Massinger’s - ‘The City Madam’

1. Massinger’s - ‘The City Madam’

2. Who is Massinger? • Massinger was born in 1583 and died in 1640. • Educated at Oxford but left without a degree in 1606. • May have started to write to get money after his father died in 1603. • Starts to write for the King’s Men – Shakespeare’s old company in 1616 • Becomes more successful as time goes on and plays like ‘A New Way To Pay Old Debts’ and ‘The City Madam’.

3. Major events in his lifetime… • 1584 - Walter Raleigh (right) sets off to explore and settle in North America. • 1588 – Spanish Armada defeated. • 1593 – Major outbreak of bubonic plague in London. • 1599 – Globe Theatre is built. • 1603 – James I (above) becomes King.

4. More major events… • 1603 onwards – James expands overseas trade and makes peace with Europe meaning a boom in London trading. • 1611 – King James Bible published in English • 1612 – Trade in tobacco boomed – 7000 tobacconists in London • 1618-1648 Thirty Years War • 1619 – Slavery recorded in the American colonies.

5. And more major events… • 1625 – Charles 1st comes to the throne. • 1629 – The personal reign of Charles 1st starts. It is caused by his falling out with parliament over money and religion. It lasts for 11 years, practically to the English Civil War. • Right at the end of Massinger’s life the political build-up to the war starts.

6. What was his career like? • Writing plays for a living was VERY precarious and presented lots of problems, but also some opportunities. • Many playwrights died in poverty and had other careers too. • Playwrights often collaborated, as so many plays were needed in such a short time. Remember the average performance run was very short – nine performances would be a big hit. • Unless you owned part of the theatre (like Shakespeare) then you’d have to keep writing as you didn’t get any money after you delivered the script.

7. What was the theatre like in his lifetime? • When he was born there wasn’t really that much to see – only a few companies and only a small number of theatres to go to, acting was not seen as a respectable profession. • By the time that he starts writing for the King’s Men in 1616 there are lots more theatres and types of theatre including Blackfriars (posh/educated), and The Globe (mass market). • The King also likes theatre and has elaborate productions called Masques put on at court.

8. There were also opponents of theatre… An Anti-Theatrical Culture Emerges: Gosson: ‘School of Abuses’: This have I set down of the abuses of Poets, Pipers, and Players which bring us to pleasure, sloth, sleep, sin, and without repentance to death and the Devil: which I have not confirmed by authority of the Scriptures, because they are not able to stand up in the sight of God: and sithens they dare not abide in the field where the word of God doth bid them [do] battle, but run to antiquity (though nothing be more ancient then holy Scripture) I have given them a volley of profane [secular or pagan] writers to begin the skirmish, and done my endeavor to beat them from their holds with their own weapons.

9. The rise of ‘City Comedy’ • The City Madam is a ‘city comedy’ as opposed to a Midsummer Night’s Dream which is a ‘romantic comedy’. • But what is a city comedy?... • Wikipedia has an excellent definition: City comedy, also called Citizen Comedy, is a common genre of Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline comedy on the London stage from the last years of the 16th century to the closing of the theaters in 1642. Some usual meanings of the term include: Among the earliest City Comedies are Ben Jonson's "Every Man Out of His Humour" and Thomas Dekker's "The Shoemaker's Holiday," both dating from 1598. The genre soon became very popular; the intricately-plotted romantic comedies of Shakespeare and John Lyly that had been in vogue on the public and private stages until this point were largely superseded by plays which were set in a recognizable contemporary London, and which dealt with, in Ben Jonson's words, "deeds and language such as men do use" (Prologue to Every Man in his Humour).

10. City Comedies…. • Follow the lives of Londoners, or people who come to London. Think a comedy EastEnders… • Are often about sex and money – the things that people in the city care about. • Often feature merchants and traders (who generate the money.) • Talk about aspects of normal life – shopping, fashion etc • Are satirical and mock the people in them. • Often have plots with the head of the household either being tricked, or tricking others. • Normally have a character from the country – he might show them the error of their ways, or be a victim to sharp city schemes. • Normally end happily – lessons are learned.

11. In the background… • You have the rise of Jacobean revenge tragedy from the reign of James I (1603 onwards). Basically an ever more gory, bloody and dark strand of theatre that loves intriguing and macabre plots. • Sex and murder are the key plotlines. • Madness, ghostly visitations, magic, disguises and violence are also key. • For example: Ford, Tis Pity She's a Whore Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy Webster, The White Devil

12. By Mr E. Monaghan, November 2011