59:– not because they thought it was a good play or a potential popular hit, but because Suckling subsidized its production, reportedly spending between £300 and £400. The acting company was paid with the production's lavish costumes (lace cuffs and ruffs made of cloth of silver and cloth of gold), a form of hand-me-down compensation that the King's men accepted only in the 1630s, at a time when the company's fortunes were in relative decline. (When the same company staged a revival of
292:. The King of Persia and his son, Prince Thersames, are both in love with Aglaura; she loves the Prince, but the King takes precedence. The Queen, Orbella, is in love with the King's brother Ariaspes but is the mistress of Ziriff alias Zorannes, captain of the guard and Aglaura's brother. Iolas, a member of the royal council, is a pretended friend of the prince, but in fact a traitor; he is in love with Semanthe, who is in love with Ziriff. Complications ensue.
306:
In the original tragic version, Aglaura secretly marries
Thersames, but mistakenly stabs him to death, thinking he is the king. Most of the other characters, including Aglaura herself, die violent deaths. In the tragicomic revision, Aglaura merely wounds the prince, and the king repents and dispenses
167:
especially the unusually broad page margins that compensated for the limited text. (For modern readers, the pleasing innovation of the 1638 edition is that it abstained from the full and verbose titles fashionable in the 17th century, and employed a title of one word.) The play was reprinted by
242:, in the original version, "the tragical way." Later that same year, the actor Theophilus Bird was said to have broken his leg while fencing onstage in a performance of
104:
the Queen's masque of that year. Again, the hand-me-down nature of the proceedings is a noteworthy departure from the practices of the 1620s and earlier.
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format, normally restricted for serious works. (Stage plays were then treated largely as ephemera with little claim as serious literature.) Critics –
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258:(but he didn't like it). A Suckling lyric from the play, "Why so pale and wan, fond lover," became a popular song of the era.
303:'s Court culture. Suckling also includes an anti-Platonic lord named Orsames, but doesn't do much with the Platonic theme.)
31:. Several aspects of the play have led critics to treat it as a key development and a marker of the final decadent phase of
32:
393:
The Later
Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama.
188:, and was included in subsequent collections. An early manuscript of the work also exists, in the collection of the
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219:. She was courted by the author, and is thought to have inspired him to write much of his best work.
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Suckling may have based his heroine on a young woman named Mary
Bulkeley, the daughter of Sir
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Brome wrote a satiric poem "Upon
Aglaura in Folio". For Brome's hostility to Suckling, see:
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and published later that year, in an edition printed by John
Haviland for the bookseller
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justice. (The actual difference between the versions amounts to only about 50 lines).
409:
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1708. Edited by the Rev. Montague
Summers; reprinted New York, Benjamin Blom, 1968.
247:
295:(Semanthe loves Ziriff – but platonically. This is Suckling's nod to the cult of
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120:. Suckling changed the ending for the April 1638 performance before the King,
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was impressed with
Suckling's dual ending, and imitated it in his own play
398:
Madoc-Jones, Enid. "Mary
Bulkeley – The Aglaura of the Poet Suckling."
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was issued in 1970, reproduced from the copy in the collection of the
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72:, they used the sumptuous costumes that had been created for Queen
116:, but added an alternative happy ending, so creating an optional
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Suckling's plot is set in a wildly ahistorical and inauthentic
147:– a vanity edition subsidized by Suckling. Instead of the
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New York, Modern
Language Association of America, 1936.
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was prominent among them – mocked the folio edition of
262:, an admirer of Suckling's verse, borrowed lines from
395:Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978.
391:Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds.
86:they were then allowed to keep the costumes.)
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151:format then standard for individual plays,
112:Unusually, Suckling wrote the play as a
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234:era; it was reportedly played at the
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93:at the English royal court borrowed
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176:collection of Suckling's works,
27:era stage play, written by Sir
199:A modern facsimile edition of
1:
124:, and Queen Henrietta Maria.
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299:that was a cornerstone of
155:was printed in the larger
43:Suckling's earliest play,
416:English Renaissance plays
352:Madoc-Jones, pp. 196–203.
254:production on 10 January
33:English Renaissance drama
65:The Faithful Shepherdess
230:was revived during the
82:The Shepherd's Paradise
266:for his first comedy,
135:was entered into the
89:A 1638 production of
137:Stationers' Register
376:Roscius Anglicanus.
57:Blackfriars Theatre
400:Anglo-Welsh Review
279:The Vestal Virgin.
223:In the Restoration
194:Royal MS. 18 C. 25
436:Plays set in Iran
74:Henrietta Maria's
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359:
353:
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340:The Court Beggar
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269:The Wild Gallant
236:Red Bull Theatre
217:Richard Bulkeley
178:Fragmenta Aurea,
170:Humphrey Moseley
97:'s scenery from
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386:Cavalier Drama.
382:Harbage, Alfred
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361:Downes, p. 161.
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301:Henrietta Maria
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238:on 27 February
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61:John Fletcher's
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252:King's Company
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205:British Museum
190:British Museum
145:Thomas Walkley
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79:of that year,
47:was staged in
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320:Wikiversity
318:adapted at
260:John Dryden
232:Restoration
211:Inspiration
128:Publication
118:tragicomedy
95:Inigo Jones
39:Performance
421:1637 plays
410:Categories
402:18 (1970).
311:Adaptation
53:King's Men
23:is a late
316:"Aglaura"
122:Charles I
100:Luminalia
165:Aglaura,
25:Caroline
369:Sources
264:Aglaura
244:Aglaura
228:Aglaura
201:Aglaura
172:in his
153:Aglaura
133:Aglaura
114:tragedy
91:Aglaura
55:at the
51:by the
45:Aglaura
20:Aglaura
290:Persia
250:saw a
174:octavo
149:quarto
77:masque
325:Notes
157:folio
108:Genre
284:Plot
273:Sir
256:1668
240:1662
186:1648
184:and
182:1646
141:1638
70:1634
49:1637
196:).
180:in
68:in
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192:(
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84:;
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