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120 The Renaissance 1485–1660
Middleton’s A Game at Chess (1624), an allegorical comedy on political
themes, putting on stage the figures of the kings of England and Spain, as
well as other recognisable aristocratic and political characters, was suppressed
by the authorities – after an immensely successful run of nine performances:
this was one of the earliest manifestations of political censorship. Jonson
had had trouble earlier in the century, when some of his writing was
considered treasonous, pro-Catholic and anti-Scottish; but the strongest
complaint against A Game at Chess came from the Spanish Ambassador.
Censorship, at this time, generally reflected anxieties for the stability of the
state at a time of considerable political uncertainty. Internal politics in the late
1590s were concerned with the possibility of revolt; with foreign powers,
such as the Spanish in the 1620s, it was felt necessary to maintain diplomatic
harmony: a play like A Game at Chess risked causing offence because of the
way it satirised the Spanish in a religious and political context.
Some reason for the Puritans’ objections to the ‘immorality’ of the
stage can be found in the highly charged passions displayed, for instance,
in John Webster’s The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi (both between
1609 and 1613), tragedies which raise the themes of blood, lust and
intrigue to new heights of poetry and violence. It is this rich mixture of
shocking themes and vivid language which characterises Jacobean tragedy,
and gives it an intensity which no other age has repeated in English
drama. In the scene of her death at the hands of Bosola, the Duchess of
Malfi accepts her fate: but her servant, Cariola, is less amenable.
DUCHESS Come, violent death,
Serve for mandragora to make me sleep! –
Go tell my brothers, when I am laid out,
They then may feed in quiet.
[They strangle her]
BOSOLA
Where’s the waiting-woman?
Fetch her: some other strangle the children.
[Enter Executioners with CARIOLA]
Look you, there sleeps your mistress.
CARIOLA
Oh, you are damn’d
Perpetually for this! My turn is next;
Is’t not so order’d?
BOSOLA
Yes, and I am glad
You are so well prepar’d for ’t.
CARIOLA
You are deceiv’d, sir,