WILD GOOSE CHASE

by John Fletcher

The wild goose chase is a late jacobean stage play, a comedy written by john fletcher, first performed in 1621. It is often classed among fletcher's most effective and best-constructed plays; edmund gosse called it "one of the brightest and most coherent of fletcher's comedies, a play which it is impossible to read and not be in a good humour." The drama's wit, sparkle, and urbanity anticipated and influenced the restoration comedy of the later decades of the seventeenth century. The term "wild-goose chase" is first documented when used by shakespeare in the early 1590s, but appears as a term with which his audience would be familiar, as there is no attempt to define its meaning.

Genres: Drama

172 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1652

About the author

John Fletcher (1579-1625) was an English playwright and one of the most prolific and influential dramatists of the early seventeenth century, whose career bridged the Elizabethan theatrical tradition and the drama of the Stuart Restoration. He emerged as a major figure in London theatre in the first decade of the 1600s, initially writing for the Children of the Queen’s Revels and soon becoming closely associated with the King’s Men. Fletcher’s early education at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, appears to have prepared him for a clerical career, but like many of the university-trained writers of his generation he gravitated instead toward the commercial stage. His rise was closely tied to his celebrated partnership with Francis Beaumont, with whom he developed a distinctive form of tragicomedy that proved enormously popular. Their collaboration produced several of the period’s most successful plays, including Philaster, The Maid’s Tragedy, and A King and No King, works that helped define Jacobean taste through their blend of romance, political tension, and emotional intensity. Following Beaumont’s withdrawal from writing, Fletcher became increasingly central to the King’s Men and, after the death of William Shakespeare, effectively succeeded him as the company’s principal playwright. During this period he collaborated with Shakespeare on plays such as Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, while also producing a large body of work either alone or with other dramatists, most notably Philip Massinger. Fletcher’s drama is marked by technical fluency, flexible verse, and a keen sense of theatrical pacing, and he showed particular mastery in tragicomedy and comedy of manners, genres that would dominate the Restoration stage. Although some of his early experiments, such as The Faithful Shepherdess, initially failed to find an audience, he quickly adapted his style and achieved sustained popularity, with multiple plays performed at court and revived frequently after his death. During the Commonwealth, scenes from his works circulated widely as short theatrical drolls, and following the reopening of the theatres in 1660, Fletcher’s plays were staged more often than those of any other playwright. Over time, however, his reputation declined as Shakespeare’s stature grew, and by the eighteenth century only a handful of his comedies remained in regular performance. Modern scholarship has emphasized both the scale of Fletcher’s output and the complexity of authorship within his canon, which reflects extensive collaboration and has prompted detailed stylistic analysis. Despite fluctuations in critical standing, Fletcher remains a key transitional figure in English drama, whose influence shaped both his contemporaries and the theatrical traditions that followed.

Reviews

[BJ Lillis]

John Fletcher is a master of voice and characterization. The men and women in this play each have distinct voices, which shine through despite that they’re all constantly preening and performing for the opposite sex—now exaggerating one aspect of their personality, now another. The plot is classic raunchy romantic comedy straight out of a 90s teen movie. On one side: the jaded playboy and his protégés, one shy, the other confident. On the other: the popular girl pining after the player (thinking, foolishly, but of course correctly, that she can change him), and her best friends, one brainy and outspoken, the other obsessed with marriage and motherhood. The boys are trying to impress the girls without looking like they’re trying too hard; the girls are trying to impress the boys without overplaying their hands. Hijinks ensue.

If it’s true that this kind of story is not exactly feminist, it’s also true that it remained front and center in pop culture until about 2010 (and is, I fear, poised for a comeback in the revanchist 20s). Mirabel is a total asshole, which means that when Oriana finally claims her gander, it’s not nearly as satisfying as it’s supposed to be. (The same complaint could be made about any number of movies from my adolescence. Seth Rogan’s Knocked Up, to take a particularly egregious example.) But if marriage is the goal and patriarchy the world, at least the girls are every bit as clever and scheming as the boys.

[Gill]

Less misogynistic than many of Fletcher's plays. A group of cheerful, determined young women object to being offered round as commodities, set their sights on their own choice of men and go fo it. OK, marriage is still the desired outcome, but this is a lot of fun. Tricks, fooling and occasional disguises.

Read as part of the ongoing readingearlyplays.com project online readathon of the surviving King's Men repertoire in the lockdown winter of 2021.