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A Fair Quarrel
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A Fair Quarrel
A Fair Quarrel is a Jacobean tragicomedy, a collaboration between Thomas Middleton and William Rowley that was first published in 1617.
The play was written sometime between 1612 and 1617, and probably after October 1614, on the basis of suspected borrowings from Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair. The first quarto was printed by George Eld for the booksellers John Trundle and Edward Wright, and was published in two states or impressions: Q1a is missing the "roaring school" scene (Act IV, scene iv), while Q1b includes the scene as an appendix. The second quarto, issued in 1622 and printed by Augustine Matthews for Thomas Dewe, places the "roaring school" scene in its proper place. The play was dedicated to Robert Grey, Esq., the dedication signed by Rowley.
The play was originally performed by Prince Charles's Men, the company to which Rowley belonged at the time, and the title page of both quartos states that it was "acted before the King". After the deaths of both authors, the play became the property of Queen Henrietta's Men. By 1639 it was in the repertory of Beeston's Boys, and it was revived at least once during the Restoration era, in 1662.
The play was attributed to Middleton and Rowley on the title page of Q1 in 1617; internal evidence confirms the correctness of the attribution. The usual collaborative practice of Middleton and Rowley is for Middleton to take primary responsibility for the serious main plot and for Rowley, a comic actor by profession, to handle the comic subplot – which normally means that Middleton's share is more extensive than Rowley's. The rule is not rigidly applied, however; in The Changeling, Rowley composed the play's opening and closing scenes as well as the subplot, so that the shares of the two writers are roughly equal. In A Fair Quarrel, Middleton as usual handles the main plot, and subplot materials are the work of Rowley. But A Fair Quarrel is structured on three levels: the main plot tells the story of Captain Ager and his mother, the second-level plot relates the story of Fitzallen and Jane, and the third is the overt comedy material about the clowns Chough and Trimtram. As a result of this structure and division of labour, Rowley is the author of roughly two-thirds of the play, and Middleton only one third. David Lake divides their respective shares this way.
This division is generally accepted by the scholarly consensus, with some occasional and minor dissent; Edward Engelberg assigned part of Act III, scene ii to Middleton instead of Rowley.
Rowley had a habit of writing "fat clown" roles for himself to play; Chough, the primary clown in A Fair Quarrel, is a wrestler, and may have been another role Rowley wrote for himself to play.
The subject of duelling was highly topical in the period the play originated; duels were becoming much more common in England, and King James's first proclamation against duelling was issued in October 1613.
The most immediate source for the main plot of A Fair Quarrel is the subplot of Thomas Heywood's 1603 play A Woman Killed with Kindness – while Heywood's version itself derives from earlier sources, specific plot elements and verbal parallels link the Middleton and Heywood treatments of the material. The source for the Fitzallen subplot in A Fair Quarrel is one of the stories in the Hecatommithi of Cinthio. Rowley and Middleton derived the details of surgical practice in IV,ii and V,i of their play from a guide to "chirurgery" published in 1612, a fact that limits the earliest possible date of the play. Links and commonalities with a range of other contemporary dramas, including Middleton's collaboration with John Fletcher, The Nice Valour, place A Fair Quarrel in a larger context of literary and theatrical interrelationships.
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A Fair Quarrel
A Fair Quarrel is a Jacobean tragicomedy, a collaboration between Thomas Middleton and William Rowley that was first published in 1617.
The play was written sometime between 1612 and 1617, and probably after October 1614, on the basis of suspected borrowings from Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair. The first quarto was printed by George Eld for the booksellers John Trundle and Edward Wright, and was published in two states or impressions: Q1a is missing the "roaring school" scene (Act IV, scene iv), while Q1b includes the scene as an appendix. The second quarto, issued in 1622 and printed by Augustine Matthews for Thomas Dewe, places the "roaring school" scene in its proper place. The play was dedicated to Robert Grey, Esq., the dedication signed by Rowley.
The play was originally performed by Prince Charles's Men, the company to which Rowley belonged at the time, and the title page of both quartos states that it was "acted before the King". After the deaths of both authors, the play became the property of Queen Henrietta's Men. By 1639 it was in the repertory of Beeston's Boys, and it was revived at least once during the Restoration era, in 1662.
The play was attributed to Middleton and Rowley on the title page of Q1 in 1617; internal evidence confirms the correctness of the attribution. The usual collaborative practice of Middleton and Rowley is for Middleton to take primary responsibility for the serious main plot and for Rowley, a comic actor by profession, to handle the comic subplot – which normally means that Middleton's share is more extensive than Rowley's. The rule is not rigidly applied, however; in The Changeling, Rowley composed the play's opening and closing scenes as well as the subplot, so that the shares of the two writers are roughly equal. In A Fair Quarrel, Middleton as usual handles the main plot, and subplot materials are the work of Rowley. But A Fair Quarrel is structured on three levels: the main plot tells the story of Captain Ager and his mother, the second-level plot relates the story of Fitzallen and Jane, and the third is the overt comedy material about the clowns Chough and Trimtram. As a result of this structure and division of labour, Rowley is the author of roughly two-thirds of the play, and Middleton only one third. David Lake divides their respective shares this way.
This division is generally accepted by the scholarly consensus, with some occasional and minor dissent; Edward Engelberg assigned part of Act III, scene ii to Middleton instead of Rowley.
Rowley had a habit of writing "fat clown" roles for himself to play; Chough, the primary clown in A Fair Quarrel, is a wrestler, and may have been another role Rowley wrote for himself to play.
The subject of duelling was highly topical in the period the play originated; duels were becoming much more common in England, and King James's first proclamation against duelling was issued in October 1613.
The most immediate source for the main plot of A Fair Quarrel is the subplot of Thomas Heywood's 1603 play A Woman Killed with Kindness – while Heywood's version itself derives from earlier sources, specific plot elements and verbal parallels link the Middleton and Heywood treatments of the material. The source for the Fitzallen subplot in A Fair Quarrel is one of the stories in the Hecatommithi of Cinthio. Rowley and Middleton derived the details of surgical practice in IV,ii and V,i of their play from a guide to "chirurgery" published in 1612, a fact that limits the earliest possible date of the play. Links and commonalities with a range of other contemporary dramas, including Middleton's collaboration with John Fletcher, The Nice Valour, place A Fair Quarrel in a larger context of literary and theatrical interrelationships.
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