The Busie Body | Page 2

From the second source for The Busie Body, Molière's _L'Etourdi_, I believe Mrs. Centlivre borrowed the framework for her parallel plots, the theme of Marplot's blundering, and the name and general character of Marplot. But she has improved what she borrowed. She places in Molière's framework more credible women characters than his, especially in the charming Miranda and the crafty Patch; she constructs a more skillful intrigue plot for the stage than his subplot and emphasizes Spanish customs in the lively Charles-Isabinda-Traffick plot. Mrs. Centlivre concentrates on Marplot's blundering, whereas Molière concentrates on the servant Mascarille's schemes. Marplot's funniest blunder, in the "monkey" scene, is entirely original as far as I know (IV, iv). But her greatest change is in the character of Marplot, who in her hands becomes not so much stupid as human and irresistibly ludicrous. Mrs. Centlivre's style is of course inferior to that of Molière. In the preface to _Love's Contrivance_ (1703), in speaking of borrowings from Molière, she said that borrowers "must take care to touch the Colors with an English Pencil, and form the Piece according to our Manners." Of course her touching the "Colors with an English Pencil" meant changing the style of Molière to suit the less delicate taste of the middle-class English audience.
A third source for The Busie Body is Dryden's _Sir Martin Mar-all_ (1667). Since Dryden followed Molière with considerable exactness, it would be difficult to prove beyond doubt that Mrs. Centlivre borrowed from Molière rather than from Dryden. Yet I believe, after a careful analysis of the plays, that she borrowed from Molière. She made of The Busie Body a comedy of intrigue based on the theme and plot used by both Molière and Dryden, but she omitted the scandalous Restoration third plot which Dryden had added to Molière. Her characters are English in speech and action, but they lack the coarseness apparent in Dryden's _Sir Martin Mar-all_. Though it is impossible to prove the exact sources of Mrs. Centlivre's borrowings, there is no doubt that she has improved what she borrowed.
Whatever the truth may be about Mrs. Centlivre's use of her sources, her play remained in the repertory of acting plays long after _L'Etourdi_ and _Sir Martin Mar-all_ had disappeared. The Busie Body opened at the Drury Lane Theater on May 12, 1709. Steele, who listed the play in The Tatler for May 14, 1709, does not mention the length of the run. Thomas Whincop says that the play ran thirteen nights (Scanderbeg, London, 1747, p. 190), but Genest says the play had an opening run of seven nights (_Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830_, II, 419). The play remained popular throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Genest lists it as being presented in twenty-three seasons from 1709 to 1800. It was certainly presented much more frequently than this record shows, for Dougald MacMillan in The Drury Lane Calendar lists fifty-three performances from 1747-1776, whereas Genest records two performances in this period. The greatest number of performances in any season was fourteen in 1758-59, the year David Garrick appeared in the play. From the records available The Busie Body seems to have reached its greatest popularity in England in the middle and late eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century. William Hazlitt, in the "Prefatory Remarks" to the Oxberry acting edition of 1819, says The Busie Body has been acted a "thousand times in town and country, giving delight to the old, the young, and the middle-aged."
The Busie Body enjoyed a similar place of importance in the stage history of America but achieved its greatest popularity, in New York at least, in the nineteenth century. First performed in Williamsburg on September 10, 1736, the play was presented fifteen times in New York in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century forty-five performances were given in New York in sixteen seasons from 1803 to 1885 (George Odell, _Annals of the New York Stage_). The Busie Body is frequently cited with The Rivals and The School for Scandal for opening seasons and for long runs by great actors.
The text here reproduced is from a copy of the first edition now in the library of the University of Michigan.
Jess Byrd Salem College
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
THE BUSIE BODY:
A COMEDY.
As it is Acted at the THEATRE-ROYAL in _DRURY-LANE_,
By Her Majesty's Servants.
Written by Mrs. SUSANNA CENTLIVRE.
Quem tulit ad scenam ventoso Gloria curru, Exanimat lentus Spectator, sedulus inflat. Sic Leve, sic parvum est, animum quod laudis avarum Subruit aut reficit--
Horat. Epist. Lib. II. Ep. 1.
LONDON,
Printed for BERNARD LINTOTT, at the _Cross-Keys_ between the Two _Temple-Gates_ in _Fleet-street_.
* * * * *
To The RIGHT HONOURABLE
JOHN Lord SOMMERS,
Lord-President of Her HAJESTY's most Honourable Privy-Council.
_May it please Your