ORIGINAL PLAYS

In the Jacobean period, the theatrical art had already known its golden age through the Elizabethan period. The English Renaissance theatre took place approximately from 1562 to 1642. The Duchess of Malfi had been written in 1612-13, Measure for Measure

231 S.M. STAHL, op. cit., p.3.

232 Ibid, p.3.

originally published in 1623, and 'Tis Pity she's a Whore first published in 1633. The three plays laid in the middle of the Elizabethan theatre period. As such, the authors had to adapt from the past literature and fit to their own time as well.

4.1.1. THE AUTHOR'S INSPIRATIONS.

The authors of Jacobean theatre drew their inspirations from many sources, such as the Bible but mainly from the Italian Renaissance. Peter L. Thorslev affirms that the Jacobean period was a relatively decadent period²³³. This decadence could be find in different genres and forms of drama such as the revenge tragedy that had been developed in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods – to which John Webster's and John Ford's plays belong – inspired by the Senecan tragedy²³⁴. It is a dramatic genre in which characters look for revenge over imagined or real injuries that have been done to them. In 'Tis Pity she's a Whore, Hippolita seeks revenge on Soranzo who betrays her and Soranzo seeks revenge on Annabella and Giovanni because of their sexual intercourse. The Duchess of Malfi deals with vengeance during the whole play as Ferdinand and the Cardinal want to take a revenge over their sister because she has dishonoured her family because as she marries Antonio. Measure for Measure cannot be considered as a revenge tragedy even though the bed-trick is an act of vengeance from Isabella, as well as for Mariana to stand in for Isabella.

Another inspiration came from the Bible. The comparison between whores and saints in the three plays can be seen as a religious statement dealing with Lilith and Eve and accusing women of evils on earth. Also, the title of Measure for Measure is a biblical intertextus which is a unique case in the Shakespearean works²³⁵. The Bible tends to have a negative image of women.

William Shakespeare had a large influence on his contemporaries. Many characters in the Jacobean theatre are alike, and thus, the same themes can cross. According to François Laroque Bosola in The Duchess of Malfi and Hamlet from the eponymous play by Shakespeare have the same thoughts on widows. According to them, widows should not

233 P.L. THORSLEV, "Incest as Romantic Symbol". Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 2, n^o 1, 1965, p.42.

234 S. BAKER, "Introduction" in John Ford's Tis Pity She’s a Whore. Routledge, ed.Simon Baker 1997, p.11.

235 D. LEMONNIER-TEXIER, G. WINTER, op.cit., p.7.

consider marrying again²³⁶ . John Webster was inspired by many of Shakespeare's plays²³⁷, because "[he] was not the first to portray controversial women in his plays, Shakespeare dealt with similar challenges in reference to the standards of a gender conscious society"²³⁸. John Ford drew his inspiration from Shakespeare, for instance concerning the relationship of Annabella and Putana which derives from Juliet and her Nurse in Romeo and Juliet²³⁹. We can understand that female characters have the same characteristics in the Jacobean theatre concerning their innocence. In the case of Annabella and Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), their sexual intercourses led them directly to the death.

Moreover, the English Renaissance Theatre is also very inspired by the history.

Barabara Correll states that scholars agree with the fact that Webster adapted Italian narrative sources²⁴⁰. The Duchess of Malfi is based on a historical fact, the true Duchess of Malfi was Giovanna d'Aragona. The original Duchess was married in 1490 at age twelve, widowed at nineteen, and married for a second time in 1504 to Antonio Bologna. Yet, "Webster might have been unaware of this basis"²⁴¹. It is significant because the "underlying issues examined in Webster's play, most specifically the role of the female, reflect the patriarchal European society of Webster's day and age"²⁴².

4.1.2. A REFLECTION OF THEIR TIME.

The Jacobean period is known as a relatively decadent one. The authors portray the various female stereotypes that are sustained by a patriarchal society in his plan through each of their female characters²⁴³. The rapid presence in the mid-sixteenth century Britain of three reigning female monarchs could have contributed to underline that no language existed for describing the nature of a female rule²⁴⁴. The theatrical art reflected the period in which it was written. The enormous societal shift taking place in Europe around the mid-sixteenth century and lasting until approximately the early 1700s. It might have been initiated by

236 F. LAROQUE, op. cit., p.131.

237 B. CORRELL, op. cit., p.72.

238 S.M. STAHL, op. cit., p.23.

239 R. POWELL, "The Adaptation of a Shakespearean Genre: Othello and Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore ". Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 48, n^o 3, Oct. 1995, p.583.

240 B. CORRELL, op. cit., p.72.

241 S.M. STAHL, op. cit., p.2.

242 Ibid, p.1.

243 Ibid, p.18.

244 T.A. JANKOWSKI, op. cit., p.221.

Elizabeth I, through her rule, allowing women to gain some power²⁴⁵. However, the male patriarchy accentuated in the three plays was influenced by the reality of male politician who denigrated women. Such as John Knox, a Scottish reformer who argued that "God not only ordained that women were barred from authority, but given their essential nature they would be incapable of wielding authority if they illegitimately usurped it"²⁴⁶.

Furthermore, authors tended to choose Italian settings for their stories for them to not be strike by the censor²⁴⁷. According to Simon Baker "the Italian setting for 'Tis Pity she's a whore would have been significant for an early seventeenth-century audience because of a wide range of associations and popular prejudices"²⁴⁸. Moreover, Brian Sandberg declares that:

"the discussions of sexuality emerged most explicitly in Medici correspondence concerning procreative sexuality and marital relations.

Sixteenth-Century social and religious norms encouraged early modern married couples to engage frequently in sexual intercourse in order to reproduce"²⁴⁹

The representation of marriage in the plays seems to be essential to the representation of the society at this period, which placed marriage between a woman and a man above all.

This is represented in The Duchess of Malfi and 'Tis Pity she's a Whore, with the obsession around the marriages of the Duchess and Annabella. However, the moralists and theologians took sexual offences very seriously²⁵⁰, like Isabella, whose behaviour joins more the puritanism which condemns fornication inside or outside marriage²⁵¹.

Sara Jayne Steen asserts that in order to determine how Jacobean audiences might have reacted to the Duchess' marriage we have to look at the Early Modern people to the marriage of the woman long seen as the Duchess' contemporary real-life parallel: Arbella Stuart²⁵². She was James I cousin and married secretly William Seymour, the Duke of Somerset, without the royal consent. Because of that, the couple had been accused of high

245 M.S. STAHL, op. cit., p.2.

246 Ibid, p.2.

247 S.J. STEEN, op. cit., p.65.

248 S. BAKER, op. cit., p.8.

249 B. SANDBERG, " “All the Many and Varied Remedies and Secrets”: Sexual Practices and Reproductive Knowledge in the Renaissance". Early Modern Women, vol. 5, 2010, p.236.

250 N.C BAWCUTT, op. cit., p.8.

251 D. LEMONNIER-TEXIER, G. WINTER, op. cit., p.96.

252 S.J. STEEN, op. cit., p.65.

treason and jailed in 1610. However, Jacobean Drama also celebrates women who cross-conventional lines between virtue and vice²⁵³.

4.1.3. DRAMA ON STAGE: COLOURED PLAYS.

If the written plays deal with the literary nature of the female sexuality, an important part of the male's point of view can also be studied through the influence of these dramas onstage. In the seventeenth century and the rise of the Puritans' doctrines, the opposition to the theatre grew gradually and meant a decrease in the play-going public²⁵⁴. Such as in Measure for Measure, the spectator seemed to live in a society that attempted to control sexuality in all its forms, and fundamentalism urged a more rigorous control than what actually existed²⁵⁵. Nowadays, many performances about these plays are done, sometimes they are quirky or just transposed to another time.

In the 2017 performance of 'Tis Pity she's a whore by the students the Diploma Acting Students at The Arts Centre Theatre²⁵⁶, the white and black colours in this performance shows the spectral side of the play. Moreover, there is an emphasis on the character of Annabella through the colour of her clothing. Nearly all the characters wear black clothing excepting Annabella who wears white dresses along the performance²⁵⁷. These white dresses are the representation of her purity and virginity that contrasts with the darkness of her brother and other characters such as Putana who is shown in a black dress which has a low-cut neckline²⁵⁸. This cleavage can be a representation of her sexual freedom opposed to the purity of Annabella

The whiteness of her dresses contrast sharply with the two red flower in her hair as well as her red lipstick, which are the signs of her burgeoning love and lust for her brother, red is the colour of sexuality. In the written play, the violence of Annabella's death is shown by the sentence: "GIOVANNI – To save thy fame, and kill thee in a kiss. / Stabs her"

(5.5.234). In this performance, her death is also accentuated by the colour red which

253 C. DESMET, op. cit., p.71.

254 A. NICOLL, op. cit., p.97.

255 N.C BAWCUTT, op. cit., p.8.

256 The City of Liverpool. Tis Pity She’s A Whore - Performance – YouTube. Accessed 20 May 2019. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4_xUFLR7Pk>.

257 See Fig.1.

258 See Fig 2.

represents the blood and which appears on stage as well as on the dress she wears²⁵⁹ . Her death is shown as linked with her lust for her own brother. Another interesting point about the performance concerns the character of the Cardinal who says: "Who Could not say: 'Tis Pity she's a Whore" (5.6.239). The actress stands between the two dead lovers²⁶⁰ and it can be a reference to the society which has separated them.

Sexuality is a theme so important in 'Tis Pity she's a Whore that "in 1991 the Royal Shakespeare Company staged the play at the Swan Theatre in Stratford and at in London's Barbican, offering programme notes which included historical and contemporary comments on the relationship between sexuality and the social and economic forces which have shaped society's attitude towards it"²⁶¹

In the production on March 20, 2016 of The Duchess of Malfi²⁶², the actress who plays the Duchess has a white dress as well, to signify the purity of her soul, which is not subverted by corruption. In this performance, the Act II scene 3 is important, as Antonio says:

"ANTONIO – My nose bleeds.

[He draws an initialled handkerchief]

One that were superstitious would count This ominous, when it merely comes by chance:

Two letters, that are wrought here for my name, Are drowned in blood !

Mere accident. [To him] For you, sir, I'll take order:

I'th' morn you shall be safe. [Aside] 'Tis that must colour Her lying-in." (2.3.133)

From that moment, the white dress of the Duchess is sullied by the blood of her husband²⁶³. As Antonio predicts it, this blood announces her near death²⁶⁴. Once again, the purity is pervaded by death and this death comes because of the love of two people.

Furthermore, in the Royal Shakespeare Company introduction for their performance in 2018 it is said to "please note The Duchess of Malfi contains violence, scenes that some people may find distressing, and a lot of blood"²⁶⁵. The use of the colour red seems to prevail in each performance, to highlight the death due to a carnal passion.

In the 2016 production of Measure for Measure by the ASU Theatre Shakespeare Club²⁶⁶, we can notice the high presence of red colour to deal with the characters linked with sexual vices such as Mistress Overdone and Pompey²⁶⁷. This contrasts with the character of Isabella who wears black, as if she tries to fade into the background²⁶⁸. We can wonder why they have chosen black over white dress in the case of Isabella. It may be because white dresses are the sign of virginity which assures the husband of the bride's purity, and even though Isabella is a virgin, she does not think of marrying anyone. Moreover, the colour black is representative of the churchmen and nuns. However, at the end of this performance the Duke reflects an image of Isabella which is submissive and does not allow a lingering doubt about her response to his proposal as one can expect from her²⁶⁹: he takes her hand and they go out of the scene. These three performances are not the only that were made about the three plays. They have inspired many producers as well as film directors.