnow desires nalian in spiritthan the consummation for his children. of a corruptand pervertedcourt and a The phenomenon in boththe main heirs are intertwined concernfor begetting and subplotof The Fawn. Tiberio's coldnessis as unnatural a reaction to love as those the courtiersof Urbin exhibit, while the predicamentsof Herod, Amoroso, and Garbetza into the taintedrealm of the bringthe themeof inheritance Yet the dominant themes,the play's "satiric" movement. two labors of the comedy,can be divided roughlybetween the storyof Tiberio and Dulcimeland the purgingof GonzaHercules's endeavor go's court.The firstof these challenges, to procure an heir, is apparent from the very outset. Although he does not make this explicit until V.i when he blesses the sheetsof his son and Dulcimel: 0, blessthesheets thatFerrara's dukedom, Of yonder chamber, The race ofprincely issue,be notcursed, barrenness. (V.i.6-9) And endedin abhorred and its implications Hercules is concernedwith inheritance fromthe openingof the play. As Faunus, his reparteewith the courtiersfastens upon the subject, and it is hardly a which might surprise to learn that Tiberio's indifference, "kill our hope of name in his dull coldness" (V.i.14), is seen as a veryreal threat.
""Sear" is the reading of Qq and Blostein. Halliwell, Bullen, Wood, and Smith follow Sheares's collectionof 1633 (which has no textual authority) in printing "fear," but as "sear" is not recorded as the Qq reading in any of these editions it would seem that "fear" is an ratherthan an emendation. oversight

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Such a concern was an importantelementin Hercules's original desire to wed Dulcimel,and Gonzago's court which knows only of this earlier plan criticizeshim soundly for a task that appears both unnaturaland futile. undertaking In his own rightthe Duke of Ferrara is regardedas one of the "few worthy"of "a lady . . . of great blood, firm age, above her sex, mostmodestly artful,[and] honour, undoubted (III.i.149-151), but in his designs upon naturallymodest"'13 the youngerDulcimel he seems "dull, sour, austere, rough, rheumy" (III.i.173-174), and above all "past child-getting" (III.i.180). The objections raised are those Hercules himself would have recognizedas quite sufficient:impotence and sterility.Herod considersthe proposed marriage a tyranny beyondthe torturesof Mezentius,a "cruelty [that] bodies,but . . . most binds breastto breast not onlydifferent withan enforcement even scandalous unequal mindstogether, to nature" (I.ii.195-197). To Dulcimel the duke's suit is "a scandal to the soul of all being" (III.i.170), and she sugwith all other gests that Hercules mightbe burnedtogether men unable to get children (III.i.178-180). Yet in the same breath the princess confesses,with sexual innuendos,that (III.i. she does "even dote upon the best part of the duke"'14 line Dulcimelexplains that she means 182). In the following Tiberio,but the pun holdstrueon bothlevels: Tiberiosprings fromand now is the duke's "best part," that "part" which then,is drawn mustin turnbegetmore dukes. A distinction, betweenlegitimatepassion, which is capable of fulfillment and impotent desire,bothlicentiousand sterile. and fertility, When Hercules realizes "how old" he is, he acknowledges Tiberio as his "best part" and devises a plan (as he had done once in the past) to obtain heirs throughthis organ. Hercules's role in bringingabout the marriage of Tiberio and Dulcimel should not be overshadowedby the initiative the princess takes in the affair. Finkelpearl tells us that on the romantic effect "Hercules. . . has almostno significant but . . . action. His son has indeed requiredsome prodding,
"This appears, in fact, to be Donna Philocalia's only reason for being in the play. 'For a similar double entendre see Middleton's A Mad World, My Masters, III, iii, 38: "When his best parts hung down their heads for shame," ed. Standish Henning (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1965), [Regents Renaissance Drama Series].

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Dulcimel performsthis task more than adequately."'" Yet in emis Dulcimel'sproddingreally enough? Her ingenuity is certainly ployingher fatheras an unwitting go-between impressive, but the veryobtuseness that makes Gonzagosuch an easy tool almost frustratesher plans. Tiberio is simply embellished unable to penetrateGonzago's incomprehensibly rhetoric. The prince'sreactions-"What means mylord?" (II. i.487), "Astonishment and wonder,what means this? / Is the duke sober" (II.i.513-514)-may be read to conveyutter bewilderment rather than outrage. It remains for Hercules to interpretGonzago's message to his son: "Do you not ?" (II.i.517) Herculesworksupon courtthe lady for yourself Tiberio muchas Dulcimeldoes upon her father,and bothare necessary links in carryingthe princess's message to the
prince.

Marstonseems In theseefforts to bringabout the marriage, to be makinga serious statement about the use and misuse of language, and its relationship to the self and its masks. Throughouthis dramaticworks Marston,more consistently than manyof his contemporaries, stroveto portraystates of rhetorical mindthrough devices.In his comediesfollyis often use of involvedtropes and figbetrayedby a self-conscious ures at preciselythe wrongmoment. We may see something of this in the many ludicrous situations in Antonio and Mellida in whichcharactersbecomeso preoccupied withtheir own eloquencethat theylose track of the play's action. The quality (more ignoranceof Gonzago is indeedof a different like Balurdo's than Antonio's) yet it manifestsitselfin the manner.Gonzago'sspeech is rootedin his same self-conscious of himself, and his failureas a manipulaown misconception tor of language reveals the foolishnessof this illusion. His role as a great oratorbecomesa "blindside" that he ironicalis pepperedwith"I think ly pointsto withpride.His rhetoric we yet can speak, we ha' been eloquent" (I.ii.85-86), "pray ye note my phrase" (I.ii.92), "La, sir! thus men of brain mains all the while unaware of his "stalking" daughter,as she uses his conceit to furtherher own ends. In contrast, of language,like Hercules's,restsupon Dulcimel'semployment of bothherself and her objective;an underan understanding
"The Worksof JohnMarston,"271-272. 15Finkelpearl,

can speak . . ." (II.i.488)

and similar expressions. He re-

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standingthat permitsthe princess to know others as well. and again like Hercules,she The methodshe uses is flattery, turningthem to her already existingabsurdities, intensifies own advantage.Her decisionin Act III to "stalk on the blind father's wit" (IJI.i.233) is justified side of my all-knowing of Gonzago's "wisdom": by such an absurd acknowledgement 'no sooner had my father's wisdom mistrustedmy liking but I grew loth his j udgementshould err; I pitied he should prove a fool in his old age, and withoutcause mistrust me" (III.i.219-222). Togetherwith Hercules she supples Gonzago's sores untiltheyswell and burst.The princess not only wins her prince,but helps cure her father in the bargain. In the end he is at last able to say: "By the Lord, that's the plain troth.... What a I am ashamed of myself, slumberhave I been in !" (V.i.437-439). that Hercules and Dulcimel both work The consummation of Act V. Tiberio climbs towardstakes place at the beginning to the princess's chamberand they are wed in dumb show "Whilst the act is a-playing."This theatricaldevice conveys the ease with which the action is accomplished(indicating that the strugglewas indeedlargelyverbal), and also focuses our attentionupon Hercules who "stays beneath"and offers Love is seen as natural, legitia prayer for their fertility. of the abunmate, and sacred only when it is a microcosm of nature itself.Hercules has in this dance and fruitfulness his labor of procreation. sense completed The flatness,or perhaps more accuratelythe hollowness, of the courtiersat Urbin has oftenbeen pointedout.'6 They are walking humorsthat exist only to be deflatedby Hercules; they bear the names of their individual follies, and are derived from stock incioften even their predicaments Yet Marstondoes a good deal more dents in formalsatire.17 than merelypresent one more random "processionof fools [in] a dramatizedsatire."'8 The sins or follies of the court are variationson a commontheme: the perversionof love. Gonzago,as Caputi has noted,"insists on turningthe course
"Caputi, 203; Finkelpearl, "The Works of John Marston," 266; and to his edition of The Fawn (Lincoln, Gerald A. Smith's introduction Nebraska, 1965), [Regents Renaissance Drama Series], xiii. "Herod's doing himself out of his inheritance,for example, has its source in Marston's own The Scourge of Villanie, Satyra Nova, 27-32. "Finkelpearl, "The Works of John Marston," 266.

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of true love,"19Sir Amorosois impotent, while Donna Garbetza is an adultress who has committed incest with her Ovidian, brother-in-law, Herod. Nymphadoro is an unrequited and even the silent Granuffo(althoughhe serves primarily to complement Gonzago's extremeloquaciousness) is accused of being one of those "false seemers,that abuse ladies with counterfeit faces, courtingonly by signs, and seemingwise onlyby silence" (V.i.342-344). They are "the vainer bubbles"that float upon "The giddy . . . / And forthwith sea of humour break" (II.i.532-534), but at the same time they representthe serious alternativesto the natural love of Tiberio and Dulcimel. Their swellings and their pregnancies seem prurientparodies of pregnancy, or self-defeating. Donna Zoya only preare eitherfraudulent does him out of tends, while Herod's illegitimate offspring his cuckolded brother's fortune, earninghim "a special cabin in the ship of fools" (IV.i.79). An even more extremeexample of unnaturallove is foundin Don Zuccone,"a causelessly jealous lord" who forswearshis wife's bed, and delivers invectivesagainst human love as a procreativeprocess: "O heaven,that God made for a man no other means of procreation . . . but by women! 0, that we could increase like roses by being slipped one from another,or like flies procreatewith blowing,or any otherway than by a woman as "swell[ing]," and finallyconcluding thatwomen pregnancy are but "hollowbubble withthe paral[s]," images consistent lels of love and humor already suggested.Like their ruler themselves the courtiersat Urbin are unable to distinguish and Hercules'smethod of dealingwith from theiraffectations, themis the same he uses to purge Gonzago. Each is encouraged to pursue the follies he personifiesuntil the bubble bursts and his humor drains. Garbetza is thus made to rationalize her adultery (IV.i.1-21), Nymphadorourged to methodof wooing (III.i.63unsuccessful pursuehis obviously 122), Herod told that his lies are "policy" and must "swell bigger than his natural skin" (IV.i.158-163), and Zuccone advised to believe his unfounded jealousies and divorce his wife (II.i.378-379).
1Caputi, 214. Kernan also notes that the courtiers are "primarily developed in terms of [their] attitude[s] toward love," "John Marston's Concept and Use of Satire," 339.
-"

(IV.i.348-351)

referring contemptuously to human

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and bursting of sores takes place The eventualarraignment in the Parliamentof Cupid in Act V. Here Middle Temple revelrycombines with the medieval tradition of the Ship of Fools20,an early and popular vehiclefor displayinga collection of satiric types. The courtiersmust first be judged and thenthose by Cupid,whose laws theyhave transgressed, are condemned to the ship. deemedincurableor unrepentant traditionsis, as alThe juxtapositionof two such divergent indicativeof Hercules'scomicor saturnalian readysuggested, the satyr'sfunction. "Swelling,"the plays of fulfilling manner in the "fluent receives personification metaphor, controlling and swelling" figure of Drunkenness (V.i.156) that dominates the duke's dumb show. We now see Hercules in his Bacchicaspect,21 as he assures us that"Drunkenness implicitly the motherof [Truth], and brings her forth" is oftentimes as she "bringsall the drinkout of the pot, all the wit out of the pate, and all the moneyout of the purse" (V.i.162-165). it is Gonzago who drinks deepest at the masque. Fittingly, followsand each courtieris condemned for The arraignment of love: Nymphadoro fora "plurality his particular corruption Amorosofor feigning Herod for the potency, of mistresses," love lettershe has forged,and Zuccone for slander. To conclude, Granuffois found guilty of "abusling] ladies with faces," while Gonzago is indictedfor his [his] counterfeit intentionsto interferewith the course of love: "An act against privy conspiracies" condemns him for "ambitious wisdom" which had hoped "to outstripLove" (V.i.359-360). part he has Herculesnow explains to Gonzago the unwitting played in unitingTiberio and his own daughter.The duke his claim by producingthe prince and princess corroborates hand in hand. Given the dry mock of "Ironia" (V.i.425), admits his folly,and, when Hercules reGonzago sheepishly turns "in his own shape," displays for the first time some"The Court of Love, of course, also has a medieval pedigree. See William A. Neilson, The Origins and Sources of the "Court of Love," Harvard Studies in Philologyand Literature,VI (Boston, 1898). Cited by Finkelpearl, "Middle Temple's Christmas Revels in Marston's The *Fawne," 205 n. 24. 2'This might,in fact, be related to a traditionalassociation of Hercules and Bacchus that gained special currency with many renaissance authors. See, for example, The Facrie Queene, V, I, ii, and Shakespeare's Anithony(in Anthony and Cleopatra), whose complexityis alof the Bacchic-Herculeanidentification increased by a heightening ready implicitin North's Plutarch.

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thing approachingthe wisdom he had only affectedearlier, Both labors have been (V.i.438). Hercules has triumphed. and he can assure us of a conclusion successfully, completed that is quite exceptionalin the comedies of Marston: "all thingssweetlyfit" (V.i.440). that a development Here The Fawn brings to completion its author's works. Marston's can be observed throughout traditionthe ambiguities embody earlier satiricpersonalities ally inherentin such figures.They seem both repulsed and fascinatedby the corruptworldabout themand becomeboth scourgersof the base age and participantsin its baseness,as binds themto a diseased vision of their methodof criticism humanity. Hercules too is a critic,yet his methodsare the a antithesisof the satyr's. As we have seen, he substitutes lance used to customarily process of supplingfor the scalpel of a sick social order. Not only does this the impostumes new techniqueachieve remarkableresults,but it transforms the entirespirit of Marston'scomedy.We find invectiverewith placed by the rhetoricof increase. Consideredtogether Hercules's "procreative"functionin the romanticaction of the play, a rejuvenationof society is suggestedthat is essentiallyexuberant.Through such a critic, Marston seems and saturnalian of the satiricfunction to say, a reconciliation that is itself a mode is possible; an exposureof corruption towards clarification throughrelease. movement
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

confessing ". . . I know now wherefore this parliament was"

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