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HYDE PARK
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- GenresPlays
76 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1637
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 7, 2021
It’s a mystery to me why Shakespeare is still revered as the English national poet today when most other early modern dramatists, many of them just as successful as he, have been forgotten. James Shirley lived a generation after Shakespeare, but his Hyde Park is just as entertaining as some of the Bard’s most popular comedies.
Shirley was a Carolinian and wrote plays right until the closing of the theatres in 1642. As a Catholic and a Royalist, he fell into disgrace under Cromwell’s rule and lived just long enough to see the Restoration before he died tragically after losing his house in the Great Fire of 1666. In 1632, however, he was at the height of his career and there is no dark shadow of the coming civil war looming over his play.
Hyde Park is a light-hearted comedy about the pleasures and passions of the upper middle-class London society. The craftsmen and apprentices, so prominent on stage during the Elizabethan period, are absent from the play which follows a small group of friends during their day in Hyde Park. The scope is much more minimal than Shakespeare’s and more realistic at that: There are no dancing fairies, island spirits or twin shenanigans here. The magic comes from the characters’ wit as they verbally and sometimes physically compete against each other.
The plot is divided into three main lines: There is Mrs Bonavent whose husband was lost at sea and who, on the day of her wedding to another man, receives a visit from a mysterious stranger (three guesses who that guy might be). Then there is young Frank Trier who decides to ‘test’ his fiancée by throwing her into the path of the roguish Lord Bonvile. He does not count on the sparks soon flying between Bonvile and Julietta. Although Julietta successfully resists the resident bad boy's flirtations, she also decides that she doesn’t need her scheming boyfriend and drops him like a hot potato (yay!). The main focus of the play, however, is on Carol, a young woman beset by various suitors whom she strings along while thoroughly enjoying her freedom. Carol’s views on marriage are so modern (and, dare I say, feminist) that it’s hard to imagine that they were written by a seventeenth-century man. She’s a free spirit who values her independence and enjoys outwitting the men around her and I absolutely adore her. Of course, she meets her match in one of her suitors, but their contest of wit is more reminiscent of Beatrice and Benedick than of Katherina and Petruchio and there is no ‘taming’ preceding their eventual engagement but rather, as Fairfield puts it, a mutual conquest.
Shirley’s wordplay is thoroughly entertaining and it’s amusing to watch his characters as they stroll through Hyde Park, frequent the milk bar, enjoy the bird song and bet on horses. Of course, the complete absence of politics or any social conflict is striking given the historical context and it’s perhaps not surprising that this fun-loving high society life was doomed to die within the span of ten years. Still, from a twenty-first century perspective, Hyde Park is a surprisingly modern play, an early comedy of manners full of wit and human folly, but with none of the misanthropic cynicism of Jonson or Brome. It’s a bit of light-hearted fun, an early modern romcom and a very good one at that. I hope it will eventually get the attention it deserves.
PS: There’s a fantastic student production by the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York which can be found here. It’s less than two hours long and perfect for a rainy afternoon.
Shirley was a Carolinian and wrote plays right until the closing of the theatres in 1642. As a Catholic and a Royalist, he fell into disgrace under Cromwell’s rule and lived just long enough to see the Restoration before he died tragically after losing his house in the Great Fire of 1666. In 1632, however, he was at the height of his career and there is no dark shadow of the coming civil war looming over his play.
Hyde Park is a light-hearted comedy about the pleasures and passions of the upper middle-class London society. The craftsmen and apprentices, so prominent on stage during the Elizabethan period, are absent from the play which follows a small group of friends during their day in Hyde Park. The scope is much more minimal than Shakespeare’s and more realistic at that: There are no dancing fairies, island spirits or twin shenanigans here. The magic comes from the characters’ wit as they verbally and sometimes physically compete against each other.
The plot is divided into three main lines: There is Mrs Bonavent whose husband was lost at sea and who, on the day of her wedding to another man, receives a visit from a mysterious stranger (three guesses who that guy might be). Then there is young Frank Trier who decides to ‘test’ his fiancée by throwing her into the path of the roguish Lord Bonvile. He does not count on the sparks soon flying between Bonvile and Julietta. Although Julietta successfully resists the resident bad boy's flirtations, she also decides that she doesn’t need her scheming boyfriend and drops him like a hot potato (yay!). The main focus of the play, however, is on Carol, a young woman beset by various suitors whom she strings along while thoroughly enjoying her freedom. Carol’s views on marriage are so modern (and, dare I say, feminist) that it’s hard to imagine that they were written by a seventeenth-century man. She’s a free spirit who values her independence and enjoys outwitting the men around her and I absolutely adore her. Of course, she meets her match in one of her suitors, but their contest of wit is more reminiscent of Beatrice and Benedick than of Katherina and Petruchio and there is no ‘taming’ preceding their eventual engagement but rather, as Fairfield puts it, a mutual conquest.
Shirley’s wordplay is thoroughly entertaining and it’s amusing to watch his characters as they stroll through Hyde Park, frequent the milk bar, enjoy the bird song and bet on horses. Of course, the complete absence of politics or any social conflict is striking given the historical context and it’s perhaps not surprising that this fun-loving high society life was doomed to die within the span of ten years. Still, from a twenty-first century perspective, Hyde Park is a surprisingly modern play, an early comedy of manners full of wit and human folly, but with none of the misanthropic cynicism of Jonson or Brome. It’s a bit of light-hearted fun, an early modern romcom and a very good one at that. I hope it will eventually get the attention it deserves.
PS: There’s a fantastic student production by the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York which can be found here. It’s less than two hours long and perfect for a rainy afternoon.
May 1, 2024
Well. Funny I guess. Idrk what happened or why it did.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews