first edition Hardcover
1630 · London
by Massinger, Philip (1583-1640)
London: Printed by A[ugustine] M[athewes] for Iohn Waterson, 1630. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. A fine copy in 20th c. red crushed morocco, gilt, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Contents in overall fine condition, the first four and final leaves dusty and a bit toned, small ink spot on final leaf, head of title slightly chipped. The first edition of Philip Massinger’s “The Renegado”, the play that “introduced the eroticized captivity narrative to the English stage.” (Neill) With its themes of piracy, slavery, and forced religious conversion, the play appealed to Massinger’s audience’s fascination with the threat posed to Christian Europe by the Ottoman Muslim Empire.
This edition features a cast list for the play, making “The Renegado” one of the few plays in English Renaissance drama for which cast information exists. The play was first acted in 1624 by Lady Elizabeth’s Men at the Cockpit Theater. It was staged again in 1625 by Queen Henrietta’s Men in the same theater. The cast list names the players who performed in the 1625 production (For the particulars, see “The Printed Cast List” below.)
“The word ‘renegade’ was adopted into English from the Italian renegado as early as 1583, and defined by Richard Hakluyt as ‘one that was first a Christian, and afterwards becommeth a Turke." (Sayre 330)
“The play opens at a bazaar in Tunis. Vitelli, a Venetian aristocrat in disguise, has come to Tunis to redeem his virtuous sister, Paulina, who has been kidnapped by Grimaldi, a renegade pirate, and sold into captivity to a lustful Ottoman viceroy. It is Paulina’s captivity narrative that sets the whole play in action:
Can I know my sister
Mewed up in his seraglio and in danger
Not alone to lose her honor, but her soul be patient? (I.i).” (Wei 33)
Paulina’s captivity is spiritual as well as physical, as the Ottomans attempt to convert her to Islam. “Nearly every Barbary captivity narrative includes the narrator's account of how he or she was urged to convert to Islam.” (Sayre 330)
Massinger includes a parallel plot, with the sexes reversed, with Vitelli falling in love with Donusa, a Turkish princess. “When Donusa's liaison with Vitelli is discovered, they are both thrown in prison. She attempts to save them by entreating him to convert and marry her, but he refuses, strengthened by the ministrations of Francisco, a Jesuit priest. Instead, Vitelli manages to convince Donusa to convert and face a Christian death with him. Meanwhile, the renegade pirate Grimaldi falls into disgrace with the Turks and returns to Christianity. Finally, with Paulina and the repentant Grimaldi's help, all the Christians escape.” (Fuchs 62)
“‘The Renegado’ endorses surprisingly Catholic practices as necessary measure for resisting and reversing Islamic conversion. Vitelli redeems himself and staves off damnation through Francisco's intercession. That Massinger not only portrays this Jesuit priest in a positive light but credits him with the salvation of the Christian characters, their escape from Tunis, and the happy outcome of the play is remarkable given the usual vilification of Jesuits in Protestant England.” (Degenhardt 70)
The Printed Cast List:
The cast list printed in this volume is one of only five such lists that have survived for the acting troupe Queen Henrietta's Men. The company, founded in 1625 following a period of theater closures due to plague, was named after the troupe’s patron, Queen Henrietta Maria. They performed in the Cockpit Theater, where they staged plays by Nabbes, Marlowe, Massinger, Ford, and other notable playwrights. Another outbreak of plague disrupted their activities from May 1636 to October 1637.
Members of the troupe included Theophilus Bird, who began as a boy actor particularly adept at playing female roles (he played Paulina in this play); John Blaney, who as a boy had acted for Ben Jonson in his “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman” (1609); and the renowned comic actor William Robbins, who was murdered in 1645, possibly for mocking the government. William Reignalds, who plays the Jesuit Francisco in “The Renegado”, does not appear in any other cast for the company; it has been suggested that he was a musician (Bentley, p. 543).
The parts in the 1625 staging of the “The Renegado” were played by the following actors:
Asambeg, Viceroy of Tunis: John Blaney (fl. 1609-1630)
Mustapha, basha of Aleppo: John Sumner (d. 1649)
Vitelli, a Venetian genleman, disguised as a merchant: Michael Bowyer (1599-1645)
Francisco, a Jesuit: William Reignalds (active 1625-1643)
Antonio Grimaldi, the Renegado: William Allen (d. 1647)
Carazie, an eunuch: William Robbins (d. 1645)
Gazet, servant to Vitelli: Edward Shakerley
Donusa, niece to Amurath: Edward Rogers
Paulina, sister to Vitelli: Theophilus Bird (1608-1663)
See Bentley, “The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, Dramatic Companies and Players”, Vol. II (1941).
Philip Massinger:
Massinger began to write plays sometime between 1603, when he left Oxford without a degree, and 1613, when he wrote a play (that has not survived) with Nathan Field and Robert Daborne. From about 1613 to about 1622 Massinger wrote collaborative plays with Nathan Field, Thomas Dekker, and John Fletcher, almost all of them for the King’s Men.
“About 1620 Massinger started to work with companies other than the King's Men, for whom he had so far co-scripted almost all his surviving plays. The Virgin Martyr was performed at the Red Bull, probably in 1620 and probably by His Majesty's Revels. And between about 1621 and 1625, while not breaking his connection with the King's Company, he wrote in all five unaided plays—four tragicomedies and a comedy—for the companies based at the Phoenix or Cockpit theatre. Another tragicomedy, The Great Duke of Florence, was licensed for performance by the queen's company at the Phoenix in July 1627….
“By 1625 Massinger was well established as a playwright. Payment for plays and pensions or gifts from well-connected patrons mean that he may also have become fairly prosperous. (No doubt he was not rich, but the later perception of his knowing extreme poverty results mainly from the early 'tripartite letter' and over-literal reading of references such as that, in the 1639 dedication of The Unnatural Combat, to his 'necessitous fortunes'.) He became all the more well known when he succeeded Fletcher as company dramatist of the King's Men in 1625 or soon afterwards. (Fletcher had died in the major plague outbreak of that year, which was the subject of Massinger's poem 'London's Lamentable Estate, in any Great Visitation'.) Although no contract survives it is clear that there must have been one; all Massinger's remaining plays were for this company with the exception of The Great Duke of Florence.”
“Contact with the king's company appears to have been maintained during Massinger's Phoenix years since he wrote for it the tragedies The Duke of Milan (c.1621) and The Unnatural Combat (c.1624). These explore, respectively, obsessional jealousy and a father's incestuous passion for his daughter; here seemingly brave and admirable public figures—exposed or redeemed in the tragicomedies and comedies—are destroyed by private flaws. The Roman Actor, as performed in 1626 and published in 1629, is somewhat more complex in effect.
“Massinger's career in the 1630s continued to thrive… It can be argued that the publication of six of Massinger's plays between 1630 and 1633 suggests decreasing popularity since companies often (if by no means invariably) protected work from publication while it was likely to be reusable. But confidence in achievements so far is suggested by Massinger's action, about 1632–3, in having copies of his then published seven unaided plays, together with The Fatal Dowry, bound into what is now called the Harbord volume (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington). The volume contains corrections in Massinger's hand up to about half way through. Perhaps he intended to present the collection to a patron but he may also have been at least thinking ahead to putting together his works, following the example of the Jonson and Shakespeare collections of 1616 and 1623. And if non-publication is indeed a sign of continuing theatrical viability it may be significant that only two of Massinger's hitherto unpublished plays were printed between 1633 and his death in 1640: The Great Duke of Florence in 1636 and The Unnatural Combat in 1639.
“During the 1640s and 1650s Massinger was quite well represented in such miscellanies as Cotgrave's English Treasury (1655). Then and for the rest of the century he features in lists of notable poets much more frequently than such subsequently more popular contemporaries as Webster, Marston, Ford, or Middleton. With other pre-interregnum successes a number of Massinger's plays remained popular on the early Restoration stage.” (ODNB). (Inventory #: 4798)
This edition features a cast list for the play, making “The Renegado” one of the few plays in English Renaissance drama for which cast information exists. The play was first acted in 1624 by Lady Elizabeth’s Men at the Cockpit Theater. It was staged again in 1625 by Queen Henrietta’s Men in the same theater. The cast list names the players who performed in the 1625 production (For the particulars, see “The Printed Cast List” below.)
“The word ‘renegade’ was adopted into English from the Italian renegado as early as 1583, and defined by Richard Hakluyt as ‘one that was first a Christian, and afterwards becommeth a Turke." (Sayre 330)
“The play opens at a bazaar in Tunis. Vitelli, a Venetian aristocrat in disguise, has come to Tunis to redeem his virtuous sister, Paulina, who has been kidnapped by Grimaldi, a renegade pirate, and sold into captivity to a lustful Ottoman viceroy. It is Paulina’s captivity narrative that sets the whole play in action:
Can I know my sister
Mewed up in his seraglio and in danger
Not alone to lose her honor, but her soul be patient? (I.i).” (Wei 33)
Paulina’s captivity is spiritual as well as physical, as the Ottomans attempt to convert her to Islam. “Nearly every Barbary captivity narrative includes the narrator's account of how he or she was urged to convert to Islam.” (Sayre 330)
Massinger includes a parallel plot, with the sexes reversed, with Vitelli falling in love with Donusa, a Turkish princess. “When Donusa's liaison with Vitelli is discovered, they are both thrown in prison. She attempts to save them by entreating him to convert and marry her, but he refuses, strengthened by the ministrations of Francisco, a Jesuit priest. Instead, Vitelli manages to convince Donusa to convert and face a Christian death with him. Meanwhile, the renegade pirate Grimaldi falls into disgrace with the Turks and returns to Christianity. Finally, with Paulina and the repentant Grimaldi's help, all the Christians escape.” (Fuchs 62)
“‘The Renegado’ endorses surprisingly Catholic practices as necessary measure for resisting and reversing Islamic conversion. Vitelli redeems himself and staves off damnation through Francisco's intercession. That Massinger not only portrays this Jesuit priest in a positive light but credits him with the salvation of the Christian characters, their escape from Tunis, and the happy outcome of the play is remarkable given the usual vilification of Jesuits in Protestant England.” (Degenhardt 70)
The Printed Cast List:
The cast list printed in this volume is one of only five such lists that have survived for the acting troupe Queen Henrietta's Men. The company, founded in 1625 following a period of theater closures due to plague, was named after the troupe’s patron, Queen Henrietta Maria. They performed in the Cockpit Theater, where they staged plays by Nabbes, Marlowe, Massinger, Ford, and other notable playwrights. Another outbreak of plague disrupted their activities from May 1636 to October 1637.
Members of the troupe included Theophilus Bird, who began as a boy actor particularly adept at playing female roles (he played Paulina in this play); John Blaney, who as a boy had acted for Ben Jonson in his “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman” (1609); and the renowned comic actor William Robbins, who was murdered in 1645, possibly for mocking the government. William Reignalds, who plays the Jesuit Francisco in “The Renegado”, does not appear in any other cast for the company; it has been suggested that he was a musician (Bentley, p. 543).
The parts in the 1625 staging of the “The Renegado” were played by the following actors:
Asambeg, Viceroy of Tunis: John Blaney (fl. 1609-1630)
Mustapha, basha of Aleppo: John Sumner (d. 1649)
Vitelli, a Venetian genleman, disguised as a merchant: Michael Bowyer (1599-1645)
Francisco, a Jesuit: William Reignalds (active 1625-1643)
Antonio Grimaldi, the Renegado: William Allen (d. 1647)
Carazie, an eunuch: William Robbins (d. 1645)
Gazet, servant to Vitelli: Edward Shakerley
Donusa, niece to Amurath: Edward Rogers
Paulina, sister to Vitelli: Theophilus Bird (1608-1663)
See Bentley, “The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, Dramatic Companies and Players”, Vol. II (1941).
Philip Massinger:
Massinger began to write plays sometime between 1603, when he left Oxford without a degree, and 1613, when he wrote a play (that has not survived) with Nathan Field and Robert Daborne. From about 1613 to about 1622 Massinger wrote collaborative plays with Nathan Field, Thomas Dekker, and John Fletcher, almost all of them for the King’s Men.
“About 1620 Massinger started to work with companies other than the King's Men, for whom he had so far co-scripted almost all his surviving plays. The Virgin Martyr was performed at the Red Bull, probably in 1620 and probably by His Majesty's Revels. And between about 1621 and 1625, while not breaking his connection with the King's Company, he wrote in all five unaided plays—four tragicomedies and a comedy—for the companies based at the Phoenix or Cockpit theatre. Another tragicomedy, The Great Duke of Florence, was licensed for performance by the queen's company at the Phoenix in July 1627….
“By 1625 Massinger was well established as a playwright. Payment for plays and pensions or gifts from well-connected patrons mean that he may also have become fairly prosperous. (No doubt he was not rich, but the later perception of his knowing extreme poverty results mainly from the early 'tripartite letter' and over-literal reading of references such as that, in the 1639 dedication of The Unnatural Combat, to his 'necessitous fortunes'.) He became all the more well known when he succeeded Fletcher as company dramatist of the King's Men in 1625 or soon afterwards. (Fletcher had died in the major plague outbreak of that year, which was the subject of Massinger's poem 'London's Lamentable Estate, in any Great Visitation'.) Although no contract survives it is clear that there must have been one; all Massinger's remaining plays were for this company with the exception of The Great Duke of Florence.”
“Contact with the king's company appears to have been maintained during Massinger's Phoenix years since he wrote for it the tragedies The Duke of Milan (c.1621) and The Unnatural Combat (c.1624). These explore, respectively, obsessional jealousy and a father's incestuous passion for his daughter; here seemingly brave and admirable public figures—exposed or redeemed in the tragicomedies and comedies—are destroyed by private flaws. The Roman Actor, as performed in 1626 and published in 1629, is somewhat more complex in effect.
“Massinger's career in the 1630s continued to thrive… It can be argued that the publication of six of Massinger's plays between 1630 and 1633 suggests decreasing popularity since companies often (if by no means invariably) protected work from publication while it was likely to be reusable. But confidence in achievements so far is suggested by Massinger's action, about 1632–3, in having copies of his then published seven unaided plays, together with The Fatal Dowry, bound into what is now called the Harbord volume (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington). The volume contains corrections in Massinger's hand up to about half way through. Perhaps he intended to present the collection to a patron but he may also have been at least thinking ahead to putting together his works, following the example of the Jonson and Shakespeare collections of 1616 and 1623. And if non-publication is indeed a sign of continuing theatrical viability it may be significant that only two of Massinger's hitherto unpublished plays were printed between 1633 and his death in 1640: The Great Duke of Florence in 1636 and The Unnatural Combat in 1639.
“During the 1640s and 1650s Massinger was quite well represented in such miscellanies as Cotgrave's English Treasury (1655). Then and for the rest of the century he features in lists of notable poets much more frequently than such subsequently more popular contemporaries as Webster, Marston, Ford, or Middleton. With other pre-interregnum successes a number of Massinger's plays remained popular on the early Restoration stage.” (ODNB). (Inventory #: 4798)
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